Pt. I: Sustainable Heritage Tourism and Newton Enslaved Burial Ground as a Slave Route Site of Memory: Historical Background

Historical Background: Newton Slave Burial Ground

In the second half of the 17^th century, Col. Samuel Newton, an Englishman, purchased several small parcels of land in Christ Church and developed two plantations both called Newton that were in operation by the 1660’s. Mayo’s map of Barbados 1717-1721 identifies one plantation called ‘Newton’ in Christ Church made up of 581 acres of lands.

Newton was occupied by enslaved Africans and their descendants during the period 1660 – 1834. The enslaved persons on the plantation numbered between 200-300 persons up to emancipation. Enslaved persons in the English-speaking Caribbean originated from the Gold and Windward Coast and Bight of Benin prior to 1750.

The enslaved population was primarily transported to Barbados via the Royal African Company and Dutch traders who captured and bought persons from the Gold Coast of Africa which will include present-day Ghana, Togo, Dahomey and western Nigeria.

The enslaved persons on this plantation utilised a sloping pasture area of 4500 square metres with its shallow soil and numerous rock outcroppings for the cemetery of the plantation. Due to the poor conditions for sugar cultivation in the area, it was left undisturbed during the period of slavery on the plantation, a situation that has lasted to the present day.

Some 1000 enslaved persons died on Newton plantation from 1670-1833 it is believed that an estimated 570 slaves are buried in the cemetery some in low earthen mounds, others in non-mound burials. Excavation of these mounds has allowed researchers a glimpse into the diet of the enslaved, religious practices use to bury the dead including the placement of grave goods like necklaces, pipes, bracelets into graves , age at death, cause of death and the manner in which Newton’s enslaved population buried its dead.

Earlier burials at Newton thought to be associated with enslaved African peoples are east-headed with later burials becoming west-headed indicating the changing population of the plantation becoming creolised - born in Barbados. Newton plantation is one of the only communal excavated enslaved burial ground in the Western hemisphere and is a part of the legacy that is the sugar landscape.

[Adapted from the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List Nomination for The Story of Sugar and Rum: The Industrial Heritage of Barbados]