Slavery and Christianity in the British West Indies

1950 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Worthington Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
The Caribbean

Slavery in the British Empire was always centered in the British West Indies. To a greater degree than in the Southern Thirteen Colonies, economic life in the West Indies depended upon Negro slavery, and the population of the islands soon became predominantly Negro. With the loss of the Thirteen Colonies after 1775, slavery within the British Empire became almost entirely confined to the Caribbean colonies. Until the emancipation of the slaves in 1833, British eyes were focused upon the West Indies whenever slavery was mentioned.

Anglo-American Diplomacy and the British West Indies (1783-1789)

1976 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-436
Author(s):  
Charles W. Toth
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New England ◽  
West Indies ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
John Adams ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Better Than

On the eve of the American Revolution colonial trade with the islands of the British West Indies had reached considerable proportions. Close to 40% of the ships leaving the ports of New York and Boston alone sailed directly to the English possessions in the Caribbean, and an estimated 500 sloops and schooners were involved in both direct and indirect commerce. The year 1767 saw a total of 2000 vessels cleared through American ports for the West Indies.The landowners in the West Indies were highly dependent upon the American colonies for supplies of foodstuffs (including livestock) and lumber. Therefore agricultural America had an outlet for its primary products, while the West Indian planter had a steady market for his sugar economy. In effect the trade with the BWI had become, on the eve of the Declaration of Independence, a cornerstone of American commerce. The importance of this trade can, and has, been documented. But no better than by the remark of Paul Revere shortly after the famous midnight ride. Traveling through the major commercial areas of New England, Revere reported “a sentiment in favor of Congress, so constituted, in order to place a restriction on the trade of the West Indies.” Actually the colonies were not about to injure this trade. After Boston harbor was shut down, John Adams remarked that its commerce was “an essential link in a vast chain, which has made New England what it is, the southern provinces what they are, the West India islands what they are.”

The West Indies and the American Crisis

2019 ◽  
pp. 125-154
Author(s):  
P. J. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
West Indians ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The Government

The conflict between Britain and the North American colonies, which led to a worldwide war involving Britain’s European enemies, caused dire problems for the British West Indies. North America was an essential source of foodstuffs and other supplies to the islands. To bring pressure on Britain the American colonies cut off supplies to the British islands, much to their detriment. When war broke out in 1778, the French had the ascendancy in the Caribbean, capturing a number of British islands. Edmund Burke and his associates in the Rockingham party were highly critical of both the government policies that led to war with America and of the way in which the war was conducted. They sought to enlist West Indian interests in Britain in their opposition to Lord North. Although most West Indians saw little alternative to putting their trust in the government, Burke played a part in shaping the London Merchants and Planters’ pleas for moderating policy towards America in 1775. In 1781, in two powerful speeches, he took up the cause of those in Britain and the West Indies who were trying to limit the damage the war was inflicting on them by trading through neutral channels. Admiral Rodney’s seizure of the Dutch island of St Eustatius was a very serious blow to British merchants, which Burke denounced as amounting to robbery.

Caribbean Commission

1949 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 166-166
Keyword(s):  
Dominican Republic ◽  
United Nations ◽  
West Indies ◽  
West Indian ◽  
The West ◽  
French West Indies ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
The United Nations

The third session of the West Indian Conference opened at Guadeloupe, French West Indies on December 1, 1948 and closed on December 14, after considering policy to be followed by the Caribbean Commission for the next two years. The Conference was attended by two delegates from each of the fifteen territories within the jurisdiction of the commission and observers invited by the commission from Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the United Nations and its specialized agencies.

‘Sailing on the same uncertain sea’

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Douglas Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Imperial Rivalry

Although they were small, the islands of the Caribbean were central rather than peripheral to the idea of empire. By the seventeenth century, the islands of the Antillean archipelago were already integral to European imperial rivalry and—as a result—came to shape European notions of what empires were and what they were for. This chapter explores the shifting nature of these islands as they emerged to become imperial powerhouses in the eighteenth century. This transformation was set against the backdrop of the great upheavals of war and revolution. The shifting demography of the West Indies and their economic and strategic importance exposed them particularly to the threats created by the geopolitical maelstrom around them. This chapter argues that their island nature intensified how they were affected by, and responded to, the profound and unprecedented uncertainties of the Age of Revolutions.

The Making of the Free Ports Act

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
P. J. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
British Atlantic ◽  
British North America ◽  
American Colonies ◽  
The North ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
British System

Burke became involved with West Indian issues at the very beginning of his political career. The brief Rockingham administration of 1765–6 was committed to measures to improve flows of trade around the British Atlantic, of which the West Indies was a crucial component. As the prime minister’s secretary, Burke was deeply involved in these measures. The main problem which they sought to remedy was the inability of the British West Indies to produce commodities needed in other parts of the Atlantic in sufficient quantities. These commodities were principally sugar and raw cotton for Britain and molasses for British North America. The remedy chosen was to allow foreign supplies of these commodities to enter the British system through what were called free ports in two British islands—Dominica and Jamaica. Burke was particularly influential in the provisions of the act relating to Dominica, whose ports were intended to draw in produce, especially raw cotton, from French islands that the British had occupied during the war. In return, they would export British manufactures and slaves to foreign colonies. Getting the act through Parliament required the careful balancing of interests, notably those of the North American colonies and of the West Indies. Burke was in the thick of these negotiations, forming many contacts with merchants. The act, by letting in foreign produce to British islands, marked a significant breach in the hitherto sacrosanct doctrine of imperial self-sufficiency.

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