Poverty and Progress in the Caribbean, 1800-1960
In: Studies in Economic and Social History
26 Ergebnisse
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In: Studies in Economic and Social History
In: Oxford historical monographs
In: The economic history review, Band 76, Heft 1, S. 60-86
ISSN: 1468-0289
AbstractEarly nineteenth‐century demographic trends on sugar estates in Jamaica, the most important British Caribbean colony, are examined through the 1817–32 public slave registers. We seek evidence regarding the background to the island's 1831–2 popular insurrection, the immediate cause of the London parliament's vote in 1833 to abolish colonial slavery. Some historians argue that the revolt occurred as 'political' effect from a sudden upsurge of metropolitan anti‐slavery activism in 1830–1. They believe the uprising broke out despite improvement in enslaved people's material welfare, favoured by many slaveholders to secure population increase after the closure of the British transatlantic slave trade in 1808. Alternative 'economic' assessments judge that increasing workloads had been aggravating popular unrest before the revolt. Commercial pressures, and the imminent likelihood of emancipation, allegedly outweighed welfare concerns. The excess of slave deaths over births widened between 1817 and 1832. However, the registers show that demographic deficits resulted mainly from the ageing of the last Africa‐born cohorts. Jamaica‐born enslaved people became self‐reproducing. There was no general pre‐1831 regime deterioration. Most slaveholders sought to maintain their Jamaican assets for the long term through pro‐natalist measures, and did not expect emancipation. The revolt's causes were thus more 'political' than 'economic'.
In: The economic history review, Band 71, Heft 4, S. 1199-1226
ISSN: 1468-0289
AbstractAn older view among historians, predominant until about 1970, held that British West Indian slave maintenance standards were significantly improved or 'ameliorated' from the later eighteenth century. Subsequent research has disputed this consensus, although uncertainty remains on key details of slave diet, labour, and demography. As an alternative welfare measure, this study examines the reported heights of detained runaway slaves and ex‐slaves held between 1788 and 1838 at workhouses on Jamaica, the most important British West Indian colony. Analytical challenges arise through the limited age data. Also, a disproportionate share of the detainees had an urban background. However, these problems can be overcome with help from local estate records and from eastern Caribbean anthropometric evidence. The mean stature of Jamaica‐born adult detainees clearly rose during the period, and they gained a widening height advantage relative to their Africa‐born counterparts. This offers a useful indicator of trends for the enslaved population at large. The workhouse material confirms 'old school' judgements that substantive amelioration occurred, as a course of deliberate slaveholder policy.
In: The economic history review, Band 57, Heft 3, S. 602-603
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 47, Heft 1, S. 44
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 31, Heft 2, S. 197-213
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: Business history, Band 20, Heft 1, S. 3-18
ISSN: 1743-7938
In: Journal of the Royal United Service Institution, Band 6, Heft 21, S. 30-59
ISSN: 1744-0378
In: The economic history review, Band 48, Heft 4, S. 840
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 48, Heft 2, S. 422
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 48, Heft 1, S. 204
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 44, Heft 2, S. 383
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 43, Heft 1, S. 161
ISSN: 1468-0289
In: The economic history review, Band 42, Heft 3, S. 430
ISSN: 1468-0289