Statia beads are highly collectible trinkets in the Netherlands Antilles and come from St. Eustatius or "Statia" as it is nicknamed. These beads were originally made in Holland with molten blue glass and formed into beads. The belief is that they were used as a form of bartering for the slaves in the 18th Century.
Some say that an individual slave who wanted to marry had to collect enough beads to wrap around the waist of the woman they wanted and another story is the number of beads a slave was given measured their value.
I located 3 of these Statia beads and had them made into my new necklace. It's kind of cool to have a piece of history like this not only because they are more than 250 years old but have such a profound history in the slave trade of the 1700's throughout the Caribbean.
2 comments:
Since you only have a few, does that mean based on history you are not worth much? :)
Cheap is my middle name. Uh Huh!
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