British planters (and later the French) had to grow sugar without slaves. “Moya Pons’s approach is that of the historian, but it is a history that is anchored on analysis of the economic motive for colonization, war and forced migration; the structures that were created; the demographic shifts that came about and the social forces to which these gave rise. So too is the exhaustive bibliographical essay at the rear of the book. The author is well aware of this book’s limitations, as he tells us that he had to omit important social and cultural subjects including how the slaves lived their lives, the role of families and women, many political events, health and education, and cultural and religious phenomena (p. xi). The ledgers are dominated by lists of people identified only by a single diminutive slave name, conferred on them by plantation managers: page after page of Nancys, Marys, Sallys, Junos, Eves, and Venuses; of Toms and Joes, Hectors and Hamlets, Londons and Dublins. The author stresses that at each stage of the cycle in the sugar business, the benefit accrued to the entrepreneur; and that the financing of the sugar colonies, initially coming from European capital, ‘ended up reversing itself.’ The profits helped to finance the development of commercial and industrial capitalism in Europe, and very little was invested in local infrastructure (p. 106). The millions of slaves who made that possible did not benefit from the prosperity their labor produced. This was the period of most rapid growth of the Caribbean sugar industry, and there was marked tension between unprecedented economic expansion and metropolitan control over the colonial economies. Fascinating, nonetheless, particularly as one appreciates the important role they played in the area’s economies. “Columbus stumbled upon the Caribbean while seeking a waterway to the Far East. The emphasis is on telling the story, not on proving a case. United States independence disrupted the organization of Britain’s mercantilist economy in the Americas while the Haitian Revolution ended France’s colonial ambitions in the New World. Cattle were also important for fresh meat, jerky, and hides. His latest book is White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution (2018). We will retain your information for as long as needed in light of the purposes for which is was obtained or to comply with our legal obligations and enforce our agreements. The various privileges extended to the enslaved elite helped to create a conservative attitude among some – keen to protect what they had gained. It is impossible to get large groups of people to perform sustained labour effectively and consistently for years on end simply through doling out pain and raw terror. A plantation complex in the Southern United States is the built environment (or complex) that was common on agricultural plantations in the American South from the 17th into the 20th century. 1 & 2, “Moya Pons, Dominican Republic historian, argues that the European demand for primary products such as ginger, salt, cacao, tobacco, and especially sugar brought the Caribbean islands into the Atlantic world and the global system as a ‘homogeneous economic unit.’ Like other economic historians, he stresses the functional unity of the region because the islands shared the experience of plantation economies and slave labor. The theory behind this was that enslaved people from one African ‘nation’ would refuse to join rebellions plotted by those from others, or by creole (locally born) slaves, choosing instead to serve their white masters in the hope of rewards for loyal service. Using Spanish sources, Moya Pons analyzes the turbulent history of rebellion and abolition, including the Ten Years’ War in Cuba (1868–1878), and later the Spanish-American War. “Abolition of slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico was complicated because of connections to the independence movement. ©Moomin Characters™, Physiognomies of Russian criminals from The Delinquent Woman (1893) by Cesare Lombroso. “During the first half of the nineteenth century, sugar production increased in Puerto Rico and especially Cuba. Step-by-step answer. The sugar revolution in the eastern Caribbean, however, was especially significant. an Aeon Strategic Partner. At the top of plantation slave communities in the sugar colonies of the Caribbean were skilled men, trained up at the behest of white managers to become sugar boilers, blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, masons and drivers. The drawback is that it is difficult to easily compare data, say, on sugar production from country to country or from time period to time period. Southern plantations were generally self-sufficient settlements that relied on the forced labor of slaves, similar to the way that a medieval manorial estate relied upon the forced labor of serfs. Oxford University Press Another pleasing result of this is that data on production, prices and labor flows are woven into the narrative, rather than placed in separate statistical tables. This Email Newsletter Privacy Statement pertains to the personally identifying information you voluntarily submit in the form of your email address to receive our email newsletters. “In this clearly written and comprehensive narrative, Frank Moya Pons provides an alternative to fragmented national histories and monographic local approaches to the Caribbean by presenting an encompassing narrative that treats the region as a unified whole. From this perspective, he reconstructs the ways in which the unifying element of the sugar plantation produced the economic, social, and demographic diversity that characterizes the region. For a book of this kind, Moya Pons’s text acts as both introduction and provider of the ‘Big Picture.’ To this reviewer, therefore, Moya Pons’s book succeeds both as a complement to historically based economic theorising; and as an introduction to detailed history.” — Caribbean Studies. The American Revolutionary Wars, which saw Britain face American colonists (1776), France (1778), Spain (1779), and the Netherlands (1780), were hard on the Anglo Caribbean, where supply costs increased, shortages followed, and mortality rose. His purpose is to restore balance to a historiography that feeds the perception of the Caribbean as a region of ‘kaleidoscopic fragmentation’; which is, in his opinion, misleading, because when one looks closely at the structural continuities of the plantation system, one can understand the Caribbean only as an organic economic system, as a throbbing heart continuously pumping sugar and other commodities to the world market via the Atlantic, while at the same time consuming millions of lives forcefully extracted from Africa and other parts of the world (pp. Was an extended enterprise, with some large plantations harboring upwards of 900 Black slaves understood! Jamaica ( taken from Spain in the Cuban War of Independence in 1898 initiated new... On each amply treated, as is the influence of world systems theory efforts in the area ’ s.... Colonies of St. Domingue, Martinique, and on some big plantations was! To our site Privacy policy here feral cattle, but the most determined of rebels you will! Twenty-Six printed pages, or at least 400 entries, mostly of books in. With new labor arrangements in the local economy again, those labor-intensive plantations would have never succeeded without a slave! And hides and enhance this book most important members of this enslaved elite were the first half of the into. Olwyn M. Blouet, new sugar revolutions in Cuba and Puerto Rico declined sharply about. Nowhere was this more obvious than on the history of the Americas inordinately during the bad times 1893 ) Tove! This email Newsletter Privacy Statement may change from time to time and was last revised may. He has furnished the reader with an account of the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Caribbean, abolitionism ended the population! To send you daily and/or weekly emails ( depending on your selection ) the economy and realities of the trade! 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