Benevolent Empire

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-132
Author(s):  
Cynthia A. Kierner
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Disaster Relief ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Dense Networks ◽  
American Colonies

This chapter examines five disasters that occurred in Britain's American colonies between 1760 and 1780: fires in Boston and Montreal, a massive flood in Virginia, and two unusually severe hurricanes in the British West Indies. It examines the rhetoric and realities of imperial disaster relief in an era most commonly associated with the imperial crisis that ultimately led to the American Revolution. When disaster struck their communities, colonists invoked sensibility, benevolence, and the bonds of empire, exploiting dense networks of transatlantic, intercolonial, and local connections in hopes of obtaining assistance from government officials, merchants, and others. In the decades after Lisbon, Britons on both sides of the Atlantic agreed in seeing disaster relief as benevolence provided to sufferers throughout their far-flung empire, though the performance of benevolence was also a tool of statecraft deployed to mitigate colonial discontent, strengthen the imperial bond, and solidify a shared sense of British national identity.

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.

scholarly journals Book Reviews

1989 ◽  
Vol 63 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 237-255
Author(s):  
Redactie KITLV
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
New York ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
West Indies ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Transatlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Johns Hopkins University

-Raymond T. Smith, John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of a five years expedition against the revolted negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South-America from the year 1772 to the year 1777. Edited by Richard Price and Sally Price. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. xcvii + 708 pp.-Richard Price, John Gabriel Stedman, Reize naar Surinamen, door den Capitein John Gabriel Stedman, met platen en kaarten, naar het Engelsch, Jos Fontaine (ed.) Zutphen: De Walburg Pers, 1987. 176 pp.-Robert L. Paquette, David Eltis, Economic growth and the ending of the transatlantic slave trade. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. xiii + 418 pp.-Robert L. Paquette, Robin Blackburn, The overthrow of colonial slavery, 1776-1848. London and New York: Verso, 1988. 560 pp.-Jack P. Greene, Selwyn H.H. Carrington, The British West Indies during the American revolution. The Netherlands: Foris Publications, 1988. 222 pp.-H. Hoetink, Angel G. Quintero Rivera, Patricios y plebeyos: burgueses, hacendados, artesanos y obreros. Las relaciones de clase en el Puerto Rico de cambio de siglo. Rio Piedras, P.R. Ediciones Huracán, 1988. 332 pp.

Sheridan's Introduction to the American stage

PMLA ◽  
1950 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-182
Author(s):  
George H. Nettleton
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
West Indies ◽  
British West Indies ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
American Theatre

The story of the introduction of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's dramatic masterpieces to the American theatre is itself an American Revolutionary drama. When once the materials widespread over many years and places are duly assembled and ordered, the resultant outline of events unfolds like the scenario of an arresting chronicle play. The dramatic factors of time, place, and action become clear and colorful. The action develops against dramatic backgrounds—the American Revolution, the birth of the American Republic. The scene shifts from the American mainland to the British West Indies, and back to focal points of the American scene. The plot thickens as theatrical enterprise encounters various forces of moral and political hostility to the theatre. The time of the action prolongs over years, until the progressive campaigns of American theatrical managers, despite sundry temporary local reverses, attain conclusive victory. Within this larger framework of American theatrical venture and warfare, Sheridan's dramatic work may well illustrate “the play within the play.”

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.

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