Searching for a Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies: A Bioarchaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigation

1989 (J. S. Handler, with M. Conner and K. Jacobi), Searching for a Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies. A Bioarchaeological and Ethnohistorical Investigation. Chapters 1-5, Chapters 6-7, Chapter 8 and Appendix. Southern Illinois University: Center for Archaeological Investigations, Research Paper No. 59, 125 pp.

This monograph describes the results of a ten week bioarchaeological project which also involved archival and ethnographic research. Major objectives of the fieldwork were to locate sugar plantation slave cemetery sites from which skeletal and artifactual remains could be recovered. Archaeological survey and testing focused on five plantations (Guinea, Malvern, Hanson, St. Nicholas Abbey, Bissex-Parks; also, Castle and Lamberts) with histories extending deep into the slave period, and where strong oral and documentary evidence existed for slave cemeteries. This research, however, failed to discover traces of any cemetery or recover any contextual evidence of human remains. Possible explanation for this failure as well as suggestions for future research are also discussed. Chapters of the monograph are:

1. Introduction: Ethnohistory, Archaeology, and Bioanthropology in the Study of Barbados Slaves
2. Objectives of the 1987 Fieldwork
3. Cemeteries during the Slave Period: Whites, Slaves, and the Newton Cemetery
4. Plantation Fields: Naming Practices, and the Negro Yard and Graveyard Fields
5. Searching for Cemeteries Before the 1987 Season
6 Plantation Research in 1987: Ethnographic and Historical
7. Plantation Research in 1987: Archaeological
8. Conclusions
Appendix A. Cholera Burial Grounds
Appendix B. Excavation of Human Skeletal Remains in Barbados
Appendix C. Regulations Surrounding Archaeological Research in Barbados
Appendix D. Tabulations of Excavated and Surface Collected Materials, by Rebecca House