The book “A Kind of Right to be Idle: Old Doll, Matriarch of Newton Plantation” by Dr. Karl Watson is published by The Barbados Museum & Historical Society. It is on sale at the Museum shop and other good bookstores.
This small book makes interesting reading. It gives the history of a family of slaves and their relationship with their masters, both in Barbados and England.
Some buildings, that may have had their origin in the 1800’s are still standing and have been modernised and are used for various manufacturing industries.
The Old Doll, Matriarch of Newton Plantation contains a map of Newton Plantation showing the location of the Great House, the Slave Village (labelled Negro Yard) and the Slave Burial Ground. This map is reproduced below. This map is easy to follow and the various areas named can be located without too much effort.
Below are a series of photographs of Newton Plantation as it is today [2016]. Click on any of the photographs to see an enlarged version with a caption.
Unfortunately the Slave Burial Ground only has a sign indicating what this area was used for. This is a pity. It should be a national park.
In the 1960’s the Gill family lived in what was the Great House and they tell stories that it was haunted by at least 2 ghosts. There are several well documented sightings by many people over a period of many years.
The Great House has since been demolished and I guess those spirits have moved on.
Update October 2022: Since this post was written in 2016 Newton Slave Burial Ground has been beautified with benches for visitors and information boards.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. This is the only known slave burial ground in Barbados. Photograph by William Burton.
Location of Newton Plantation cemetery, Barbados taken from: Health and life histories of enslaved sugar producers. Bioarchaeology of the Newton Plantation, Barbados by Kristrina A. Shuler, Hannes Schroeder & William D. Stevens.
Newton Great House, Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados entrance. When Mr Wood returned from a holiday at Bathsheba, he saw the slaves having a fun day, organised by Old Doll and Family. Donkey races, gambling, and much food and drink were part of the festivities. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Great House, Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados entrance. When Mr Wood returned from a holiday at Bathsheba, he saw the slaves having a fun day, organised by Old Doll and Family. Donkey races, gambling, and much food and drink were part of the festivities. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Great House, Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados entrance. When Mr Wood returned from a holiday at Bathsheba, he saw the slaves having a fun day, organised by Old Doll and Family. Donkey races, gambling, and much food and drink were part of the festivities. Photograph by William Burton.
The Great House, Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Only Remains of Newton Great House. Not much remains of the house that the Newton family would have lived in, in Old Doll's days. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Plantation Yard, Christ Church, Barbados. Old Building with replica hinges and new doors. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Plantation Yard, Christ Church, Barbados. Old Building with replica hinges and new doors. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Looking towards Newton Factory with North and South Grand Rock in the foreground. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Long Bottom. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Long Bottom. This field still yields a good crop. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower & Upper Grass Pond. Tilled and ready for planting. Picture taken from ABC Highway. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower and Upper Grass Pond. The ABC Highway now cuts through this field. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower and Upper Grass Pond. Photograph by William Burton.
Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower Duck Pond. Taken from Entrance of Great House. Old Doll and family would have lived on the hill in the distance, in the area of the Casuarina Trees. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower North Negro Yard. The Slave Village would have been in this area. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. South Negro Yard. Looking North from original cart Road still in use. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Upper North Negro Yard. This depression is clearly marked on the map. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Lower Well from Burial Ground. The cart road dividing Lower Well and the Burial Ground is still used today. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Looking West from Lower Well. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. North and South Rose Pond. The ABC Highway with Henry Forde roundabout is in the top centre. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Looking towards Newton Factory with North and South Grand Rock in the foreground. Photograph by William Burton.
Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. View from Barhill. Photograph by William Burton.
A bit of broken pottery found on the Slave Burial Ground at Newton Plantation, Christ Church, Barbados. Photograph by William Burton.
Some background on the Newton Burial Ground archaeological research undertaken in the early 1970s provided by Jerome S. Handler PhD of Virginia Humanities
Beneath approximately 7 acres of sloping grassland rest the remains of approximately 1,000 enslaved individuals. Between the 1660s and 1820s, they were buried by their families and friends, often in ritualistic contexts influenced by African customs. Because it has a rocky, shallow soil cover, the area was never cultivated. It was unmarked by gravestones or other surface features except for earthen mounds which were ultimately found to cover many of the interred individuals. With my colleague, Dr. Frederick Lange, the cemetery was discovered in the early 1970s during the course of archaeological and documentary research that was seeking the remains of Newton Plantation’s former slave village.
Plantation burial grounds specifically for the enslaved were widespread in Barbados. Owners or managers allocated the burial ground site, but the enslaved themselves chose the grave spots within the site. Because of the deep ploughing of plantation fields, and the many construction projects in Barbados over the years, these cemeteries are usually invisible today and many of them have been unwittingly destroyed. Newton cemetery is unique. It is the only slave cemetery known for Barbados, and at the time excavations began in the early 1970s, it had not been disturbed for hundreds of years. It was the first undisturbed slave cemetery archaeologically excavated in the Caribbean. Although a few other slave cemeteries have been located in the Caribbean, they had been disturbed by natural disasters or construction and have not been intensively investigated. Newton is still the final resting place for the earliest and largest group of an African and African-descended enslaved population recovered from any archaeological context in the former British, French, and Dutch West Indies.
Archaeological research has provided an interpretation of the skeletal remains and artifacts, which allow these anonymous individuals to relate something of their lives. Only about 25 percent of the estimated cemetery was excavated, yielding the remains of approximately 114 individuals. Analysis of the artifacts and skeletal remains are the only sources of information we have on these individuals. This information combined with data from documentary sources on Barbados and West African cultural practices yielded insight into the lives of the enslaved.
Particular among these are mortuary or funerary behaviour. Many burials were in European-style coffins, while others were apparently buried without coffins. Some unusual burials suggest persons who may have had special positions within the enslaved community, such as obeah practitioners who acted as healers and diviners.
Material objects were found in many graves, perhaps placed there to meet the needs of the deceased in the afterlife.
Many artifacts were of European-type and originated from outside Barbados; for example coffin hardware and nails, hundreds of glass beads of different types, and white clay pipes. Non-European artifacts included bronze or brass bracelets or armlets and earrings, bone buttons, carnelian beads from Western India, and a distinctive pipe from the Gold Coast, the only such item known from a New World archaeological site. All of these items are today housed in the Barbados Museum in the Garrison.
Many skeletons were in very poor condition. However, the teeth, the most durable elements of the human skeleton, yielded valuable information on social practices, such as weaning, and the health of the burial population. Medical pathologies included lead poisoning, dietary inadequacies, malnutrition and starvation, vitamin deficiencies, and nutritionally based diseases such as kwashiorkor and marasmus; also a variety of dental ailments, including infectious gum disease and tooth decay. Some individuals displayed signs of the intentional deformation of teeth, a widespread African practice not continued in the New World.
Newton’s former owner, the late Lionel Warde, a Barbadian keenly interested in the island’s past, donated the cemetery area to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society.
The images below of Newton Plantation slave burial ground / cemetery are courtesy of Jerome S. Handler and were taken in the 1970s. Click on any of the photographs to see an enlarged version with a caption.
View of cemetery (casuarina trees), photo taken from site of former slave settlement (grassy area in foreground).The trees were burned years ago and are no longer visible at Newton. Note: the relative proximity of settlement to cemetery. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
View of cemetery, from the east. Area of greatest burial concentration is in the lower left hand corner, by the trees and adjacent to the field of new cane in foreground. Note how the land slopes upward; because there was so little soil cover, relatively few burials were found in this area. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
View of cemetery area. An on-going excavation is in the centre background. The cart road still exists. On the horizon in the background, on a knoll, is the site of the former slave village. The copse of trees on the extreme right, background, are the site of the plantation’s pond. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
View of cemetery. Visible on the left is a crew beginning an excavation. The area in the lower right corner (near the white car) had the largest concentration of burials. Part of the former slave settlement is on grassy knoll in the background. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
Mapping the cemetery area in order to precisely document the location of areas that were to be excavated. Only a very small portion of the whole cemetery was actually excavated. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
Sketch map of cemetery field, showing areas that were actually excavated during field seasons of 1972 and 1973. Note how a relatively small portion of the cemetery was excavated. These are the areas which initial survey indicated might have a high probability of yielding burials; in fact, not all of them did.
Map is published in: "Plantation Slavery in Barbados An Archaeological and Historical Investigation", by Jerome S. Handler & Frederick W. Lange, Harvard University Press 1978, p.106.
Cart road leading from the cemetery to the plantation yard. The trees in full foliage in the background are in a large depression, the site of a former pond, and just beyond them (not visible in the photo) was the manager’s house, today no longer in use. The cart road still exists as do remnants of some of the stone buildings, although this area has several new buildings which house various businesses. Photograph courtesy of Jerome S. Handler from early 1970s when the Newton archaeological research was undertaken.
Burial, Newton Cemetery, view of a skeleton extended on its back with copper bracelets on each arm and a pipe bowl on the pelvic area; and the torso of the same burial, an adult male buried in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Aside from the bracelets, other offerings in the grave included a knife, a unique pipe bowl manufactured in the Gold Coast (today, Ghana). This was the most elaborate burial in the cemetery and was probably that of an African-type diviner/healer, otherwise known as an Obeah man, a person of high status within the enslaved community. For additional details see: Jerome S. Handler, "An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies", International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1, 2 (1997): p. 91-130.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Burial, Newton Cemetery, detailed view of a skeleton extended on its back with copper bracelets on each arm and a pipe bowl on the pelvic area; and the torso of the same burial, an adult male buried in the late 1600s or early 1700s. Aside from the bracelets, other offerings in the grave included a knife, a unique pipe bowl manufactured in the Gold Coast (today, Ghana). This was the most elaborate burial in the cemetery and was probably that of an African-type diviner/healer, otherwise known as an Obeah man, a person of high status within the enslaved community. For additional details see: Jerome S. Handler, "An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies", International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1, 2 (1997): p. 91-130.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Brass Bracelet, Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. This photograph shows a bracelet which was found on the wrists of a buried skeleton. Image courtesy of Jerome S. Handler, "An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies", International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1, 2 (1997): p. 91-130.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Coiled Bracelet, Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. This photograph shows a coiled bracelet found on the wrists of a buried skeleton in Barbados. Image courtesy of Jerome S. Handler, "An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies", International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1, 2 (1997): p. 91-130.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Wire Bracelet, Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. This photograph shows a wire bracelet found on a buried skeleton. Image courtesy of Jerome S. Handler, "An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies", International Journal of Historical Archaeology 1, 2 (1997): p. 91-130.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Necklace, Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. This photograph shows components of the most elaborate bead necklace excavated at Newton. In fact, this is the most elaborate artifact thus far known from archaeological sites of the enslaved in the Caribbean and North America. The necklace was also found with the burial shown in the preceding photos. The components shown here include money cowrie shells, vertebrae from a large fish, canine teeth, European glass beads, and a large red-orange carnelian bead from India. The stringing pattern of these objects could only be partially reconstructed during excavation. For additional details see: Jerome S. Handler, "From Cambay in India to Barbados in the Caribbean: Two Unique Beads from a Plantation Slave Cemetery", The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter. March 2007.
Image ref:Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Carnelian Bead, Newton Plantation Slave Cemetery, Barbados. The Carnelian bead shown in the necklace. This is a unique archaeological find. It was manufactured in Cambay, western India, probably in the 17th century, and somehow travelled many thousands of miles where it found its final resting place in a burial at Newton— if it could only talk and tell us what it had experienced. The bead today is in the Barbados Museum. For additional details see: Jerome S. Handler, "From Cambay in India to Barbados in the Caribbean: Two Unique Beads from a Plantation Slave Cemetery", The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter. March 2007.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora.
Short stemmed clay pipe found on the pelvic area of the burial shown above. This pipe likely originated in the Gold Coast (today, Ghana) and probably came to Barbados via the Atlantic slave trade. It is not known if the pipe and other artifacts found with this burial belonged to the person with whom it was buried. For additional details see: Jerome S. Handler & N. Norman, "From West Africa to Barbados: A Rare Pipe from a Plantation Slave Cemetery", The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter. September 2007.
Image ref: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora
Jerome S. Handler is a historical anthropologist who specialises in the early African Diaspora, particularly in the Caribbean, and the Atlantic slave trade.
Jerome S. Handler PhD, Senior Scholar, Virginia Humanities, 946 Grady Ave, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.
website: https://jeromehandler.org email: jh3v@virginia.edu
Additional background reading
- “Burial practices and grave goods” by Dr Peggy Brunache of University of Glasgow that includes photographs by Jerome S. Handler from Slavery Images.
- “Plantation Slavery in Barbados An Archaeological and Historical Investigation” by Jerome S. Handler & Frederick W. Lange Harvard University Press 1978.
- “An African-Type Healer/Diviner and His Grave Goods: A Burial from a Plantation Slave Cemetery in Barbados, West Indies” by Jerome S. Handler, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1997.
- “From Cambay in India to Barbados in the Caribbean: Two Unique Beads from a Plantation Slave Cemetery” by Jerome S. Handler, The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter, March 2007.
- “From West Africa to Barbados: A Rare Pipe from a Plantation Slave Cemetery” by Jerome S. Handler & N. Norman, The African Diaspora Archaeology Network Newsletter, September 2007.
