Jerome S. Handler

2006   (J.S. Handler and F.W. Lange), On Interpreting Slave Status from Archaeological Remains.  African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter. June.

An early colonial period church cemetery in Campeche, Mexico yielded the skeletal remains of persons who investigators identified as African born; some reports claimed these remains represent the earliest evidence of African slavery yet found in the New World. However, physical evidence in and of itself does not unequivocally demonstrate the social status of the people concerned. Persons of African descent in Campeche at this period could have been free or held other social statuses that were not chattel slaves. Whatever the case, the Campeche remains raise the issue of archaeological interpretations of social systems, in this case the social system of chattel slavery. In this article we reproduce excerpts from the final chapter of our 1978 book on plantation slavery in Barbados; we argue that archaeological remains alone cannot determine the presence of slavery and documentary data are needed to establish its existence.

2006   Diseases and Medical Disabilities of Enslaved Barbadians, From the Seventeenth Century to around 1838, Part I.  Jl. of Caribbean History 40: 1-38.

2006  Diseases and Medical Disabilities of Enslaved Barbadians, From the Seventeenth Century to around 1838, Part II.  Jl. of Caribbean History 40: 177-214.

The disease environment, health problems, and causes of mortality of enslaved Barbadians are described. Data largely derive from documentary sources; also included are bio-archaeological data from analyses of skeletons recovered from Newton Plantation cemetery. Major topics include infectious diseases transmitted from person to person, as well as those contracted through water, soil, and other environmental contaminations, and diseases transmitted by insects, parasites, and other animals; nutritional diseases, including protein energy malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, anemia, and geophagy or ‘dirt eating’; dental pathologies; and lead poisoning, alcoholism, traumas, and other disorders, including psychogenic death or illness caused by beliefs in witchcraft or sorcery.

Diseases and Medical Disabilities of Enslaved Barbadians, Part I

Diseases and Medical Disabilities of Enslaved Barbadians, Part II

2006   (F. Brady and J. Handler), Jonathan Corncob Visits Barbados: Excerpts from a Little-Known 18th Century Novel.  Jl. of the Barbados Mus. and Hist. Soc. 52:17-34.

Published in 1787, this obscure satirical novel written by an author who to this day remains anonymous treats the adventures of a young man from Massachusetts during the period of the American Revolution. During the course of his adventures, Corncob spends some time in Barbados, and the three brief chapters that depict this visit are reproduced here with historical notes by the editors.