Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776

by Natalie A. Zacek

Overview

Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1600–1776 is the first study of the history of the federated colony of the Leeward Islands – Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitts – that covers all four islands in the period from their independence from Barbados in 1670 up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, which reshaped the Caribbean as well as the mainland American colonies. Natalie A. Zacek emphasizes the extent to which the planters of these islands attempted to establish recognizably English societies in tropical islands based on plantation agriculture and African slavery. By examining conflicts relating to ethnicity and religion, controversies regarding sex and social order, and a series of virulent battles over the limits of local and imperial authority, this book depicts these West Indian colonists as skilled improvisers who adapted to an unfamiliar environment, and as individuals as committed as other American colonists to the norms and values of English society, politics, and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521190442
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/30/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Natalie A. Zacek is a Lecturer in History and American Studies at the University of Manchester. She has published in journals such as Slavery and Abolition, the Journal of Peasant Studies, History Compass, and Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and its Diaspora, as well as in several edited volumes. She is a founder of the H-Atlantic listserv and served as its book review editor for its first decade.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The challenges of English settlement in the Leewards; 2. Irish, Scots, and English; 3. Managing religious diversity; 4. Sex, sexuality, and social control; 5. Political culture, cooperation, and conflict; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

Zacek provides, for the first time, a searching portrait of an eighteenth-century planter society in the British West Indies from the perspective of the whites who ran it and benefited from it. This work is important not just for understanding the Leewards but also for understanding early British America as a whole.” – Trevor Burnard, University of Warwick

“Through deftly probing analysis of a wide range of sources, Natalie Zacek deploys her considerable skills as a social historian to argue persuasively, in this wonderfully enlightening and well-written study, that white settler society in the Leeward Islands, whatever its particular characteristics during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, cannot be said to have failed. This book greatly extends our understanding of the significance of the colonial forces, other than those directly connected with plantations and slavery, that shaped the emergence of slave societies in various corners of the Atlantic basin." – David Barry Gaspar, Duke University

“A welcome investigation of the neglected Leeward Islands: diverse communities, united by dependence on slave labor and exposure to natural hazard and foreign invasion. Within these kettled communities, sexual impropriety and small-town politics feature vividly Zacek’s forthright profiles of such colorful colonials as Daniel Parke, John Gardiner, and George Frye. Overcoming the challenge of scattered and fragmented public and private archival sources, Zacek urges a reconsideration of West Indies as failed societies. This captivating monograph contributes to the revisionist view of West Indian colonists as both adopters and adapters of recognizable and distinct English social, political, and cultural ideals.” – Simon D. Smith, University of Hull

“Thoroughly researched and beautifully written, this is a stunning contribution that greatly enhances our understanding of a long-neglected area of the colonial Anglophone Caribbean. Natalie Zacek’s compelling study will remain the standard work on the subject for many years to come.” – Betty Wood, Girton College, Cambridge University

"This sophisticated yet clearly written book will inspire further research into the colonization process in other portions of the British Caribbean...[It] will appeal to a wide audience of imperial, colonial, and Caribbean historians and encourage them to rethink their understanding of the West Indies during the first empire." — David Ryden, H-Albion

"This is an impressive book; it effectively integrates developments on four different islands, and it provides—given the challenges of the sources—an exceptionally rich sense of island life in the eighteenth century." -Susan D. Amussen, Journal of British Studies

"Some of Zacek’s most memorable material comes in the form of vignettes about specific controversies that roiled white society. She nicely contrasts the lack of concern over Rachel Faucette Levine Hamilton’s unconventional domestic arrangements with the furor over the notorious Governor Daniel Parke’s flagrant affair with Catharine Chester, who was married to a member of Parke’s council." -Carla Gardina Pestana, William and Mary Quarterly

"...Zacek argues that the net achievements of Leeward Islanders were significant even in the face of numerous challenges to order and prosperity." -Cathy Matson, H-Atlantic

"...significant scholarly study of Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis, and St Kitts in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." -Kenneth Morgan, New West Indian Guide

From the Publisher