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Best regards, Andrew Stewart Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > Date: December 3, 2018 at 9:38:45 AM EST > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Subject: H-Net Review [H-LatAm]: Allain on Roper, 'The Torrid Zone: > Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the Long Seventeenth > Century' > Reply-To: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.msu.edu> > > L. H. Roper. The Torrid Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural > Interaction in the Long Seventeenth Century. Columbia University of > South Carolina Press, 2018. 273 pp. $49.99 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-61117-890-6. > > Reviewed by Jacqueline Allain (Duke University) > Published on H-LatAm (December, 2018) > Commissioned by Casey M. Lurtz > > In his introduction to _The Torrid Zone_, Lou H. Roper describes this > edited volume as an invitation "to consider the 'long' > seventeenth-century Caribbean in an organic, transnational, holistic > way that incorporates the diverse array of actors involved" (p. 3). > With a heavy emphasis on the Dutch, English, and French empires, the > essays in _The Torrid Zone_ show how European and indigenous trade, > warfare, and empire-building in the seventeenth-century Caribbean--an > understudied period--laid the groundwork for chattel slavery and the > rise of plantation-based agriculture. Conceptualizing the Torrid Zone > as a region whose reach extended beyond the Caribbean Sea to include > Cayenne and Carolina, the book asks, "What made the Caribbean the > Caribbean?" and contends that careful study of the long seventeenth > century is crucial to answering this question (p. 3). > > With a few notable exceptions, Roper is right to note that "very > little scholarship has concentrated on seventeenth-century > Native-European relations in the Caribbean, especially in Native > terms" (p. 3). Essays by Tessa Murphy, Carolyn Arena, and Sarah > Barber in part 1 of this volume offer important preliminary steps in > filling this gap. Placing indigenous peoples on "equal analytical > footing" with European powers, Murphy's chapter highlights "decades > of contestation and negotiation" between French and indigenous powers > in the Lesser Antilles and attempts to explain why European > domination in this region of the Caribbean took so long to achieve > (pp. 18, 29). Arena, through her creative and attentive > contextualization of Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, sheds light on the > understudied topic of indigenous enslavement at Dutch hands in > seventeenth-century Suriname. Barber's chapter investigates the > entanglements of European-indigenous alliances in the Lesser Antilles > through an examination of the career of Thomas Warner. These essays > contribute to a growing body of scholarship that nuances commonplace > understandings of indigenous Caribbean politics and society, > indigenous-European conflict, and the trajectory of European conquest > of the region. > > Part 2 analyzes settlement and warfare among competing colonial > powers, emphasizing that in the seventeenth century, lines of > imperial rule in the Caribbean were anything but certain. Together, > these chapters demonstrate the contingency and variability of > imperial strategy during this period. Jessica Vance Roitman explains > why Dutch imperial ambitions in the so-called Wild Coast--the region > of the South American mainland that is made up today of Suriname, > Guyana, and French Guiana--were met with the limited success that > they were. Drawing from private correspondence among Surinamese > colonists, Suze Zijlstra and Tom Weterings explore the tumultuous > impacts of imperial warfare on the daily lives of colonists. Amanda > Snyder examines the events leading up to England's defeat of Spanish > forces in Jamaica and its 1655 conquest of the colony. Picking up > where Snyder's analysis ends, after the conquest, Robertson shows how > English colonists in Jamaica--a colony that would eventually become > one of England's most prosperous and populous in the > Caribbean--struggled to mold the colony as English in character in > law. "Being 'English' in late seventeenth-century Jamaica," he tells > readers, "was often as much a goal as an achievement" (p. 117). Erik > Gøbel continues with the theme of imperial rivalry in his chapter on > the settlement of the Danish West Indies, ending with a helpful note > about the research potential of the West India and Guinea Company > archives, housed today at the Danish National Archives. Giovanni > Venegoni describes the settlement of Saint Domingue by buccaneers > (hunters, traders of meat and leather, and pirates), habitants > (colonists who engaged in agriculture), and filibusiters > ("freebooters" who based their trading operations at Caribbean > ports), showing how by the end of the seventeenth century, the > habitants had eclipsed the other two groups in political influence. > > The three chapters that make up part 3 highlight inter-imperial > networks of trade and political influence. Laurie Wood examines the > emergence of a "global judicial elite" out of seventeenth-century > Martinique, emphasizing that studies of this period of French > Caribbean history are crucial to understanding the rise of the > plantation complex (p. 150). Barry Stiefel's fascinating chapter on > Jewish merchants in the Anglophone Caribbean shows how colonial > authorities sometimes practiced a form of religious tolerance when > they believed that Jews could be of economic and political benefit to > the colonies. Often multilingual and enmeshed in wide co-ethnic > business networks, Jewish merchants "had skills and abilities > difficult to find within the nation-state," and so were met with > reluctant acceptance in the Caribbean (p. 163). Finally, in his own > contribution to the collection, Lou Roper discusses the > seventeenth-century Caribbean in relation to Carolina. > > The overwhelming majority of historical actors who make appearances > in these pages are male. This is undoubtedly and understandably due > in no small part to the book's focus on trade, treaty-making, > warfare, and exploration. But in light of decades of insights by > scholars of women's and gender history, is the justification that > women simply did not leave a record good enough? And should not > masculinity itself be historicized? As a whole, the essays in this > collection neglect to engage these questions. Moreover, the > overwhelming whiteness of the contributors gives this reader pause. > As Roper rightly notes, the ramifications of the large-scale "shift > to staple agricultural production and slave labor" in the early > modern Caribbean "continue to ripple into the present day" (p. 13). I > wonder if the racial inequalities that form the bulk of these > ramifications are not exacerbated when all-white or majority-white > teams of scholars are given a platform to represent the history of > the Caribbean. > > Despite these shortcomings, _The Torrid Zone_ more than achieves its > aim of illuminating an understudied epoch in early modern Caribbean > history. A major strength of the collection lies in the sheer breadth > of material covered. The skilled contributors to this volume draw > collectively from source material in at least five languages, probing > readers to consider the unpredictability and capriciousness of > inter-European and European-indigenous relations during the > Caribbean's long seventeenth century. Overall, the essays in this > collection offer fresh insights that are sure to interest even > seasoned scholars of Caribbean history. > > Citation: Jacqueline Allain. Review of Roper, L. H., _The Torrid > Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the Long > Seventeenth Century_. H-LatAm, H-Net Reviews. December, 2018. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53150 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -- _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com