Ship Imagery and Self-Liberation: Archaeological Investigations of Inter- Island Networks of the Enslaved at the Hughes Estate Plantation Site on Anguilla, B.W.I.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

When read against the grain, 18th-19th century records provide ample evidence that the enslaved of British Anguilla developed maritime networks of liberation with the enslaved of the nearby island of French/Dutch St. Martin. This presentation will discuss the preliminary findings of archaeological research at the Hughes Estate plantation site that seeks to investigate these inter-island social networks forged outside of colonial control. The discussion will also focus on efforts to document the site’s smokehouse building in 3D and interpret etchings of ships found on the interior walls of the smokehouse structure. Ship drawings have been found in enslaved contexts throughout the Americas and in the case of Anguilla may be related to themes of self-liberation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2022 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology