Cabrits slave village uncovered

Edward Thomas and Zach Beier document the excavation of a hut at the slave village site at The Cabrits. Photo courtesy Dr. Lennox Honeychurch

A graduate student in archaeology from Syracuse University in the USA is in the process of uncovering some of the huts that were constructed and occupied by the slaves who worked at the Cabrits Garrison between 1765 and 1854.

The huts make up a small village located in the valley between the East and West Cabrit hills that were once the site of a British military garrison.

The graduate student, Zachary Beier, is doing research towards his PhD degree and is halfway through his ten month period of field work. He is being assisted by Dominican archaeology technician Edward Thomas of Petite Savanne and his field supervisor is Lennox Honychurch. His research is being conducted with the cooperation of the Dominica National Parks Department and is being funded by the Fulbright Scholarship Programme administered through the US State Department.

The location of the slave village had been known and written about for some time through the research of the colonial documents in the British National Archives done by Lennox Honychurch, but this is the first archaeological survey of the site. The excavations are revealing a great deal more about the life of the enslaved West Africans who built the fortifications that are scattered over the 200 acre garrison.

It appears that the slaves carved platforms for their huts out of the hard volcanic ‘tiff’ that underlies the site. They chiseled drains and ovens and post holes from the rock and placed a frame of strong poles into these holes to support the roofs and sides of their dwellings. The sides were probably made of woven saplings or ‘gaulettes’ and these ‘kai gaultay’ were covered with sugar cane leaves (called ‘pai can’ in Creole). The sides were then plastered with a mixture of earth and lime (‘la chau’) a building process called ‘wattle and daub’. The design and materials closely follow West African house construction.

The West African connections are also evident in some of the pottery that has been found. Pieces of locally fired clay cooking pots are the same as pots made in West Africa at the time.

Among other artifacts dug up on the site are iron chisels and a ‘cane bill’. These tools were used by the enslaved to chisel rough rocks and shape them into the square stones that can still be seen in the buildings at the Cabrits. The chisels were also used to carve out the house platforms from the ‘tiff’ for their own homes. The cane bill was used to cut sugar cane on the neighbouring plantations around Portsmouth, but at the Cabrits it was used to cut grass for the many horses that were stabled there as well as to clear the bush from the hillsides. A small crucifix cut out of a sheet of lead hints at the influence of Christianity.

Among other interesting finds are two small silver coins bearing the image of King William IV and the date 1834. This is the year that the first stage of slave emancipation was achieved and the coins may represent the change over from slave labour to paid wage labour at the Cabrits. The garrison was maintained for twenty more years until it was finally closed down in July 1854. The troops locked up the buildings and marched out to waiting ships and the Cabrits was abandoned to the forest once more.

Zach Beier is also excavating one of the large Troops Barracks at the top of the West Cabrit. He is hoping to find evidence of the members of the West India Regiments, also known as the Black Regiments. These black soldiers manned the Cabrits garrison for most of its active period and were involved in a famous revolt there in 1802. The material culture found in these sites may be able to contrast the living standards of the black soldiers to that of the garrison slaves.

After completing his fieldwork, Zach has more documentary research to do before writing his thesis, which he expects to defend in two years. Meanwhile, this valuable work is filling in some of the blank in Dominican history. The restoration of Fort Shirley for public use and recreation continues.

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23 Comments

  1. Dominicanpearl2
    August 2, 2012

    More power to DA. Let the young man do the research. Just preserve the artifacts. Make sure the gov’t gets rights to any publications, film, short story or TV show. DA needs the money. When I come to DA with my children, the Cabrits will be #1 on my list for visiting. I’ve been there 3 times. Love, love the history.

  2. rad
    August 1, 2010

    when outsiders do this researches its unprecedented,next thing you know some where in the future you seeing a movie base on that same reseach,I am hopping that dominica returns the right to anthing done to these documentations now and the future.because in my point of veiw dominica should have generated a deal more revenue from pirates of the carribean,base on that movies intake and popularity, do not allow anybody to reap of dominica history, thats all we have got left.

  3. Dominican
    August 1, 2010

    @Antiguan

    Are you a-shame of your heritage?

  4. Nice job
    July 30, 2010

    Somebody uncover some buried treasure nah?

  5. Antiguan
    July 30, 2010

    @POSITIVELY DOMINICAN: Africa is not motherland, Dominica is my land, AFRICA want me.

  6. July 30, 2010

    STOP YOUR BIASNESS AND APPRECIATE YOUR HISTORY. BETTER YET GO CRAWL IN A CAVE. sHAME ON YOU PEOPLE. YOU HAVE SOMEONE COMING TO HELP YOU UNCOVER YOUR HISTORY INSTEAD OF APPRECIATING WHAT IS BEING DONE YOU COME HERE PROVING PEOPLE RIGHT ABOUT YOUR BIASNESS.

  7. Cabrits Archaeologist
    July 29, 2010

    All the historical/cultural resources recovered at the Cabrits Garrison are the property of the Dominican Government and will be stored on site. Archaeology is by nature a destructive research strategy but throughout our investigations we have focused on preserving the valuable natural landscape at the park while working to provide new information to the public. I also agree that the Dominican government needs to take cultural resource management more seriously. Important places, such as the Cabrits, need to be preserved and researched as they are symbols of Dominican heritage and national pride. I hope that this project, the first of its kind to be granted a permit by the government, can raise attention about archaeology and its goals of education and preservation. Thank you for all the interest and I am particularly grateful to Lennox Honychurch and the Foresty, Wildlife and Parks division for making this work a reality.

  8. VALDA BRUNO-DURAND
    July 29, 2010

    ONE MORE THING THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT YET HAVE COPIES BUY COPIES OF NASSIO FOUNTAINE’S MUSIC AND LISTEN TO THE LYRICS AND LET THEM SPEAK TO YOUR SOUL. ANYONE CLOSE TO ME WANT TO BORROW MY COPIES NO PROBLEM

  9. VALDA BRUNO-DURAND
    July 29, 2010

    OUR HISTORY IS RICH, BUT HAS NOT BEEN PROPERLY DOCUMENTED, WE HAVE BOOKS AND STORIES BUT THERE IS MUCH TO BE DESIRED FROM WHAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN, I MAY NOT WEAR LIBERATION COLOURS OR HAVE LOCKS BUT I KNOW SOME OF THE TRUE HISTORY. iT HURTS AND I MAKE NO APPOLOGIES FOR SAYING IT THAT A WHITE MAN WHO MAY VERY WELL BE FROM A LONG LINE OF SLAVE OWNERS HAS TO COME HERE AND DO THIS RESEARCH, BUT LIFE MUST AND WILL GO ON EDUCATE YOURSELVES AND YOU CHILDREN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN ABOUT YOUR ROOTS WE WILL NEVER TRULY KNOW WHO WE ARE. MOTHER AFRICA ONE LOVE, TRIBE OF MY ANSECTORS ONE LOVE. MY DOMINICAN PEOPLE MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL PEACE.

  10. Chavez Jr.
    July 29, 2010

    Will the artifacts that are found remain at the Cabrits National Park. I hope the excavation does not affect the land scape of Cabrits. WE need our own archeologist to continue doing these researches here.

  11. Democratic lover
    July 29, 2010

    My grand children will be blessed knowing ththe history of there ancestors.

  12. Smurfy
    July 29, 2010

    To you,who refer to yourself as “implications of French rule” every has become political to you but people like you will grieve to your death due to your political bias because Skerrit is going to be there for many more years. BEHHHHHH…..

  13. Zang
    July 29, 2010

    Thats what i should have gotten my one in history about…not other people’s business. You go guys at least my grand children will have a more rounded history of their country than i did…

  14. implications of French rule?
    July 29, 2010

    masacre

    cabrits

    are just some of the memoirs of how our parents fought and were brutally killed fighting against French Rule

    yet in December the plane loads of unpatriotic $ worshippers/prostitutes handed us into a haitian style destiny…

    Yes what did the French do to the Haitians and haiti?

  15. Deoborah
    July 29, 2010

    Good work.

  16. possie
    July 29, 2010

    this is great we all will learn more of our heritage.

  17. texas
    July 29, 2010

    This development contains a lesson or two, for some of our avid political friends, who can”t seem to see beyond the reason why they have absorbed the negative notion why the prime minister should, or should not visit an african nation, in light of his political drive. Here we see, how men and women in the past lived their lives and suffered tremendoulsly at the tyranny of brutal regimes who”s quest was to conquer at any cost, and in so doing, we also noticed who the victims were, it was people of a certain pigmentation, men who were hurdled beyond their wishes and may have never gotten any reward for their sacrifices. Today, and in recent times, we are discovering the remains of these people and we ask our selfs, where were they from? How did they got there? Could it also mean that it is well worth the effort in rebuilding political and diplomatic relationships with other african countries, simply because we are discovering that some of their foot prints are embeded on our soil, in sacrifices that neither one of us would ever surrender to today. Nation building, is beyound the physical strutures and amenities that we want, it is also about the logical ones that are equally necessary

  18. POSITIVELY DOMINICAN
    July 29, 2010

    God bless Africa – our motherland – rich! resilient! tolerant, hopeful!

  19. Justice is better than peace
    July 29, 2010

    Yjis makes me very sad and brought back memories ans even a little stress but we have come a long way.

  20. Chief
    July 29, 2010

    Wow….Kool.

  21. D
    July 29, 2010

    Very good, there is a lot yet to be discovered in Dominica

  22. joe blow
    July 29, 2010

    Great article, very informative however in your final paragraph the word “thesis” should be replaced with “dissertation” since what this student is working on is based on original research and written in partial fulfillment of the requirement for a doctorate.

  23. just giving my two cents
    July 29, 2010

    Very interesting. I’ll learn some more about my ancestors – NICE!

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