Douglas V. Armstrong

Settlement Patterns and the Origins of African Jamaican Society: Seville Plantation, St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica

Archaeological and historical research at Seville Plantation, Jamaica, are used to explain changes in settlement patterns within the estate’s African Jamaican community between 1670 and the late nineteenth century. Sugar plantations, such as Seville, are marked by well-defined spatial order based upon economic and power relations that was imposed upon enslaved communities by planters and managers. Archaeological evidence is used to explore how enslaved Africans modified this imposed order and redefined boundaries in ways that correspond with the development of a distinct African Jamaican society. The rigidly defined linear housing arrangements initially established by the planter, and their relations to the Great House, sugar works, and fields, were reinterpreted by the enslaved residents of the village to create a degree of autonomy and freedom from constant surveillance that was at odds with the motives of the planter class. These changes occurred within the spatial parameters established by the planter, yet they reflect dynamic and creative social processes that resulted in the emergence of an African Jamaican community.

House-Yard Burials of Enslaved Laborers in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Four burials were excavated from discrete house-yard compounds in an eighteenth century African Jamaican slave settlement at Seville plantation. Though only four in number, these individuals provide significant information on burial practices and physical conditions within a clearly defined African Jamaican community. The analysis of material remains illuminate living conditions and social relations within the African Jamaican community. Each individual was interred within a separate house-yard and with a unique set of artifacts that yield information about their unique identities and positions within the Seville community. Bioarchaeological assessments describe the osteological remains and detail findings concerning pathologies. To date, they are the only excavated individuals who represent the African Caribbean practice of house-yard burial.

The archaeology of not being governed: A counterpoint to a history of settlement of two colonies in the eastern Caribbean

In this article we examine the role of informal settlements inhabited by Europeans, Africans and, potentially, indigenous people in the eighteenth-century insular Caribbean. Rather than simply being frontier settlements established in anticipation of formal colonization, in many cases settlements on and beyond the margins of colonies represent alternative possibilities and facilitate ways of life, modes of production, and means of trade and exchange that are at odds with expected norms of colonial society. We view such settlements as holdouts, practicing what James Scott refers to as the ‘art of not being governed’. To make this argument we compare ethnohistorical data related to settlement patterns in St John and Dominica and archaeological data retrieved from household excavations of plantation settlements dating to the eighteenth century. Examining such settlements allows us to map the range of variation in colonial life during the apogee of plantation-based slavery.

A Sea of Diversity: Historical Archaeology in the Caribbean

The Caribbean region projects a rich diversity in cultural settings that relate to a complex historical landscape in which local contexts punctuate global trends with unique material expressions. Archaeologists have explored a wide range of social issues and intellectual problems including colonialism, contact, globalization, power, and the complexities of slavery and freedom. This chapter will provide an overview of historical archaeology in the region including a review of research foci, an examination of thematic problems that have been addressed, theoretical approaches that have been used, and perspectives on new trends and ideas that are being explored today (Figs. 1 and 2). The social history of the region defines some of the key problems that researchers have addressed. For the Caribbean Basin, this includes understanding the region as a point of contact between European and Native Americans, a place where the Atlantic worlds of Africa, Europe, and theAmericas, and in particular the Caribbean, served as a critical stage for the intersection of global relations (Fig. 3). Archaeological studies have in one way or another addressed and bridged broad geographical, cultural, and political issues with the examination of localized sites and global contexts. Archaeologists have pursued their research from a wide range of theoretical perspectives and thematic interests, but the composite results highlight the importance of understanding historical contexts of cultural diversity, the richness of local history, and the interconnected nature of social relations from multiple scales of analysis.

An East Indian Laborers’ Household in Nineteenth-Century Jamaica: A Case for Understanding Cultural Diversity through Space, Chronology, and Material Analysis

Cultural diversity is a hallmark of the Caribbean region. This diversity is the result of many diasporas, including European, African, East Asian, and East Indian. Historical archaeology has focused on cultural permutations of the demographically dominant European and African groups. The archaeological record of other groups is present and can add to our understanding of the true depth of diversity in the emergence of social landscapes. This paper explores chronological, spatial, and material evidence related to an East Indian laborers’ household excavated in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. The ways in which space was structured and materials used were distinct from patterns observed in the households of African Jamaicans who resided in a separate locus at the same site. This data suggests potential of examining cultural identities through archaeology.

Degrees of freedom in the Caribbean: archaeological explorations of transitions from slavery

The anniversary of the abolition of slavery was justly celebrated worldwide in 2007. But what is the character of freedom, how does it relate to material culture, and how can archaeology study it? The author here summarises ideas he has been developing in Jamaica and York over the past two years.

Clay Faces in an Abolitionist Church: The Wesleyan Methodist Church in Syracuse, New York

For many years, a group of sculpted clay faces, in desperate and immediate need of conservation, tenuously clung to the walls of the dug-out space called a “tunnel” beneath the former Wesleyan Methodist Church, the home of a noted abolitionist and social-reform oriented congregation in downtown Syracuse, New York. Archaeological and historical research indicates a 19th-century origin for the faces. The church openly participated in abolition and the Underground Railroad, and housed a national abolitionist press. However, even in a pro-emancipation community such as Syracuse, the dangers for refugees fleeing bondage were real, and the consequences of capture were life threatening. This was particularly true after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850. This study presents evidence that the clay faces may have been created by African American refugees from slavery. Moreover, it describes a community’s efforts to conserve and protect this resource.

The Archaeology of Settler Farms and Early Plantation Life in Seventeenth-Century Barbados†

This article presents methodologies employed in, and initial interpretations of, an archaeological study of a pre-sugar and sugar era Barbadian plantation. A close examination of a 1646 map reveals a pre-sugar landscape in transition as the island was in the midst of the transformative sugar revolution. The map directed archaeological investigations that recovered materials associated with pre-sugar labourers, including European indentured servants and enslaved Africans. This data is then compared to material collected from undisturbed villages for the enslaved. We discuss the significance of these findings as well as their implications for understanding the onset of early capitalistic modes of production and how they affected the lives of labourers on the Barbadian landscape.

Attaining the full potential of historical archaeology

Historical archaeology is not adrift; rather through the collective contributions of generations of dedicated scholars it has matured into an inclusive discipline that seeks solutions to a wide range of problems regarding past peoples and their cultural expressions. While it is appropriate to seek to understand cultural regularities we must also explore the rich texture of variation expressed in the material patterns left behind. I agree with Charles E. Cleland’s that new and rigorous methodologies must develop in order for historical archaeology to reach its potential. We need not constrain our creativity, however, nor the potential of thorough utilization of archival sources, by limiting ourselves to the construction of oppositions between the historical and archaeological record. Rather, our models should embrace an examination, and testing, of questions derived from the intersection of both sources of information. The full engagement of both history and archaeology in the framing of questions will lead to a more complete understanding of the dynamic nature of cultural expressions recoverable through archaeological inquiry.

Networked Interaction: Archaeological Exploration of Walled and Terraced House Compounds in the Danish Colonial Port Town of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

The organisation of space within urban house compounds in the Kongens Quarter of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, reflects complex social relations in this nineteenth-century port town environment. Residential structures and outbuildings were constructed within a matrix of walls, gates and stairs and levelled earthen terraces. These features created physical and socioeconomic separations, which are reflected in the material culture recovered from each terrace. These features reconfigured steep hillsides into spaces divided according to the class and social structures of Danish West Indian mercantile society. This study compares the layout and material record found within two compounds, the Magens House and the Bankhus, and emphasise elements of Danish colonial life correlating with these specific urban port town merchant residences. The spatial relations identified reflect specific patterns of Danish colonialism, with its emphasis on open trade and interactions. These relationships are further defined by the broad spectrum of locally and globally produced goods, and the presence of specific goods made in Denmark or accessed through a diverse, but distinct, array of local and global trading partners.