1. Beyond the plantation : salt, Turks Islands, Bermuda and the British Atlantic world, 1660s-1850s
- Author
-
Thomas, Kimberley Emma
- Subjects
338.2 ,DA Great Britain ,F1201 Latin America (General) ,HD Industries. Land use. Labor ,JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration - Abstract
This thesis offers a briny counterpoint to the sugar-centred focus of Caribbean historiography, finding encouragement in research that looks beyond the plantation and towards the Atlantic's maritime and migratory populations. It argues that the model of plantation-driven development cannot adequately explain the diverse array of socioeconomic and political processes that occurred within the Caribbean. It uses the principal salt islands of the British Caribbean - Turks Islands - as a case study and follows a sinew population of Bermudian salt gatherers, merchants and enslaved salt rakers into an alternative space of slavery. Its chronological scope begins with these islands' discovery by seafaring Bermudians in the 1660s and extends to a generation beyond emancipation. It takes a cis-Atlantic approach, exploring different historical themes at different analytical scales, in order to demonstrate that the history of Turks Islands, and their position within the British Atlantic world, cannot be fully understood without salt taking centre stage. However, while this thesis diversifies our understanding of Caribbean processes, it does not intend to fragment the region's history further. Here the salt industry did not compete with the sugar industry. It complemented, supported and literally fed into it, as salted rations reinforced plantation provisioning. In delving into the history of salt's production and trade, this thesis shines a light on an ancillary industry of the sugar plantation complex. In the process, a rich inter-island history between Turks Islands and Bermuda is revealed that raises a question about transplantation between colonial societies. This thesis finds that while Turks Islands were, in many ways, an extension of Bermuda's maritime economy, salt's materiality and its saline environment also spoke with its own vernacular. This shaped an unusual trajectory for Turks Islands, as they were drawn away from the margins and into the British Atlantic world.
- Published
- 2019