Rum and Archaeology: A Preliminary Report of the Excavation of the Still House on the Betty’s Hope Plantation, Antigua.

Summary

A great deal of research has been undertaken on the slave trade, sugar and the African diaspora, however, the impact of rum has garnered little attention from scholars.  Rum was an important social and economic catalyst during the 17th-20th centuries, impacting all strata of society from the lowest slaves to the highest echelons of British society. During the 18th and 19th centuries rum developed from a waste product into highly desirable merchandise that was used as a social lubrication to ease tension while buying and selling slaves. The lack of archaeological analysis on rum production has resulted in a superficial understanding of the importance of the rum trade in terms of the impact it had on individual cultures, classes and ethnic groups. This paper will discuss the preliminary data retrieved during the last two field seasons excavating the distillery at Betty’s Hope Plantation, Antigua. 

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

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PaperId(s): 108