"The Golden Splendor of Montserrat Limes!": A Multi-Scalar Archaeology of Caribbean Citrus Industry (ca. 1852-1928)

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.

This paper examines the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the citrus lime industry (ca. 1852-1928) on the island of Montserrat. It examines how the new industry, largely catalyzed by the British Quaker Sturge family, provoked changes to the island's post-sugar landscape as well as its inhabitants. Using a multi-scalar approach that combines archaeological data from two mid-to-late nineteenth-century domestic sites, the Sturge family's island residence (the Cot) and the Afro-Montserratian Bramble family's home (Delvins House), along with archival research and spatial analysis at varying scales it explores the extent of the lime industry's impact on land use, settlement patterns, and labor relations. Understanding the archaeological evidence related to this period provides a fuller understanding of the complexities of colonial and capitalist processes and the diversity of experiences at the local level involved in shaping the post-emancipation Caribbean.

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