President of monticello, the saunders director of the robert h. Smith International Center for jefferson studies, and Thomas Jefferson foundation, which supports Ongoing International study of Thomas Jefferson and his world. Use the professor of history at the university of virginia. He is a dual citizen of britain and the United States and after completing his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at Oxford University he taught at eton college before becoming a visiting professor at southern mestas University Methodist university. He is the author of an empire divided, the American Revolution and the british caribbean, which is what our topic is tonight and his most recent book is the man who lost america. The british leadership and the American Revolution and the fate of the empire. It has received five National Book awards, including the New York Historical societys American History book prize, and the George Washington book rise. He is an editor of the jeffersonianamerican series of the university of Virginia Press and a fellow of the Royal Historical society. We are pleased to have him with us tonight. [applause] id like to thank Alicia Tucker for her introduction, and also an invitation to speak here at the headquarters of the society of the cincinnati anderson house. Its an honor and a pleasure. The society plays a very Important Role in promoting knowledge about the American Revolution. They sponsor talks across the country. They keep here one of the most important libraries of the American Revolution, which is a marvelous facility to use. I also believe the American Revolution is going to see something of a comeback as the civil war, it always remains very popular. I would additionally like to thank kendall casey, who did all of the logistics for this evening. The topic i shall be speaking about is about the other colonies, the colonies that did not rebel. There were 26, not 13 colonies in british america. Depending on how you define a colony some argue there were 32 based on the number of assemblies, not 13. The majority of the other colonies were in the caribbean. These are places like jamaica antigua, montserrat granada dominica, barbados. These were the richest and most populous of the other colonies other british these in north america. They were economically extremely important. My favorite example is from the peace of paris that concluded the french and indian war. The question arose, should britain keep canada, or should it keep the island of what a loop guadalupe . Many in britain felt it was a sellout to keep canada rather than guadalupe. Guadalupe was far more economically important. The radical leader in london said it was like a piece of understanding. It is worth remembering that the british initially had been much more interested in the caribbean and in south america, and planting colonies there, then in north america. This study had a profound impact on me and my understanding of the American Revolution. If firstly allowed me to debate the causes of the American Revolution by looking at colonists colonies which did not rebel. We will talk about why the islands remain loyal. It also highlighted to me the importance of the caribbean during the revolutionary war and the extent to which activities there helped to overstretch british [indiscernible] this was happening even before the french entered the war in 1778. Let me begin first by this talk that the british initially had been much more concerned with having a colony in the south and in the caribbean than in north america. Indeed, it is worth rem bring that in the 17th century, these islands would be regarded as more important by the british than the continental empire. We think of some of those original explorers settlers like sir francis drake, sir john hawkins there may concern their main concern was really looking for a base in the caribbean or better still, on the coast of south america. At the end of the 17th century the islands you are looking at which looks like an aerial view but it is actually a contemporary painting, this was the richest place in what was then english america. This is the island of barbados which since the 16 40s had undergone a sugar revolution, had become britains main source for sugar and rum, and during the 17th century, just looking at the landscape and some of the build structure you can see just how prosperous this island was. The building we are looking at here is called Saint Nicholas abbey. Its not religious. It is a plantars home. This was a stone structure. It was only embellished in the 18th century here. Much of it had been built in the 17th century. Stone structures were very rare. There were only three in virginia, one of which was [indiscernible] where governor berkley or barkley as the british would call him was based. This is another example of a Stone Building dating from the 17th century in barbados. It is very much dutch influenced. Again, and ticket of of the wealth of these islands at the time indiciative of the wealth of these cities at this time. This was the wealthiest city in english america. You look today, you see nothing other than what looks like a bay, but this was port royale. Very much the wild west of english america, port royal jamaica, and in 1692 it suffered a tidal wave in which something very much like a tsunami in which the entire place was buried in most of the population killed. It has underwater one of the most important cataclysmic archaeological sites. You have a moment in time preserved, a unique moment in time. You can see skeletons of people running toward the door. And obviously, all of their belongings were preserved. It is the largest collection of pewter we found anywhere in the north american colonies. Most people would have been eating off wood at the time. This is the grave of one very fortunate survivor who existed literally in an air bubble for Something Like 40 minutes during this horrendous episode and lived to tell the story. By the time the American Revolution, it was very clear that north america was essentially becoming far more important. It was not until the 1720s that imports and exports from north america exceeded those of the british islands. It was a gradual process. It was very apparent to policy makers in london that north america had incredible potential. There were even English Writers who were talking about the prospects of the [indiscernible] moving one day and moving to america and america becoming the seat of the British Empire. Even if we concede the relegation of the islands, they still remained hugely important. They were still the source of the biggest fortunes in the north american colonies. What you are looking at here is the Governors Palace in spanish town, jamaica. It was the most magnificent of the Governors Palaces. The governor was always resident, unlike here in for genia, and he was always someone very virginia, and he was always very senior. It was usually a senior army commander. Compare it with the Governors Palace in williamsburg, which is impressive, and virginia is undoubtedly the main jewel in the British Crown in north america, the most populous of the estates, and certainly one of the most prosperous, although the south carolinian planters exceeded them in wealth. But again, jamaicas governors house was much larger, which gives you a sense of the importance that the british it should be did. This was dulled in the 1760s. If you look at spanish town today, it is no longer the capital of jamaica which moved to kingston later on. You can see that this was one of the great colonial capitals. It is like a sort of williamsburg. This would have been where the courts met and where the assembly met. When the british started to try to introduce a more efficient form of government in america and to introduce direct taxes this affected the islands just as much as it affected the north american colonies. The stamp act tax, which is really the first iraq tax dir ect tax in 1765, the stamp act tax was going to cost more in the island colonies than in north america. A much smaller proportion of people were going to be paying it. The cost of land, the cost of legal transactions was much greater. The proportion of stem duty was much greater. The stamp i am showing you here they were specially designed for the islands because they needed some higher current see stamps currency stamps. That tax virtually went unopposed in england. They went through large parliamentary majorities. One of the people that did speak out against it was one of the largest absentee planters from jamaica. He later became mayor of london, and he was one of the most vociferous opponents of the tax. At this stage, there were some parallels. The islands spoke the same political language as the mainlands. They could be sympathetic to some of the objections. As war started to become more imminent, the islands essentially had a lobbyist. They hired a man called Richard Glover who had represented a number of different courses largely commercial issues. You see in this picture the thespian signs. He was fond of music and literature. Like many of these figures in the 18th century, he was not a specialist, but he went before the house of commons to essentially make the argument that if there was war it would destroy the economy of the islands and it would be disastrous. I would say at the outset that they had nothing to gain from a war between britain and america. They didnt want it to happen, but there pleas were ignored in parliament. The petition brought by glover was i was assigned to the committee of oblivion, and war broke out in essentially the islands were forced to take sides. What im going to explain briefly is why they didnt support the revolution. In some ways i was less impressed by the fact that a did not support the revolution because its very difficult for islands to rebel. This area remains the longest part of the British Empire anywhere in the world. Jamaica did not get its independence or trinidad until the early 1960s. Places like the Leeward Islands were not getting their independence until the late 1970s. There are some small islands like the turks and caicos and came on the islands Cayman Islands still remain in some [indiscernible] or another. It was true of the spanish and French Islands. Cuba was the last part of spanish america to get its independence from spain. It is less impressed by the fact that they did not rebel. What i was really fascinated by was why didnt they even write pamphlets against the stamp act the townshend duties against this new trend in British Authority to introduce more direct government . They say almost nothing. We know enough that they did not like those policies, but they would later become extremely vociferous and extremely political against the slave trade. Why didnt they on this occasion . One of the ideas circulating in america, common sense, reached the islands and circulated. There were social connections with america. I feel i must mention here that George Washingtons only visit abroad was to the islands of barbados. He went there at a time when he hadnt visited many parts of the 13 colonies. He went there with his older halfbrother, lawrence washington, who was ill. Lawrence washington later died and left George Washington [indiscernible] mount vernon was named after a british admiral in the caribbean. Admiral vernon introduced a tradition of serving rum in the british navy and therefore even mount vernon had a caribbean connection. Benjamin franklin said his nephew, who is something of a black sheep called benjamin makem, he sent him down to the island of antigua. Franklins own apprentice when he was in philadelphia was active in barbados. They had an active renting presses. Perhaps the most famous connection is alexander hamilton, who was born on the island. These are just representatives. There was a tremendous traffic in people and mutual knowledge, and it was quite likely that many would know the islands more than they knew many of their neighboring states. The islands shared with the mainland assemblies. People like jack green have argued that the assemblies were really the key to understanding the American Revolution. Future statesman were trained. The assemblies in the islands were if anything even more bold in terms of their privileges than the assemblies in the mainlands. What youre seeing here is the mace which is a symbol in british parliamentary position of political freedom. The mace was originally a weapon carried by bishops. By tradition it would be carried in front of the speaker of the house of commons as a sign that speech was protected. The mace in jamaica was actually larger and heavier than the mace in the house of commons. These maces in the islands were made of gold and silver. One of the reasons that they did not support the american course despite sharing the same political language, despite being socially connected with america, despite relying on america for a lot of imports for food, and despite having this tradition of strong independent assemblies, one of the main reasons they didnt support the north american colonies was that the island colonies were economically dependent upon britain. The mainland colonies were out growing the british economy, but in these islands, the british planters were essentially uncompetitive with their french counterparts. It cost between 15 and 20 more for them to produce and sell sugar than the neighboring French Islands. By the time the American Revolution, the French Island which today is called haiti was producing more sugar than all the british islands combined. The impact of this was that the british planters in the caribbean relied on the protection of the british markets. They benefited from what we call the trade and navigation acts. They wanted those laws, laws against which north americans were protesting. Not only for the sale of their sugar, but another byproduct of sugar sales is run. Sugar is a very capitalintensive crop and requires a lot of money to grow. Britain was really ahead of other European Countries in terms of having a good Credit System a good Banking System and also providing protection through its navy for trade but the other important aspects of this not only the cost and the size of sugar plantations, the amount of money invested in them some people refer to them as the earliest factories in the field, and the staves in which the sugar and rum was packed most of these were made in north america. Sugar was a laborintensive crop much more laborintensive than tobacco, and much more laborintensive than rice in south carolina. It took four times the number of people to grow sugar as to grow tobacco. The average size of tobacco plantations was quite small. The average labor force on a sugar plantation, the optimum was regarded as at least 100. Someone like William Beckford had many hundreds of enslaved people because the labor force was enslaved. This is an image that has always amused me. I showed you the mace earlier on. This is the mace to the islands of grenada. The mace has an illustration on it showing slaves working at a sugar mill. Its a lovely juxtaposition of slavery and freedom. The sociologist has argued that essentially the two historically have gone handinhand. The islands, about 90 of their population was black. Mostly fairly recent immigrants from africa. Mortality rates were exceptionally high. There is wonderful new study by richard dunn in which he is really comparing conditions in north america and the islands. What really is very striking was the horrendous demographic rates in the islands, the mortality and the fact that the slave populations constantly had to be replenished. The result of this was that the whites in these islands were using a phrase that was certainly used in jamaica in the early 19th century. Alan taylor has used it on his recent book about virginia and the war of 1812. They were talking about the enemies within. They were fearful of a major slave rebellion. In the north american colonies there were very few actual rebellions throughout the history of slavery. In the islands, a place like jamaica in the second half of the 18th century was having a slave rebellion at least every decade and in the 1760s, it was almost annual. These were in some cases rebellions which were planned to be islandwide and the results of this, the fear of slave rebellions, and on two islands there were still people who were essentially an intermixture of the original natives of the caribbean and runaway slaves. They too were regarded as an enemy within. The planters, the whites on these islands were a very small minority. Barbados had the highest proportion of whites anywhere. That was still far less than anywhere here in north america. South carolina was perhaps the most comparable of all the british colonies in north america. South carolina still had a 50 white population, which is possibly even growing and reversing on the eve of the American Revolution. The result is that the british planters wanted troops