The Crisis of Slave Subsistence in the British West Indies during and after the American Revolution

Abstract

tT HE sharp reduction of trade between the United States and the British West Indies during and after the American Revolution had far-reaching consequences. Before the Revolution the resources of the sugar colonies had been concentrated on producing and exporting tropical staples to the extent that the islands were highly dependent upon the continental colonies for plantation equipment and supplies. Curtailment of trade set in motion a series of crises, resulting in efforts to expand alternative overseas sources of supply and markets, and to diversify the island economies. Most critical was the problem of providing subsistence for the slaves, who had been largely supplied with North American foodstuffs in the preRevolutionary period. Compounding this problem was an unprecedented series of hurricanes and tropical storms that denuded the islands of vegetation and left the inhabitants without reserves of locally grown foodstuffs. The calamities did not end with the Treaty of Paris in I783, for both hurricanes and trade restrictions continued to plague planters and slaves for some years. The responses varied from island to island, but in no case were adequate measures taken to provide insurance against scarcity and famine. Together with war and natural disasters, American secession from the British Empire and British mercantile policies resulted in a subsistence crisis that bore heavily upon the slaves in the West Indies.