The Life History of an Enslaved African: Multiple Isotope Evidence for Forced Childhood Migration from Africa to the Caribbean and Associated Dietary Change

Laffoon, J.E.; Espersen, R.; Mickleburgh, H.L.

doi:doi:10.1111/arcm.12354

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/72463

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Faculty of Archaeology

Laffoon, J.E.; Espersen, R.; Mickleburgh, H.L. (2018)

The Life History of an Enslaved African: Multiple Isotope Evidence for Forced Childhood Migration from Africa to the Caribbean and Associated Dietary Change

Article / Letter to editor

Archaeological excavations of an enslaved African domestic area at the Spring Bay Flat plantation on the island of Saba, Dutch Caribbean, uncovered a small concentration of artefacts (shell, metal nails, animal bones and five human teeth) overlaid with a lock hinge, interpreted as a lockbox and its contents. Dental anthropological and multi‐isotope (strontium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen) analyses of the teeth revealed that they belonged to a single individual who originated from Africa and survived a period of pronounced nutritional stress as a juvenile. The results provide rare insights into the life history of an individual who probably experienced enslavement, (forced) migration from Africa and adaptation to plantation life in the colonial‐era Caribbean.