The Jessups villages, Nevis

Excavation at Jessups slave village

Located on the leeward side of Nevis, Jessups Estate was a sugar plantation of 180 acres, established in the early 1720s. By the mid-1700s, Jessups had grown to over 250 acres with an enslaved population of over 110 individuals. A number of evocative primary documents, including a richly detailed 1755 plan and a 1748 slave inventory, provide important glimpses into the landscape and demographics of the plantation.

Archaeological research has confirmed the location of two slave villages, the first village, Jessups I, dates from the mid-1700s to the early 1780s. A subsequent village, Jessups II, was located to the north of the first village and was occupied from the early 1780s through emancipation in 1834.