Theresa A. Singleton

Professor at Department of Anthropology

Syracuse University

Abstract:

The importation of enslaved Africans to Española in the early 1500s initially supplemented, and later, replaced Amer-Indian labor in the mining and sugar industries. After these enterprises declined, Afro-descendants continued to play key roles in settling the colony as laborers on farms and cattle ranches, in the building trades and domestic service, among other skilled and unskilled occupations.  By the seventeenth century, Afro-descendants comprised a Black majority population in Española.  Locating and identifying archaeological sites associated with this Black majority, however, has thus far been elusive.  Even at the sites of the earliest sugar plantations (1515-1550 ca.), where the ruins of 16th-century great houses still stand, it is unclear where and in what types of dwellings enslaved people were housed.  Although no slave dwellings have been identified, exploratory excavations yielded artifacts indicating Ameri-Indian influences on plantation foodways.  This lecture discusses the challenges confronted and the insights gained from ongoing research of identifying Afro-descendant sites in Dominican Republic.  The importation of enslaved Africans to Española in the early 1500s initially supplemented, and later, replaced Amer-Indian labor in the mining and sugar industries. After these enterprises declined, Afro-descendants continued to play key roles in settling the colony as laborers on farms and cattle ranches, in the building trades and domestic service, among other skilled and unskilled occupations.  By the seventeenth century, Afro-descendants comprised a Black majority population in Española.  Locating and identifying archaeological sites associated with this Black majority, however, has thus far been elusive.  Even at the sites of the earliest sugar plantations (1515-1550 ca.), where the ruins of 16th-century great houses still stand, it is unclear where and in what types of dwellings enslaved people were housed.  Although no slave dwellings have been identified, exploratory excavations yielded artifacts indicating Ameri-Indian influences on plantation foodways.  This lecture discusses the challenges confronted and the insights gained from ongoing research of identifying Afro-descendant sites in Dominican Republic.