St. Eustatius and the North Americans, 1680–1780
VICTOR ENTHOVEN
Free University of Amsterdam
abstract
The aim of this essay is to depict the long-standing trade relations between St. Eustatius and the thirteen British North American colonies between 1680 and 1780. For Americans, the otherwise virtually unknown Caribbean island of St. Eustatius is intimately linked to the history of the American Revolution. Indeed, the enduring relationship between them was instrumental to the growth of both sets of colonies and ultimately to the success of the American Revolution. Yet the connection that linked the tiny Dutch island with the mainland Anglo-American colonies was far deeper than is often realized in the existing historiography, which focuses predominantly on the Revolutionary years. St. Eustatius and the thirteen North American colonies were natural allies in the war against protectionism.
Smugglers before the Swedish throne: Political activity of free people of color in early nineteenth-century St Barthélemy
Ale Pålsson
Department of History, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
ABSTRACT
The Swedish colony St Barthélemy, established in 1785 and under Swedish rule until 1878, was an attractive island for neutral transit trade and for a large number of free people of color, many of whom became naturalized Swedish subjects. As subjects under the Swedish crown, they sought political rights through petitions, stressing their place within the colonial system. Free people of color were also connected to the Greater Caribbean and the mobility of the free port allowed for inter-colonial networks. The Swedish Governor Johan Norderling compared the activity of free people of color in the Swedish colony with other colonies, as well as Haiti and the USA. For him, free people of color throughout the Caribbean were grouped as belonging to the same community. Thus, the examples of activity in other colonies exemplified the dangers of further political rights in the Swedish colony. He also used the Caribbean network to communicate with other French, Spanish, and Dutch governors about a revolutionary plot planned by free people of color. Yet despite being nodal points within network for planning subversive plots, St Barthélemy was not particularly radical space in terms of independence or antislavery, but rather a space facilitating subversive actions between empires
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