Longrow Laborer Houses at the Estate Lower Bethlehem Factory, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
Author(s): Steve Lenik
Year: 2020
Summary
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
In the late nineteenth century as global competition increased the Caribbean sugar industry consolidated into a small number of central factories and rum distilleries. The industrial capacity of some plantations was upgraded with the introduction of steam-powered mills, whereas other elements of infrastructure like fields and laborer housing continued to be used. Thus masonry housing units planters had built for enslaved Africans in the early nineteenth century in St. Croix, Danish Virgin Islands, were inhabited by wage laborers into the mid-20th century after American control began in 1917. Historical archaeology and oral history of masonry “longrow” houses at Estate Lower Bethlehem Old Works reveal how global processes manifested in the lives of plantation field laborers and mill workers.
Cite this Record
Longrow Laborer Houses at the Estate Lower Bethlehem Factory, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. Steve Lenik. 2020 ( tDAR id: 457241)
This Resource is Part of the Following Collections
Keywords
General
Housing Areas
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Laborer
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Plantations
Geographic Keywords
United States of America
Temporal Keywords
19th-20th Century
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 210