Power and Position on the Barbuda Plantation

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In the late 17th century, the island of Barbuda was inhabited by approximately 75 enslaved people of African descent and a few Anglo-Caribbean settlers. By 1718, the people of Barbuda were governed locally by the on-site estate manager, taking direction from an attorney in Antigua and an absentee landowner in England. Using critical fabulation, archaeology, and historical records the power dynamics inherent in the oversight of the Barbuda Plantation emerge. The push and pull of changing economic strategies are evident as attorneys and managers struggled to secure their positions by enacting plans handed to them from abroad. The expertise of laboring populations was frequently the lynchpin upon which the managers’ success balanced. The traditional knowledge of enslaved people is seldom credited, erased from the archives, but can be teased out from between the lines. Through the centuries, these shifting economies have contributed to the development of Barbudan indigenous culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Social Landscapes of Settler Colonialism in the Caribbean   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow