Nicholas Abbey Plantation House, Barbados, 1985

Nicholas Abbey was built of locally obtained coral blocks in the 1650s and is one of the oldest standing plantation houses in Barbados. It is one of three Jacobean-style English manor houses in what was once British America (the others are Drax Hall in Barbados and Bacon's Castle, Williamsburg, Virginia). This photo shows the front entrance of the plantation house (the entrance portico was added long after initial construction); note the chimneys to the fireplaces. The site of the former slave village is very close to the house. The plantation itself, during the period of slavery, was large in terms of acreage and enslaved population by standards of the island. (For a history of the plantation, its main house, and its enslaved population, see Jerome Handler et al., Searching for a slave cemetery in Barbados [Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Center for Archaeological Investigations, Research Paper No. 59, June 1989], passim.)

Image Title

Nicholas Abbey Plantation House, Barbados, 1985

RegID

SI-OB-501

Date

1985

Title

Nicholas Abbey Plantation House, Barbados, 1985

Source

Slide, Handler, personal collection

Language

English

Item sets

Plantation Scenes, Slave Settlements & Houses

Spatial Coverage

Caribbean--Barbados

Researchers

Handler, Jerome; Tuite, Michael; Randall Ericson; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May

Identifier

NW0082