Charleston County Public Library

Hubs of empire, the Southeastern Lowcountry and British Caribbean, Matthew Mulcahy

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

Hubs of empire

bibliography

879584078

Matthew Mulcahy

Regional perspectives on early America

the Southeastern Lowcountry and British Caribbean

"In Hubs of Empire, Mulcahy argues that it is useful to view Barbados, Jamaica, and the British Leeward Islands, along with the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry, as a single region. Separated by thousands of miles of ocean but united by shared history and economic interest, these territories formed the Greater Caribbean.... Hubs of Empire begins in the sixteenth century by providing readers with a broad overview of Native American life in the region and early pirate and privateer incursions. Mulcahy examines the development of settler colonies during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, explores diverse groups of European colonists, and surveys political, economic, and military issues in the decades before the Seven Years War. The plantation system achieved its fullest and harshest manifestation in the Greater Caribbean. The number of slaves and the scale of the slave trade meant that enslaved Africans outnumbered Europeans in all of the affiliated colonies, often by enormous ratios. This enabled Africans to maintain more of their traditions, practices, and languages than in other parts of British America, resulting in distinct, creole cultures. This volume is an ... introduction to the complex and fascinating history of colonies too often neglected in standard textbook accounts."--Page [4] of cover

Prologue: Rethinking regions in colonial British America -- Plundering and planting the Greater Caribbean -- The sweet negotiation of sugar -- Jamaica -- "Carolina in ye West Indies" -- "In miserable slavery" -- Creole societies -- Trade, politics, and war in the eighteenth century -- Epilogue: The political crisis of the 1760s