Arm Chair Archaeology: GIS-ing the 1733 St. Jan Slave Rebellion

Summary

The 1733 St. Jan Slave Rebellion in the Danish West Indies was an ephemeral event, from an archaeological perspective. Lasting only 8 months and diffused across the 20-sq mile island, the rebellion lacks a traditional archaeological signature even from battlefield methodologies. However, it is useful to apply archaeological questions to topics that are difficult to approach through dirt and shovel. This paper will discuss the application of GIS methods to analyze the slave rebellion from multiple temporal vantage points, including social conditions leading up to the rebellion, the events of the rebellion as it unfolded, and how the reorganization of the island in the aftermath of the event can be seen spatially.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Beyond (between, within, through) the Grid: The Contours of Mapping and GIS in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17092