Description of skeletal remains from a Black slave cemetery from Montserrat, West Indies.

Abstract

The skeletons of 17 Black slaves were excavated from an unmarked 18th century cemetery in Montserrat, West Indies. A pharmaceutical phial found with one of the probable coffin burials bears the inscription OCT 29 1751. The date on the phial, skeletal analysis and ethnohistorical records suggest the skeletons are those of Black slaves, possible from the nearby Bransby Plantation. Evidence of pathological conditions include enthesopathies, osteoarthritis, anemia, malnutrition, a high incidence of fractures and one possible case of lepromatous leprosy. Ages at death suggest that the adult females were outliving the males.