Dinner Parties and Hospitality at the Betty’s Hope Plantation (Antigua), 1783-1904

Summary

This paper examines practices of hospitality and convivial dining at the Betty’s Hope plantation, Antigua, between 1783 and 1904. Dinner parties are codified social gatherings that gained popularity in Britain during the eighteenth century, in the context of class emulation and the emergence of consumerism.  Dinner parties figure consistently in accounts of plantation life in the Caribbean, whether in the often satirical and deprecating written accounts of contemporary visitors, or in common historiographical tropes about planter sociality and excess in the British West Indies.  This paper critically explores how the institution of the dinner party took shape at the Betty’s Hope plantation throughout the long nineteenth century, in complex dialog with British metropolitan practices and imperial networks of trade.  Close attention is given to the changing landscape of provisioning in Antigua during the period considered, as well as to the representation of planter social life in correspondence and travel diaries.

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): 448