Date of Award

5-31-2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Historical Archaeology

First Advisor

Nedra Lee

Second Advisor

Christa Beranek

Third Advisor

Stephen Mrozowski

Abstract

During the 17th century, Sylvester Manor, located on Shelter Island, off of Long Island in New York, was functioning as a slaveholding provisioning plantation, providing goods and foodstuffs to sugar plantations in Barbados. While male owners of the property are commonly discussed regarding the economic productivity of the plantation, women from the Sylvester family can be seen in the documents as participating in the ownership and transfer of land, monetary capital, goods, and enslaved people. Despite this, their contributions to the plantation's economic productivity remain unacknowledged.

Clarifying European women’s roles in producing and maintaining access to capital is important for understanding the full operational capacities of this plantation. An analysis of small finds, in conversation with the documentary record, serves to contextualize the lives of European women from the Sylvester family within broader manifestations of gendered labor and the reproduction of colonial power during the 17th century. The results of this thesis indicate that European women were not passive actors in the broader colonial and early capitalist world. This is emphasized in the ways that small find materials related to clothing production and interior furnishings highlight their roles in plantation management and household turnover, giving them a large amount of authority over goods and people. The results of this thesis indicate that the Sylvester women’s labor, although limited by the patriarchal legal system in which they lived, was embedded in systems of transatlantic slavery and colonialism, having major consequences for those whose labor they were profiting and benefiting from.

Comments

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