Tooth Mutilation in the Caribbean: Evidence from a Slave Burial Population in Barbados

Posted on 1982 by Jerome Handler

1982 (J. S. Handler, R. S. Corruccini, and R. Mutaw) “Tooth Mutilation in the Caribbean: Evidence from a Slave Burial Population in Barbados.” Journal of Human Evolution 11: 297-313.

Dental mutilation on slave burials excavated from a sugar plantation cemetery on the Caribbean island of Barbados reflects on the question of African slaves and their New World born slave descendants perpetuating this widespread African practice in the New World. Physical anthropological and ethnohistorical evidence from Barbados and other areas leads to the tentative conclusion that dental mutilation (and body scarification) disappeared among New World Black slaves. Reasons relating to adaptive responses to the institution of slavery, and changes in esthetic values as a result of the creolization process, are offered to help account for this disappearance.

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Joseph Rachell and Rachael Pringle-Polgreen: Petty Entrepreneurs

Posted on 1981 by Jerome Handler

1981 (Jerome S. Handler) “Joseph Rachell and Rachael Pringle-Polgreen: Petty Entrepreneurs.” In G.Nash and D. Sweet, eds., Struggle and Survival in Colonial America (University of California Press), pp. 376-91.

In addition to its large enslaved population, Barbados contained a minority population of European descent or birth, which included an even smaller plantocratic group that controlled the island’s means of production, internal legislative apparatus, and other society-wide institutions. Gradually, over the years, a third group emerged comprised of persons whose racial ancestry was mixed or solely African but who were legally free.  Two of these economically successful freedmen, a black man and a “colored” woman, are the subjects of this essay. Both were born in slavery and their combined lives spanned the eighteenth century. Although neither was a typical freedman, their very atypicality testifies to remarkable personal characteristics and also reflects various dimensions of the socioeconomic environment in which they lived.

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Barbados in the Apprenticeship Period: The Report of a French Colonial Official

Posted on 1980 by hopenorman

1980 (D. Gobert and J. S. Handler) “Barbados in the Apprenticeship Period: The Report of a French Colonial Official.” JBMHS 36: 108-28.

The French government sent observers to the British West Indies to gather specific information on the consequences of emancipation and the creation of a nonslave labor force. A. Bernard, the Attorney General at Guadeloupe, visited Barbados in 1835, and in the following year submitted his report to the French Colonial and Naval Minister.

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The Archaeology of Mapp’s Cave: A Contribution to the Prehistory of Barbados

Posted on 1980 by hopenorman

1980 (F. W. Lange and J. S. Handler) “The Archaeology of Mapp’s Cave: A Contribution to the Prehistory of Barbados.” Journal of the Virgin Islands Archaeological Society 9: 3-17.

We report on the limited prehistoric data recovered from a cave in southern Barbados in the early 1970s, and place these data within the context of what is known about Barbadian prehistory.

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Temporomandibular Joint Size Decrease in American Blacks: Evidence from Barbados

Posted on 1980 by Jerome Handler

1980 (R. S. Corruccini and J. S. Handler) “Temporomandibular Joint Size Decrease in American Blacks: Evidence from Barbados.” Journal of Dental Research 59: 1528.

We assume that non-genetic, environmental factors have played the major role in TMJ size decrease; the most likely explanation is decreased chewing resistance (and growth stimulation) provided by the soft processed diets of modern urban individuals.

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Barbados in the Post-Apprenticeship Period: The Observations of a French Naval Officer

Posted on 1978 by hopenorman

1978 (D. Gobert and J. S. Handler) “Barbados in the Post-Apprenticeship Period: The Observations of a French Naval Officer,” Part I and Part II. JBMHS 35: 243-66 and 36:4-15.

In 1840, the French government appointed a royal commission to study the mechanics of abolishing slavery and the possible socioeconomic consequences of emancipation in its  colonies. The commission was headed by Capitaine de Corvette Layrle, who visited Barbados in the early 1840s.

Part I: Barbados in the Post-Apprenticeship Period: The Observations of a French Naval Officer

Part II: Barbados in the Post-Apprenticeship Period: The Observations of a French Naval Officer

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Amerindians and Their Contributions to Barbadian Life in the Seventeenth Century

Posted on 1977 by hopenorman

1977 (Jerome S. Handler) “Amerindians and Their Contributions to Barbadian Life in the Seventeenth Century.” JBMHS 35:189-210.

This paper sketches what can be ascertained from limited documentary information about the way of life of Barbados’s small Amerindian population during the seventeenth century, and suggest the kinds of contributions Amerindians may have made to the island’s early material life.

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Memoirs of an Old Army Officer: Richard A. Wyvill’s Visits to Barbados in 1796 and 1806-7

Posted on 1975 by hopenorman

1975 (Jerome S. Handler) “Memoirs of an Old Army Officer: Richard A. Wyvill’s Visits to Barbados in 1796 and 1806-7.” JBMHS 35: 21-30.

Wyvill was a British Army Officer in the West India Regiments. His diary entries on Barbados are a series of brief thoughts and random observations on a variety of topics although the treatment of slaves and behavior of creole whites seem to have interested him the most.

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An Archaeological Investigation of the Domestic Life of Plantation Slaves in Barbados

Posted on 1972 by Jerome Handler

1972 (Jerome S. Handler) “An Archaeological Investigation of the Domestic Life of Plantation Slaves in Barbados.” JBMHS 34: 64-72.

A modified version of a talk given at the University of the West Indies in Barbados in early 1972. Gives an overview of the domestic life of plantation slaves and raises issues it is hoped on-going archaeological research will address. This talk was given in the earliest phases of the archaeological research in Barbados which eventuated in the book, co-authored with Frederick W. Lange, Plantation Slavery in Barbados: An Archaeological and Historical Investigation (Harvard University Press, 1978).

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Aspects of Slave Life in Barbados: Music and its Cultural Context

Posted on 1972 by Jerome Handler

1972 (J. S. Handler and C. Frisbie) “Aspects of Slave Life in Barbados: Music and its Cultural Context.” Caribbean Studies 9: 5-46.

This article describes the musical and dance forms and activities found among Barbados slaves, delineates the sociocultural contexts in which these occurred, and indicates the African and European cultural influences, as well as changes, in musical and dance traditions from the middle of the seventeenth century to the Emancipation period.

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