Forging an identity: British Virgin Islands' slave society 1672--1838.

摘要

This dissertation examines the impact of early economic, social, and political conditions in the early Virgin Islands society (1672-1834) on the lives of the enslaved population.;The dissertation relies on strong content analysis -- anecdotal evidence as well as the compilation of statistical data.;The dissertation has found that a successful plantocracy, based on a mono-cultural economy along with colonial government, was not successfully established in the Virgin Islands The early economic development of the Virgin Islands was determined by the great neglect which the colonies suffered from Britain.;The economic hardship was accompanied by great difficulty in extending British political administration to the Virgin Islands colonies. The neglect of these islands, as a result of the dubious economic worth, meant that the Virgin Islands developed its own political culture, at times contrary to the nature of British colonial administration.;Although Quakers arrived in 1727 and Anglicans in 1740, the Methodists who really addressed the black population did not arrive until 1790 -- more than one hundred years after the islands were settled by the British in 1672.;As a result, persons of African descent were able to work within the space left by British neglect in order to progress within Virgin Islands' slave society. It becomes clear that the slaves' economic activities were central to the internal economy of the Virgin Islands. They found their nice in certain economic activities in the Virgin islands -- bringing provisions and other products to market for the general population, cultivating and selling cotton, and building up the public works.;Perhaps this is the reason why, despite the absence of military presence in the Virgin Islands, the number of violent rebellions was correspondingly low.;In the cultural arena, African belief systems must have flourished in early Virgin Islands society-- partly as a result of the inattention paid to the slaves' spiritual lives. The existence of a number of African derived practices during early Virgin islands' society provides evidence of this.