Subsistence as Transformative Practice: The Zooarchaeology of Slavery in the Colonial Caribbean

ABSTRACT

The colonial Caribbean was the site of dynamic interaction between groups of Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous peoples, structured by vast power inequalities. With the emergence of the plantation system, enslaved Africans and their descendants were forced to navigate a violent and lethal system. Food insecurity remained a central struggle within their lives. In this article, I review zooarchaeological studies from 15 sites of enslavement throughout the Caribbean to examine the strategies developed by enslaved peoples to survive. The data reveal variation in the specific taxa consumed, but also show common practices, marked by some combination of domestic livestock, local fish and shellfish, and the supplemental procurement of wild resources. These practices form the roots of contemporary Caribbean cuisine, which developed through the maintenance and transformation of traditional knowledge, and became resilient features of community and household economies and social identity for enslaved peoples and their descendants.

KEYWORDS:

• Caribbean
• slavery
• zooarchaeology
• foodways
• African Diaspora archaeology
• faunal analysis
• archaeology of slavery

Acknowledgements

First, I would like to thank and acknowledge the project directors, specialists, students, fieldworkers and local communities who worked on these sites to help us better understand the past. In particular, thank you to the many analysts who contributed to data collection and analysis. I want to thank Betsy Reitz for providing me with reports from the Georgia Museum of Natural History. My sincere gratitude to Matt Reilly, and the anonymous reviewer for your insightful comments and substantial help in making this a better manuscript. Finally, a huge thanks to Lydia Marshall for your work editing and improving this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diane Wallman

Diane Wallman is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. Her work examines the consequences of European colonialism and Atlantic slavery in the Caribbean and southeastern United States.