Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'British in Jamaica'

White women who inhabited the West Indies in the eighteenth century fascinated the metropole. In popular prints, novels, and serial publications, these women appeared to stray from “proper” British societal norms. Inhabiting a space dominated by a tropical climate and the presence of a large enslaved African population opened white women to censure. Almost from the moment of colonial encounter, they were perceived not as proper British women but as an imperial “other,” inhabiting a middle space between the ideal woman and the supposed indigenous “savage.” Furthermore, white women seemed to be lacking the sensibility prized in eighteenth-century England. However, the correspondence that survives from white women in Jamaica reveals the language of sensibility. “Creolized” in this imperial landscape, sensibility extended beyond written words to the material objects exchanged during their tenure on these sugar plantations. Although many women who lived in the Caribbean island of Jamaica might have fit the model, extant writings from Ann Brodbelt, Sarah Dwarris, Margaret and Mary Cowper, Lady Maria Nugent, and Ann Appleton Storrow, show a longing to remain connected with metropolitan society and their loved ones separated by the Atlantic. This sensibility and awareness of metropolitan material culture masked a lack of empathy towards subordinates, and opened the white women these islands to censure, particularly during the era of the British abolitionist movement. Novels and popular publications portrayed white women in the Caribbean as prone to overconsumption, but these women seem to prize items not for their inherent value. They treasured items most when they came from beloved connections. This colonial interchange forged and preserved bonds with loved ones and comforted the women in the West Indies during their residence in these sugar plantation islands. This dissertation seeks to complicate the stereotype of insensibility and overconsumption that characterized the perception of white women who inhabited the British West Indies in the long eighteenth century.

The thesis is concerned with assessing the scale and importance of the interaction between Scotland and the West Indies in the later part of the eighteenth century. In analysing the symbiotic relationship between a metropolitan region and a colonial sphere, this study seeks to further the on-going reappraisal of British imperial activity. Within the West Indies, the thesis focuses particularly on Jamaica and on the Windward Islands, which were ceded to Britain in 1763. For Scots, the new opportunities in the Windwards were especially attractive. In this period, Scots formed a significant, and disproportionately large, part of the white population and tended to conduct their affairs in networks based on ties of kinship or local association. These were essentially transatlantic, and were often based on pre-existing networks which were extended from Scotland to include Great Britain and its Atlantic empire. In addition to facilitating all aspects of the Scottish-West Indian interaction, the networks helped to forge new, concentric identities within a imperial framework. The thesis considers this transoceanic interaction by examining a number of key themes. The two opening chapters discuss the Scottish and Caribbean contexts in which the thematic chapters. The first of these is concerned with the structure of Scottish affairs on the plantations, and the next examines the role of Scots in medical practice. Two further chapters assess the political implications of the Scottish presence, one in a West Indian context, the other from a British imperial perspective. Chapter seven reviews Scottish mercantile activity. The final chapter looks at the nature and direction of the repatriation of people and capital from the Caribbean to Scotland.

This research examines the changes over time in British Newspaper reports covering the Jamaican rebellions of 1760, 1832 and 1865. The uprisings: Tacky’s Rebellion, the Baptist War and the Morant Bay Rebellion respectively, represented three key moments in the history of race, slavery and the British Empire. Though all three rebellions have been studied, this work compares the three events as moments of crisis challenging the British public discourse on slavery, race and subjecthood as it related to the changing Atlantic Empire. British newspapers provided the most direct way in which popular readers and the growing literate public examined and explored distant relations with colonial peoples. This research sheds light on the significant impact these rebellions had on rhetorical choices regarding race and slavery, and establishes that by forcing a public discourse on the topics of subjecthood and race, the rebellions in Jamaica had a dramatic trans-Atlantic impact.

This thesis presents a comparative analysis of the operation and significance of elections in the British colonies of Jamaica, New South Wales and the Cape, from 1849-1860, with a particular focus on the creation and reconstruction of ideas of politically-entitled British subjecthood over this period. Beginning with the first elections under a system of representative government in New South Wales and the Cape, and the early elections of the post-emancipation period in Jamaica, it questions how residents within these sites engaged with elections via the cultures of the canvass, public meetings, open nominations and viva voce polling. Through this study, I show how mid-century elections became critical sites for the articulation of social tensions and long-standing rivalries between competing settler groups within each of these colonies. I argue that the franchise, although highly demonstrative of the Colonial Office and settlers’ attempts to reconcile the respective competing histories of and justifications for colonisation, was often frustrated in practice. Cultures of violence, the manipulation of land-values, double-voting and bribery provided avenues through which laws governing the right to vote were transcended during elections. Through this thesis, I show how both residents and officials used such mechanisms to reshape the function and meaning of the franchise. I also show the lasting implications of such changes, particularly for their impact on nascent attitudes to race. Via a close examination of case studies across the three sites, this history broadens understandings of the mid-century as a period in which locally-elected legislatures increasingly became the prerogative of white ‘settler’ colonies and political rights increasingly centred on an individual, defined by his race and gender, as well as his class. Although affirming the importance of the period, it shows the complexities and inconsistencies of attempts to define the boundaries of enfranchisement over this period, and the impact of struggles to achieve it via changes to electoral law and practice. The comparison between New South Wales, the Cape and Jamaica illuminates the manner through which global discourses of reform, including those relating to bribery, privacy and order, would come to be repurposed within each site. It also serves to reinforce the striking role that attitudes to race would come to play in the formation and regulation of electoral practice across the British Empire. In this manner, this thesis aims to advance imperial historiography by highlighting the role of electoral culture as a reflection of and instigating factor in wider reconceptions of political rights across the British colonial world.

This thesis examines the development of the Jamaican economy from 1920 to 1940. It looks at the attempts of local capital to set up independent ventures in both the agricultural and the indust ri al spheres, and considers the responses of both the imperial a nd local state, and British and foreign capital. The study attempts to exami ne , within the appropriate theoretical framework , t he proc ess of devel opme nt wi thi n a colony at a time of world depression , and t he role of the state, particularly the colonial state, in helping or hinderiug attempts to promote some form of industrialisation . This i s done t hrough a number of case studies in the agricultural and indus trial sectors. Once the British and Jamaican context has been outlined, the a na lysi s o i the agricultural sphere considers the crisis in the sugar indust ry a nd the attempts to find alternatives to it. This focuses on the establishment of Producers Associations, anal ysing t hose groups i nvol ved in them, their relationship with the Jamai can and imperia l gover nment s, and the reasons for their lack of succ ess in sol vi ng Jama i ca ' s agricul tural problems. The industrial section f ocu sse~:; on four case studies: the first considers the establ ishment of a gri c ultural processing, primarily in the form of edible oil s and s oap. The second examines the role of the state in promoting industr ia l enterpri ses through looking at two Acts passed to protect cer tain ventures particularly the match industry. The third case study a na l yses t hEattempts of a multinational to establi s h a branch plant a nd it demonstrates the changes in colonial policy which had occurred by the end of the 1930s. The fourth case study also hi g hlights these c hanges , and because it is an example of a venture whi ch did not receive offic ial sanction brings out the difficulties facing those attempting to transform themselves into an industriall y product ive bourgeoi Si e at this time.

While there have been a number of publications in the last few years that describe the origins and progression of the reggae from Jamaica, much less attention has been given to other popuiar forms of black music from the English-spealdng West Indies. A particular omission is the nineteenth-century background to such evolutions. The primary objective of this study is to address this lacuna and to explore dynamics of continuity and change in these musical developments.

This dissertation explores the intellectual discourse on race in the early twentieth century, particularly from 1919 to 1958, examining how British and American eugenicists and Caribbean nationalists debated the limits of colonial politics in the British Caribbean using academic and scientific language. These discussions emerged in the aftermath of World War I, the economic crises that led to the Great Depression, the political and labor unrest in the British Caribbean, and consequences of the Second World War. The dissertation’s goal is to examine how residents of the British Caribbean understood, appropriated, and challenged some of the principles of eugenics, particularly those espousing ideas of white superiority. The dissertation has taken great consideration of both private and published sources from white and black intellectuals in the Anglophone Caribbean to document the dissemination of concepts of race, ethnicity, and identity in the region during the interwar period. Additionally, focusing on such critical areas as education and social policies, it explores whether eugenic ideas influenced the twentieth-century governance of British West Indian colonies.

Ce travail de thèse a pour but d’étudier le degré d’implication des Écossais dans le système esclavagiste britannique graduellement mis en place dans les colonies du Nouveau Monde à partir du XVIIe siècle. Dans la lignée de publications récentes témoignant d’un intérêt grandissant pour la question, il vise à mettre au jour un pan problématique de l’histoire écossaise, qui trouve un écho particulier dans les discussions actuelles sur l’identité nationale écossaise. Cette thèse s’attarde ainsi sur le rôle particulier joué par les Écossais dans le développement économique de la traite négrière et au sein des sociétés esclavagistes des Antilles britanniques. Ce travail de recherche s’intéresse également à l’émergence des idées abolitionnistes en Grande-Bretagne au début du XIXe siècle et à la place des Écossais dans ce grand débat sociétal. L’enjeu de cette thèse est de déterminer s’il existait une spécificité de comportement, d’idéologie, dans le rôle joué par les Écossais au sein du système esclavagiste et dans les campagnes abolitionnistes dans le contexte impérial post-Union. Cette démarche ne s’inscrit pas dans la volonté clivante de singulariser les Écossais, mais de remettre en question l’homogénéité des notions d’« esclavagisme britannique » et d’ « abolitionnisme britannique ». Selon une approche chronologique, ce travail de recherche s’organise en trois mouvements. La première partie s’articule autour de la genèse d’une idéologie impériale écossaise, s’appuyant sur une conception économique esclavagiste. La seconde partie s’attarde sur la réalité du système esclavagiste dans les colonies et la place des colons écossais tandis que la dernière partie revient sur l’apport philosophique, idéologique et politique des Écossais dans les campagnes abolitionnistes britanniques et sur leur inclusion dans un projet à l’identité britannique très affirmée
This dissertation explores the scope of the Scottish involvement in the British slave system that was implemented in the colonies of the New World from the 17th century onwards. In the wake of recent research revealing a growing interest for this specific issue, it aims at examining a problematic aspect of Scotland’s history, shedding some new light on the current debate about national identity in Scotland. This thesis dwells on the particular role played by the Scots in the economic development of the African slave trade and their participation in slave societies in the West Indies. This research also takes interest in the emergence of abolitionist ideas in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and the part Scottish people played in the national debate. The main purpose is to determine whether there existed a Scottish specificity, regarding behaviours and ideology, in the British slave system and in the British abolitionist movement within the post-Union imperial context. The intent is not to single Scottish people out but rather to question the relevance of concepts such as « British slavery » and « British abolitionism ».Adopting a chronological approach, this thesis consists of three parts. First, it revolves around the development of the Scottish imperial ideology and of a colonial economic conception based on slavery. The second part dwells on the harsh reality of the slave system in the colonies and the role Scottish colonists played in it. Finally, the thesis tackles the philosophical, ideological and political contribution of Scottish people to the British abolitionist campaigns and examines their inclusion within this British scheme

This research examines the career of Robert Searle, an English privateer, that conducted state-sponsored attacks against the Spanish and Dutch in the Caribbean from 1655 to 1671. Set within the Buccaneering Period of the Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1680), Robert Searle’s personal actions contributed to the rise of the English in the Caribbean to a position of dominance over Spain, which dominated the region from 1492 until the 1670s. Searle serves as a window into the contributions of thousands of nameless men who journeyed to the Caribbean as a member of Oliver Cromwell’s Western Design Fleet. These men failed in their endeavor to take Hispaniola from the Spanish, successfully invaded Jamaica, and spent the next fifteen years securing England’s largest possession in the region, transitioning Jamaica from a military outpost to a successful plantation colony. These men, including Searle himself, have been overshadowed in the history of English Jamaica by more well-known figures such as Sir Henry Morgan, the famed “Admiral of the Buccaneers.” Searle and his compatriots pursued the objectives of the core in London throughout the contested periphery of the Caribbean region. These goals were first framed as the complete destruction of the Spanish Empire in the Americas and later as achieving trade between Jamaica and Spain’s American colonies. The examination of Robert Searle through the core-periphery relationship between the metropole and the Caribbean illustrates how the totality of his actions contributed to the rising English position in the Caribbean. Ultimately, Searle and his fellow privateers proved vital to Spain conceding to England the rights of trade and formal recognition of their colonies in the region with a series of succeeding Treaties of Madrid.

By the latter quarter of the eighteenth century, as the movement against the slave trade increased in Britain, Creoles, those of British ancestry born in the West Indies, were increasingly criticized for their involvement in slavery. Simon Taylor, a Jamaican-born planter of Scottish ancestry who lived most of his life in the colony, attempted to negotiate competing and often contradictory sensibilities and subject positions as both British and Creole. One of the central challenges to Taylor’s negotiation of identity was his long-term relationship with Grace Donne, a free mixed-race woman of colour. An examination of their relationship highlights the ways binary discourses and exclusionary practices devised to create and reinforce rigid racial boundaries were regularly crossed and blurred, even by an individual like Simon Taylor, a person well placed to benefit from the policing and maintenance of those boundaries.

This dissertation examines how the crisis of World War I impacted imperial policy and popular claims-making in the British Caribbean. Between 1915 and 1918, tens of thousands of men from the British Caribbean volunteered to fight in World War I and nearly 16,000 men, hailing from every British colony in the region, served in the newly formed British West Indies Regiment (BWIR). Rousing appeals to imperial patriotism and manly duty during the wartime recruitment campaigns and postwar commemoration movement linked the British Empire, civilization, and Christianity while simultaneously promoting new roles for women vis-à-vis the colonial state. In Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the two colonies that contributed over seventy-five percent of the British Caribbean troops, discussions about the meaning of the war for black, coloured, white, East Indian, and Chinese residents sparked heated debates about the relationship among race, gender, and imperial loyalty.

To explore these debates, this dissertation foregrounds the social, cultural, and political practices of BWIR soldiers, tracing their engagements with colonial authorities, military officials, and West Indian civilians throughout the war years. It begins by reassessing the origins of the BWIR, and then analyzes the regional campaign to recruit West Indian men for military service. Travelling with newly enlisted volunteers across the Atlantic, this study then chronicles soldiers' multi-sited campaign for equal status, pay, and standing in the British imperial armed forces. It closes by offering new perspectives on the dramatic postwar protests by BWIR soldiers in Italy in 1918 and British Honduras and Trinidad in 1919, and reflects on the trajectory of veterans' activism in the postwar era.

This study argues that the racism and discrimination soldiers experienced overseas fueled heightened claims-making in the postwar era. In the aftermath of the war, veterans mobilized collectively to garner financial support and social recognition from colonial officials. Rather than withdrawing their allegiance from the empire, ex-servicemen and civilians invoked notions of mutual obligation to argue that British officials owed a debt to West Indians for their wartime sacrifices. This study reveals the continued salience of imperial patriotism, even as veterans and their civilian allies invoked nested local, regional, and diasporic loyalties as well. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on the origins of patriotism in the colonial Caribbean, while providing a historical case study for contemporary debates about "hegemonic dissolution" and popular mobilization in the region.

This dissertation draws upon a wide range of written and visual sources, including archival materials, war recruitment posters, newspapers, oral histories, photographs, and memoirs. In addition to Colonial Office records and military files, it incorporates previously untapped letters and petitions from the Jamaica Archives, National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados Department of Archives, and US National Archives.

Dissertation

This work is a social and cultural history of the participation of enslaved and free Blacks in the Seven Years’ War in British America. It is, as well, an intellectual history of the impact of Blacks’ wartime actions upon conceptions of race, slavery, and imperial identity in the British Atlantic world. In addition to offering a fresh analysis of the significance of Britain’s arming of Blacks in the eighteenth century, it represents the first sustained inquiry into Blacks’ experience of this global conflict. It contends that, though their rhetoric might indicate otherwise, neither race nor enslaved status in practice prevented Britons from arming Blacks. In fact, Blacks played the most essential role in martial endeavors precisely where slavery was most fundamental to society. The exigencies of worldwide war transformed a local reliance upon black soldiers for the defense of particular colonies into an imperial dependence upon them for the security of Britain’s Atlantic empire. The events of the Seven Years’ War convinced many Britons that black soldiers were effective and even indispensable in the empire’s tropical colonies, but they also confirmed that not all Blacks could be trusted with arms. This work examines “Tacky’s revolt,” during which more than a thousand slaves exploited the wartime diffusion of Jamaica’s defensive forces to rebel, as a battle of the Seven Years’ War. The experience of insecurity and insurrection during the conflict caused some Britons to question the imperial value of the institution of slavery and to propose that Blacks be transformed from a source of vulnerability as slaves to the key to the empire’s strength in the southern Atlantic as free subjects. While martial service offered some Blacks a means to gain income, skills, a sense of satisfaction, autonomy, community, and even (though rarely) freedom, the majority of Blacks did not personally benefit from their contributions to the British war effort. Despite the pragmatic martial antislavery rhetoric that flourished postwar, in the end the British armed Blacks to perpetuate slavery, not to eradicate it, and an ever more regimented reliance upon black soldiers became a lasting legacy of the Seven Years’ War.
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