Relaciones Interraciales en América Latina (1940-1960)

Comas, Juan, Relaciones interraciales en América Latina (1940-1960), México: UNAM, 1961.

From a letter (?) mailed (with the book) to Dr. Thomas Mathews, Director, Institute of Caribbean Studies on November 29, 1962 from the UNAM (likely a request for a review):

With racial tensions predicted to increase in Latin America a survey of race relations and current (1940 - 1960) studies on this area of human relations is timely and necessary. Mexican sociologist Juan Comas' study, sponsored by UNESCO, was originally published in the Revue Internationale des Social Sciences (Vol. XIII, Num. 2, 1961)...

Equatorial America

Ballou, Maturin M. Equatorial America, descriptive of a visit to St. Thomas, Martinique, Barbadoes, and the principal capitals of South America Boston and New York, Houghton, 1892.

Wikipedia:

Maturin Murray Ballou (April 14, 1820 – March 27, 1895) was a writer and publisher in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He co-founded Gleason's Pictorial; was the first editor of the Boston Daily Globe; and wrote numerous travel books and works of popular fiction.

Full text

Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Fagg, John Edwin, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1965.

From his obituary:

John E. Fagg, a retired history professor at New York University and an author of books on Latin American and Spanish history... He served as chairman of the history department from 1961 until 1969 and as director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies from 1961 to 1965 and from 1977 to 1979. He was also assistant dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science from 1950 to 1955.

The Sephardics of Curaçao

Karner, Frances P. The Sephardics of Curaçao: A Study of Socio-Cultural Patterns in Flux, Assen: Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V., 1969.

From the Foreward by H. Hoetink:

- The Sephardic community of Curaçao is one of the oldest of this Caribbean island, until recently, it was also culturally and socially the most homogeneous one. This group - the first members of which settled some three centuries ago - succeeded in achieving an economic position of much more than merely insular proportions; at the same time, it also strongly influenced the social and cultural atmosphere of Curaçao society, and continues to do so. It not only produced merchants and financiers - whose economic and political influence was felt in the whole Caribbean area -, but also theologians, medical doctors, jurists, novelists, social critics and pamphleteers. Especially in the course of the nineteenth century, the Sephardim developed into a Latin-Caribbean cultural aristocracy within the then Dutch colonial setting. In the more recent decades, this group's family structure underwent important changes, while the previously predominant endogamy began to weaken considerably. In this study, Frances P. Karner has subjected these types of change, and their causes, to anthropological analysis.

Interesting footnote from Aviva Ben-Ur. Review of Benjamin, Alan Fredric, Jews of the Dutch Caribbean: Exploring Ethnic Identity on Curacao. H-Atlantic, H-Net Reviews. May, 2006.:

Karner's sample questionnaire did not include references to illegitimate children and her references to Afro-Jewish sexual relations are limited to a single page where she relies on an often highly speculative study by her mentor Hoetink. One scholar who does attempt to investigate this matter historically is Eva Abraham-Van der Mark. She was able to elicit candid responses from both European-origin Jews and Afro-Curaçaoans about extra-marital relations between the groups. For Karner's work see Karner, The Sephardics of Curaçao, pp. 24, 78-81. On Hoetink and Abraham-Van der Mark see Harry Hoetink, Het Patroon van de Oude Curaçaose Samenleving: Een Sociologische Studie (Aruba, Netherlands Antilles: D. J. de Wit, 1958), p. 120; and Eva Abraham-Van der Mark, "Marriage and Concubinage among the Sephardic Merchant Elite of Curaçao," in Women and Change in the Caribbean: A Pan-Caribbean Perspective, ed. Janet Henshall Momsen (London: James Currey, 1993), pp. 38-49.

A Short History of Bonaire

Hartog, Dr. Johan, A Short History of Bonaire [Second revised and enlarged edition], Published by the Island Territory of Bonaire: Dr. J. Hartog, 1975.

A history of Bonaire, extracted from Dr. Hartog's five-volume History of the Netherlands Antilles. It covers the history from European discovery just one year after North America, Indian population, Spanish era (1499-1623), occupation by Dutch in 1636, confusion and occupations until Dutch rule is renewed in 1816, abolishment of slavery in 1863, telegraph and telephone, 1932 hurricane strike, World War II internment camp, autonomy in 1951, to the opening of hotels and onset of modern economic times. Chapter 8 is a chronology from 1499 to 1974. Numerous photographs, which do not necessarily relate to adjacent text.

Latin American Leaders

Davis, Harold E., Latin American Leaders, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, 1949.

Reviewed in the Annals of American Academy.

From his 1988 obituary:

Harold Eugene Davis, a Latin American scholar and professor emeritus at American University... Mr. Davis had been chairman of the history and government department, director of the university's language center, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a professor in the schools of international studies and government and public administration.

Mentioned as a good source on Ruy Barbosa. Also includes Toussaint L'Ouverture, José María Morelos, Mariano Moreno, Bernardo Rivadavia, Diogo Antônio Feijó, Francisco de Paula Santander, José Manuel Balmaceda, Hipólito Yrigoyen, José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi, Andrés Bello, and Euclides da Cunha, among others.

Concerning Latin American Culture

Griffin, Charles C., Concerning Latin American Culture: Papers Read at Byrdcliffe, Woodstock, New York, August 1939, New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.

Contents:

* Introduction by J. T. Shotwell.
* Cultural relations of the United States in the Western world, by Ben M. Cherrington.
* The crossways of the Americas, by Richard F. Pattee.
* Spain in the epoch of American colonization, by Fernando de los Rios.
* The action of Spain in America , by Fernando de los Risos.
* Some aspects of the social development of Portuguese America, by Gilberto Freyre.
* The significance of native Indian culture in Hispanic America, by Charles C. Griffin.
* Mexico, European and Native, by Nathaniel Weyl.
* Some considerations regarding Contemporary Latin American Music, by William Berrien.
* Brazilian Art, by Robert C. Smith.
* Spanish American Literature and Art, by Concha Romero James.
* Educational development in Latin America, by Amanda Labarca Hubertson.

American Sociological Review

Proyecto de inmigracion africana

Suárez Argudín, José, Manuel Basilio de Cunha Reis, Luciano Fernández Perdones, Proyecto de inmigracion africana, presentado al superior gobierno de esta isla / por los señores Argudin, Cunha Reis y Perdones, Habana: Impr. La Habanera, marzo de 1860.

Contrastes, Revista de Historia, Num. 12, 2001 - 2003, página 18:

...la propuesta de introducir africanos como colonos libres, 40.000 en diez años y 5.000 mas al año presentada por José Suárez Argudín al gobierno español en 1855. Este proyecto se amparaba en la necesidad acuciosa de brazos para la agricultura, sobre todo tras las 30.000 defunciones producidas entre la poblacion de color como consecuencia de la epidemia de colera de 1853.

See also Latin American pamphlet digital project at Harvard University.

La ocupacion norteamericana de Haiti y sus consecuencias 1915-1934

Castor, Suzy, La ocupacion norteamericana de Haiti y sus consecuencias 1915-1934, México,D.F. : Siglo XXI Editores, 1971.

Suzy Castor.

Suzy Castor:

Epouse de feu Gérard Pierre-Charles (ancien candidat au Prix Nobel de la Paix en 2003),... Elle dirige aujourd’hui le Centre de Recherches et de Formation Economique et Sociale pour le Développement (CRESFED), qu’elle a fondé avec son mari Pierre-Charles, de retour d’exil en 1986 à la chute de Jean-Claude Duvalier (Baby Doc). Le CRESFED apporte son appui à différents regroupements de défense de droits humains en Haïti.

The Traveller’s Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands

Fermor, Patrick Leigh, The Traveller’s Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1950. (two copies)

From the New York Review of Books:

In the late 1940s Patrick Leigh Fermor, now widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest travel writers, set out to explore the then relatively little-visited islands of the Caribbean. Rather than a comprehensive political or historical study of the region, The Traveller’s Tree, Leigh Fermor’s first book, gives us his own vivid, idiosyncratic impressions of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad, and Haiti, among other islands.

Also reviewed in The Boston Globe, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II[1]. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer",[2] with books including his classic A Time of Gifts (1977). A BBC journalist once described him as "a cross between Indiana Jones, James Bond and Graham Greene."

Obituary.

The Urban Ambience a Study of San Juan, Puerto Rico

Caplow, Theodore, Sheldon Stryker & Samuel E. Wallace, The Urban Ambience a Study of San Juan, Puerto Rico, [University of Puerto Rico, College of Social Sciences, A Social Science Research Center Study] Totowa, New Jersey: The Bedminster Press, 1964.

Review by Richard M. Morse in Caribbean Studies.

Also reviewed in Revista Mexicana de Sociología .

From the inner-sleeve:

"The evaluation of urbanism as a way of life is especially crucial for cities in transition, those compelled to make present decisions about the whole course of their future development. San Juan is of particular interest because of the way it has grown by migration. Most of its new residents come directly from agricultural villages or isolated farms, without intervening stages. Because of its relationship to the United States, San Juan has more industries, more automobiles, more modernity of every kind than would ordinarily be expected in the capital city of an underdeveloped area.

"...The neighborhood -- as it will be described in this book -- is the first stage of society beyond the individual household. The analysis of such miniature social systems may be informative, as a step towards the analysis of larger chunks of social reality that can not be so easily observed or understood.

"...our inquiry into the San Juan neighborhood will carry us into some reflections on the nature of urbanism and the general question of how small voluntary groups develop and survive. we shall examine such problems as whether an increase in the intimacy of associations in a group can be expected to decrease the number of relationships and whether people who seek a closer relationship with their social superiors will necessarily avoid the company of their inferiors...some of these problems have not been posed in this form before..."

Lettres de Colons

Debien, Gabriel, Lettres de Colons, Université de Dakar; Faculté des Lettres et Sciences humaines; publication de la section d'Histoire n° 7; Dakar 1964.

From JSTOR:

For half a century one of the Caribbean's leading historians, Gabriel Debien died in Paris on May 1, 1990. Born in Pleumartin in the Vienne, and educated in Poitiers, he spent most of his teaching career abroad. His first post, at the University of Cairo (1932-56), came to a dramatic end amidst the Suez crisis. He then taught at the Universities of Dakar (1957-67), where he set up the history department, and Nantes (1967- 72). His articles and books, numbering more than two hundred and fifty, include studies of French agriculture, missionaries in Africa, and immigration to Canada, but most were devoted to the French West Indies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He will be remembered as the preeminent historian of the slave plantation.

See also The Open Library.

Armonía y contradicciones Cubano-Mexicanas (1554 - 1830)

Franco, José Luciano, Armonía y contradicciones Cubano-Mexicanas (1554 - 1830), Havana: Estudios monográficos, Casa de las Américas, 1975.

Índice:

I. Dependencia Económica y Política
II. Conflictos Hispanoamericanos
III. Revolución y Contrarrevolución
IV. Reconquista de Nueva España

José Luciano Franco Ferrán. Profesor, investigador y periodista cubano. Interesado en la historia, se especializó en la trata africana, las sublevaciones esclavas y la biografía del héroe independentista mulato: Antonio Maceo. Su obra incluye la historia del Caribe. Aportó estudios de gran significación para la historia afroamericana, tan rica y aún desconocida. Su temprana concepción de multiculturalidad posibilitó conocer la herencia africana como esa huella en Cuba y en América.

Ver la Biblioteca Abierta.

Los Estados Unidos y la América Latina

Edición de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Los Estados Unidos y la América Latina; Conferencia del Caribe, Edición especial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y la Asamblea Norteamericana de la Columbia University, 1959.

From the Preface:

En los días del 1 al 4 de marzo de 1960 estuvieron reunidas en Dorado Beach Hotel, Puerto Rico, aproximadamente sesenta personas que se han distinguido en los negocios , las organizaciones obreras, el gobierno, la educación, las comunicaciones y otras profesiones (treinta latinoamericanos y treinta norteamericanos) para celebrar la Conferencia del Caribe sobre los Estados Unidos y la América Latina, bajo el patrocinio de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y de La Asamblea Norteamericana de la Universidad de Columbia. La Conferencia se constituyó entres mesas redondas – cuya composición fue la misma durante tres días – y examinó y discutió los problemas incluidos en una agenda común. Al cuarto día, tuvo lugar una sesión plenaria. Los delegados participantes estudiaron un informe de recomendaciones, que, con el endoso genérico de la Conferencia, constituida en pleno, se publica ahora como tercer apéndice de esta obra, por la Universidad de Puerto Rico y que será distribuido tanto en América Latina como América del Norte. Los ensayos que figuran en este libro fueron proyectados y escritos bajo la dirección editorial de Herbert L. Matthews con el propósito de proveer materiales de fondo para la Decimosexta Asamblea Norteamericana, celebrada en Arden House, Nueva York; para la Conferencia del Caribe, y para otras sesiones futuras en torno al mismo asunto.

Resumen de Índice:

Prefacio
Palabras de bienvenida del Gobernador Luis Muñoz Marín.
Texto de Germán Arciniegas, Embajador de Colombia en Italia.
Comprensión de la América Latina (Introducción) por Herbert L. Matthews.
1. Hacia la Comprensión de la América Latina, por Frank Tannenbaum
2. El Cambio Político en la América Latina, por K.H. Silvert.
3. El Papel de la Prensa y las Comunicaciones, por Edward W. Barrett y Penn T. Kimball
4. El Cuadro Económico, por Reynold E. Carlson.
5. Relaciones Diplomaticas, por Herbert L. Matthews
6. Los Gobiernos Latinoamericanos y los Estados Unidos, por Charles G. Fenwick
Apéndices

Saint-Domingue: La société et la vie créoles sous l'ancien régime 1629-1789

de Vaissière, Pierre, Saint-Domingue: La société et la vie créoles sous l'ancien régime 1629-1789, Paris: Librairie Academique Perrin, 1909.

Pierre de Vaissière, né le 3 novembre 1867 à Aurillac et mort le 28 décembre 1942 à Ferrières-Saint-Mary, est un historien français. Ancien élève de l'École nationale des chartes (1892), docteur ès lettres, il a été conservateur des Archives nationales[1]. Il a été promu au grade d'officier de la Légion d'honneur.

From the introduction:

Le livre que je publie aujourd'hui avait été primitivement annoncé sous le titre de Noblesse des Iles étude sur la société créole de l'ancien régime. Il devait, dans ma pensée, faire suite à mes précédents travaux sur la noblesse de France, et montrer quel rôle a joué cette noblesse dans l'histoire coloniale de notre pays. Si en effet l'on a très souvent exalté l'esprit aventu reux de notre ancienne aristocratie, le goût des expéditions lointaines qui la distingua, l'on n'a jamais qu'assez sommairement recherché les causes et exposé les résultats de son expansion au dehors.

Je le dis tout de suite, l'idée de suivre par delà les mers la classe sociale qui fait l'objet de mes études, cette idée reste bien l'idée maîtresse du présent
ouvrage. J'ai été amené seulement, et pour des raisons un peu différentes, à restreindre d'un côté, à élargir de l'autre le cadre que je m'étais assigné. Ce sont ces raisons que je veux d'abord indiquer, pour justifier un titre nouveau.

Online text

Haiti: Land of Poverty

Tata, Robert J., Haiti: Land of Poverty, Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1982.

From the introduction:

Haiti's poverty suggests "malfunctioning" of physical, social, economic , and political systems. In the following pages, we will attempt to analyze the structure and functioning of each system individually to assess its advantages or disadvantages for promoting human welfare. Then we will examine the interrelationship among all four systems. The results of this analysis will be a relatively comprehensive view of Haiti's problems and prospects for modernization.

Catálogo de Publicaciones de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí

Catálogo de Publicaciones de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, 1959-1969, Servicio de Canje, Departamento de Seleccion.

La Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí es depositaria del tesoro patrimonial –documental, bibliográfico, artístico y sonoro– del país, así como de lo más representativo de la cultura universal. Es rectora del Sistema Nacional de de Bibliotecas Públicas Cubanas que con más de 411 bibliotecas cubre todo el territorio nacional. En nuestro sitio encontrará usted el cuerpo vivo de un sistema creado, no sólo para preservar el patrimonio bibliográfico e histórico.

Santo Domingo, Past and Present; with a Glance at Hayti

Hazard, Samuel, Santo Domingo, Past and Present; with a Glance at Hayti, Santo Domingo: Editora de Santo Domingo, S.A., 1974. [map not included in this re-print]

Excerpts from the Preface:

The author of these pages makes no pretension to be the historian of St Domingo ; his only endeavour in making this volume is to bring together in a continuous and condensed form, for the benefit of the reader, the facts connected with the history of the Island of St Domingo from its discovery by Columbus to the present time, illustrating, as much as possible, its scenes and people by his own sketches, and photographs and engravings gathered from various sources.
[...]
The map accompanying the work is compiled from the one ordered by the Dominican Government in 1858, from the surveys and data of Baron Schomburgh and the French engineer Mendez, the latest and most reliable chart of the entire island yet published.
PARIS, October 1872.

Travel and Exploration in Central America and the West Indies; Rare and Out of Print Books:

"The first nine chapters give history and geography, but in the remainder of the chapters, the author tells of his travels and observations as a member of a commission sent out by the U. S. Government to examine and report on the island." The work covers the whole island with interesting and extensive illustrations including many views. The author provides extensive descriptions, the best up to that time, based on his travels on the coasts, inland, the cities and towns, Cotuy, Mochja, Santiago, Monte Cristo, Puerto Plata, Hayti [Haiti], Cape Haytian, Santo Domingo, etc.

Online availability

Universidad de la Habana 220 (journal)

Universidad de La Habana, Cuba, Mayo - Agosto, 1983 N220. [dos copias]

Sumario (parcial)

El moncada en el haz y el enves de las palabras
García-Yero, O. (Instituto Superior Pedagógico de Camagüey).
Rumbo a Santiago
Travieso, J. (?).
...Y no habia visos de batalla alguna
Rojas, M. (?).
Versos sencillos, poesia de un revolucionario radical
García Ronda, D. (Universidad de La Habana).
Vision de los partidos republicano y democrata en escenas norteamericanas (1880-1889) Cairo, A. (Universidad de La Habana).
La estrategia y la tactica militares de jose marti
Pérez Guzmán, F. (Centro de Estudios Martianos).
Concepciones constitucionales bolivarianas
Prieto, A. (Universidad de La Habana).
Panamericanismo : antitesis de la concepcion bolivariana
Galich, M. (Casa de las Américas).
Simon bolivar y la educacion universitaria
Ortiz, M.D. (Casa de las Américas).
Carlos Marx: el gran revolucionario y teorico de la clase obrera
Rivero Alvisa, D. (?)
Carlos marx en el pensamiento de cinco revolucionarios cubanos
Rensoli Laliga, L. (Universidad de La Habana).
Carlos marx y "el capital"
Azcuy, A. (Universidad de La Habana).
Cual es el paisaje cubano?
De Juan, A. (Universidad de La Habana).
Fernando ortiz y su hampa afrocubana
Iznaga Beira, D. (Academia de Ciencias de Cuba).
El nuevo teatro latinoamericano
Azor Hernández, I. (Academia de Ciencias de Cuba).
El publico, ese otro creador
Suárez Durán, E. (Ministerio de Cultura).
El subsistema preincoativo con "estar" en la variante del espanol de cuba
Blanco-González, T. (Ministerio de Cultura).

De la Colonia a la República

Varona, Enrique José, De la Colonia a la República: selección de trabajos políticos, ordenada por su autor, La Habana: Sociedad Editorial Cuba Contemporánea, 1919

Enrique José Varona es el principal representante del positivismo en Cuba y ocupa un lugar de singular importancia en la historia intelectual y política de la Isla. Después de una inicial formación autodidacta en los campos de la literatura, la sociología, la psicología y la filosofía, y siendo ya una figura de reconocido prestigio académico y político se licenció y doctoró en Filosofía en 1891. Antes había publicado en la Revista de Cuba una serie de artículos filosóficos, entre los que sobresalen El Positivismo, La moral en la evolución, ambos de 1878, y La metafísica en la Universidad de La Habana, en 1880. Precisamente en 1880 comenzó a impartir en la Academia de Ciencias su famoso ciclo de conferencias sobre Lógica , Psicología y Moral, que fueron convertidos en tres tratados y publicados posteriormente.

Del PREFACIO (extracto):

Los fundadores de la Sociedad Editorial Cuba Contemporanea me han pedido que recoja en un volumen aquellos de mis trabajos polfticos que pudieran servir para presentar las fases por donde ha pasado mi pensamiento en lo concerniente a nuestros asuntos públicos. La tarea no era fácil, porque mi labor a este respecto, sobre todo como periodista, resulta demasiado extensa. Cuarenta años hace que empecT a tratar en público las materias que se relacionan con el desenvolvimiento de nuestro pueblo; y las condiciones en que esto se realiza en nuestros tiempos imponen esfuerzos de que no pudieron tener siquiera idea los hombres de otra edad.

Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Century

Goveia, Elsa V., Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Century, Yale University Press, 1965 - 370 pages. (2 copies)

University of the West Indies at Mona:

Born in 1925, in what was then British Guiana, Elsa Vesta Goveia gained her PhD in history at the University College London. She joined the staff of the then University College of the West Indies in 1950 as Lecturer in the Department of History. In 1961, she was appointed Professor of West Indian History. She was the first female Professor at the University of the West Indies. A brilliant lecturer and outstanding scholar, she was the author of seminal works on West Indian history the major ones being: A study of the Historiography of the British West Indies. (American Institute of Geography and History), 1956 and Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands. (Yale University Press), 1965 She died in 1980.

Elsa Goveia: History and Nation by Mary Chamberlain [download]

Situação Social da América Latina

Centro Latino-Americano de Pesquisas em Ciências Sociais, (CLAPCS), Situação social da América Latina, Rio de Janeiro: Centro Latinoamericano de Pesquisas em Ciencias Socials, 1965.

Cited in Student Opposition in Latin America, by Orlando Albornoz.

O Centro Latino-Americano de Pesquisas em Ciências Sociais (CLAPCS) funcionou na cidade do Rio de Janeiro como parte gêmea da Faculdade Latino-Americana de Ciências Sociais (FLACSO) em Santiago do Chile. Costa Pinto foi o primeiro a exercer a função de presidente do CLAPCS e manteve, após o mandato, um intenso vinculo institucional com o Centro. O CLAPCS findou suas atividades em 1975.

Apresentação:

Em 1962 o Centro Latino-Americano de Pesquisas em Ciências Sociais divulgou o primeiro estudo sobre a Situação Social da América Latina, dando cumprimento a deliberação do Comite Diretor, em sua reunião ordinária de 1960. Foi a primeira tentativa de um estudo global de diferentes aspectos sociais da Região, em que, apesar de consideradas as peculiaridades de cada País, não se ignorava o conjunto latinoamericano. Publica-se agora o segundo estudo; uma análise talvez mais ampla, - pois se recorreu a um número de fontes muito maior, - de aspectos sociais latino-americanos se insere neste documento.

West India Pickles

Talboys, W. P. (William P.), West India Pickles: Diary Of A Cruise Through The West Indies In The Yacht Josephine, New York Yacht Club (1876) [Hardcover], New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1875.

Read online.

Five of the Leewards, 1834-1870

Hall, Douglas, Five of the Leewards, 1834-1870: The Major Problems of the Post-Emancipation Period in Antigua, Barbuda, Montserrat, Nevis, and St. Kitts, Barbados: Caribbean University Press, 1971.

Cited in Emancipation and Revolt in the West Indies: St. Kitts, 1834.

Douglas Hall (from the "Preface"):

As a Resident Tutor in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of the West Indies in 1955-7, I lived in Antigua and St. Kitts and worked there and also in Montserrat and Nevis. As I came to know these islands I was struck by the very real social and economic differences between them. Yet in the 18th and early 19th centuries they had all been 'sugar colonies' (though Montserrat had been the least distinguished as such), ruled by their plantocracies and worked by slave-labour to produce sugar, rum, and molasses for the export-trade. And they all lie within a geographical circle of about seventy miles in diameter. I thought that a comparative study of their histories since the Emancipation would be both interesting and helpful to an understanding of their present separate circumstances.

Den svenska Kolonin St-Barthelemy och Västindiska Kompaniet fram till 1796

Hildebrand, Ingegerd, Den svenska Kolonin St-Barthelemy och Västindiska Kompaniet fram till 1796, Lund, 352 p. Thèse. 1951.

Translated: Mrs. Ingegerd Hildebrand, 17 Styrmansgatan, Stockholm: The Swedish Colony St. Bartholomew and the West India Company up to the Year 1796, Dissertation for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Lund.

Extract from her summary of chapter 3:

St. Bartholomew was a small barren island, the greatest asset of which was a good and well-protected harbour. The island could only be of any considerable importance commercially and politically, and in order to attract the vessels of foreign nations to put in there, the island was declared a free port in a Royal Proclamation on the 7th of September 1785. In 1785 two Swedish trade expeditions were undertaken to St. Bartholomew, return cargoes being obtained in the form of smuggled goods from the French islands. On 31 October 1786, the Government granted a concession for a West India Company, which was to take over the trade with the colony and share the administration of the island. The Company received certain privileges, but it had no monopoly of the West Indian trade.

Reviewed by The Hispanic American Historical Review © 1954