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Variation in Venues of Slavery and Freedom: Interpreting the Late Eighteenth-Century Cultural Landscape of St. John, Danish West Indies Using an Archaeological GIS

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Abstract

An archaeological GIS is used to examine the late eighteenth-century cultural landscape of St. John, US Virgin Islands. Land use patterns are reconstructed using a combination of historic maps, tax records, and survey reconnaissance. The study demonstrates significant, heretofore undocumented, transitions taking place that reflect dynamic cultural and economic change within Danish West Indian plantation society that includes a significant trend towards land ownership by free-colored St. Johnians more than a half a century before emancipation. These venues of freedom are discussed in relation to broader patterns of estate consolidation and economic shifts.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded in part by grants from the National Park Service, the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, Syracuse University Continuing Education and Summer Sessions, the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences of Syracuse University. The project as completed with cooperation and assistance from Kenneth Wild and staff of the Virgin Islands National Park, as well as David Brewer and the Department of Parks Recreation and Historic Preservation of the US Virgin Islands.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University, 209 Maxwell Hall, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Douglas V. Armstrong

  2. Department of Africana Studies, University of Notre Dame, 327 O’Shaughnessy Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

    Mark Hauser

  3. Little Nordside Press, Hull Bay, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, USA

    David W. Knight

  4. Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University, 209 Maxwell Hall, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Stephan Lenik

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  1. Douglas V. Armstrong
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  2. Mark Hauser
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  3. David W. Knight
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  4. Stephan Lenik
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Correspondence to Douglas V. Armstrong.

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Armstrong, D.V., Hauser, M., Knight, D.W. et al. Variation in Venues of Slavery and Freedom: Interpreting the Late Eighteenth-Century Cultural Landscape of St. John, Danish West Indies Using an Archaeological GIS. Int J Histor Archaeol 13, 94–111 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-008-0066-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-008-0066-6

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