Newton Slave Burial Ground

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Newton Slave Burial Ground is an industrial heritage site and informal cemetery in Barbados. It was used by people enslaved at the adjacent Newton Plantation. [1] [2] [3] [4] The site has been owned by the Barbados Museum & Historical Society since 1993. [1] It has been subject to excavations since the 1970s, [5] [4] [3] [2] which have produced information regarding slave lifeways including resistance, [4] [6] [7] health, [3] [4] and culture. [3] [4] [8] [9]

Contents

History

Officially colonized by the British in 1627, [4] Barbados was by the end of the seventeenth century the richest possession of Britain's Caribbean empire. [4] The Bajan economy was driven by, and dependent on, slave labor, [4] [3] [2] which played out on cash-crop plantations throughout the island. [4] [2] One such site was the Newton Plantation, roughly 9.2 km (5.7 mi) east of the port of Bridgetown in the parish of Christ Church. [10] The adjacent Newton Slave Burial Ground became the final resting place of over 570 African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Bajan persons enslaved there from c. 1670-1833. [2] [10] Established by Derbyshire native Samuel Newton in the 1660s, [10] [11] the plantation grew sugarcane and produced rum and molasses, [12] [10] and its height of production coincided with Barbados' prominence in the British empirical economy during the seventeenth century. [10] The plantation held slaves at least as recently as 1828, [13] six years before slavery was abolished on the island in 1834.

Until the last quarter of the 17th century, the Newton Plantation was a major source of Maroon communities on the island. [4] Increasingly draconian preventative tactics were implemented at the site to dissuade potential escapees, including slaves being branded with an "N" to indicate their status as property of the Newton Plantation. [6] Slaves continued to escape in spite of these measures, [6] settling in Barbados and acquiring fraudulent documents attesting to their freedom or escaping the island completely. [6] Barbados was subject to such an extreme influx of slaves, [7] though, that the plantation's authority did not always invest in pursuing escapees, and even manumitted elderly slaves no longer able to work in the cane fields. [6] Indeed, people of African descent made up three-quarters of the island's population by 1700, [7] and enslaved Black Africans made up between 70 and 90 percent of migration to the island between 1670 and 1720. [7]

Excavation

The site was initially excavated in the 1970s by American archaeologists Drs. Jerome Handler and Frederick Lange, who worked to elucidate colonial-era slave lifeways on Barbados. [5] The Barbados Museum and Historical Society presides over the site's preservation. [10]

Osteology has shed light on the quality of slave life and their cultural lifeways at the plantation. Examination of skeletal remains at the Newton burial ground suggests a life expectancy of 29 years, a figure in conflict with historical records indicating a life expectancy of 20 years. [3] Despite the slightly longer lifespan, skeletal remains also yields evidence of periodic starvation among Newton's slave population. [3] Moreover, osteological analysis suggests a low infant mortality rate, again in contrast with a historical demography that reports high rates of death among infants. [3] Tooth analysis indicates slaves regularly smoked tobacco and exhibited incisor mutilations, [3] the latter of which may have been a performative practice retained from the African continent or adopted by indigenous Caribbeans. [8] Human remains at Newton were buried in a deliberate, non-arbitrary manner, possibly indicating the maintenance of systems of kinship among the site's slaves. [3]

Retention of indigenous culture

Dated to the late 17th or early 18th centuries, archaeologists have been intrigued by the remains of a young adult woman enslaved at the site. [9] The circumstances of her burial are abnormal, as she was interned in the largest artificial mound at the site without a coffin or other grave goods. [9] Osteological analysis detected extremely high levels of lead in her body, which may have contributed to her death as she appears to have been otherwise healthy. [9] The positioning of her body, too, is inconsistent with the rest of the remains at the burial ground, being the only person positioned face-down. [9] This is characteristic of West African mortuary practices, [9] and suggests that the slaves at Newton retained and maintained Indigenous cultural practices at the site. [4] [3] [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbados</span> Island nation in the Caribbean

Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America, and is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands. It lies on the boundary of the South American and the Caribbean Plates. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indentured servitude</span> Consensual or punitive unpaid labor

Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, or it may be imposed involuntarily as a judicial punishment. Historically, it has been used to pay for apprenticeships, typically when an apprentice agreed to work for free for a master tradesman to learn a trade. Later it was also used as a way for a person to pay the cost of transportation to colonies in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slave codes</span> Subset of laws regarding chattel slavery and enslaved people

The slave codes were laws relating to slavery and enslaved people, specifically regarding the Atlantic slave trade and chattel slavery in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gullah</span> African American ethnic group in south United States

The Gullah are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Their language and culture have preserved a significant influence of Africanisms as a result of their historical geographic isolation and the community's relation to their shared history and identity.

Bajan, or Bajan Creole, is an English-based creole language with African and British influences spoken on the Caribbean island of Barbados. Bajan is primarily a spoken language, meaning that in general, standard English is used in print, in the media, in the judicial system, in government, and in day-to-day business, while Bajan is reserved for less formal situations, in music, or in social commentary. Ethnologue reports that, as of 2018, 30,000 Barbadians were native English speakers, while 260,000 natively spoke Bajan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbados Slave Code</span> 1661 slave law in English colony of Barbados

The Barbados Slave Code of 1661, officially titled as An Act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes, was a law passed by the Parliament of Barbados to provide a legal basis for slavery in the English colony of Barbados. It is the first comprehensive Slave Act, and the code's preamble, which stated that the law's purpose was to "protect them [slaves] as we do men's other goods and Chattels", established that black slaves would be treated as chattel property in the island's court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sugar plantations in the Caribbean</span> Mainly in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries

Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, until the abolition of chattel slavery, was enslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery, indentured laborers from India, China, Portugal and other places were brought to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed in Western Europe, later supplanted by European-grown sugar beet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the British and French Caribbean</span> Slavery in British and French possessions in the Caribbean

Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbadians</span> People who are identified with the country of Barbados

Barbadians or Bajans (pronounced BAY-jənz) are people who are identified with the country of Barbados, by being citizens or their descendants in the Barbadian diaspora. The connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Barbadians, several of those connections exist and are collectively the source of their identity. Barbadians are a multi-ethnic and multicultural society of various ethnic, religious and national origins; therefore Barbadians do not necessarily equate their ethnicity with their Barbadian nationality.

The industrial heritage of Barbados, an island nation in the Caribbean, is exemplified by a number of specific structures still standing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Corruccini</span> American anthropologist

Robert Spencer Corruccini is an American anthropologist, distinguished professor, Smithsonian Institution Research Fellow, Human Biology Council Fellow, and the 1994 Outstanding Scholar at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. As a medical and dental anthropologist, Corruccini is most noted for his work on the theory of malocclusion and his extensive work in a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in Barbados.

Buckra or Backra is a term of West African origin. It is mainly used in the Caribbean and the Southeast United States. Originally, it was used by slaves to address their white owners. Later, the meaning was broadened to generally describe white people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afro-Barbadians</span>

Black Barbadians or Afro-Barbadians are Barbadians of entirely or predominantly African descent.

Henry Hawley was the English Governor of Barbados from 1630 to 1639/40.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irish slaves myth</span> False conflation of Irish indentured servitude and African chattel slavery

The Irish slaves myth is a fringe pseudohistorical narrative that conflates the penal transportation and indentured servitude of Irish people during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the hereditary chattel slavery experienced by the forebears of the African diaspora. Some white nationalists, and others who want to minimize the effects of hereditary chattel slavery on Africans and their descendants, have used this false equivalence to deny racism against African Americans or claim that African Americans are too vocal in seeking justice for historical grievances. It also can hide the facts around Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The myth has been in circulation since at least the 1990s and has been disseminated in online memes and social media debates. According to historians Jerome S. Handler and Matthew C. Reilly, "it is misleading, if not erroneous, to apply the term 'slave' to Irish and other indentured servants in early Barbados". In 2016, academics and Irish historians wrote to condemn the myth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Godet African Burial Ground</span> Burial ground in the Dutch Caribbean

The Godet African Burial Ground is an unmarked historical burial ground for enslaved African men, women and children located at the southwest coast of Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean. The burial ground was part of the former Godet plantation on the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Rock African Burial Ground</span> Burial ground in the Dutch Caribbean

The Golden Rock African Burial Ground is an unmarked historical burial ground of enslaved African men, women and children located on the premises of the airport on Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean in the ‘Cultuurvlakte’. The burial ground was part of the former Golden Rock plantation on the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plantations of Sint Eustatius</span>

The plantations of Sint Eustatius were primarily set up in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by European settlers. Workers on the plantations were obtained from human trafficking, and the proceeds primarily went back to the mother country. In the second half of the eighteenth century, trade became more of a priority to Sint Eustatius rather than the plantation economy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Rock (archaeological site)</span>

Golden Rock is the name of an archaeological site in the centre of the island of Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean, named after a nearby former plantation. Golden Rock was the nickname of Sint Eustatius from its prominence as a major colonial trading port in the late 17th and early 18th century. The site contains the remains of a late Saladoid village, an African burial ground, and a village of enslaved Africans.

African diaspora archaeology is the study of the archaeology of the African diaspora; Africans that were forcibly transported throughout the world by either the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Saharan slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade, or their descendants. Although pertaining to worldwide dispersal, the majority of research comes from Africa and the Americas, with very little from Europe and Asia.

References

  1. 1 2 "Barbados Museum and Historical Society". Slavery and Remembrance. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Shuler, K. A. (2011). "Life and death on a Barbadian sugar plantation: historic and bioarchaeological views of infection and mortality at Newton Plantation". International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 21 (1): 66–81. doi:10.1002/oa.1108. ISSN   1099-1212.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Corruccini, Robert S.; Handler, Jerome S.; Mutaw, Robert J.; Lange, Frederick W. (1982). "Osteology of a slave burial population from Barbados, West Indies". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 59 (4): 443–459. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330590414. ISSN   1096-8644. PMID   6762099.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Handler, Jerome S.; Corruccini, Robert S. (1983). "Plantation Slave Life in Barbados: A Physical Anthropological Analysis". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 14 (1): 65–90. doi:10.2307/203517. ISSN   0022-1953. JSTOR   203517. PMID   11617355.
  5. 1 2 Handler, Jerome S.; Lange, Frederick W. (April 26, 1978). Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation. Harvard University Press. ISBN   9780674332362.[ page needed ]
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Handler, Jerome S. (1997-01-01). "Escaping slavery in a Caribbean plantation society : marronage in Barbados, 1650s-1830s". New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids. 71 (3–4): 183–225. doi:10.1163/13822373-90002605. ISSN   1382-2373.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Galenson, David W. (1982). "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Barbados Market, 1673-1723". The Journal of Economic History. 42 (3): 491–511. doi:10.1017/S0022050700027935. ISSN   0022-0507. JSTOR   2120603. S2CID   154220595.
  8. 1 2 Roksandic, Mirjana; Alarie, Kaitlynn; Suárez, Roberto Rodríguez; Huebner, Erwin; Roksandic, Ivan (2016-04-12). "Not of African Descent: Dental Modification among Indigenous Caribbean People from Canímar Abajo, Cuba". PLOS ONE. 11 (4): e0153536. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1153536R. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153536 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   4829177 . PMID   27071012.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Handler, Jerome S. (1996-09-01). "A prone burial from a plantation slave cemetery in Barbados, West Indies: Possible evidence for an African-type witch or other negatively viewed person". Historical Archaeology. 30 (3): 76–86. doi:10.1007/BF03374222. ISSN   2328-1103. S2CID   163299265.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Newton Plantation Collection". Lowcountry Digital Library. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  11. ↑ Papers of the Newton Family. 1680–1920.
  12. ↑ "Newton Plantation Sugar Book 1849". Lowcountry Digital Library. Retrieved 2022-02-22.
  13. ↑ "Newton Plantation Slave List 1828". Lowcountry Digital Library. Retrieved 2022-02-22.

13°05′14″N59°32′02″W / 13.08713°N 59.53379°W / 13.08713; -59.53379

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