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CARIBBEAN COLLAGE

Caribbean Collections AT THE University of Florida

A topographicall description and admeasurement of the yland of Barbados. From Richard Ligon.A true & exact history of the island of Barbadoes. London: P. Parker, and T. Guy, 1673. Richard Ligon lived in Barbados from 1647 to 1650. His map shows numerous plantations along the coast of the island.

[Africans preparing tobacco.] From Jean Baptiste Labat, 1663-1738. Nouveau voyage aux isles de l’Amerique, vol. 6. Paris: T. Le Gras, 1742. French priest Jean Baptiste Labat served as a missionary in the French Caribbean between 1693 and 1706. Though sugar dominated the eighteenth-century Caribbean economy, tobacco was also produced by slave labor in some islands.

The University of Florida’s Smathers Libraries are home to one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Caribbean materials. These collections, first developed in the late 1920s, now include books, periodicals, government documents, microforms and electronic resources. The Libraries maintain exchange agreements with many institutions worldwide, including the University of the West Indies and Cuba’s Biblioteca Nacional José Martí. In addition, the Libraries have conducted ambitious microfilming and acquisitions projects in the Caribbean.

Rare books and other scarce printed works, manuscripts and archival records, antique maps, photographs and ephemera add distinction to the Smathers Libraries’ Caribbean collections. These unique materials are divided primarily among the Libraries’ very extensive Latin American Collection, the Map and Imagery Library, and Special Collections.

These diverse holdings reflect the University of Florida’s broad-based interest in the Caribbean. Many university departments, from Agriculture and Zoology to Fine Art, History and Anthropology, have research and/or teaching programs devoted to the region. University theses and dissertations reveal wide coverage of Caribbean topics. However, the main strength of the Smathers Libraries’ Caribbean collections lies in history and the social sciences, with particularly extensive representation of Cuba, Haiti and the British West Indies.

This section of Caribbean Collage provides a small sampling of the Smathers Libraries’ Caribbean collections, ranging from books and maps of European exploration of the region, published during the sixteenth century, to accounts of the plantation system during the eighteenth century and documents of political figures from the twentieth century.

Bernard Picart, 1673-1733. Christophle Colomb.From Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, 1682-1761.Histoire de l’isle Espagnole ou de S. Domingue. Amsterdam: F. L’Honore, 1733. This illustration by French artist Bernard Picart depicts the arrival of Christopher Columbus on the island of Guanahani (San Salvador) in the Bahamas in 1492. Spagnola.From Benedetto Bordone, d. 1539. Isolario di Benedetto Bordone. Vinegia: Nicolo d’Aristotile, detto Zoppino, 1534. This page, with a map of Hispaniola, is from a book on the islands of the world by the Italian illustrator Benedetto Bordone. The book includes information on the islands’ peoples, climates, histories and mythologies. Sir Walter Raleigh, 1552?-1618. Sir Walter Rawleigh his apologie for his voyage to Guiana. London: Printed by T.W. for Hum. Moseley, 1650. Soldier, adventurer and author Sir Walter Raleigh directed missions up the Orinoco River in 1595 and 1616-17 in search of gold in the legendary city of El Dorado. Before his execution for treason, he defended his explorations and loyalty to the British Crown. R. R. Madden, 1798-1886. A letter to W. E. Channing, D.D., on the subject of the abuse of the flag of the United States in the island of Cuba, and the advantage taken of its protection in promoting the slave trade. Boston: W. D. Ticknor, 1839. In a treaty signed with Britain in 1818, Spain agreed to abolish its slave trade. Nonetheless, enslaved Africans continued to be brought to Cuba, whose sugar economy was rapidly expanding. In this booklet, R. R. Madden, an abolitionist based at the British consulate in Havana, described how U.S. ships were employed in the illegal slave trade. Letter from Partido Dominicano to El Triunfo. June 21, 1933. Rafael Trujiullo’s 35-year dictatorship (1930-1965) of the Dominican Republic involved tight control of the press. This letter from the directorate of his Dominican Party requested a copy of El Triunfo, a newspaper published by businessman Francisco Aníbal Roldán.

Next: British Imperialism in the Caribbean

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

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