Assessing Heritage Resources in St. Croix Post‐Hurricanes Irma and Maria

Abstract

In the summer of 2017, we, as members of the Society of Black Archaeologists (SBA), initiated a sustainable archaeological project on the island of St. Croix in collaboration with several local and international partners. Only a few months later, Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated much of the US Virgin Islands causing substantial loss in life and property, widespread displacement, damage to infrastructure, and negative impacts to important historical landscapes and heritage resources. This article outlines the effects of hurricane damage on African diaspora heritage sites in St. Croix and our response as Black archaeologists committed to community empowerment. Learning from the recent events, we offer recommendations for standardized methods of site documentation that can be adopted by archaeologists and heritage professionals working in the circum‐Caribbean to better assess site damage and develop protective conservation techniques before major catastrophic events.

An Archaeology of Struggle: Material Remnants of a Double Consciousness in the American South and Danish Caribbean Communities

“…The implications of this research reach far beyond the field of archaeology, into the disciplines of cultural anthropology, history, human ecology, economics, and political anthropological studies that continue to explore how differing levels of power, or the capacity to transform a given circumstance, impact social interactions among groups (Odewale, Foster, and Torres ) as well as how access to important natural and cultural resources are connected to expressions of heritage in the community (Hauser ; Holt ; Jackson ; Shackel ), material culture (Agbe‐Davies ; Galle ; Hauser ), and shared cultural landscapes (Dunnavant et al. ; Wood ). If the Du Boisian principle of double consciousness and the archaeology of resistance can be projected into the present day, then the popular concept of “code switching” in language and identity would be part of a larger history among historically marginalized peoples to reconcile an internal struggle for survival (Auer ).…”

African Diasporic Choices

“…The buildings constructed at the Estate Little Princess cover a history that spans over 200 years (Wright et al, 1980). The architectural remains at the estate include three houses, a sugar factory/distillery building, a sugar mill, a well tower, and several outbuildings including the remains of an enslaved village, later known as a free laborer village (Dunnavant et al, 2018). Archival research indicates that by 1786, 127 enslaved Africans labored at the site and lived in 53 houses that comprised the enslaved village area.…”

“…A watchhouse noted as 'slavevagterbusene' in estate inventories was also originally constructed at the estate but was removed and reconstructed at the Whim Museum, a public heritage site owned and operated by the St. Croix Landmarks Society. The architectural remains of the ELP were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 (Dunnavant et al, 2018).…”

“…By the 1950s, the buildings-which had long been in disrepair--started to collapse and succumb to storm damage that occurred as a result of a hurricane that struck the island in 1928. Ongoing archaeological work at the estate included a reassessment of the site after the landfall of both Hurricanes Maria and Irma in 2017 (Dunnavant et al, 2018). There are ongoing efforts to rehabilitate the historic structures identified at the Estate Little Princess conducted by TNC.…”

“…Recent historic archaeological investigations taking place on the islands of St. Croix (Blouet 2013;Dunnavant et al, 2018;Lenik, 2004;Odewale, 2016), and St. John , also cannot be divorced from the 2017 commemoration of the centennial transfer. Both the archaeological and archival records are part of the evergrowing tool kits from which scholars and artists are pulling to explore the era of enslavement and its afterlives on both sides of the Atlantic.…”