The American Revolution and the British West Indies' Economy

Abstract

This chapter argues that the impact of the American Revolution on the British West Indies was traumatic and permanently devastating; the islands never recovered their earlier productive capacity. The importance of the American Revolution to an understanding of the decline of the British sugar colonies has not been fully investigated by historians, who have nevertheless cited it as the watershed period in the economic development of the West Indian islands. The pioneer work setting forth the decline thesis is Lowell J. Ragatz, The Fall of the Planter Class in the British West Indies. He dates the economic decline of the British West Indies from as early as 1763, and he also points to the American Revolution as a factor in worsening the economic fortunes of the sugar colonies. Most local colonial officials were convinced that, if the mainland colonists were to carry out their threats to restrict mainland-West Indian trade, the sugar economy would be destroyed.