Spatial Analysis of the Free African Community of Kingstown, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Summary

Forming a different kind of plantation community, a unique group of African people who were never enslaved existed in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in the 1830s to 1850s.  Captured for slavery in Africa after the British ended the slave trade in 1807, and after much loss and time, these people were given a plantation on Tortola where they lived—surrounded at first by enslaved people—in a settlement known as Kingstown.  An 1831 map of their settlement exists, providing insight primarily into how the British colonial authorities wished them to use their land.  Using ArcGIS, this paper places this map in its 3-dimensional context, quantitatively explores how the residents would have experienced their land and analyzes the limits this British Colonial scheme would have placed on the "Kingstown People," trying to force them into the role of stereotypical English peasants.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Current Perspectives on Plantation Archaeology in the Caribbean   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 96