Our monuments
Reclaiming St Croix's elite heritage for descendants of the enslaved
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2248256 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A Bolin (0000-0003-1639-8976, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 7-10 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology Today (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-8322.12925 |
| OpenAlex | W4404971944 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
Sites of plantation slavery that are now interpreted as heritage frequently spatialize their narratives by emphasizing White elites in monumental spaces and associating the Black enslaved with smaller, less-imposing and frequently worse-preserved elements. In the contemporary present, as heritage spaces increasingly push to focus on the enslaved instead of the elite, the preservation of elite monumentality can be viewed as honouring enslavers. This article explores the position of heritage professionals on St Croix, US Virgin Islands, who advocate instead for a respatialization of slavery's heritage: a resignification of these 'elite' monuments as monuments to - and created by - the enslaved themselves. Their emphasis on the resilience and ingenuity of the enslaved challenges the spatial foregrounding of White supremacy in monumental heritage and allows the persistent materiality of plantations to be reclaimed in order to elevate Black history and identity
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Elite · Foregrounding · Ingenuity · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sustenance · Anthropology · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
In the Shadows of the Big House
Speaking for the Enslaved
Owning Memory
How to Hide an Empire
Archaeological Site Management and Local Involvement
Placing the enslaved at Oak Alley Plantation
Archival encounters
Wind-Powered Sugar Mills as Constructions of Control in Colonial Montserrat
Contexts of Resistance in African American Western Massachusetts
Have Confidence in the Sea
Objects of Survivance
They don't care about Crucian culture
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |