African Americans in a Dominican Cemetery: Social Boundaries of an Enclave Community
Author(s): Kristen R. Fellows
This paper presents preliminary findings from an aboveground study of a cemetery in Samaná, Dominican Republic. In 1824 approximately 200 African Americans left the United States for what was then Haiti, and established an enclave in a relatively isolated area of the island. Their Anglo surnames, Protestantism, and primary use of English have defined this community in relation to the neighboring Dominican and Haitian populations for over 150 years. Using spatial data from the town’s cemetery, I explore the social boundaries the enclave established in order to set themselves apart from the broader Samanesa community and how these boundaries changed through time. This research provides a look at a unique migratory scheme within the African diaspora and offers a new case study of a Caribbean cemetery.
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African Americans in a Dominican Cemetery: Social Boundaries of an Enclave Community. Kristen R. Fellows. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428344)
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;