Jerome S. Handler

An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies

Posted on 1997 by Jerome Handler

1997 (Jerome S. Handler) “An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1: 91-130.

An adult male buried in the late 1600s or early 1700s and excavated from a plantation slave cemetery in Barbados had the cemetery’s richest assortment of grave goods: an iron knife, several types of metal jewelry, an earthenware pipe, and a necklace of money cowries, fish vertebrae, dog canine teeth, European glass beads, and a large carnelian bead probably from India. Most of these artifacts are unique to New World African descendant sites. The individual was probably an African-type diviner/healer whose high status in the slave community is reflected in his relatively elaborate artifact inventory.

Posted in Slavery and Slave Life: Archaeological Studies | Tagged African-type diviner, Barbados, healer, slave cemetery | Comments Off

Slave Names and Naming in Barbados, 1650-1830

Posted on 1996 by Jerome Handler

1996 (J. S. Handler and J. Jacoby) “Slave Names and Naming in Barbados, 1650-1830.” William and Mary Quarterly 53: 685-728.

This article draws on a sample of Barbados slave names in order to examine the principles and significance of naming practices among North American and British Caribbean slaves in general and on Barbados plantations in particular. Analysis of plantation slave lists and other primary sources that record slave names, especially within the context of genealogical relations, provides insight into slave naming practices. These, in turn, can reveal the extent to which concepts of family, lineage, and kinship were retained beyond the Atlantic crossing and can also shed light on other domains of slave life, such as adjustment or resistance to enslavement, the nature of slaves’ kin networks, the perpetuation and modification of African practices, and creolization.

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A Prone Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies: Possible Evidence for an African-type Witch or Other Negatively Viewed Person

Posted on 1996 by Jerome Handler

1996 (Jerome S. Handler) “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: 76-86.

Dating to the late 1600s or early 1700s, a burial excavated from a slave cemetery at Newton Plantation in Barbados had several unique characteristics. Buried in the largest artificial earthen mound in the cemetery without grave goods or a coffin, this young adult woman was the solitary interment in the mound and the cemetery’s only prone burial. Her skeleton showed no signs of unusual death although analysis of lead in her bones suggests she suffered from severe lead poisoning. Documentary evidence on Barbados slave culture in general and ethnographic/ethnohistorical evidence on West African mortuary practices suggest interpretations for this burial: She may have been a witch or some other negatively viewed person with supernatural powers who, following African custom, was feared or socially ostracized.

Posted in Slavery and Slave Life: Archaeological Studies | Tagged Barbados, Newton Plantation, slave cemetery | Comments Off

Determining African Birth from Skeletal Remains: A Note on Tooth Mutilation

Posted on 1994 by Jerome Handler

1994 (Jerome S. Handler) “Determining African Birth from Skeletal Remains: A Note on Tooth Mutilation.” Historical Archaeology 28: 113-19.

Tooth mutilation existed in sub-Saharan Africa, and was found among slaves transported to the New World. A small number of mutilation cases have been identified in early New World “Negro” skeletons from the Caribbean and Florida. The skeletal evidence alone precludes determining if the individuals were African- or American-born, but limited ethnohistorical data suggested the former. This hypothesis is considerably strengthened by evidence from 18th-century runaway slave advertisements found in the newspapers of five mainland British colonies. Analysis of these ads shows that every runaway who is identified with tooth mutilation came from Africa. This ethnohistorical evidence supports other sets of bioarchaeological and ethnohistorical data that the African custom of tooth mutilation was not generally practiced by Caribbean or North American slaves. Where filed or chipped teeth appear on skeletons “racially” identified as African in New World sites, there is an excellent chance that the individuals were African-born.

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Textual Evidence on the Nature of Early Barbadian Speech, 1676-1835

Posted on 1994 by Jerome Handler

1994 (J. R. Rickford and J. S. Handler) “Textual Evidence on the Nature of Early Barbadian Speech, 1676-1835.” Journel of Pidgin and Creole Languages 9: 221-55.

On the evidence of textual attestations from 1676-1835, early Barbadian English is shown to have exhibited many more nonstandard features than is generally recognized. Such features, which are commonly, if not exclusively, found in pidgins and creoles, include vowel epenthesis, paragoge and initial s-deletion processes, creole tense-modality-aspect marking, copula absence, the use of invariant no as a preverbal negative and as an emphatic positive marker, the occurence of one as indefinite article, and a variety of morphologically unmarked pronomial forms.

Posted in Barbados History and Society: Bibliographic and Miscellany | Tagged Barbadian English, Barbados, speech | Comments Off

Slave Medicine and Plant Use in Barbados

Posted on 1993 by hopenorman

1993 (J. S. Handler and J. Jacoby) “Slave Medicine and Plant Use in Barbados.” JBMHS 41: 74-98.

The early healing practices of Barbadian slaves had their roots in traditional West African medicine which involved the use of plants. Both Africans (and Europeans) in Barbados were predisposed to experiment with and exploit the natural environment for medicinal purposes. Over time, a variety of locally prepared medicines came to be widely employed by all racial groups in Barbados and this article discusses, on the basis of limited documentary evidence, which of these were specifically part of the enslaved community’s pharmacopoeia.

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Congenital Syphilis in the Past: Slaves at Newton Plantation, Barbados West Indies

Posted on 1992 by Jerome Handler

1992 (K. Jacobi, D. Cook, R. Corruccini, and J. Handler) “Congenital Syphilis in the Past: Slaves at Newton Plantation, Barbados, West Indies.” AJPA 89: 145-58.

Hutchinson’s incisors and Moon’s molars are specific lesions of congenital syphilis. The extensive but fragmentary clinical literature on these conditions describes reduced dimensions and thin enamel in the permanent incisors and first molars, crowding and infolding of the first molar cusps, notching of the upper incisors, and apical hypoplasias of the permanent canines. A Barbados slave cemetery (ca. 1660-1820 m) includes three individuals with these features, suggesting a frequency at birth of congenital syphilis in the population approaching 10%. These three cases show triple the frequency of all hypoplasias and more than seven times the frequency of pitting hypoplasia present in the remainder of the series. The recognizable congenital syphilis cases account for much of the remarkably high frequency of hypoplasias in the series as a whole. We infer that syphilis contributed substantially to morbidity, infant mortality, and infertility in this population. Presence or absence of congenital syphilis may account for much of the variability in health and mortality seen among nineteenth century African-American populations.

Posted in Biological Anthropology of Enslaved Barbadians | Tagged Barbados, Newton Plantation, slave, syphilis | Comments Off

Inferring Fertility from Relative Mortality in Historically Controlled Cemetery Remains from Barbados

Posted on 1989 by Jerome Handler

1989 (R. S. Corruccini, E. Brandon, and J. S. Handler) “Inferring Fertility from Relative Mortality in Historically Controlled Cemetery Remains from Barbados.” American Antiquity 54: 609-14

Fertility (crude birth rate) was estimated from skeletal and corresponding historical relative mortality ratios for a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century Barbados slave population. The estimates varied widely among themselves according to which data source and mortality ratio was used; they also varied from the actual historical fertility rate. In addition, we have raised logical objections to the use of stable model life tables for inferring nonstable vital rates in archaeological populations. These points are problematic for the broad use of relative mortality to infer relative fertility.

Posted in Biological Anthropology of Enslaved Barbadians | Tagged Barbados, infertility | Comments Off

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

Posted on 1989 by Jerome Handler

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

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

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Patterning of Skeletal Lead Content in Barbados Slaves

Posted on 1987 by hopenorman

1987 (R. S. Corruccini, A. C. Aufderheide, J. S. Handler, and L. Wittmers) “Patterning of Skeletal Lead Content in Barbados Slaves.” Archaeometery 29: 233-39

Lead concentration patterns have proven useful in interpreting some aspects of slavery in colonial North American sites. In this paper, we analyze bone lead content from skeletal remains archaeologically recovered at Newton plantation, and discuss its implications for understanding and interpreting various new dimensions of Caribbean slave life.

Posted in Biological Anthropology of Enslaved Barbadians | Tagged Barbados, lead, slave | Comments Off