Abstract
This chapter continues my exploration of the spatial dynamics of the transition from mercantile to competitive capitalist modes of production in the early nineteenth century by exploring how a new sociospatial order was cognitively conceived by various plantation theorists in response to the crisis of the early nineteenth century. Prior to emancipation, such schemes sought to re-create a social order in which the planter class maintained exclusive control of productive space; following emancipation, the schemes attempted to materially create and legitimate a new set of social relations of production based on wage labor. In Jamaica, this spatial reorganization included the development of new patterns of landownership as the emancipated slave labor force transformed into an agrarian peasantry, the creation of new town and village forms inhabited by the peasantry, and the abandonment of large areas of land formally cultivated in sugar. Significantly, in the years leading up to emancipation, these processes also included the introduction of new crops — most notably coffee — and the spaces needed to create commodities from these plants. To understand how plantations were designed and imagined, that is, how some elements of cognitive space were negotiated, this chapter will analyze how contemporary plantation theorists recognized plantation spaces during the period of crisis I outlined in earlier chapters.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
A few planters suffer their negroes to make their own huts themselves, and in what form they please; but these will always be very incorrect, and perhaps insufficient. Besides, it seems that this building of houses is one of the obligations of the master.
— P. J. Laborie, 1798
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Delle, J.A. (1998). Analyzing Cognitive Space. In: An Archaeology of Social Space. Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9159-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9159-4_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9161-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9159-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive