Cortical bone maintenance in an historic Afro‐American Cemetery sample from Cedar Grove, Arkansas

Abstract

The relocation and analysis of 80 skeletons from the Cedar Grove Cemetery, located in southwest Arkansas, provides an opportunity to examine the level of health and nutrition experienced by Afro-Americans in the post-Reconstruction South (1878-1930). The demographic profile lends support to the interpretation that Cedar Grove participated in the nationwide decline in Afro-American health. The high frequencies of skeletal lesions indicative of dietary deficiencies and infectious disease demonstrate that this was a highly stressed population. For this analysis, adult femoral thin sections (15 females and 14 males) are examined histologically. These data provide support to the assertion that the Cedar Grove population experienced poor health. Measures taken from the sections include cortical thickness, percent cortical area, and mean number of resorption spaces and forming osteons per square millimeter of bone. As a group, they demonstrate low percent cortical area compared with well-nourished normals. They also show high rates of resorption to formation, thereby disrupting the balance necessary for normal cortical bone maintenance. The pattern established for bone porosity in this group is not a function of age but rather is due to other factors, most likely nutrition and disease stress. What may be unique about this group is that males, as well as females, experienced problems with calcium homeostasis and normal maintenance and repair of bone. Taken together, these data support the interpretation that diet and health were substandard in the post-Reconstruction South.

Health and disease at a South Carolina plantation: 1840–1870

“…The presence of supinator crest hypertrophy is noted for both the Catoctin ironworkers (Kelly and Angel, 1985) and for some of the urban samples . The specific changes in the skeletons from 38CH778 as well as comparable samples of other Afro-American samples (Cleavenger et al, 1985;Martin et al, 1985b) all verify historical accounts that rigorous physical labor was a common feature of life.…”

“…Although there is ample evidence that the diet of 19th-century blacks was probably very low in iron (Gibbs et al, 1980, Martin et al, 1985b, differential diagnosis between inherited and acquired anemia is difficult, although advances have been made through the comparison of clinical, anthropological, and radiographic studies (Stuart-Macadam, 1982). Diplotic expansion and "hair on end" trabecular patterns of cranial vault bones are important considerations.…”

Discarded in the trash: Burials of African enslaved individuals in Valle da Gafaria, Lagos, Portugal (15th–17th centuries)

“…The Valle da Gafaria's osteological collection is extremely important for slavery studies. Not only are there few cemeteries of enslaved people in the world (Cedar Grove cemetery: Martin, Magennis, & Rose, ; South Carolina plantation: Rathbun, ; Pretos Novos in Brazil: Cook, Bastos, Lopes, Mendonça de Souza, & Santos, ; Pereira, ; slave burial population in Barbados: Corruccini, Handler, Mutaw, & Lange, ; Handler, Corruccini, & Mutaw, ; the black slave cemetery from Montserrat, West Indies: Mann, Meadows, Bass, & Watters, ; the cemetery of the “Waterloo” plantation in Suriname: Khudabux, ; the cemetery in Campeche in Mexico: Tiesler, ; Le Morne Cemetery, Mauritius: Appleby et al, ; and the African Burial Ground in the city of New York: Blakey, ), but also, until now, Lagos is the older sample to be discovered and studied in the world.…”

Bone quality in prehistoric, cis‐baikal forager femora: A micro‐CT analysis of cortical canal microstructure

“…For example, abnormal bone formation and resorption patterns indicate the presence of various primary and secondary metabolic diseases (e.g., Aaron et al 1992;Brickley et al, 2007;Mays et al, 2007;De Boer et al, 2013), including those induced by dietary stress (e.g., Armelagos 1979, 1985;Martin et al 1987;Stout and Jackson, 1990;Paine and Brenton, 2006a,b;Brickley et al, 2007;Petrone et al, 2011). For example, abnormal bone formation and resorption patterns indicate the presence of various primary and secondary metabolic diseases (e.g., Aaron et al 1992;Brickley et al, 2007;Mays et al, 2007;De Boer et al, 2013), including those induced by dietary stress (e.g., Armelagos 1979, 1985;Martin et al 1987;Stout and Jackson, 1990;Paine and Brenton, 2006a,b;Brickley et al, 2007;Petrone et al, 2011).…”