I would add that, as Jamaica's plantation economy grew in the 18th c, its reliance on indentured servants (the exported paupers) decreased. In general, in the West Indies indentured servants were more important in the 17th c, whereas the British workhouse system was an 18th c creation.
I'm not very convinced that the phenomenon they attempt to describe deserves to be called a "nexus". Slave traders no doubt helped set up and run workhouses in their own towns but I imagine that came more from a paternalistic desire to improve their own vicinity than a great transatlantic scheme.
Working on early 1700s Jamaica, what is the best and clearest phrase to use to succinctly refer to the 11-ish continental colonies of British America? Just "continental British America"? Any other ideas?
Great article. Should help contextualise some things I talk about in my thesis, exploring enslaved doctors/healers in Kingston.
Have been having some problems with it since yesterday evening.
Similar thing in my thesis with books titled "History of Jamaica", or words to that effect.
Good news! There is already a book on Morice. Matthew David Mitchell, *The Prince of Slavers*. I have used it in my thesis research.
Some excellent merchants' marks at the Library Company of Philadelphia
Reposted by: Andrew Williams
Hello new followers! (Except the bots, no hello for you.) Reminder that our Living With Water online event series (conference, festival, multiday extravaganza, call it what you will) starts next Thursday! Details here livingwithwater.hcommons.org
Living With Water: Agency, Materiality, Narratives – International online seminar series, May 2025
livingwithwater.hcommons.org
Looks tantalising. I have always admired Open Book Publishers, but a more traditional UP would be Liverpool, who publish a lot of maritime history.
Reposted by: Andrew Williams
I'm very pleased to share news of a new project I am leading at The National Archives. PASSAGE combines archival research on the transatlantic trade of enslaved people with an international programme that centres the research of West African & Caribbean scholars.
Read more here: shorturl.at/XLyC8
Read more here: shorturl.at/XLyC8
Major grant to fund research into the history of transatlantic slavery - The National Archives
The National Archives has been awarded a £1 million grant by Lloyd’s Register Foundation for a new, collaborative research programme on the history of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. PASSA...
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
The sad loss of Trevor Burnard, Karl Watson, Roy Augier, and Pedro Welch in the past few months has been a real blow to Caribbean history
In Jamaican archives you get a whole range of microfilm readers, from the good to the bad to the ugly.
Reposted by: Andrew Williams
The new edited volume “Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949”, co-edited by @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social, @yiannicart.bsky.social and myself, is out in April and now has a website/cover. Pre-order available soon!
brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com/display/titl...
Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949
"Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949" published on 24 Apr 2025 by Brill.
brill.com
Reposted by: Andrew Williams
Delighted that, together with Bangor University Archives, we’ve been awarded Welsh Government funding to digitise Jamaica papers within the Penrhyn estate archive:
www.bangor.ac.uk/iswe/news/ba...
www.bangor.ac.uk/iswe/news/ba...
Bangor University Archives awarded Welsh Government grant for Digitisation of Penrhyn Jamaica Papers | Bangor University
www.bangor.ac.uk
Gravestone of Archibald Monteath, the author of one of the few surviving Caribbean slave testimonies. Carmel Moravian Church, Westmoreland, Jamaica.
Reposted by: Andrew Williams
‘If the painting was nothing more than a realistic portrait of an 18th-century Black scholar in his study, that would be extraordinary enough. It’s the earliest such image in Western art, the first self-presentation of a Black person as an intellectual.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due
The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...
www.lrb.co.uk