Unravelling the Social Determinants of Lead Exposure in 19th Century British Royal Navy Stationed in Antigua, W.I.

Summary

An exploration into various aspects of lead exposure in the British Royal Navy stationed in 19th Century Antigua, West Indies has contributed to some unexpected insights. This research was facilitated by study of human remains mitigated from a Naval Hospital cemetery in response to modern development. The interred at the site were lower ranking naval personnel including enslaved individuals. Other work on lead exposure in the region focused on enslaved plantation laborers revealed high levels of the toxic metal in skeletal elements which was attributed to exposure in sugar processing. The work presented here focuses on enslaved African laborers in a military context. The patterns of lead exposure for this group are compared and contrasted with those of both the regular naval personnel and enslaved Africans in a plantation context. Similarities and differences seen in the lead burden of the bony remains between these three groups that were connected to the sugar industry in different capacities highlight into the variability in lived experiences of enslaved Africans in the colonial Caribbean.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22636