Life after Sugar: an Archaeology of the First Generation Post-emancipation in St. Peter’s Parish, Montserrat

Summary

In the first generation after emancipation Montserrat and its residents experienced exceptional difficulties. As the society transitioned from a sugar-based economy, former slaves, estate owners, and colonial authorities collectively struggled with the devastating effects of man-made and natural disasters, including a major earthquake in 1843, and a wide range of social, economic, and legal problems. This paper examines archaeological and historical evidence from St Peter’s Parish, the northernmost and, post-emancipation, the most impoverished district on the island. We draw on data from a landscape survey conducted since 2010, and excavations at two structures on Potato Hill that bracket the period of emancipation, contextualized by newly examined Montserratian and Antiguan archives spanning the period 1834-1860. Through a combination of artifactual, landscape, and documentary analysis, we sketch the conditions of life both on and off the plantation during this trying period in Montserrat’s social development.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017   •
• Afterlives of Slavery on the Post-Emancipation Caribbean Plantation

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 346