Chapter 14. Discussion

Author(s): Michael L. Blakey, Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, Alan Goodman, Fatimah Jackson

Year: 2004

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Summary

The explanatory frameworks of this study are heavily influenced by our

understanding of the historical expediencies of European economic exploitation and

power, and the ways these imperatives came to be played out in the condition of Africans

in the Atlantic World. Of course, imperatives of safety, profit, moral legitimacy and so

forth were negotiated as Europeans wrestled with conditions they could not entirely

control, including the needs and responses of Africans themselves. The “hows” and

“whys” of the biological effects we have examined are largely explicable in terms of

historical, political, and economic motivations, practices, and policies, as well as modes

of resistance to them and other limiting factors, such as the natural environment. Why

are babies dying? Slave holders do not want them for economic reasons at this time and

in this place. The evidence of growth delays in children suggests a lack of investment in

them by those empowered to do so. While African women also at times allowed their

children to die rather than make them into slaves, at other times we see clear

archaeological evidence (Archaeology Final Report, forthcoming) of profound love of

children, in this mortuary context. And in New York, there were few opportunities for

family formation with men and women working and sleeping in isolated workshops and

homes, respectively (see History Final Report, Chapters 4.0 and 8.0). The sex ratio,

ages, and sources of new arrivals reflected English struggles to control Africans who

rebelled and to capitalize on market availability and the price of captives. Sex ratio

affects fertility and the spread of diseases affecting child mortality, particularly where

females are disempowered as they were under American slavery. Each chapter has

examples of biological effects of power and poverty. We will not attempt to explain the

more interesting details which each author does best in his and her own words. This

discussion is meant as a starting point for pulling together the shadowy evidence that

human skeletons bear on 419 all-but-forgotten lives.

URL:http://www.africanburialground.gov/ABG_FinalReports.htm

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Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 1640 to 1800

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): General Services Administration Northeastern and Caribbean Region

Prepared By(s): National Park Serivce