In the immediate post Emancipation period, and continuing into the early twentieth century, there was little tolerance and outright opposition to any enfranchisement of the black and coloured working class population in Barbados. David Browne, in examining the struggles of the black working class for democracy, dispels earlier assumptions that socio-political change in Barbados was generated by a benevolent and philanthropic ruling elite.   In Race, Class, Politics...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Talty’s vigorous history of seventeenth-century pirates of the Caribbean [is] a pleasure to read from bow to stern.”—Entertainment Weekly“In Stephan Talty’s hands, the brilliant Captain Morgan, wicked and cutthroat though he was, proves an irresistible hero. . . . A thrilling and fascinating adventure.”—Caroline Alexander, author of The Endurance and The BountyThe passion and ...

A masterwork of travel literature and of history: voyaging from Cuba to Jamaica, Puerto Rico to Trinidad, Haiti to Barbados, and islands in between, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of each society, its culture and politics, connecting this region’s common heritage to its fierce grip on the world’s imagination.From the moment Columbus gazed out from the Santa María's deck in 1492 at what he mistook for an island off Asia, the Caribbean...

Offering a comprehensive overview of Puerto Rico's history and evolution since the installation of U.S. rule, Cesar Ayala and Rafael Bernabe connect the island's economic, political, cultural, and social past. Puerto Rico in the American Century explores Puerto Ricans in the diaspora as well as the island residents, who experience an unusual and daily conundrum: they consider themselves a distinct people but are part of the American political system; they have U.S. citizenship but...

This tragicomic novel set in sixteenth-century Jamaica is a "gusty, boisterous, [and] entertaining . . . slice of historical fiction" (Alan Cheuse, NPR, All Things Considered).Winner of the 2014 Townsend Prize for FictionA fortune-seeking band of ragtag sailors travel aboard the Santa Inez, a Spanish vessel bound for the newly discovered West Indies. She is an unusual explorer for her day, carrying no provisions for the settlers a...

Volume XII of the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers covers a period of twelve months, from the opening of the UNIA's historic first international convention in New York, in August 1920, to Marcus Garvey's return to the United States in July 1921 after an extended tour of Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, and Belize. In many ways the 1920 convention marked the high-point of the Garvey movement in the United States, while Garvey's tour of the...

If you live in the Caribbean or Florida, youve probably heard tales about the Great Okeechobee Hurricane, which killed thousands and left behind wide swaths of destruction. Also known as the Saint Felipe (Phillip) Segundo Hurricane, it developed in the far eastern Atlantic before making its way over land and taking the lives of Bahamian migrant workers and Florida residents.This thoroughly researched history considers the storm and its aftermath, exploring an important historical w...

This volume provides an important entrée into the current thinking and rethinking on Caribbean heritage. Included are several topics that represent the rich plurality of the Caribbean experience, such as symbolism, popular culture, literature, linguistics, pedagogy, philanthropy, natural history, land tenure, townscapes, archaeology and museology. Given its multidisciplinary approach, Caribbean Heritage will have considerable appeal to a wide range of scholars such as folklorists,...

In this moving microhistory of nineteenth-century Haiti and Jamaica, Matthew J. Smith details the intimate connections that illuminate the conjoined histories of both places after slavery. The frequent movement of people between Haiti and Jamaica in the decades following emancipation in the British Caribbean brought the countries into closer contact and influenced discourse about the postemancipation future of the region. In the stories and genealogies of exiles and politicians, abolitioni...

Between 1500 and 1750, European expansion and global interaction produced vast wealth. As goods traveled by ship along new global trade routes, piracy also flourished on the world’s seas. Pillaging the Empire tells the fascinating story of maritime predation in this period, including the perspectives of both pirates and their victims. Brushing aside the romantic legends of piracy, Kris Lane pays careful attention to the varied circumstances and motives that led to the rise of this...

Undocumented Dominican Migration is the first comprehensive study of boat migration from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. It brings together the interactive global, cultural, and personal factors that induce thousands of Dominicans to journey across the Mona Passage in attempts to escape chronic poverty. The book provides in-depth treatment of decision-making, experiences at sea, migrant smuggling operations, and U.S. border enforcement. It also explores several topics that ...

In October 1866, a powerful Category 4 hurricane struck the Bahamian Islands. With winds well over 140 miles per hour and even higher gusts that toppled trees, sank ships, peeled away rooftops, and destroyed vital infrastructures, the massive storm battered the islands with great ferocity. When the seas finally calmed and the winds died down, the massive storm had killed more than 387 people in the Bahamas alone and left a massive trail of destruction.Author Wayne Neely, a leading ...