Under the direction of Dr. Peter Schmidt, Mr Christopher Clement will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct an archaeological study of historic plantations located in the Courland River Valley of Tobago. Because very little recent development has taken place on this island, early historic structures remain relatively visible and intact; thus the selection of this research location. The project includes three stages. First Mr. Clement will conduct broad scale survey to locate plantations and determine how they were distributed over the landscape. Secondly he will map their internal layout to examine the arrangement of slave, manufacturing and overseer arrangements. Finally he will survey and make surface collections from the slave living areas. While much is known about the organization of cotton plantations in the U.S. South, adaptations to sugar cane production are not well understood. Because sugar cane must be processed quickly it is likely that the spatial arrangements and internal social dynamics were different in such situations. New World slavery, because it brought together very distinct cultural groups and placed them into very specific and varying contexts provides an excellent basis to study culture contact and change. Mr. Clement's project will contribute to this goal. This grant will produce information of interest not only to historians but also to a broad range of anthropologists. In addition, it will assist in the training of a promising young scientist.
