Description
Book SynopsisWhile previous research on household archaeology in the colonial Caribbean has drawn heavily on artifact analysis, this volume provides the first in-depth examination of the architecture of slave housing during this period. It examines the considerations that went into constructing and inhabiting living spaces for the enslaved and reveals the diversity of people and practices in these settings.
Contributors present case studies using written descriptions, period illustrations, architectural features, and other evidence to illustrate the wide variety of built environments for enslaved populations in places including Jamaica, the Bahamas, and the islands of the Lesser Antilles. They investigate how slaves defined their social positions and identities through house, yard, and garden space; they explore what daily life was like for slaves on military compounds; they compare the spatial arrangements of slave villages on plantations based on type of labor; and they show how the style of traditional labor houses became a form of vernacular architecture still in use today.
This volume expands our understanding of the wide range of slave experiences across British, French, Dutch, and Danish colonies.
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- 1. Household, Village, and Landscape: The Built Environments of Slavery in the Caribbean Elizabeth C. Clay and James A. Delle
- 2. An Examination of Enslaved and Freed African Housing and Plantations on St. Kitts' Southeast Peninsula Sugar and Cotton Plantations Todd M. Ahlman
- 3. The Present Past: The Design Legacy of Laborer's Housing in the Landscape of Vernacular Architecture on Nevis Marco Meniketti
- 4. Building a Better Village?: Transformations in French West Indian Slave Village Architecture from the Ancien Régime to Emancipation Kenneth Kelly
- 5. Asymmetric Architectures of Enslaved People in Jamaica: An Archaeological Study of Household Variation at Good Hope Estate Hayden Bassett
- 6. Variation within the Village: Housing Enslaved Laborers on Coffee Plantations in Jamaica James A. Delle and Kristen R. Fellows
- 7. Humanitarian Reform, Model Cottages, and the Habitational Landscape of Slavery on a Bahama Island Allan D. Meyers
- 8. Labor and Landscape on the Periphery: Built Environments of Slavery in Nineteenth Century French Guiana Elizabeth C. Clay
- 9. Royal Enslaved Africans in Christiansted: Exploring the Archaeology of Enslavement in an Urban Caribbean City Alicia Odewale & Meredith D. Hardy
- 10. Households and Dwelling Practices at the Cabrits Garrison Laborer Village Zachary J. M. Beier
- 11. Built Environment: Slavery, Materiality, and Useable Pasts Mark W. Hauser
- References
- List of Contributors
