The Infrastructure of Nature’s Island: Settlements, Networks and Economy of Two Plantations in Colonial Dominica

Abstract

Scholars have tended to think about the plantation as a functional institution comprised of property geared towards agricultural production. This article looks at unique modes of settlement in Dominica and suggests that we might think about more subtle definitions of plantations that encompass the social and economic networks of their residents. I begin by describing how British observers envisioned Dominica as a colonial enterprise, poised to augment the sugar holdings of other overseas territories in their Caribbean empire. This had the effect of creating an archaeological horizon on the physical landscape of the island. I compare the settlement histories of two estates with a focus on the accretion of buildings associated with plantation agriculture. Finally I turn to the lives lived on those estates and how the material registers of everyday life speak to the durability of existing social networks and ways of doing things.