Tracing the ethnic origins of enslaved Africans in Grenada. Issue 2 (2nd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: George, Shantel
• Is Part Of: Atlantic studies. Volume 17:Issue 2(2020)
• Page Start: 160
• Page End: 183
• Publication Date: 2020-04-02
• Subjects: Atlantic slave trade -- Grenada -- ethnicity -- slavery -- Nation Dance -- Voyages Database -- runaway advertisements; Globalization -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- History -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- Intellectual life -- Periodicals; Atlantic Ocean Region -- In literature -- Periodicals; Cross-cultural studies -- Atlantic Ocean Region -- Periodicals; 909.0963
• DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2018.1509581
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1478-8810

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The southeastern Caribbean island of Grenada has been excluded from studies concerned with the demographics of the trans-atlantic slave trade and its impact on the formation of African diasporic identities and cultures. Using Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, plantation lists, newspaper advertisements, and the multi-ethnic danced ceremony, Nation Dance, this article focuses on the demographics of the slave trade between 1669–1808 and the ethno-linguistic composition of Grenadian slave society. It demonstrates that various groups of enslaved Africans over time forged neo-African ethnic identities that remained visible in Nation Dance and archival material. In Nation Dance, inter-African blending and borrowing is evident, illustrating the complex ways whereby enslaved Africans and their descendants reconstructed their identities and cultures in the Atlantic world. Additionally, this article considers the limits of the Voyages Database and suggests ways in which other evidence may be used to understand the ethno-linguistic backgrounds of enslaved Grenadians.