Danish Colonial Healthcare Policy and Enslaved Healing Practices on St. Croix, US Virgin Islands.

Summary

This paper explores the relationship between Danish centrally administered healthcare policy and enslaved populations on the island of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands during the nineteenth century. During the period between 1803 and 1848, a series of plantation medical hospitals were constructed on the island in order to provide medical services to enslaved individuals in an effort to reduce mortality and morbidity rates. This paper will address the preliminary archaeological fieldwork stages of my dissertation research aimed at establishing a theoretical and methodological framework for identifying and examining hospital sites and gaining a better understanding of how Danish colonial health policies were negotiated, altered, or enacted on the ground by medical staff, Afro-Caribbean medical practitioners, and enslaved individuals as evidenced by the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Multicultural Caribbean and Its Overlooked Histories   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 55