Historical Museum of Southern Florida
HMSF Home | Exhibitions

CARIBBEAN COLLAGE

British Imperialism IN THE Caribbean, 1756-1834

Anthony Ravell. Isle of St. Christophe ou St. Kitts. Paris, 1779. This map of St. Kitts derives from one published by Thomas Jeffreys in 1775. The British permanently settled the island in 1624, formally partitioned it with France in 1627 and regained it entirely in 1713.

L. Bonnor. A view of the King’s house and public offices.From Edward Long, 1734-1813. The history of Jamaica, vol. 2. London: T. Lownudes, 1774. These government buildings are located in the square of Spanish Town, which remained the capital of Jamaica until 1872.

Thomas Bowen, d. 1790. Plan of St. Lucia, in the West Indies: shewing the positions of the English & French forces with the attacks made at its reduction in Dec. 1778. From The Gentleman’s Magazine. London, 1779. The British captured French St. Lucia on December 12, 1778, and fought off a much larger French fleet during the next few days. Possession of the island, however, passed back and forth until 1814, when the Treaty of Paris ceded it to Britain.

In 1624 Britain established its first permanent Caribbean colony on the island of St. Kitts. It claimed Barbados in 1625, several Leeward Islands during the following years and Jamaica in 1655. During the next 160 years, Britain engaged in numerous battles with France, Spain and the Netherlands in efforts to further expand its Caribbean empire.

By the time of the global Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), Jamaica, Barbados and the Leeward Islands were highly profitable sites for sugar cultivation, and the West Indian Lobby (a group of planters and merchants) was one of the most important pressure groups in the British Parliament. Trade in enslaved Africans represented for the British a profitable business that complemented trade in Caribbean sugar, most of which was consumed in Britain. A protected market in Britain helped to assure the profitability of sugar to planters and merchants.

Sugar production, however, came at a high cost for the Africans, whose life expectancy amounted to seven years after arriving on Caribbean plantations. Africans resisted slavery through a variety of means, including sabotage of plantations and organized rebellions. They also escaped from bondage and, in some territories, established autonomous “maroon” settlements. Powerful maroon communities in Jamaica, for example, fought two wars with the British government.

By the early nineteenth century, industrialization in Britain, free trade and new sources of sugar were decreasing the importance of Caribbean colonies to the British Empire. Meanwhile, there was a growing abolitionist movement. Parliament abolished the slave trade in 1807. The abolition of slavery itself went into effect in 1834, and a temporary “apprenticeship” system ended in 1838. The colonies began to achieve independence during the 1960s.
Letter from William Matthew Burt (Government House, Antigua) to Lord George Germain (British secretary for the colonies). September 27, 1779. This letter discusses the establishment of a "Collector of His Majesty's Customs, agreeable to the Acts of Parliament" to secure ships that have wrecked on the small island of Barbuda, near Antigua.  Abr. Raimbach. Leonard Parkinson, a captain of maroons. From [Bryan Edwards, ed.] Jamaica Assembly. The proceedings of the governor and assembly of Jamaica, in regard to the maroon Negroes. London: J. Stockdale, 1796. The maroons were Africans who escaped from slavery into the interior of Jamaica. Though the British government signed treaties with the maroons in 1739, a second war broke out in 1795.  Letter from Ann Duckworth (Baker, England) to Rear Admiral John Thomas Duckworth (in the Caribbean). March 31, 1801. British naval officer John Thomas Duckworth first served in the Caribbean in 1770 and achieved many victories against French forces in the region through 1806. In this letter, Ann Duckworth writes to her father that she is “quite low” and has not “had the comfort of seeing” him for four years.  Joseph Sturge, 1793-1859, and Thomas Harvey. The West Indies in 1837. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1838. Emancipation in the British Caribbean in 1834 was followed by a planned six-year “apprenticeship” period. Joseph Sturge, a prominent Quaker abolitionist in England, traveled to the West Indies to assess this system first-hand. His damning report contributed to the end of the apprenticeship period in 1838.

Next: The Haitian Revolution

Caribbean Collage Home | Introduction
Caribbean Collections at the University of Florida | British Imperialism in the Caribbean
The Haitian Revolution |The Cuban Wars of Independence
U.S. Imperialism in the Caribbean |Credits

 

Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Your Story, Your Community ... Your Museum
© 2006 Historical Museum of Southern Florida. All rights reserved.