Simplicity, Equality, and Slavery

Simplicity, Equality, and Slavery Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series Simplicity, Equality, and Slavery An Archaeology of Quakerism in the British Virgin Islands, 1740–1780 John M. Chenoweth Foreword by Karl Dawson University of Florida Press Gainesville Copyright 2017 by John M. Chenoweth All rights reserved All images are created by the author from original materials or materials in the public domain, unless otherwise noted. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper This book may be available in an electronic edition. 22 21 20 19 18 17 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Chenoweth, John M., author. Title: Simplicity, equality, and slavery : an archaeology of Quakerism in the British Virgin Islands, 1740–1780 / John M. Chenoweth. Other titles: Ripley P. Bullen series. Description: Gainesville : University of Florida Press, 2017. | Series: Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016049595 | ISBN 9781683400110 (cloth) Subjects: LCSH: Quakers—British Virgin Islands—History—18th century. | Slavery—British Virgin Islands—History—18th century. | Plantation life—British Virgin Islands—History—18th century. | Religion and sociology—British Virgin Islands—History—18th century. | Archaeology and history—British Virgin Islands. | Material culture—British Virgin Islands—History—18th century. | British Virgin Islands—Antiquities. | British Virgin Islands—Religious life and customs. Classification: LCC BX7666.B68 C47 2017 | DDC 289.6/729725—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049595 University of Florida Press 15 Northwest 15th Street Gainesville, FL 32611-2079 http://upress.ufl.edu Dedicated to the people of the British Virgin Islands whose history this is and in memory of RMC Jr. Contents List of Figures viii List of Tables x Foreword xi Acknowledgments xv List of Abbreviations for Archival Sources xvii 1. Introduction: “In the Bowels of Our Lord” 1 2. Contexts: The History and Archaeology of the British Virgin Islands and Their Meeting 23 3. “Two Plantations” on the Plantation: Simplicity, Wealth, and Status 68 4. “Furnished with Convenience for a Meeting House”: Simplicity and Meetinghouses 88 5. Peace and Weaponry on BVI Quaker Sites 109 6. Discipline, Community, and Conformity 130 7. Equality, Race, and Slavery in BVI Communities 151 8. Reconsidering Simplicity, Equality, Peace, and the End of the Meeting 174 Appendix A. Statistical Tables for the British Virgin Islands in 1815 and 1823 195 Appendix B. Artifacts from Excavated Contexts 211 Notes 219 Works Cited 223 Index 237 Figures 1.1. Map of the Caribbean with Virgin Islands indicated 3 1.2. Map of the British Virgin Islands 4 2.1. View of Road Town, Tortola 24 2.2. Tortola’s west end 31 2.3. North coast of Little Jost van Dyke 42 2.4. Large boulders on Little Jost van Dyke 42 2.5. Woodcut of abandoned Lettsom house on Little Jost van Dyke 49 2.6. Map of main eighteenth-century occupation area, Little Jost van Dyke 55 2.7. Main staircase and southeast wall of Lettsom house 56 2.8. Rear wall of Lettsom house 57 2.9. Fieldstone grave near Lettsom house 58 2.10. Possible mortar-floored storage structure revealed by excavation 59 2.11. View of Area E, location of homes of enslaved people 61 2.12. Map of features and excavations at enslaved peoples’ village 62 2.13. Massive boulders forming low cave 64 2.14. Main staircase of ruined plantation house on Norman Island 65 2.15. Map showing Phase I and later elements of ruined plantation house 66 3.1. Map of field terracing on Little Jost van Dyke 73 3.2. Example of terracing, Little Jost van Dyke 73 3.3. North coast of Tortola, view from Lettsom house 77 3.4. Oblique view of unit A1 84 3.5. Plan view of unit A2 85 4.1. Plans for meetinghouse, St. Croix, 1779 89 4.2. Engraving showing ruins of Fat Hogs Bay meetinghouse, 1844 93 4.3. Fat Hogs Bay meetinghouse walls 95 4.4. Map of ruins of Fat Hogs Bay meetinghouse 96 4.5. Fieldstone grave with bricks near meetinghouse 97 4.6. Rounded brick graves from burial ground on Tortola 98 4.7. Mapping Structure H 103 5.1. Gun spalls and flint fragment 112 5.2. Copper-alloy musket butt plate 113 5.3. Gun loop from non-Quaker site on Norman Island 116 5.4. Gun loop in structure on Guana Island 117 5.5. One of the “Quaker Guns” of Guana Island 119 7.1. Viewshed analysis of Lettsom house 157 7.2. Viewshed analysis of enslaved Africans’ village 159 Figures ix Tables 2.1. Places of birth for heads of household listed in the 1717 census of Tortola 36 3.1. Data on Little Jost van Dyke abstracted from an 1826 parliamentary report 70 4.1. Offenses and disownments recorded in Tortola Monthly Meeting minutes 106 A.1. Land use in the British Virgin Islands in 1815, by island 196 A.2. Land use in the British Virgin Islands in 1823, by island 199 A.3. Livestock and population in the British Virgin Islands in 1815, by island 202 A.4. Livestock and population in the British Virgin Islands in 1823, by island 204 A.5. Productivity and exports in the British Virgin Islands in 1815, by island 206 A.6. Productivity and exports in the British Virgin Islands in 1823, by island 208 B.1. Shellfish remains recovered 212 B.2. Animal bones recovered 214 B.3. Ceramics recovered 216 B.4. Glass recovered 217 Foreword I am a practicing Christian. I am a native of the British Virgin Islands. I am of African descent and a descendant of the previously enslaved people in the British Virgin Islands. I am a researcher. Aside from my practice of self-exposure to give insight to readers of possible bias, the preceding statement indicates how I am connected to this work by John Chenoweth on several levels. I believe that as a reader you too will find a point of contact. Indeed, I believe that this book will find among its readership persons who may be drawn to it based on a single association among those I have outlined or by multiple connections, some even beyond those mentioned. Our view into the past is never complete, but various arms of history con- tribute to the clarification of what took place in years gone by. Various re- searchers interested in understanding the past may utilize different means. Documents are a significant source of insight but often represent significant bias from the point of view of the writer. Minutes of a meeting may reflect only those portions that individuals wished to be recorded, while accounts in a letter may have a goal of convincing the reader of a particular view, hence this may be reflected in what is written. Writers often present their “best self” or the best version of their group, thereby impacting their validity. Archae- ology offers an approach that has significantly less human bias, as it exam- ines the physical artifacts that may reveal occurrences contradicting popular stories. Chenoweth does an excellent job of explaining the archaeological approach, as he presents his findings in a way that makes it very accessible to a new reader in the field. As he guides the reader, he not only makes the case for what archaeology can reveal but also offers words of caution where archaeological findings leave gaps in our full understanding of the past. The work is also made accessible by the intriguing story that envelops the studied site. The Lettsom family is traced, including those with whom they were affiliated and their famous offspring, Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, founder of the Medi- cal Society of London. This work focuses on the Lettsom family on Little Jost Van Dyke but also considers their fellow planters and the enslaved Africans among them. Here again the reduced bias of the archaeological approach is beneficial, as those writing in those times would likely have had a particular perspective on the enslaved persons, resulting in a view that aspects of their daily lives were not worth recording. Physical evidence at an archaeological site does not dis- criminate, and the researcher is expected to take all evidence into account to determine what happened in the lives of persons in the period under investigation. Chenoweth’s current work gives due attention to the enslaved persons although the investigation focuses primarily on the lives of the Lettsom family. The first part of the book’s title, “Simplicity, Equality, and Slavery,” immedi- ately illuminates what could be categorized as one of the book’s themes: contra- diction. The Religious Society of Friends, popularly called Quakers, have often been portrayed in history as embodying values such as equality and pacifism. Yet part of what comes to light in this study is that the seemingly incongru- ous value of equality and the practice of slavery appear to have existed side by side in the Quaker community of the British Virgin Islands. Such dissonance between what is preached and what is practiced is certainly not unique to this particular religious group at that time or in that place but is exposed in large part by the archaeological method in this study. Quakers have a particular place in world history given their prominence in challenging popular sentiments, such as when they worked against African slavery in the Americas in the nineteenth century. Persons educated in the British Virgin Islands are all too familiar with the credit given to members of the Reli- gious Society of Friends, particularly Samuel and Mary Nottingham, for releas- ing the persons they enslaved and bequeathing their property to them, suppos- edly based on Quaker principles.

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