Publication:

'The Garden of the World': An historical archaeology of sugar landscapes in the eastern Caribbean (1632)

    Full details

    Authors & editors

    Hicks, Dan [Author]

    Publisher British Archaeological Reports
    Year of publication 2007
    Languages

    Medium Book
    Edition1
    ISBN9781407300467
    Topics

    Food (non-cereal) processes > Sugar

    Tags

    Scope & contentThis study uses the perspectives of what might be termed the 'empirical tradition' of British landscape archaeology that developed in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in industrial archaeology, to explore the early modern history of the 'garden' landscapes formed by British colonialism in the eastern Caribbean, and their place in the world.

    It presents a detailed chronological sequence of the changing material conditions of these English-/British-owned plantation landscapes during the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, with particular reference to the origins, history and legacies of the sugar industry.

    The study draws together the results of archaeological fieldwork and documentary research to present a progressive account of the historical landscapes of the islands of St Kitts and St Lucia: sketching a chronological outline of landscape change. This approach to landscape is characterised by the integration of archaeological field survey, standing buildings recording alongside documentary and cartographic sources, and focuses upon producing accounts of material change to landscapes and buildings.

    By providing a long-term perspective on eastern Caribbean colonial history: from the nature of early, effectively prehistoric contact and interaction in the 16th century, through early permanent European settlements and into the developed sugar societies of the 18th and 19th centuries, the study suggests a temporal and thematic framework of landscape change that might inform the further development of historical archaeology in the island Caribbean region.

    The broader aim of the study relates to exploring how archaeological techniques can be used to contribute a highly detailed, empirical case study to the interdisciplinary study of postcolonial landscapes and British colonialism. In order to achieve this goal, the study draws upon the techniques of what has been called the 'empirical tradition' of landscape archaeology.

    Copies held

    Accession no. 230692

    • Shelf location: D400-HIC
    • Notes: British Archaeological Reports International Series; Studies in Contemporary and Historical Archaeology 3

    Divisions within this publication

    • 1: Introduction
    • 2: Enclosed Landscapes (from c. AD 1624)
    • 3: Sugar Landscapes (from c. AD 1675)
    • 4: ‘Improved’ Landscapes (from c. AD 1713)
    • 5: Atlantic Legacies (from c. AD 1838, and in the present)
    • 6: Christopher Jeaffreson’s Description of the Hurricane on 27th August 1681
    • 7: Extracts from ‘Old Accounts of the Manor of Wingfi eld, 1685’
    • 8: An Inventory of the Estate of Capt. Christopher Jeaffreson, 29th July 1685’;
    • 9: ‘Estate of Capt. Xpher Jeaffreson, 27th August 1685’
    • 10: ‘List of Payments by Christopher Jeaffreson’, 13 December 1682
    • 11: Copy (c. 1823) of Inventory of Wingfi eld Estate from 30th July 1713
    • 12: ‘Register of Plantation Slaves, Ballembouche Estate’. 13th December 1815
    • 13: Primary Archive Sources
    • 14: Bibliography

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