The Silenced Slavery

A collaboration undertaken by the University of Liverpool (Dr Beatriz Marín-Aguilera), the National Museum of Antigua and Barbuda (Dr Reg Murphy) and the Kalinagos (Kalinago Territory, Dominica) which aims at transforming the way in which Indigenous Caribbean history is written and told.

About the project

This project explores the material practices of slavery and captivity negotiated at the cultural interface of Indigenous and European societies in the colonial Caribbean by bringing the agency of First Nations to the forefront.

Over ca. 12 million Africans were enslaved and taken to America, the highest number of slaves reaching the continent. Still, Native Americans were first invaded, deprived of their resources, forcedly displaced, and between 2.5-5 million of them enslaved. Rebellions among African and Indigenous slaves were common and have been largely studied, but the indigenous retaliation practice of taking British, French, and Spanish colonists, together with African and Indigenous slaves as captives is significantly understudied, despite having been crucial in disrupting imperial policies and in shaping late African and Maroon rebellions.

The project focuses on the Lesser Antilles, where the Kalinagos (‘Caribs’ in colonial sources) led the first sustained anti-colonial and anti-slavery fight against the most important European imperial powers in the Americas. This research charts the slavery and massacres of Kalinago communities by Europeans, but also—working with Kalinago communities today—the project brings to the fore the agency of the Kalinago in disrupting imperial policies between the 15th and 18th centuries by fleshing out the material remains of captivity, slavery, war, and resistance, reinscribing the silences, and challenging the colonial archive.

Methodology

The project juxtaposes archaeological fieldwork with archival research, ethnohistory, the study of museum collections, and oral testimonies of descendant communities.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is co-led with my colleague Dr Reg Murphy (Secretary-General for the National Commission UNESCO Antigua and Barbuda) and mostly focuses on Antigua, the bridge between the Taíno culture coming from the Greater Antilles and the Cayo/Kalinago and Suazan cultures originated in the southern Lesser Antilles. Our project responds to local and regional demands for 'Indigenising' local history, and thus involves local researchers, schools, and communities.

Archaeological background

Wadadli and Wa'omoni (Antigua and Barbuda), together with Alliouagana (Montserrat), were not influenced by the Chican Ostionoid/Taíno culture coming from the Greater Antilles nor by the Cayo and Suazan cultures originated in the southern Lesser Antilles. Inhabited for millennia and always connected to both the Greater and the Lesser Antilles, Wadadli, Wa'omoni, and Alliouagana display in the late Post-Saladoid period a distinct material culture separated from the rest of the Caribbean Islands. Why? Were they inhabited by the same Indigenous group? What were the dynamics at place? Further, despite the abundance of resources that continuously attracted communities throughout the Ceramic Age, only a few sites seem to have survived post-1200 —Indian Creek and Freeman's Bay in Wadadli and, potentially, Indian Town Trail in Wa'omoni. Why? Ceramics dating to this recent period are coarser and sometimes left unfinished, as if made in a rush. The combination of fewer sites and coarser material culture points to different social and economic transformations within Indigenous societies right before the arrival of Europeans to the region. What was happening on Wadadli between AD 1200 and 1492? Were Wadadli and Wa'omoni abandoned prior to the arrival of the Europeans? What are the remains—if any, of Indigenous communities after the European invasion and colonisation of the Caribbean?

Challenges

Until recently, Wadadli's Indigenous past has been the best archaeologically studied of the Lesser Antilles with the most completed carbon-dated chronology, thanks to the pioneering work of Prof. Hoffman at Mill Reef, Prof. Rouse and his team at Indian Creek and Freeman's Bay, and in the 1990s, Prof. Davis and Dr Murphy. Contrary to other islands, no new excavations or systematic studies have taken place on the island in the past twenty years, despite critical coastal erosion due to climate change and the exponential rise in all-inclusive resorts development that have already destroyed many Indigenous sites.

Fieldwork and archaeological research aims

1. Systematic mapping of the most recent Indigenous sites on Wadadli,
2. Update and generate new radiocarbon dates for the latest Indigenous occupation of both Wadadli and Wa'omoni,
3. (Re)study Indigenous ceramic and basketry craft practices, and (4) analyse Indigenous diet and health prior to the arrival of Europeans.

Oral storytelling

Oral traditional storytelling is crucial among the Kalinago communities (and among most First Nations) to pass down ancestral knowledge and cultural values. 'The Silenced Slavery' brings Dominica Kalinagos' storytelling to the fore and weaves it with historical and archaeological evidence to provide a deeper understanding of Kalinago's enslavement and agency in the colonial Caribbean, and a meaningful account of Kalinagos' history and experiences in the region since the late 13th century till today.

Museum collections

Beyond systematic survey, revisiting Caribbean museum collections is pivotal to understand the period between AD 1200 and 1700 in the Lesser Antilles. This includes (re)studying the collections from the Leeward and Winward Islands held at the Yale Peabody Museum in the US, the British Museum and the World Museum in the UK, and the Musée du quai Branly in France.

Ethnohistory & Archives

The project includes the literature review of Spanish, British, and French chroniclers, missionaries, and travellers to and across the Caribbean (ethnohistory), as well as new archival research in

• Spain: Archivo General de Indias, Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza and Real Academia de la Historia;
• UK: The National Archives, British Library, Maritime Museum (National Museums Liverpool), and the Liverpool Record Office;
• France: Archives nationales d'outre-mer.

Outputs & Outcomes

Research publications

Forthcoming

Exhibition

Co-creation with Kalinago communities in the Caribbean, Caribbean Indigenous descendants in the UK, and curators and educators at the International Slavery Museum of a new section of the permanent exhibition at the International Slavery Museum (NML) on the slavery of Indigenous peoples in the Caribbean. This includes Kalinagos' visit to the Caribbean collections held at the British Museum and at the World Museum in Liverpool and a series of workshops to discuss ethical and good practices when holding and researching Indigenous collections, new anticolonial narratives on both sides of the Atlantic, and potential repatriation of ancestral objects to Kalinago communities.

Learning & Educational Resources

Based on archaeological and historical research and Kalinago's oral traditional storytelling, and supported by the Learning & Participation team at the ISM and the CIE at Liverpool University, the project includes the co-creation of educational resources and school materials available for teaching the Indigenous history of the Caribbean in the Caribbean and in the UK.

Website

Co-creation of a collaborative website that brings together state-of-the-art archaeological and historical research on the Indigenous Caribbean and Kalinago's oral traditional storytelling, ancestral knowledge and craft practices to promote sustainable tourism to Kalinago territories across the Caribbean, and thus social and economic opportunities for Kalinago communities.

Funding & Support:

• Derby Fellowship Annual Allocation Fund, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Liverpool,
• The Birgit Faber Morse and Benjamin Irving Rouse Grant-in-Aid Program of Yale Peabody Museum, Yale University, US.