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Copyright by Paula Veronica Saunders 2004 Copyright by Paula Veronica Saunders 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Paula Veronica Saunders Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Free and Enslaved African Communities in Buff Bay, Jamaica: Daily Life, Resistance, and Kinship, 1750-1834 Committee: ___________________________________ Samuel Wilson, Supervisor ___________________________________ Maria Franklin ___________________________________ James Denbow ____________________________________ James Sidbury ____________________________________ Kofi Agorsah Free and Enslaved African Communities in Buff Bay, Jamaica: Daily Life, Resistance, and Kinship, 1750-1834 by Paula Veronica Saunders, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2004 Dedication This work is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother Monica Guinessee Salfarlie, to my parents, Hollis Logan and Cecelia Mary Saunders, and to my nieces and nephews, Shanell, Jerrol, Doyle, Desire, Vaughn, Daley, Michaela, and Michaiah. Acknowledgements This dissertation was the result of the unconditional support, encouragement, assistance, and feedback from numerous individuals and institutions. First, I am deeply indebted to the people of Charles Town, in Portland Jamaica who took the time to share their many stories with me. Their knowledge and insights helped shape the outcome of this dissertation and challenged me to understand their stories in ways that only they could. In particular, I am extremely grateful to Sophia, Gayle “Pinky” and Robert Sutherland, for helping me adjust into the Charles Town community. My extreme gratitude goes out to the Welch family, in particular, Mr. Dennis Welch and Uel Gordon, for allowing me access to the site and sharing their insights of life at Orange Vale. I am deeply grateful to my wonderful team of field assistants, without whom this research would not have materialized, particularly Paul and Mares. Much respect to the many wonderful Maroon individuals who generously shared their cultural and historical knowledge and experiences with me through stories and myths. Equally important are my mentor, advisors, and committee members who guided and challenged me through the long journey of graduate school. My committee members, Samuel Wilson, Maria Franklin, James Denbow, James Sidbury, and Kofi Agorsah stuck with me despite all the challenges along the way. Without their continued and consistent guidance, I would not have made it to this side of the process. My advisor, Samuel Wilson was the epitome of what any graduate student could want in an advisor because he made himself available to me regardless of his own busy schedule. His honest v guidance, genuine interest, and consistent support was the main reason why I was able to complete this dissertation. He has been an amazing supervisor, mentor, and friend and I owe him my eternal gratitude. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with Maria Franklin, whom I have always admired her for her intelligence, direct nature, and the ways in which she can simplify the most complex issues. Special thanks to James Denbow for providing me with the opportunity to accompany him to Botswana. That experience expanded my horizon and was one of the most memorable of my life. I am also grateful to the many brilliant faculty and staff members of the department of Anthropology at the University of Texas, including Ted Gordon, Kamala Visweswaran, and Charlie Hale. Ted kept it real and I admire his genuine dedication to students. I appreciate all of the challenges they have all posed and the deep knowledge they have passed on. Special thanks to Dixon and Jennifer Jones for their friendship over the years and for sharing their musical Austin with me. I am also very grateful to the many wonderful staff who have often bent over backwards to help me with paperwork and a variety of other issues, particularly when I was on another side of the globe. William Lawler; Celeste Neathery, Jennifer Jones, Andria Shively, Susan Lane, Pam Becker, and Steph Osbakken have all been instrumental in helping me get through the red tape. My graduate school experience was perhaps benefited most from the very diverse and vibrant group of graduate student colleagues at UT. I have benefited from their care vi and willingness to engage me on theoretical, political, and social issues, particularly during my early years in Austin. Among that group are my smart, hard-working friends, Jemima Pierre and Keisha-Khan Perry. They have been the two whose friendships have endured our mutual travels and diverging paths. Jemima was the first student I met when I first arrived in Austin and since then we have had many adventures throughout this country and in West Africa. Most memorable was our trip from Ghana to Cote D’Ivoire by bush taxi during a political coup! Keisha-Khan’s incredible wit has entertained me during my most stressful days. But most of all, I appreciate her generosity, consistency, and commitment to our friendship. Because of the many telephone conversations we shared, I was able to make it through the last few years of graduate school. I am very grateful for their continued friendships. Several other individuals have been instrumental in my journey, including Doug Armstrong and Chris DeCorse from Syracuse University. It was archaeological research in St. John with Doug that I realized that my interest in Archaeology was much more than a hobby. I am indebted to the Warren Perry and Charles Cheek for giving me the chance to experience some other realities of archaeology. Many thanks to my colleagues on the African Burial Ground Project at Foley Square Lab, including Gary McGowan, Steve Brighton, Paul Reckner. Special thanks to my very dear friends Tamara Kelly and Cheryl LaRoche. Tamara’s friendship, loyalty, and genuine love of people have always kept me in her thoughts even when I was miles away. Cheryl has been one of the most intelligent yet humble individuals I know. She is the epitome of wise and always seemed to have a vii solution for any problem. I am grateful for her nurturing ways and I hope that at least some of her wisdom rubbed off on to me. I would not have made it through this process without her endless words of encouragement and hers is a friendship that I will always treasure. I must extend my gratitude to my friends Sonya Jelks, Raymond Pasquariello, and Karen English. Though we sometimes lost touch, when we met again it is always with ease and genuine friendship. In Jamaica, Dorrick, Christine, Yasine, and Leron Gray have been the most accommodating and generous to me over the years. They made my transition to life in Jamaica much easier and now we are like family. Special thanks to Selvenious “Spider” Walters for his constant support and guidance while I was out in the bush. Thanks also to Audine Brooks, Lesley-Gail Atkinson and the many other helpful staff members at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and Seven Sisters. Thanks to my friends and professors in Ghana, Cote D’Ivoir, and Botswana. Special thanks to Gadzanani, Thato, and Lawrence from the University of Botswana, and Nonofho, Phillip, Grace, and Luke from the Botswana National Museum. Numerous Institutions have funded various phases of this project. The National Science Foundation provided funding for three years of graduate study at the Univerisity of Texas, while fellowships from IIE Fulbright, Mellon Dissertation Research in Original Sources, and Wenner-Gren provided funds for various phases of my fieldwork in Jamaica. The Center for African and African American Studies and the Dean of graduate viii provided summer funds to conduct archival research in Jamaica for my master’s work, as well as partial funding for my semester abroad in Ghana. Colgate University provided me with a dissertation fellowship that allowed me to complete writing this dissertation. I am especially grateful to the good people in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Colgate, particularly my friend and colleague Jackie Brooks who helped me enormously. Thanks also to Mary Moran, Jordan Kerber, Nigel Bolland, and Sally McCarthy for their help, guidance, and mentoring. Last, but certainly not least, I am extremely grateful to my family for allowing me to be me. Through this long journey they have sometimes questioned the rationale of graduate school, but they were consistently supportive. My parents, Cecelia and Hollis have given so much of themselves that I could never repay them. My brother, Davis has never said no to me on the many trips to and from airports as I always seemed to be getting on or off an airplane. I can finally have longer talks with my sisters, Pauline and Jean whenever they wish. My nieces and nephews still do not understand why I only came to visit for short periods, but they always made me glad to go home. They have all been very good to me and for that I am very grateful. Best of all, I am glad to be able to say “look Ma, I’m finally finished with ‘that paper.’” ix Free and Enslaved African Communities in Portland, Jamaica: Daily Life, Resistance, and Kinship, 1780-1834 Publication No. _____________ Paula Veronica Saunders, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2004 Supervisor: Samuel Wilson Africans forcibly brought to the Americas during slavery came from very diverse cultural groups, languages, and geographical regions. African-derived creole cultures that were subsequently created in the Americas resulted from the interaction of various traditional African forms of knowledge and ideology, combined with elements from various Indigenous and European cultural groups and materials. Creating within the context of slavery, these complex set of experiences and choices made by Africans in the Americas resulted in an equally diverse range of fluid and complex relationships between various African-descended groups.
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