James Delle has solved a number of problems in Caribbean archaeology with An Archaeology of Social Space. He deals with most of the problems by using historical archaeology, and clearly implicates Ameri- canist prehistorians. Although this book is about coffee plantations in the Blue Mountains area of Jamaica, it is actually about the whole Caribbean. Just as it is about all archaeology, not only historical archaeology, it is also a book about colonialism and national inde- pendence and how these two enormous events happened in the context of eighteenth and nineteenth century capitalism. The...

As a source of colonial wealth and a crucible for global culture, Jamaica has had a profound impact on the formation of the modern world system. From the island's economic and military importance to the colonial empires it has hosted and the multitude of ways in which diverse people from varied parts of the world have coexisted in and reacted against systems of inequality, Jamaica has long been a major focus of archaeological studies of the colonial period.This volume assembles for the first time the results of nearly three decades of historical archaeology in Jamaica. Scholars present...

The long history of slavery in the Americas has left a wealth of archaeological evidence from excavations of southern and Caribbean plantations. These excavations have largely informed our ideas of African slavery, but, more recently, scholars have also focused on northern slave sites and the various degrees of slavery pertaining not only to Africans but to Native Americans and even European immigrants as well. The Limits of Tyranny brings together nine essays that illuminate the struggles of slaves against the structure of inequality found throughout the Americas in the eighteenth and...

The Mississippi River was a strategic priority for the Union army from the outset of the American Civil War. By controlling the Mississippi, the North's military forces could effectively split the Confederacy in two and create economic and logistical havoc for Confederate supply lines that relied on river transportation. A number of battles were fought for control of the Mississippi, and ultimately the combination of Union troops supported by Federal gunboats and armored paddle steamers culminated in the surrender of Port Hudson in July 1863 and Union dominance over the Mississippi waterways....

We are reminded that the Caribbean was a more complicated place than we usually imagine. Kenneth G. Kelly, coeditor of French Colonial Archaeology in the Southeast and Caribbean
Caribbean plantations and the forces that shaped them slavery, sugar, capitalism, and the tropical, sometimes deadly environment have been studied extensively. This volume turns the focus to the places and times where the rules of the plantation system did not always apply, including the interstitial spaces that linked enslaved Africans with their neighbors at other plantations. The essays also explore the...