Archaeology in Dominica begins with a question: How did the introduction of plantation sugar cultivation after Britain formally colonized Dominica in 1763 transform everyday economic realities and ecological practices (2)? Over the course of nine chapters, the thirteen contributors to this volume explore this question through an interdisciplinary study of Morne Patate, once a plantation estate in southwestern Dominica. Using qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze archaeological and archival evidence, the contributors reconstruct an interdisciplinary history of the estate across several centuries.
Following European conquest of the Antilles, Dominica was initially declared a “neutral” island, technically not under the rule of any imperial power. However, it was a “de facto dependency of Martinique,” drawn into illicit inter-island trade with neighboring islands in violation of mercantilist policies (12). During this era, Dominica’s heterogeneous population included the indigenous, Kalingo, enslaved runaways, free people of color, and settlers arriving from the francophone Caribbean....