Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean," at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Settler colonialism is often associated with land-grabs, extractive endeavors, genocide and displacement of Indigenous peoples, white supremacy, and the accumulation of power and wealth into relatively few hands. Throughout the Circum-Caribbean, settler colonialism dramatically changed the physical and social landscapes, but often manifested in ways that differed from what was happening in mainland North America. These deviations from the typical image of settler colonialism will be examined by papers in this session. Themes to be explored include the nuances of who benefitted from the exploitation of land, natural resources, and enslaved and coerced laborers; the roles played by middle management and the extent to which they benefitted from this system; and how local, regional, and global trade networks were implicated in these landscapes of power and wealth, among others. Taken together, contributions will offer a conversation on the tensions within the social landscapes of the colonial Caribbean and their effects.

Other Keywords
Colonialism • Jamaica • Freedom • Plantation • Capitalism • Caribbean Archaeology • Colonization • Labor • Plantations • Virgin Islands

Geographic Keywords
Caribbean • Eastern Caribbean • Caribbean and West Africa • Caribean

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • An Archaeology of Supremacy: A Planter's Household at Stewart Castle, Jamaica (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Sean Devlin.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Settler colonialism shaped colonial societies from contact to the current moment through the organization of space, production, and consumption in plantation-based societies. It also structured power through organizing identity, particularly through the deployment of white supremacist practices. How white supremacy was...

  • Economic and Social Outlooks for Middle Management in Colonial Dominica (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kristen R. Fellows. James A. Delle.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. British settlement on Dominica, a relative late-comer to the settler colonial project, was initially driven by plantation models established on other islands. This colonial project relied heavily on settlement (oftentimes forced) of large numbers of people and the dramatic reordering of the physical landscape, yet...

  • "The Golden Splendor of Montserrat Limes!": A Multi-Scalar Archaeology of Caribbean Citrus Industry (ca. 1852-1928) (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Samantha Ellens.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. This paper examines the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the citrus lime industry (ca. 1852-1928) on the island of Montserrat. It examines how the new industry, largely catalyzed by the British Quaker Sturge family, provoked changes to the island's post-sugar landscape as well as its inhabitants. Using a...

  • Material and Social Landscapes at LaSoye, Dominica, 15th-18th Century (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Diane Wallman. Mark Hauser. Douglas Armstrong. Lennox Honychurch. Jumadine Frederick.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. As widely reported, the incursion of Europeans into the Caribbean triggered a significant rupture within cultural systems that developed over thousands of years. Indigenous communities were disrupted, enslaved, eradicated, displaced, and subjugated as European empires and settlers created colonies based on extractive...

  • Paths from the Plantation to Prosperity: An Archaeology of Barbadian Migration to Liberia (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Matthew Reilly. Craig Stevens.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The 1865 migration of over 300 Barbadians from the Caribbean to Liberia is a chapter of the African Diaspora representing complex pathways from the plantation to anticipated prosperity in Africa. The migrants, many coming from the rising and recently-emancipated middle class, were eager to leave behind a society that...

  • Power and Position on the Barbuda Plantation (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Edith M. Gonzalez.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the late 17th century, the island of Barbuda was inhabited by approximately 75 enslaved people of African descent and a few Anglo-Caribbean settlers. By 1718, the people of Barbuda were governed locally by the on-site estate manager, taking direction from an attorney in Antigua and an absentee landowner in England....

  • Pre- and Post-Emancipation Consumer Choice among Enslaved and Free Laborers on St. Kitts’ Southeast Peninsula (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Todd Ahlman.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the 21st century, St. Kitts’ southeast peninsula is an aspiring playground for rich foreigners, which mirrors its colonial heritage when absentee landowners used the land and enslaved African labor to fuel their extravagant lives in Britan and the Caribbean. In this presentation, I provide a brief history of land...

  • Repurposed Metal Objects from the Plantation at Marshalls Pen: How the Reuse of Iron Reflects Settler Colonial Tension in 19th Century Jamaica (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James A. Delle.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The growth of the settler economy in Jamaica was driven not only by the export of agricultural commodities, but by the importation of objects to be used on the plantations by the enslaved population. Long standing tradition in Jamaica held that plantation managers working for absentee planters would be compensated for...

  • St. Lucia’s 18th-Century Free Black Community and its Impact on the French and Haitian Revolutions (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jane I. Seiter.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Caribbean island of St. Lucia followed a distinctive course of colonial development. Unlike other islands, where vast sugar estates were in the hands of wealthy absentee owners, St. Lucia experienced prolonged political instability and its system of settler colonialism developed slowly and more sporadically. The...

  • United States Virgin Islands Tropical Hardwoods Debris Reuse Guidelines: An Example of Collaboration Among Federal and Territorial Disaster Response/Recovery Partners Addressing a Unique Category of Community Cultural Assets (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Charles A. Bello.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. During Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) the Federal Emergency Management Agency engaged in an efficient debris removal program – under Mission Assignments with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency. A variety of additional USVI partners and private contractors were cooperating partners....

  • Untamed Ecologies And Fugitive Geographies In Colonial Dominica, 1763 – 1978 (2025)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan R. Rodriguez.

    This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From 1763 to 1834, Maroons opposed enslavement by establishing fugitive geographies of resistance in British colonial Dominica. Within the mountainous hinterlands, the Maroons created communities in areas deemed invaluable by state agents and agricultural enterprises. This study highlights how untamed ecologies and...