with Andrew Sola and Prof. Mary Draper (Midwestern State U.)

“(He has) cut off our trade with all parts of the world. (He has) imposed taxes on us without our consent.”–Grievances #16 and #17

In this episode, we explore the importance of climate, the environment, and natural disasters in the British Caribbean during the revolutionary period. Topics include the following:

-similarities and differences between the 13 rebellious colonies and the other British Caribbean colonies

-the general approach of studying history through an environmental lens

-the impact of droughts, hurricanes, and earthquakes on early American and British Caribbean history

-the impact of the environment on disease and disease recovery, as seen in the case of George Washington’s trip to Barbados, where he contracted small pox

-Alexander Hamilton’s famous hurricane experience in August 1772 on the island of St. Croix, which you can access here:
Hamilton’s Hurricane Letter

-the 8 hurricanes that struck the British Caribbean and the Continent during the Revolutionary War

-important differences between the wet season and the dry season in the Caribbean and how seasons impacted commercial and military planning

-reactions to the Stamp Act (1765) in the British Caribbean

-the impact of the Continental Association of 1774, which the 13 rebellious created to boycott goods from the British Empire, and the Prohibitory Act of 1775, which was Parliament’s counter-blockade

-an assessment of the reasons why the British Caribbean islands chose not to join the American Revolution

The cover image is an engraving by Pieter van der Aa depicting English Quakers with their enslaved population harvesting tobacco on Barbados in the late 1600s before the island turned to sugar production.