Hurricanes and Society in British Greater Caribbean, 1624 – 1783

Abstract

In 2004 and 2005, the Gulf region experienced unprecedented hurricane frequencies, casualties, and material losses. Some hurricane researchers suggest that this reflects a normal period of increasing storm frequency, while others feel that these trends portend heightened activity due to global warming. In this light, Mulcahy’s focus on the period beginning in 1624, as Britain established permanent colonial settlements and exposed its subjects to this new environmental phenomenon, represents an interesting juxtaposition.Seeking to understand processes of “encounter and accommodation” (p. 4) when populations come in contact with new environmental phenomena is not entirely new territory for historians. However, given their devastating impacts, seasonality, and frequency throughout the greater Caribbean, hurricanes provide a unique opportunity to better understand the “dynamic interaction between the environmental conditions colonists encountered and the cultural ideals and institutions they brought with them” (p. 4). Reading how English colonists addressed these issues over three hundred years ago has the potential to enlighten current events.In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, at least one prominent televangelist claimed that God had punished New Orleans for its sinful ways, the federal government’s militaristic response seemed more concerned with “restoring law and order” than saving lives, and some in the media played on these fears and distorted the realities of the situation with almost palpable racial biases. Similar interpretations and fears found full play as colonists addressed hurricanes over three centuries ago. The televangelist’s warning is mirrored in the “providentialism” that Mulcahy identifies as the key interpretive framework employed by colonists, particularly during the first half of the seventeenth century, when hurricanes were seen as signs of God’s wrath. He also traces the emergence and evolution of more naturalistic interpretations, suggesting that increased experience and knowledge among all social strata may have resulted in a more sanguine view of these “disasters” and other calamities in the greater Caribbean than was evident elsewhere in the British Empire. “Hurricanes remained acts of God, but colonists increasingly emphasized that the storms arose from natural forces under his general providence, not as special judgments for the sins of individual colonies or colonists” (p. 64).Fears of social chaos, mass confusion, and loss of social control and authority “influenced how white colonists perceived the storms and how they responded to the disorder that accompanied them” (p. 95). This fear was partially a function of external threats from France or Spain, but even more salient were fears of insurrections by slaves, who in most colonies far outnumbered whites. Mulcahy presents detailed discussions of these concerns and continual calls for military supplies, guns, and ammunition following hurricanes. However, “[A]s with other accounts of slave conspiracies and scares, concerns about hurricanes and social disorder reveal far more about the mentality of planters than actions of slaves” (p. 100); again, this finds echoes in the media coverage and federal response following Katrina.The book also details the economic consequences of hurricanes for plantation agriculture, including the consolidation of smaller plantations into larger plantations, which in turn were consolidated under British merchants due to debt obligations and defaults. Hurricanes also produced modifications in building techniques and other attempts to mitigate potential losses to capital, crops, and commodities.Although Mulcahy focuses on “encounter and accommodation,” he also extends his analysis in at least two important ways. First, he seeks to understand how hurricane impacts are shaped by social, political, and economic structures as he delves into the consequences of these events for variants of plantation agriculture based on crops, scale, and vulnerability. Most significantly, he examines the consequences for those most exploited and vulnerable in these systems: slaves. He also examines religious and private relief efforts in detail, as well as the politics behind efforts undertaken by the British government. His accounts of the emerging broad-based relief efforts undertaken by nongovernmental concerns are particularly illuminating.While every book includes points to quibble about, on the whole Mulcahy offers an informative analysis, rich in primary sources. This book will interest not only scholars interested in how past groups have addressed the challenges of new environmental phenomena but also those interested in how people have learned or failed to learn from these events and how many of the fears and misconceptions of the past still shape and distort our views of disasters today.