Interpretations of Artifacts and Ecofacts

Interpretation of this heavily disturbed archaeological site relied on the excavated material culture. Detailed analysis was done on the ceramics, glass, and faunal remains. These artifacts and ecofacts had the most potential to enhance the level of information known about the site. The manufacturing periods for ceramic types helped develop some chronology for cultural activity within the site. Time-sensitive evidence from bottle glass and faunal remains reinforced the general trend noted for the ceramics. An assessment of pre-Columbian Lucayan material culture was also included.

Bioarchaeological Analysis of Remains

Presumably in constructing the sidewalk, the bones from these shallow burials were disposed of elsewhere. Remains of five adults and one child were excavated. Seven subadult teeth were surface-collected around a hole at the western edge of the site. Being buried in moist sand meant that most bones excavated were fragmented. Bones and teeth were examined for evidence of pathologies. This small sample is not representative of the community, but the pathologies provide insight on these persons’ lives. The linea aspera on the only femur excavated is fairly robust. The individual’s sex was indeterminate, but this ambiguity reinforced the point that both men and women in this community engaged in physically demanding work. Cranial fragments from two individuals were thickened, an indicator of anemia resulting from nutritional deficiency or disease. Cribra orbitalia was noted in the eye socket of one individual, another indicator of nutritional deficiency. Two of the child’s incisors have transverse lines, evidence of enamel hypoplasia, an indicator of infectious disease and nutritional stress. Individuals buried in this cemetery were likely of low social status, living in congested and unsanitary conditions with limited food. These pathologies raise questions about the extent these conditions existed among African-Bahamian communities. Economic opportunities for free and enslaved workers would have been limited.

Conclusion

The goal was to assess the extent to which an African-influenced cemetery landscape was visible through time. Much of the archaeological context was destroyed so details were unavailable about the treatment of individual graves and burials. An objective was to understand how this cultural landscape intersected with the lives of the community that created it over time. Artifactual evidence suggested the Northern Burial Ground was contemporary with Centre Burial Ground, just across the street. The Northern Burial Ground was a highly visible space on the main street into the town. So contemporary Bahamians of European descent were aware that Africans memorialized their dead quite differently than did Europeans. The cultural action of placing personal items on graves was discontinued by the mid-1800s, likely a social impact of full emancipation in 1838 when former slaves could chart their own social destiny. A change in public expressions of an African-derived cultural heritage was deemed necessary because such cultural behavior was not valued by the larger European-dominated society. However, less public aspects of an African-derived cultural heritage, as language, remain intact almost 200 years after emancipation.

Introduction

The theoretical framework for this work is based on W.E.B. DuBois’s concept of “double consciousness” outlined in The Souls of Black Folk, 1903. This concept helps portray the transition from African-derived burial treatments in this urban cemetery for blacks to grave treatments that were less distinct from those in the cemeteries for whites. Archaeologically evidence of these grave treatments can be seen through time. Though most archaeological research in urban contexts is focused on cemeteries, a significant difference in this case is the focus on the cultural landscape within the cemetery space. The author’s familiarity with Bahamian historical and cultural heritage enables her to make a case for identifying an African-derived cemetery landscape. This urban cemetery site is an illustration of the variation in experiences within the African diaspora in the Americas.

European Influence on Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries

A European-style cemetery space was also examined to understand ways in which these differed from African-influenced cemetery spaces. The Bahamas was a British colony so the focus is on cemetery spaces in Great Britain and colonies in the Americas up to the nineteenth century. Burial spaces we know as cemeteries were first created in the latter part of the eighteenth century. The landscaped, park-like cemeteries date to the nineteenth century. Cemeteries served an entire district or town and were usually located close to a settlement. By the second half of the eighteenth century there were known health risks of burying the dead too close to living populations so regulations required cemeteries to be located away from settled areas. In the Caribbean, until the late eighteenth century, African people, especially in urban areas, were allowed to choose how to memorialize their dead. Centre Burial Ground, an early eighteenth-century cemetery and the oldest surviving cemetery in the Bahamas, is directly across the street from the Northern Burial Ground. Earlier limited excavations within this site indicated this was a park-like, landscaped space until the early twentieth century when it was covered by storm surge.

African Influence on Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries

DuBois described double consciousness as “two worlds within and without the Veil.” African-descended people had three options: 1) maintain an African-derived lifestyle separate from the larger, European-based society; 2) move between these two “worlds”; 3) function solely within the “world” of the dominant, European-based society. The Northern Burial Ground site was heavily disturbed in the mid-twentieth century so the focus was not on analyzing skeletal remains. Instead, the focus was on the cultural landscape created in this cemetery space. Any changes in cultural practices over time were interpreted as reflecting some change in worldview for the community using this cemetery. Archaeological investigations often do not include such cultural components as archaeologists may be unaware of these cultural features in an African-influenced cemetery space. The cultural landscape features noted were a location near water; placing personal items on graves; a planting at the head of graves; and evidence of food offerings. Comparative information for this site came from a late eighteenth-century black cemetery west of Nassau; nineteenth- and twentieth-century cemeteries on Crooked Island and San Salvador Island, also in the Bahamas; and cases of black cemeteries in the Caribbean and the United States.

St. Matthew’s Northern Burial Ground

St. Matthew’s Parish was created in the 1790s to accommodate the increased population with the migration of Loyalist refugees to the Bahamas. Several new cemeteries were also established but these were not formally consecrated until 1826, shortly after a bishop was appointed for the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica, which included the Bahamas. The Northern Burial Ground was especially for blacks, enslaved and free. Based on the documentation of the consecration, it seemed that the Northern Burial Ground was only established in the 1790s. Loyalist immigrants acted to impose more strict code of racial segregation in the colony than had existed prior to their arrival. The Northern Burial Ground is on the main road leading into the town so the African-derived grave treatments in this cemetery served as a public declaration of the cultural affiliation of this community. By the late nineteenth century the cemetery was surrounded by a low wall topped with a wooden fence that would have shielded the articles on graves from passersby. The cemetery was used until the early 1900s. Hurricane storm surges covered it in the 1920s, and in the 1930s a sidewalk was built through the site but there was no public protest at this destruction.

An Overview of Bahamian History in Context

English settlers first came to the Bahamas in the mid-seventeenth century. Even at this time there were communities of free people of color on Eleuthera Island and on New Providence. On New Providence lower income blacks created communities on the edges of the capital town of Nassau. In the 1780s, Loyalist refugees from the former American colonies imposed rigid social controls on blacks, but, with the help of British colonial officials, the earlier, less racially stratified social order remained more common. During the nineteenth century significant numbers of Africans were brought to the Bahamas. With the abolition of the slave trade this was the main resettlement location in the western Atlantic for Africans rescued from slave ships. Black troops of the West India Regiments garrisoned the colony’s forts because European troops were devastated by tropical diseases. The economic lot of most former slaves did not improve after emancipation. In the low cash economy employers generally paid wages in kind and not cash. Workers were offered credit but could usually never pay off their debt. By the late 1800s wage-earning opportunities lured many Bahamians to the U.S. and Cuba. These job opportunities increased in the twentieth century.