Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713First published by UNC Press in 1972, Sugar and Slaves presents a vivid portrait of English life in the Caribbean more than three centuries ago. Using a host of contemporary primary sources, Richard Dunn traces the development of plantation slave society in the region. He examines sugar production techniques, the vicious character of the slave trade, the problems of adapting English ways to the tropics, and the appalling mortality rates for both blacks and whites that made these colonies the richest, but in human terms the least successful, in English America. "A masterly analysis of the Caribbean plantation slave society, its lifestyles, ethnic relations, afflictions, and peculiarities.--Journal of Modern History "A remarkable account of the rise of the planter class in the West Indies. . . . Dunn's [work] is rich social history, based on factual data brought to life by his use of contemporary narrative accounts.--New York Review of Books "A study of major importance. . . . Dunn not only provides the most solid and precise account ever written of the social development of the British West Indies down to 1713, he also challenges some traditional historical cliches.--American Historical Review |
Contents
3 | |
The Rise of the Planter Class | 46 |
The Planters in Power | 84 |
4 The Leeward Islands | 117 |
5 Jamaica | 149 |
6 Sugar | 188 |
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Common terms and phrases
acres America Antigua Assembly Atkins Barbadians Barbados census Barbados planters big planters Blathwayt Bridgetown Bristol buccaneers Bybrook Cal.S.P.Col cane Carib Caribbean Carolina census chap Christopher coast Codrington colonists crop Dutch early England English islands English planters English sugar Englishmen French governor Helyar MSS Hist History of Barbados hundred inventories James Jeaffreson John Helyar Jour labor land Leeward Islands Leeward planters Lesser Antilles lists lived London Lords of Trade maica mainland colonies Mary Qtly masters merchants militia Modyford Montserrat muscovado Negroes Nevis parish percent plant plantation planter class population Port Royal Quakers records Royal African Company settlement seventeenth century ships Sir Henry slavery Sloane small planters social Spanish Town sugar islands sugar planters Taylor Thomas Thomas Modyford tion tobacco tropical True History Virginia West Indian West Indies white servants William Blathwayt William Helyar Winthrop women