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| Biological Remains |
Burial #39 Defects in the child's dental development indicate illness at birth (implying very poor maternal health as well). Pitting of the face around the orbital sockets is evidential of anemia, which is symptomatic of malnutrition. Lesions on bones signal bouts of infectious disease. The sutures of the child's skull fused extremely early in development; this is a sign of both heavy load-bearing (which correlates with partially fused neck bones), and brain growth retardation due to malnutrition. |
Burial #25 Her remains were found with a musket ball near her rib cage. She was shot in the back through the left scapula (shoulder blade). Multiple blunt force fractures to her face and diagonal fractures on her lower right arm indicates that she was beaten and her arm was twisted until broken. None of the fractures had healed at time of death, meaning they were the cause of death. |
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Burial #101 His skull shape appears to be West African, but chemical data shows further complexity. Strontium analyzed in his remains points toward an African birth, but chemical lead points to somewhere intermediate between New York and West Africa. Evidence of exposure to tropical treponemal disease means he had spent time enslaved in the Caribbean. Subtle and elegant fillings in his teeth, done deliberately and with care, are indicators of this man's significance. |
Physical Evidence Bone lesions associated with infectious diseases, metabolic disease, and anemia, shows that the enslaved suffered from malnutrition. Enlarged muscle attachments in the neck, arms, and legs, shows that the strain of physical labor was enormous. Deep bone lesions and calcified connective tissue at muscle attachments, such as the upper-arm pectorals, lower-arm brachialis, and adductor muscles along the back of the thighs, shows that heavy power lifting was common. Arthritic changes in bones of the neck, spinal fractures, and fractures at the base of the skull, are the result of traumatic loads carried with the African load-bearing technique of axial loading. |
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