Table of Contents

Part 1 Empire without dominion - the Danish West Indies, 1671-1848: early colonization of St Thomas; Dutch cultural and commercial hegemony in St Thomas and St John; Danish settlement and English influences in St Croix; language, amelioration and national identity; the economics of foriegn domination; foreign domination and internal security; slaves and intermal security; deepened difficulties and challenges in the 19th century. Part 2 "The doom of the Almighty" - slaveowning ideology: the sanctions of ancient law; economic expediency; the curse of Ham; the civilizing mission; sin and salvation; racial arguments; the emergence of anti-slavery ideology. Part 3 "Part and parcel of property" - slaves and the law in the 18th century: Gardelin's Code of 1733; Frederik V's Reglement of 1755; subsequent concessions; Lindemann's Draft of 1783; abolition, amelioration and the law. Part 4 The rural milieu - slavery on the plantations: roots; plantation labour; housing; food and clothing; the world the slaves made; family, kinship and demographic survival. Part 5 the urban milieu - slavery in Christiansted, Frederiksted and Charlotte Amalie: domestics, hucksters, artisans; conditions of life; urban-rural interaction; communal interaction; social control; crime and punishment. Part 6 An oasis of humanity - independent slave activity: God; mammon; dances and other diversions; cultural creation. Part 7 Maritime maroons - grand maronage: early patterns; legilsation and diplomacy; new routes to freedom; strategies. Part 8 "An intermediate sort of class" - the emergence and growth of the freedman population: manumission; accumulation of wealth; population size and growth; restrictive legislation; gender and demographic concerns; social control. Part 9 "The rights and privileges of rational creatures" - the Freedman Petition of 1816: white attitudes; interaction with slaves; internal differentiation; challenging inequality; the Petition of 1816; after 1816. Part 10 Strangers within the gate - emigre freedmen in the 19th century: origins; white fears; emigres and the freedman community; the census of 1831. Part 11 "Religion and enlightenment" - education, amelioration and the road to abolition: early attempts at slave education; effects of metropolitan humanitarianism; Von Scholten's initiatives; metropolitan and local opposition; the 1846 Ordinance. Part 12 The victor vanquished - emancipation and its aftermath: the court martial; the trial evidence - prolegomenon to revolt; violence manque 2-3 July 1848; attitudes to the future - race and class; property destruction - 4-5 July 1848; women; differential responses.

About the Author

B.W. Higman is Emeritus Professor of History, University of the West Indies, and Emeritus Professor of History, Australian National University. He is the author of eleven books on Caribbean history, archaeology and geography, including the award-winning publications Slave Population and Economy in Jamaica, 1807-1834; Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807-1834; Jamaica Surveyed: Plantation Maps and Plans of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Montpelier, Jamaica: A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom, 1739-1912; Writing West Indian Histories; Plantation Jamaica, 1750-1850: Capital and Control in a Colonial Economy; and Jamaican Food: History, Biology, Culture. His most recent books are A Concise History of the Caribbean and How Food Made History.