GR2021team uncovers blue beads

The GR2021 team has uncovered two five-sided blue glass beads (Statia blue beads) in the fill of one of the graves at the Golden Rock enslaved burial ground. Beads like these were very important in the lives of enslaved people on St. Eustatius.

Oral historical sources tell us that they performed functions in a barter economy and played a role in marriage between enslaved people. They were probably originally buried with an enslaved person at Golden Rock Plantation. This has been seen before in the Caribbean, at Newton Plantation in Barbados.