Coffee Mill Ruins at Juan De Bolas Notes from Matthew Reeves' Talk –
Juan de Bolas Coffee Estate & Thetford Sugar Estate
Held at the Trelawny Parish Library
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Falmouth Heritage Renewal (FHR) and the Falmouth & Trelawny Chapter of the Georgian Society of Jamaica, organized a talk by Matthew Reeves,who is a visiting archaelogist and is the Director of Archaeology at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. His specialty is sites of the African Diaspora including plantation and freedman period sites, and Civil War sites. Matthew’s talk centred around his research conducted at Juan de Bolas Coffee Estate and Thetford Sugar Estate in St. Catherine.
Juan de Bolas
SUNDAY MARKETS were what all households had in common. In market towns like Falmouth, the Sunday market had the input of the Jewish merchants as they could sell to slaves as it was not on their Sabbath. They were the primary supplier of goods to the slaves as this was where most of their small currency went.
Slave markets worried the planters, but these slave provisions supplied the majority of produce to the Jamaican population. In the market you could find imported goods as well as locally made goods such as yabba bowls, cook pots, chamber pots, etc. (made in Old Harbour - a 4-5 hour walk from Juan de Bolas, and Spanish Town). The market is one of the institutions that has lasted in Jamaica all these years.
Juan de Bolas Coffee Estate & Thetford Sugar Estate
Held at the Trelawny Parish Library
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Falmouth Heritage Renewal (FHR) and the Falmouth & Trelawny Chapter of the Georgian Society of Jamaica, organized a talk by Matthew Reeves,who is a visiting archaelogist and is the Director of Archaeology at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. His specialty is sites of the African Diaspora including plantation and freedman period sites, and Civil War sites. Matthew’s talk centred around his research conducted at Juan de Bolas Coffee Estate and Thetford Sugar Estate in St. Catherine.
Juan de Bolas
- Oral history passed down and the connection to the land and ancestors remain.
- Place names used during slavery still exist.
- Eight months of field work was conducted not only of the built structure of old slave settlements, but traditions discovered.
- House platforms were discovered.
- Glass bottles dug up, including obeah bottles. This had meaning for the people in the area and he started asking questions relevant to the local community.
- Market activities really formed the identity of peoples.
- This community was more affluent than Thetford and this could be determined by the quality of their material goods found.
- In contrast, Thetford is an abandoned sugar estate.
- Very few slaves agreed to stay after emancipation, and opted to work on their provision grounds instead.
- Land was not allowed to be transferred or sold to emancipated slaves.
- Oral history disappeared.
- Squatters were removed when Worthy Park acquired Thetford in the 1890s.
- Thetford had a bigger slave settlement and this was evident in the number of ceramics found.
- It was a harder life for the slaves at Thetford as it was very hard labour during sugar crop time. The soils at Lluidas Vale and Thetford are very wet, therefore they could only ratoon for one season.
SUNDAY MARKETS were what all households had in common. In market towns like Falmouth, the Sunday market had the input of the Jewish merchants as they could sell to slaves as it was not on their Sabbath. They were the primary supplier of goods to the slaves as this was where most of their small currency went.
Slave markets worried the planters, but these slave provisions supplied the majority of produce to the Jamaican population. In the market you could find imported goods as well as locally made goods such as yabba bowls, cook pots, chamber pots, etc. (made in Old Harbour - a 4-5 hour walk from Juan de Bolas, and Spanish Town). The market is one of the institutions that has lasted in Jamaica all these years.
The following first two images are from Thetford's sugar mill and the view from Thetford sugar estate:
Abstract
This study uses the archaeological record and historic data specific to two early nineteenth-century communities to investigate the economic and social strategies enslaved laborers used to negotiate the stress of plantation life. The two communities examined in this study were the Juan de Bolas Coffee Plantation and Thetford Sugar Estate, both located in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Both the amount of labor expected from each enslaved individual and the organization of labor varied on plantations of different crop types. While enslaved populations on Jamaican plantations raised cash crops that were sold by the plantation management, they also raised crops in provision grounds (gardens) and sold their excess crops at Sunday markets. Enslaved Africans' ability to produce for themselves varied with the demands of the labor they were exposed to on the plantation.
Analysis of the historic data on the two slave communities investigated in this case study reveals that, overall, the community at the coffee plantation was healthier and had more material culture. However, some households at the more labor intensive sugar estate had a higher amount and diversity of material goods than any of the other households. The findings of this study reveal that while enslaved Africans at the coffee plantation were able to provide for their sustenance through provisioning and marketing, individuals on the sugar estate manipulated their position within the hierarchical labor organization to ensure the survival of their household. Depending on their position within the labor hierarchy at the sugar estate, some individuals were better able to provide for their households than others. These survival tactics suggest the possibility that different segments within the enslaved population had different views on their place within the plantation system and within Jamaican society. (Information accessed 12 June 2013 - http://surface.syr.edu/ant_etd/63/).
This study uses the archaeological record and historic data specific to two early nineteenth-century communities to investigate the economic and social strategies enslaved laborers used to negotiate the stress of plantation life. The two communities examined in this study were the Juan de Bolas Coffee Plantation and Thetford Sugar Estate, both located in St. Catherine, Jamaica. Both the amount of labor expected from each enslaved individual and the organization of labor varied on plantations of different crop types. While enslaved populations on Jamaican plantations raised cash crops that were sold by the plantation management, they also raised crops in provision grounds (gardens) and sold their excess crops at Sunday markets. Enslaved Africans' ability to produce for themselves varied with the demands of the labor they were exposed to on the plantation.
Analysis of the historic data on the two slave communities investigated in this case study reveals that, overall, the community at the coffee plantation was healthier and had more material culture. However, some households at the more labor intensive sugar estate had a higher amount and diversity of material goods than any of the other households. The findings of this study reveal that while enslaved Africans at the coffee plantation were able to provide for their sustenance through provisioning and marketing, individuals on the sugar estate manipulated their position within the hierarchical labor organization to ensure the survival of their household. Depending on their position within the labor hierarchy at the sugar estate, some individuals were better able to provide for their households than others. These survival tactics suggest the possibility that different segments within the enslaved population had different views on their place within the plantation system and within Jamaican society. (Information accessed 12 June 2013 - http://surface.syr.edu/ant_etd/63/).
Notes provided by Marina Delfos. Learn more on the Georgian Society's Facebook page
Read Matthew Reeves' published thesis: "Out of Many One People: The Historical Archaelogy of Colonial Jamaica"
