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Newton Slave Burial Ground

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Sources for Newton article:

Osteology & kinship: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.1330590414

Infection & mortality: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oa.1108

Witch??: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03374222

Isotopic analysis, diet, & diaspora: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2198&context=adan

Enslaved lifeways: https://www.jstor.org/stable/203517?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

More: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C24&q=Newton+Slave+Burial+Ground&btnG=

Newton Plantation: https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/newton-plantation-collection/

Article Draft

Lead

Officially colonized by the British in 1627,[1] Barbados was by the end of the seventeenth century the richest possession of Britain's Caribbean empire.[2] The Bajan economy was driven by, and dependent on, slave labor,[3][4][5] which played out on cash-crop plantations throughout the island.[6][7] One such site was Newton Plantation, roughly 9.2 km (5.7 mi) east of the port of Bridgetown.[8] The adjacent Newton Slave Burial Ground became the final resting place of (hundreds? thousands?) of African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Bajan slaves from c. 1660-1820.[9]

Article body

Until the last quarter of the 17th century, the Newton Plantation was a major source of Maroon communities on the island.[10] 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.[11] Slaves continued to escape in spite of these measures,[12] settling in Barbados and acquiring fraudulent documents attesting to their freedom or escaping the island completely.[13] Barbados was subject to such an extreme influx of slaves,[14] 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.[15] Indeed, people of African descent made up three-quarters of the island's population by 1700,[16] and enslaved Black Africans made up between 70 and 90 percent of migration to the island between 1670 and 1720.[17]


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.[18] Despite the slightly longer lifespan, skeletal remains also yields evidence of periodic starvation among Newton's slave population.[19] Moreover, osteological analysis suggests a low infant mortality rate, again in contrast with a historical demography that reports high rates of death among infants.[20] Tooth analysis indicates slaves regularly smoked tobacco and exhibited incisor mutilations,[21] the latter of which may have been a performative practice retained from the African continent or adopted by indigenous Caribbeans.[22] 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.[23]

References

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "Newton Plantation Collection | Lowcountry Digital Library". Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ 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.
  14. ^ Galenson, David W. (1982). "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Barbados Market, 1673-1723". The Journal of Economic History. 42 (3): 491–511. ISSN 0022-0507.
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ Galenson, David W. (1982). "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Barbados Market, 1673-1723". The Journal of Economic History. 42 (3): 491–511. ISSN 0022-0507.
  17. ^ Galenson, David W. (1982). "The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Barbados Market, 1673-1723". The Journal of Economic History. 42 (3): 491–511. ISSN 0022-0507.
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ 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.
  22. ^ 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. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0153536. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4829177. PMID 27071012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: PMC format (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  23. ^ 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.
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