foodways of enslaved laborers on french west indian plantations (18th-19th century)

Afriques05 (2014)Manger et boire en Afrique avant le XXe siècle

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Kenneth G. Kelly et Diane Wallman

Foodways of Enslaved Laborerson French West Indian Plantations(18th-19th century)................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Référence électroniqueKenneth G. Kelly et Diane Wallman, « Foodways of Enslaved Laborers on French West Indian Plantations(18th-19th century) », Afriques [En ligne], 05 | 2014, mis en ligne le 22 décembre 2014, consulté le 29 décembre2014. URL : http://afriques.revues.org/1608 ; DOI : 10.4000/afriques.1608

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Foodways of Enslaved Laborers on French West Indian Plantations (18th-19th century) 2

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Kenneth G. Kelly et Diane Wallman

Foodways of Enslaved Laborers on FrenchWest Indian Plantations (18th-19th century)

1 The villages where enslaved people lived and died on Caribbean plantations, the rues Cases-Nègres, are an integral part of the Caribbean experience. Within these plantation settlements,enslaved Africans and their descendants were compelled to create a system of foodways thatprovided sufficient nutrition for their survival and that could be assembled out of the resourcesavailable to them. Without the labor of these enslaved communities, the sugar and othertropical products that fueled the Industrial Revolution and the way it transformed the worldwould not have been produced. These village sites, the locus of the origin of the Caribbean“peasantry”, retained their importance after the end of slavery as the places in which creolecultures were created and continued to develop.1 The ability of the enslaved plantation workersto formulate a system of subsistence within these communities is a testament to their creativity,and the cuisine they developed lives on today in the creole foods of the former slave colonies.It is in these villages that the creativity, resilience, and resistance of African-descended peoplewere manifest. The foods, the methods of their procurement, the methods of preparation, andthe artifacts used in that preparation consist of a blend of African, European, and Americaninfluences, reflecting environment, cultural heritage, and economics. This makes it all themore surprising that locations of such cultural importance as these have not been the subjectof more actual, grounded research.

2 Archaeological investigations of the sites of this cultural creativity have only a short history,with the first studies in the 1970s and 1980s in Jamaica, and later in Montserrat, Barbados,Tobago, and the Bahamas.2 By the early 2000s, slave village research had been explored in anumber of Caribbean settings, and the results of this archaeological research demonstrated therole archaeology could serve in understanding the processes of creolization and adaptation asthey played out in the context of plantation slavery.3 However, archaeological investigationsof slave subsistence and food production within the Caribbean remains a developing fieldof research, having lagged behind slave village investigations in general. In particular, theresearch that has been conducted has focused almost exclusively on the British West Indies.4

Surprisingly, the major gap in the archaeological investigation of plantation foodways inthe Caribbean at the dawn of the new millennium is in the regions that are most closelyidentified with the term “creole”—the islands of the French West Indies. These islands, settledinitially by European colonists in the 1630s, became the home of significant numbers ofenslaved Africans by the last third of the 17th century and grew to maintain considerablepopulations of captive laborers by the late 18th century. The present-day French départementsof Guadeloupe and Martinique were home to the greatest numbers of enslaved Africans inthe Lesser Antilles and were third after St Domingue and Jamaica in the size of their captivepopulations and their economic importance. In 2001, Kelly began an archaeological projectto investigate the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendants in Guadeloupe, andthen Martinique, through the identification and excavation of sugar plantation slave villagesites, to explore their daily lives including their housing, material culture, and foodways.5 Thiswork complemented the excellent bioarchaeological work already underway in Guadeloupeby Courtaud and Romon,6 and the detailed industrial archaeological research coordinated byDanielle Bégotat of the Université Antilles-Guyane.7

3 A comprehensive understanding of the daily lived experiences of enslaved people requiresthe recovery of data that inform on those activities. As we know, enslaved people wererarely able to record their experiences in written form for us to read today, and those whodid document the daily lives of slaves, such as planters or travelers, were rarely unbiased,sympathetic, or nuanced observers of those lives. Furthermore, when the lives of the slaveswere documented, it was rarely the more mundane aspects of those lives, such as the behaviors


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associated with foodways, which were described by observers. This means that vast numbersof people, struggling against considerable odds, who created cultures and developed strategiesthat enabled their survival and that endure in the creole foods of the region, have largely beenrelegated to the footnotes of history, in spite of the lasting contribution of those cultures tomodern society. This status of marginalization due to the silences of history can be overturnedthrough the contribution of archaeological research to reveal the otherwise obscured heritageof African and African-descended culinary creativity. Archaeological survey in Guadeloupedemonstrated that the locations where this activity occurred on the plantations, the rues Cases-Nègres, could be identified, and excavations there would shed light on the past experiences,including the foodways, of these captives. Subsequent testing of some of those sites hasdemonstrated that faunal remains could be recovered in addition to the more commonlyrecovered ceramics, thereby contributing to more complex interpretations of foodways. Sincethat initial survey, slave village sites have been identified in a number of locations inGuadeloupe as well as in Martinique, and several have been subjected to archaeologicalinvestigation by using a variety of techniques.

4 Slave village archaeology studying the lives of enslaved people in the French West Indiesdemonstrates some of the commonalities of plantation slavery during the 17th, 18th and19th centuries, and also some of the distinctions that characterize specific colonies and theirhistorical trajectories. Research into slave foodways, in particular, reveals aspects of life thatslaves within the French West Indies shared with those in other Caribbean colonies. Generally,academic studies of slave subsistence investigate systems of food procurement, processing/preparation, distribution, preservation, consumption, and discard; this complex of ideashas been defined in the anthropological literature as foodways or cuisine. Anthropologists,however, also explore the historical development and manifestation of food practices toexamine the meaning and significance of foodways to cultures, communities, and individuals.8

Much historical, folklore, and anthropological work has focused on slave foodways andnutrition and indicates that throughout the Caribbean, slaves generally suffered from someaspects of malnutrition, experienced higher disease loads than many other contemporarygroups of people, and also experienced higher mortality, lower fertility, and shorter lives thanmany of their counterparts. Anthropological and historical interest in the meaning and culturalsignificance of food, however, has allowed for more nuanced discourse within research ofCaribbean ‘creole’ foodways. This research investigates both the active role of slaves informulating culturally meaningful systems of subsistence and the persistence of food as asymbol of struggle and resistance.9 Slave diets were in need of supplementation. Althoughthe Code Noir and other laws stipulated that slaves were to be accorded certain standards ofprovisioning, the reality was that they frequently were obliged to obtain wild food resourceson their own, through trapping, collecting, and other means of obtaining supplemental foods,to make up the shortfalls in their rations. It is these strategies developed by the enslavedcommunities that reveal the creativity and persistence of enslaved individuals, and the originsof African-Caribbean cuisine.

5 These expressions of cultural adaptations that are broadly similar throughout the Caribbeanare one facet of slavery that slave village archaeology reveals to us. However, thespecific historical trajectories of individual colonies are also significant and have importantramifications for the experiences of enslavement in particular colonies. Guadeloupe andMartinique present ideal laboratories for the exploration of the consequences of colonialcultures, changes in colonial administrations, and the impact of specific historical events onthe lived experience of enslaved people who dwelt in the rues Cases-Nègres. Archaeologyof the foodways of enslaved laborers in Guadeloupe and Martinique provides a view of theconditions of slavery in the colonial context of the most important 18th century Caribbeaneconomic power—France. Prior to the last decade, virtually all Caribbean slave archaeologyhad been conducted either in former British colonies or on islands that were never majorcenters of slave-based agriculture, such as St. Eustatius or Curaçao. We know that French,British, Spanish, Dutch, and other colonies were different in many ways (food, architecture,


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etc.) because of the national cultures that established them, so why should we not expect thatthe conditions of slavery might be different in these various settings?

6 In order to explore the food systems created by the people living in the rues Cases-Nègres ofthe French West Indies and how those conditions changed over nearly 200 years of slaveryand emancipation, we draw primarily upon archaeological data from two excavations directedby Kelly: Habitation La Mahaudière, Guadeloupe; and Habitation Crève-Cœur, Martinique(Figure 1).We also draw upon ethnohistorical and historical documents that address slavesubsistence within the French West Indies.Figure 1: Map of Guadeloupe and Martinique, with location of Habitation La Mahaudière onGrande Terre, and Habitation Crève-Cœur on Martinique’s southern peninsula

Image used with online permission from University of Texas Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas.html.

7 At the two village sites excavated, there are some broad structuring principles that are generallyfollowed. The villages are located in settings that are close to the economic center of theplantation, minimizing travel time to fields and works. They are also located down-wind fromthe planter’s house, so that the smells of a rue Cases-Nègres of more than 100 people wouldbe blown away and not trouble the planter’s sensibilities. These are patterns that are widelyseen across the Caribbean, and it is within these spaces that enslaved communities developedfood practices and traditions that archaeology can help to reveal.10

8 The archaeological consideration of enslaved foodways requires a broad technique thatincludes archaeology not only in the houses occupied by enslaved workers but also in theexterior spaces surrounding the houses. It has been repeatedly identified archaeologically andethnohistorically that enslaved people on plantations lived their lives in a range of spaces thathave been grouped together and called the Afro-Caribbean ‘house yard’.11 As an analyticalframework, the house yard concept has shifted the focus of investigation from concentratingsolely on the space confined within the houses of the enslaved to the areas surrounding thestructure. This is based on the recognition that in the Caribbean, many of the activities of dailylife took place in the outdoor spaces surrounding the house. A number of archaeologists haveused this concept to effectively explore enslaved life in settings from Jamaica (Armstrong),to the Bahamas (Wilkie and Farnsworth), the Virgin Islands (Armstrong), and Montserrat(Pulsipher and Goodwin), where they have identified loci associated with specific behaviorsand activities, such as cooking and tasks, that were generally not conducted inside the house.12

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas.html


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The yard areas were also the location of household- and village-level production, ranging fromthe tending of medicinal and culinary plants, the raising of small animals, and the manufactureof material culture implicated in foodways. These crafts could include pottery manufacture,basketry, building and maintaining fish or crab traps, etc.

9 Despite the limited area surrounding houses delineated by archaeological investigations at LaMahaudière and Crève-Cœur, the slave dwellings and spaces surrounding the cabins withinthe rues Cases-Nègres remained the primary loci for domestic and social activities withinslave communities. Excavations at these sites thus focused on the house and yard deposits ofthe enslaved laborers who worked and lived on the plantations. Archaeological data collectedfrom houses and yards provide some of the most compelling vestiges of slave life, andslave foodways in particular. With these data from Guadeloupe and Martinique, we hope tocontribute to the ongoing discourse regarding the importance of these spaces, and the activitiesthat occurred within them, on the development of Caribbean creole foodways.

10 Historians and anthropologists emphasize yard gardens and, to a lesser extent, provisiongrounds in discussions of slave subsistence.13 The focus on provision grounds and gardensas primary components influencing the formation and maintenance of slave communityfoodways has thus developed into one of the most prevalent research agendas within plantationarchaeology.14 Research throughout the Caribbean demonstrates that while some plantersprovided rations for the enslaved populations, other planters encouraged slaves to garden,procure, and prepare their own food to relieve themselves of the ‘burden’ of having to feed theslaves.15 These scholars contend that subsistence practices such as gardening, raising livestock,hunting, and foraging during prescribed free time were central features of slave communitieson Caribbean plantations. Despite the consensus within this research that foodways were afundamental aspect in the development of slave lifeways and identity, few archaeologicalstudies have explicitly focused on the material evidence of slave diet and cuisine, such asceramics, fauna, and botanical remains. In this article, we aim to deconstruct the historicalperspective of slave subsistence within the French colonial system by integrating primarysources with such archaeological data.

Provisioning in the French West Indies11 Within the French colonial system, from 1685 to the abolition of slavery in 1848, slavery

was regulated by the Code Noir, or Black Code, a charter drafted to protect slaves. Thisproclamation ostensibly mandated a uniform dietary minimum for slaves in all the Frenchcolonies. Specifically, Articles 22–25 of the code dictated that each week planters wouldprovide: “two pots and a half, Paris measure, cassava flour, or three cassava, each weighing2 and 1/2 pounds at least, or the equivalent, with 2 pounds of corned beef, 3 pounds of fishor other things in proportion”.16 In reality, however, the manner in which slaves obtainedsubsistence within French Caribbean colonies differed from plantation to plantation asregulations were difficult to enforce. In the French West Indies, the scale of self-provisioningby enslaved laborers reportedly increased over time; and by emancipation in 1848, slaveswere encouraged to grow and raise their own food, and work-free Saturdays were mostlysubstituted for rations.17 Historical accounts suggest that enslaved laborers in the Caribbeanlikely exploited any such ‘freedoms’ gained within the system, manipulating their free timeon their own terms to improve their welfare and conditions of life.

Observer’s accounts12 Accounts of travelers to and occupants of colonial Caribbean islands offer considerable insight

into the lives of colonialists and enslaved laborers. Historic sources often provide detaileddiscussions of the conditions on plantations, including the operations of the industries, the livesof the planters, and also the treatment and lifeways of the enslaved laborers.18 These journalsand reports focus heavily on the subsistence practices of the colonists, the indigenous Caribpopulations, and the enslaved communities, information which can be critically evaluated andintegrated with archaeological data.


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13 The works of Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre and Père Labat remain the most well-known accountsof early colonial life in the French Antilles. Du Tertre painstakingly detailed both the naturaland cultural history of the Caribbean islands he visited.19 While living in Martinique andGuadeloupe, Père Labat maintained excellent records of his experiences and developedtechniques and standards for sugar agriculture.20 During this time, he recorded much withregard to slave life and treatment on habitations, and he focused particular attention on thesubsistence practices on plantations in the French West Indies. These sources provide insightinto early colonial life in the French Caribbean, detailing practices that were both maintainedand modified throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.

14 In the 17th century, Du Tertre observed that many plantations relied significantly on rationingsystems during the early colonial period, but that many planters were beginning to applythe ‘Brazilian’ model of allowing the slaves to grow and raise some of their own foodstuffson household and provision gardens.21 He noted that even in the 17th century, slaves werecultivating peas, potatoes, manioc, yams, and various fruit and herbs, while also raisingpoultry.22 Du Tertre further asserts, however, that many planters wanted to abolish this practiceas it gave too much freedom to the enslaved laborers and did not provide sufficient nutrition forall slaves.23 Approximately 50 years later, Labat observed that slave nutrition was very poor (afact confirmed by bioarchaeological research)24 and largely dependent on rations, which werenot sufficient.25 In Martinique, he noted that the slaves often supplemented rations with roots,vegetables, and fruits from their gardens.26 In addition, he observed that slaves raised poultryand livestock, particularly pigs, but only slaughtered these on special occasions or holidays,or took them to trade or sell at local markets.

15 The early accounts of Du Tertre and Labat offer valuable insight into the early development ofslave foodways in the French West Indies, revealing that the early colonial period was a periodof adjustment for both the planters and the enslaved Africans forced from their homeland.Their chronicles depict some variation between islands and plantations with regard to systemsof alimentation for enslaved populations, and they indicate that the early colonial enslavedlaborers maintained some control over their subsistence. These representations, however,might not be directly relevant to the fluorescence of slavery, which occurred from the end of the17th through to the middle of the 19th centuries. We therefore address three additional accounts,those of Jean-Baptiste Thibault de Chanvalon, Alexandre Soleau, and Victor Schoelcher.

16 Born in Martinique, Thibault de Chanvalon became a government official and detailed hisobservations of cultural and natural history of the island in a report published in 1763. Thibaultde Chanvalon thoroughly describes the fauna and flora of the island, with particular attentionto those used for subsistence, but he also focuses on the lifeways and treatment of the enslavedon the island. With regard to foodways, he suggests that many planters provided few if anyrations for their slaves, noting “ils sont obligés de la chercher ailleurs”.27 He observed thatmany of the enslaved laborers in Martinique were obliged to procure subsistence resourcesduring their free time and harvested manioc, bananas, and potatoes (Figure 2). His observationsalso suggest that the slaves depended on livestock as well as wild resources available, such ascrustaceans, which he argued offered “de grandes ressources” for subsistence.28


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Figure 2: Fabrication de la farine de manioc, Guadeloupe (1899-1900)

Photo: Paul Drilhon (Image used with online permission from ANOM http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr). © / ANOM / 2005 / sous réserve des droits réservés aux auteurs ou ayants droit non identifiés.

17 As both La Mahaudière and Crève-Cœur operated during the peak of plantation slavery inthe French West Indies, from the late 18th century through to abolition in 1848, more recentaccounts from the 19th century provide ideal sources for examining slave life during theirperiods of occupation. In particular, Alexandre Soleau, who traveled to the French WestIndies during the early 19th century and abolitionist Victor Schoelcher, writing in 1842,offer insights into the development of slave foodways in the later colonial period. In hisaccount from 1835, Soleau depicts flourishing internal market systems on both Martiniqueand Guadeloupe. His observations suggest that not only have the enslaved populations onthe islands developed systems of foodways sustaining household and community needs, butthat slaves were producing surplus foodstuffs to sell and trade at market. Specifically, Soleaunoted the production and distribution of manioc flour, potatoes, yams, and poultry by slaveson Guadeloupe and Martinique.29

18 Further corroborating the development of these autonomous practices, Schoelcher suggeststhat slaves in the French West Indies produced and sold produce and livestock within internalmarketing systems.30 Citing an ordinance from 1786 requiring planters to distribute plotsallowing every slave to cultivate crops, Schoelcher observed that the gardens were the principlesource of well-being for the enslaved laborers in the French West Indies.31 In addition,Schoelcher notes that the slaves raised poultry, pigs, cows, and horses on their own time.32

Both Soleau’s and Schoelcher’s observations reveal that the enslaved laborers in the FrenchCaribbean developed creative and successful systems of foodways, despite their enslavement,allowing for the formation of an active internal marketing system and setting the foundationfor shared ‘creole’ foodways traditions (Figure 3).

http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr



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Figure 3: Marché en plein air, Martinique, 1902-1907

Photo: Camille Le Camus (Image used with online permission from ANOM http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr). © / ANOM / 2005 / sous réserve des droits réservés aux auteurs ou ayants droit non identifiés.

19 Based on these primary sources, historians have examined slave foodways in the West Indies,often focusing on the development of food systems over time and the ‘management’ of slaveprovisioning by planters. Debien, for example, argues that there was a progression within theFrench West Indies from the 18th through the 19th century.33 He suggests that during the initialrise of the plantation system and throughout the majority of the 18th century, slave subsistencewas dominated by the distribution of rations by planters. Under this system, enslaved laborerswere given a weekly ration of a mix of starches, proteins, and vegetables, mostly manioc flour,and salted beef, fish, or turtle. By the end of the 18th century, the planters preferred to giveSundays to the slaves to garden, and free Saturdays were also common. According to Debien,the 19th century gave rise to a significant increase in self-reliance for slave communities in theFrench Antilles. Throughout the 19th century, the communal gardens constituted almost all ofthe essential nutrition for the slaves. By emancipation, he suggests that there was a mélangeof communal gardens, yard gardens, and rations.

20 Debien’s exploration of the historical record with regard to slave alimentation provides athorough overview of the laws and first-hand accounts relating to subsistence. His research,however, focuses mainly on the island of St. Domingue and provides limited insight intothe diversity of food systems within the French Antilles. In general, ethnohistorical sourcesand primary accounts from the colonial period are rare, and those available offer only asmall sample of the realities of slave lifeways as they undoubtedly varied significantly fromisland to island and plantation to plantation. Furthermore, the primary accounts come fromhighly biased colonial European perspectives and not from the slaves themselves. Archaeologyprovides a means to gain insight into the variable and localized nature of lifeways on Caribbeanplantations. Often, the material recovered from archaeological research is some of the onlydirect evidence of the lifeways of enslaved laborers and how these lifeways varied based oncolonial regime, island, and plantation within the Caribbean. We therefore focus the remainderof the paper on the archaeological evidence of slave foodways recovered from two sites inthe French West Indies: La Mahaudière in Guadeloupe and Crève-Cœur in Martinique. Weuse archaeological data to supplement, but also to question the historical perception of slavefoodways.




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Zooarchaeology21 Zooarchaeology examines faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites to investigate

systems of food procurement, production, consumption, and discard. The analysis of faunalremains from plantation contexts examines the struggles, responses, and adjustments ofslave communities within novel social and natural environment, specifically investigating thematerial traces of the creative dietary practices formulated by the enslaved laborers. In recentyears, investigations of subsistence contexts on plantations have seen the development of awide range of approaches.

22 Early zooarchaeological studies of plantation foodways addressed issues of slave subsistence,often focusing on the acquisition of supplemental fauna by slaves or examining the dietarydifferences between the different plantation ‘ethnicities’ or ‘status’.34 As anthropologists viewfoodways as evocative of identity and culture, zooarchaeologists working in the AfricanDiaspora frequently interpret faunal materials through the framework of ‘creolization’,assessing how enslaved communities created an African-American or Afro-Caribbean,‘Creole’, subsistence pattern.35 Critics argue that studies of ‘Creole’ identities focus onhow foodways articulate with African traditions or contribute to a singular pan-African-American or Afro-Caribbean ‘ethnicity’—thereby overlooking the historical particularitiesand complexities involved in the production of an African-American or Afro-Caribbeanidentity—or disregard how enslaved individuals and communities actively negotiated theirown identity.36

23 Current research in plantation foodways examines how slave communities actively negotiatedtheir survival and coped with the cruelties of slavery by creating a unique system of foodwaysusing self-sufficiency, creativity, and careful strategizing.37 While our research examines howfood systems reveal the deliberate incorporation of European, African, and native Caribbeantraditions into slave foodways, our work also contributes to an interrogation of the notionof a singular pan-Caribbean ‘Creole’ identity. As discussed previously, enslaved laborerson different islands and plantations likely adjusted to their conditions in numerous ways,creating a great diversity of cultural strategies to overcome their situation. We therefore focuson historically particular, local manifestations of subsistence and lifeways, exploring howslave communities in Martinique and Guadeloupe creatively navigated the social and naturallandscapes of plantation life.

24 The analysis of faunal remains from plantation contexts examines the struggles, responses, andadjustments of slave communities within novel social and natural environments, specificallyinvestigating the material traces of the creative dietary practices formulated by the enslavedlaborers. The objectives of the zooarchaeological analysis of food bone remains includeevaluation of: 1) the fauna consumed, and the production or acquisition methods and sites;and 2) the methods of production, preparation, and distribution of faunal resources acrossthe community. The evaluation of these data provide insight into where, how, and why theslave community acquired specific subsistence resources and also into how the resourceswere utilized and allocated within the community. In combination, the faunal, material, andhistorical data can delineate the social, physical, and environmental constraints and variablesinfluencing slave subsistence practices and reveal the development of community social andeconomic organization and identity. Detailed zooarchaeological analyses were completedon the archaeological faunal assemblages from the sites of Habitation La Mahaudière onGuadeloupe and Habitation Crève-Cœur on Martinique. Results of the faunal analyses fromthese slave village sites indicate that domestic mammals were an important part of the dietof the slave communities in the French Antilles, but that households also actively exploited adiverse array of natural resources available on the island for subsistence.

Zooarchaeology at La Mahaudière25 Faunal analyses completed on the assemblage from Habitation La Mahaudière, Guadeloupe

by Peggy Brunache reveal that the enslaved laborers consumed a combination of domestic andwild taxa.38 The sample from Guadeloupe, however, includes only remains recovered fromdry-screening; and therefore small animal remains, such as fish, bird, and small mammal, are


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likely to be significantly underrepresented in the assemblage. Despite this bias, the remainsfrom La Mahaudière indicate that the slave community relied on a combination of terrestrialand marine fauna. Brunache identified 93 per cent of the assemblage as marine invertebrates,comprised largely of chiton and clams. Vertebrate remains in the sample from La Mahaudièreinclude mostly domestic pig, cattle, and goat.

26 This analysis suggests that domestic animal consumption increased during the 19th centuryat La Mahaudière, although shellfish were still common within the assemblage. Brunachecontends that the faunal and historical evidence indicate that the diet of the enslavedcommunity at La Mahaudière was dominated by carbohydrates, including sweet potatoes,manioc, and yams, with little protein.39 Marine resources therefore became an alternativesource for protein, and the slave community exploited this easily accessible and procurableresource to supplement their diet.40

Zooarchaeology at Crève-Cœur27 Excavations at six slave household occupation terraces at Habitation Crève-Cœur, Martinique,

recovered over 10,000 specimens of fauna through both dry-screening and water flotation.Excellent preservation conditions allowed for the collection of remains of variable sizesthrough flotation, a process that facilitates the recovery of minute faunal specimens, includingfish, bird, and small mammal remains. Without this method, these small materials are oftenlost through dry-screening, and this technique allows for a more fine-grained analysis ofsubsistence practices, particularly fishing strategies.

28 Initial results of faunal analyses completed at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturellein Paris, France on the remains recovered from Crève-Cœur indicate a highly varied diet.Similar to La Mahaudière, domestic mammals were an important part of the diet of the slavecommunity at the plantation, including cattle, pig, sheep, goat, and chicken, many raisedon-site. The enslaved laborers at Crève-Cœur also procured a diverse array of resourcesavailable on the landscape within and surrounding the plantation, including the trapping ofsmall mammals, such as opossum, agouti, and the exotic mongoose (introduced in the secondhalf of the 19th century).

29 In addition, the slave and later free community harvested a diverse range of aquatic species,including over 30 fish families, sea turtle, land crab, sea urchin, and numerous marine andmangrove shellfish. Common shellfish identified within the deposits include the West-Indiantopshell (Cittarium pica), chitons (Acanthopleura granulata and Chiton marmoratus), andmangrove oysters (Crassostrea rhizophorae). Common fish species recovered at Crève-Cœurinclude many species still commonly prepared in modern-day Martinique. Specifically, theslave community consumed snapper (Family Lutjanidae), grouper (Family Serranidae), balao(Family Hemiramphidae), barracuda (Family Sphyraenidae), and herrings (Family Clupeidae),which all comprise a significant part of current creole cuisine in the French West Indies.All fish species identified inhabit reef, inshore, and mangrove swamp environments, withvery few pelagic, or deep water, species identified, suggesting that they were procured alongthe coast. Both the fish and shellfish taxa consumed demonstrate that the slave communityat Crève-Cœur focused extensively on the exploitation of nearby inshore and reef habitats,located only 1.5 km from the plantation. The material and faunal evidence indicate that theenslaved laborers were procuring fish and shellfish themselves for household consumption onthe plantation. In particular, the relatively small sizes of the fish and the particular speciesidentified within the assemblage suggest that nets were used at inshore locations to obtainfish.41 Furthermore, excavations have located a preponderance of lead fishing weights foundwithin each locus of slave occupation on the site. The faunal and artifactual evidence revealthat inshore net fishing or seining, a practice that continues today, was the preferred method forprocuring fish, as opposed to traveling on boats to acquire pelagic species (Figure 4).The faunalremains demonstrate that the enslaved laborers at Crève-Cœur were reliant on community self-provisioning, allowing for physical, economic, and social interactions beyond the boundariesof the plantation.


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Figure 4: Un coup de seine à Sainte-Marie, Martinique, 1900

Photo: Author anonymous (Image used with online permission from ANOM http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr). © / ANOM / 2005 / sous réserve des droits réservés aux auteurs ouayants droit non identifiés.

30 Observed skeletal part representation indicates that pig, goat, and sheep were locally raised,possibly on-site, as those elements identified to these taxa came from the entire animal. Thegreater relative abundance of lower limb and distal rib beef cuts, on the other hand, indicatethat most of the beef consumed likely originated from barreled imports. A small amount ofequid remains were identified, suggesting that the slaves consumed old or deceased horsesor mules, but only rarely. Based on the preliminary analysis of bird remains from the site,chicken was the principal avian species consumed. Interestingly, however, despite the goodpreservation conditions, few bird skeletal remains were identified in the assemblage, althougheggshells are present throughout the deposits. Based on historical accounts and other faunalassemblages from Caribbean plantation sites, this is unexpected. The sparsity of avian remainscould suggest that chickens were raised mainly for egg-production, possibly traded or sold inthe Afro-Caribbean markets on the island, or reveal differential disposal practices.

31 The zooarchaeological data from both La Mahaudière and Crève-Cœur reveal that slaves inthe French Caribbean employed diverse subsistence strategies to survive the harsh plantationlandscape. In particular, enslaved laborers creatively utilized their free time to supplementrations and diversify their diet, providing protein lacking in an otherwise carbohydrate-rich diet. Many of the strategies developed by these communities included harvesting faunaaround and within close proximity of the plantations, such as small mammals, shellfish, andcrustaceans. These resources would have been readily exploitable by members of the slavecommunities who may have been unable to perform more labor-intensive obligations, such asthe elderly and children. Furthermore, many of the foods consumed at both sites remain a partof current creole cuisine in Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Material culture32 While zooarchaeological data can be the most direct indicator of the contribution of animal

protein to the diet, other aspects of foodways are informed by the range and forms of cookingwares used to prepare and consume food. In Caribbean archaeology, many of these cooking-and consumption-related artifacts are ceramic or metal artifacts that can be recovered fromslave village sites. The study of these artifacts is important in that they can provide clues tothe means of preparation for animal foods also represented by faunal remains; but more than




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that, they can provide information about the technologies used to obtain and prepare foods thatmight otherwise not be represented with archaeologically recovered remains. In spite of thesepossibilities, it is important to remain cognizant that there may be cooking- and, more likely,consumption-related artifacts that are rarely preserved for archaeological recovery, such aswooden vessels or containers crafted from gourds or calabashes.

33 Recognizing the incomplete representation of foodways-related containers in thearchaeological record, we can nonetheless learn a great deal from the vessels that are presentand the strategies employed in their use, acquisition, and discard. In our excavations in theFrench West Indies, we have recovered many of the same kinds of food-related artifactsas have been found elsewhere in the Caribbean, although there are also some differences,both between the French and other colonial contexts, and between the French contexts ofMartinique and Guadeloupe. In many slavery-related sites, it has been recognized that enslavedAfricans were inclined to consume liquid-based diets that emphasized soup- or stew-like foodpreparation.42 While this has sometimes been associated with cultural preferences for foods thatresembled African antecedents, there is also a strong argument that these means of preparationare efficient ways to use a variety of ingredients and to stretch them to feed a larger number ofpeople. Furthermore, food preparation that does not require constant supervision would likelybe advantageous in settings where the individuals preparing the food would also have othertasks to complete at the same time. While these characteristics are found in many Africancuisines, they were also present in many of the foodways of poor and laboring classes inEurope, and in France in particular, up through the 19th century.43

34 Artifacts recovered in slave villages that reflect these foodways include cooking pots of variousmaterials and ceramic serving dishes referred to as hollowwares.44 This category, hollowwares,usually refers to bowls, soup plates, and other dished receptacles, but could also include cups,mugs, and even the repurposed bases of storage jars. At both La Mahaudière and Crève-Cœur, hollowares predominated in the archaeological collections of ceramics. These ceramicsincluded, in the earlier 18th century period of occupation, widely distributed French formssuch as the faïence brune and faïence blanche dished plates, the bowl forms from Albisolain Italy, and the bowl forms from the French Mediterranean coast region, particularly thevalley of the Huveaune near Marseilles. Later, in the 19th century these forms were augmentedwith so-called faïence fine production, the creamwares, pearlwares, and whitewares producedin French and British factories. The source of acquisition of these materials is difficult todetermine with complete accuracy, as some were no doubt reused materials handed down orrecovered from the plantation owners and managers, yet others were certainly purchased byenslaved people in the local markets.45

35 At both Habitation La Mahaudière and Crève-Cœur, food preparation was done in individualhouseholds or groups thereof and not in a centralized kitchen. Preparation of largely liquid-based foods required the use of cooking pots, as opposed to frying pans or roasting spits.On British sites throughout the Caribbean, the artifact most commonly associated withthis form of cooking is the cast-iron cooking pot. These may be supplemented by othervarieties of cooking pot, such as the coarse earthenware yabba pots known from Jamaica.In both the Guadeloupe and Martinique slave village contexts, there is a notable lack ofcast iron cookware. Instead, most cookwares are made of ceramics, including the industriallyproduced glazed coarse earthenware cooking pots known as Vallauris after their region ofmanufacture on the Mediterranean coast of France. These ubiquitous French cooking pots weremanufactured in tremendous numbers in the 18th century, and even more so in the 19th centruy,and exported throughout the French domestic and colonial markets.46 This cultural traditionof cooking in earthenware pots continued in France long after ceramic cookwares had beenreplaced by iron in Britain, and French industrial production reflects that tradition.

36 In the French Caribbean, locally based ceramic industries using skilled potters and large kilnsprincipally focused on the manufacture of sugar wares but also made some culinary waresfor use on the plantations.47 These ceramics are regularly recovered from slave village andother contexts in the French Caribbean and clearly supplemented the sometimes-spotty arrival


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of metropolitan-produced cookware in supply ships.48 The locally manufactured, industriallyproduced culinary wares include bowl forms, used for consumption, and cooking pot formsused in food preparation, as well as storage vessels for food and water.49 In Guadeloupe, wefind that the culinary assemblage consists of the French metropolitan wares (Huveaune, Cox,Vallauris), supplemented with local industrial-scale production of bowls and pots. However,in Martinique, the imported and local ceramics are supplemented with another form, locallycalled coco nèg.

37 Coco nèg is a handmade, low-fired culinary ceramic analogous to the yabba pottery of Jamaicaor the Colonoware pottery of the US Southeast.50 It is manufactured in a limited range of forms,mostly round-bottomed bowls and slightly constricted pots, and appears to have been madeby enslaved potters for local use, although whether within each village or more regionallyremains to be determined. This pottery is manufactured in a generalized ‘African’ tradition,with little or no decoration or embellishment other than small applied handle lugs. In spite ofexcavations at several plantation sites in Guadeloupe, coco nèg have not been recovered inany quantity there, and their distribution appears to be restricted to Martinique, where theirproduction continues to this day.51

38 The presence in Martinique and Guadeloupe of coco nèg, other locally produced ceramicculinary wares, and the metropolitan production of Vallauris, Cox, and the Mediterraneanregion largely takes the place of cast-iron cookware in the French West Indies. It can be arguedthat the continued use of ceramic cookware in the French cultural tradition was something thatresonated with enslaved Africans and their descendants, as African culinary practices revolvedaround cooking and serving in ceramic utensils, particularly before the late 19th century.

Conclusions39 Archaeological study of plantation foodways provides insight into the creativity of enslaved

people in the French West Indies that are otherwise obscure when relying exclusively oncontemporary accounts. Practices seen that are in common with other enslaved African andAfrican-descended groups, such as the reliance on self-sufficiency, are documented throughtraditional texts as well as archaeological data. However, the details of this self-sufficiency,such as the emphasis on trapping, hunting, and gathering wild animal food is revealedthrough archaeological data. Similarly, the development of culinary practices that draw upongeneralized ‘African’ antecedents are well demonstrated through archaeological materials,although archaeological data also demonstrate the presence of distinct local and regionalvariants of foodways. Foodways practices that are not so commonly shared with others inthe African Diaspora include the continued use of ceramic culinary wares to the almostcomplete exclusion of iron cookwares. This practice, apparently associated with elements ofFrench culinary traditions, in relation to the sorts of cookwares available was probably also aconvergence with generalized African preferences for or comfort with ceramic cookwares.

40 Our archaeological data also provide more nuanced interpretations of historical records—for example, chroniclers documented the raising of chickens in slave villages, but our datasuggest that they were not raised for personal consumption but for trade. In addition, fishing isrecognized as an important historical practice, and enslaved fishermen were detailed in someearly accounts; but has received relatively little attention with regard to slave foodways.52

Research remains dominated by explorations of slave yards and gardens and rarely focuseson subsistence practices that occurred outside of plantation boundaries. Our data indicate thatwe need to focus more attention on the role of fishing and shellfish harvesting within slavelifeways.

41 Finally, the coupling of archaeological and historical evidence provides insight into thedevelopments of creole cuisine in the French West Indies. Through investigating these dailypractices, strategies, and decisions made by the enslaved Africans and their descendants,this research enhances anthropological understandings of how individuals and communitiesuse social identity and collective strategizing to negotiate and confront the consequences ofliving in bondage as forced laborers. Early in the colonial period, enslaved laborers likelysupplemented diets by growing crops in small gardens, raising poultry and small livestock, and


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collecting fauna readily available and accessible to those less able to work fulltime in the fieldsor processing cane. Over time, enslaved Africans and their descendants formulated diversestrategies to provide not only sustenance for the community but also a means of obtainingrelative control over their livelihoods and cultural identity. Much of what defines creole‘identity’ was formulated in the yards, gardens, and landscape in and around the plantations,and at the markets at which food and food-related items were traded and sold. In the oppressivecontext of plantation slavery, the acquisition and consumption of food remained one of the fewphenomenon that enslaved laborers could control themselves. Africans and their descendants,despite their enslavement, were able to adjust to this harsh environment by creating subsistencepractices that strategically incorporated the resources available. Through growing crops,raising livestock, harvesting terrestrial and marine fauna, producing cookware, and preparinghousehold meals, enslaved laborers established a foundation of cultural traditions that continuetoday.

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Notes

1 S.W. MINTZ, 1974.2 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1990 (Jamaica); D.V. ARMSTRONG, K.G. KELLY, 2000 (Jamaica); C.O. CLEMENT,1997 (Tobago); T.H. EUBANKS, 1992 (Tobago); P. FARNSWORTH, 1999 (Bahamas); P. FARNSWORTH,2001 (Bahamas); B.W. HIGMAN, 1998 (Jamaica); L.M. PULSIPHER, 1991 (Montseratt); L.M. PULSIPHER,1994 (Monstseratt); L.M. PULSIPHER, C.M. GOODWIN, 2001 (Montseratt); L.A. WILKIE, 1999(Bahamas); L.A. WILKIE, P. FARNSWORTH, 2005 (Bahamas).3 J.A. DELLE, 1994 (St. Eustatius); J.A. DELLE, 1998 (Jamaica); J.A. DELLE, 2009 (Jamaica);H.R. GIBSON, 2007 (Guadeloupe); B.J. HEATH, 1999 (St. Eustatius); K.G. KELLY, 2002 (Guadeloupe);K.G. KELLY, 2011 (Guadeloupe); W.E. KIPPLE, 2001 (Nevis); S. LENIK, 2009 (US Virgin Islands);S. LENIK, 2012 (Dominica); L.A. WILKIE, P. FARNSWORTH, 2005 (Bahamas).4 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1990; B.W. HIGMAN, 1998; W.E. KIPPLE, 2001; L.A. WILKIE, P. FARNSWORTH,2005.5 K.G. KELLY, 2002; K.G. KELLY, 2008; K.G. KELLY, 2011.6 P. COURTAUD et al., 1999; P. COURTAUD, T. ROMON, 2004.7 D. BEGOT, 1991.8 M. DOUGLAS, 1984; P. FARB, G.J. ARMELAGOS, 1980; S.W. MINTZ, C.B. DUBOIS, 2002.9 S.W. MINTZ, 1996; S.W. MINTZ, R. PRICE, 1976.10 D.V. ARMSTRONG, K.G. KELLY, 2000.11 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1991; S.W. MINTZ, 1974; L.M. PULSIPHER, C.M. GOODWIN, 2001; L.A. WILKIE,P. FARNSWORTH, 2005.


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12 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1991; D.V. ARMSTRONG, 2003; L.M. PULSIPHER, C.M. GOODWIN, 2001;L.A. WILKIE, P. FARNSWORTH, 2005.13 C. BENOIT, 2007; B.J. HEATH, A. BENNETT, 2000; S.W. MINTZ, R. PRICE, 1976; L.M. PULSIPHER,1991; D.W. TOMICH, 1991.14 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1990; J. DEETZ, 1995; Y. EDWARDS-INGRAM, 1998; B.J. HEATH, A. BENNETT,2000; B.W. HIGMAN, 1998.15 C. BENOIT, 2007; G. DEBIEN, 1964; S.W. MINTZ, R. PRICE, 1976; L.M. PULSIPHER, 1991;L.M. PULSIPHER, C.M. GOODWIN, 2001; D.W. TOMICH, 1991; D.W. TOMICH, 2004.16 Édit du Roi, 1685.17 G. DEBIEN, 1964; D.W. TOMICH, 1991.18 J.B. DU TERTRE, 1667–1671; J.B. LABAT, 1724; A. SOLEAU, 1835; J.B. THIBAULTDE CHANVALON,1763.19 J.B. DU TERTRE, 1667–1671.20 J.B. LABAT, 1724.21 J.B. DU TERTRE, 1667–1671, p. 516.22 J.B. DU TERTRE, 1667–1671, p. 520.23 J.B. DU TERTRE, 1667–1671, p. 520.24 See P. COURTAUD, T. ROMON, 2004.25 J.B. LABAT, 1724.26 J.B. LABAT, 1724 vol. 2, p. 62.27 J.B. THIBAULTDE CHANVALON, 1763, p. 108.28 J.B. THIBAULTDE CHANVALON, 1763, p. 108.29 A. SOLEAU, 1835, p. 93.30 V. SCHOELCHER, 1842, p. 11.31 V. SCHOELCHER, 1842, p. 11.32 V. SCHOELCHER, 1842, p. 13.33 G. DEBIEN, 1964.34 R. ASCHER, C.H. FAIRBANKS, 1971; J. BOWEN, M. JARVIS, 1994; D.C. CRADER, 1990; J. DEETZ,1995; J.S. OTTO, 1984; E.J. REITZ et al., 1985; A.E. YENTSCH, 1994.35 D.V. ARMSTRONG, 1990; L.G. FERGUSON, 1992; M. FRANKLIN, 2001; L. MCKEE, 1999; L.A. WILKIE,P. FARNSWORTH, 2005.36 S. PALMIE, 2006; G.F. SCHROEDL, T.M. AHLMAN, 2002; K.A. YELVINGTON, 2001.37 S.A. MROZOWISKI et al., 2008; E.M. SCOTT, 2001; A.L. YOUNG, 1997; A.L. YOUNG et al., 2001.38 P.L. BRUNACHE, 2011.39 P.L. BRUNACHE, 2011, p. 251.40 P.L. BRUNACHE, 2011, p. 252.41 S. GROUARD, 2001.42 See H.C. COVEY, D. EISNACH, 2009; J. DEETZ, 1995; T.A. SINGLETON, 1995.43 E. WEBER, 1976.44 P. FARNSWORTH, 1999; L.A. WILKIE, P. FARNSWORTH, 2005.45 M.A. FANNING, 2008; M.A. FANNING, 2009; H.R. GIBSON, 2007.46 J.F. PETRUCCI, 2002.47 K.G. KELLY et al., 2008.48 C. LOSIER, 2012.49 M.S.L. ARCANGELI, 2012.50 L.G. FERGUSON, 1992; M.W. HAUSER, 2008.51 L.-R. BUEZE, 1990.52 R. PRICE, 1966.

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Afriques, 05 | 2014

Kenneth G. Kelly et Diane Wallman, « Foodways of Enslaved Laborers on French West IndianPlantations (18th-19th century) », Afriques [En ligne], 05 | 2014, mis en ligne le 22 décembre 2014,consulté le 29 décembre 2014. URL : http://afriques.revues.org/1608 ; DOI : 10.4000/afriques.1608

À propos des auteurs

Kenneth G. KellyProfessor, Department of Anthropology, University of South CarolinaDiane WallmanPhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina

Droits d'auteur

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Résumés

In the plantation settlements of the Americas, enslaved Africans and their descendants werecompelled to create a system of foodways that provided sufficient nutrition for their survivaland that could be assembled out of the resources available to them. The ability of the enslavedplantation workers to do this is a testament to their creativity, and the cuisine they developedlives on today in the creole foods of the former slave colonies. The foods, the methodsof their procurement, the methods of preparation, and the artifacts used in that preparationconsist of a blend of African, European, and American influences reflecting environment,cultural heritage, and economics. In this article, we integrate ethnohistorical and historicaldocuments with archaeological materials from excavations at two plantation slave villages,one in Guadeloupe and one in Martinique, in the context of Caribbean creole foodways withinthe French West Indies.

Habitudes alimentaires des travailleurs asservis dans les plantationsdes Antilles françaises (XVIIIe-XIXe siècle)Dans les villages des plantations des Amériques, les Africains asservis et leurs descendantsétaient contraints de créer une alimentation leur permettant de garantir l’accès à une nutritioncomplète et suffisante et dont les ingrédients se trouvaient sur place. La cuisine créole desanciennes colonies françaises est aujourd’hui témoin de la capacité créative des esclaves. Lesaliments, les méthodes de procuration, de préparation et la culture matérielle utilisée pourla préparation consistent en un mélange d’influences africaines, européennes et américainesreflétant l’économie des plantations et celles des villages d’esclaves, l’environnement etle patrimoine culturel. Dans cet article nous associons des documents ethnohistoriques ethistoriques avec des données archéologiques provenant de fouilles menées sur deux sites devillages d’esclaves, l’un en Guadeloupe et l’autre en Martinique, dans le contexte des habitudesalimentaires créoles des Caraïbes dans les Antilles françaises.

Entrées d'index

Mots-clés : alimentation, archéologie, archéozoologie, esclavageKeywords : archaeology, foodways, French West Indies, slavery, zooarchaeologyGéographique : Antilles françaises, Guadeloupe, Martinique

foodways of enslaved laborers on french west indian plantations (18th-19th century)

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