Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670–1776

Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670?1776 is the first study of the history of the federated colony of the Leeward Islands - Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis, and St Kitts - that covers all four islands in the period from their independence from Barbados in 1670 up to the outbreak of the American Revolution, which reshaped the Caribbean. Natalie A. Zacek emphasizes the extent to which the planters of these islands attempted to establish recognizably English societies in tropical islands based on plantation agriculture and African slavery. By examining conflicts relating to ethnicity and religion, controversies regarding sex and social order, and a series of virulent battles over the limits of local and imperial authority, this book depicts these West Indian colonists as skilled improvisers who adapted to an unfamiliar environment, and as individuals as committed as other American colonists to the norms and values of English society, politics, and culture.

Introduction; 1. The challenges of English settlement in the Leewards; 2. Irish, Scots, and English; 3. Managing religious diversity; 4. Sex, sexuality, and social control; 5. Political culture, cooperation, and conflict; Conclusion.

Natalie A. Zacek is a Lecturer in History and American Studies at the University of Manchester. She has published in journals such as Slavery and Abolition, the Journal of Peasant Studies, History Compass, and Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and its Diaspora, as well as in several edited volumes. She is a founder of the H-Atlantic listserv and served as its book review editor for its first decade.