The British had abolished the slave trade in 1807, but not the institution itself.

In 1816, enslaved people in Barbados rise up in the largest major slave rebellion in the island's history, of twenty thousand slaves from over seventy plantations.

They drive whites off the plantations, but widespread killings do not take place.

This is later termed "Bussa's Rebellion" after the slave ranger, Bussa, who with his assistants hate slavery, find the treatment of slaves on Barbados to be "intolerable", and believe the political climate in Britain makes the time ripe to peacefully negotiate with planters for freedom.

Bussa's Rebellion fails.

One hundred and twenty slaves die in combat or are immediately executed, and another one hundred and forty-four are brought to trial and executed.

The remaining rebels are shipped off the island.

In 1826 the Barbados legislature passes the Consolidated Slave Law, which simultaneously grants concessions to the slaves while providing reassurances to the slave owners.

Slavery will finally be abolished in the British Empire eighteen years later, in 1834.

In Barbados and the rest of the British West Indian colonies, full emancipation from slavery will be preceded by an apprenticeship period that lasts four years.

The West Indies (1828–1971 CE)

Emancipation, Empire, and the Quest for Unity

Geography & Environmental Context

The West Indies comprises three fixed subregions:

• Northern West Indies — Bermuda, the Turks and Caicos, northern Hispaniola, and the Outer Bahamas(Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera, Cat Island, San Salvador, Long Island, Crooked Island, Mayaguana, Little Inagua, and eastern Great Inagua). Anchors include the Bahama Banks, Bermuda’s naval dockyards, the Caicos salt pans, and the northern valleys of Hispaniola.

• Eastern West Indies — Trinidad, Saint Lucia, Barbados, most of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Anchors include the Kingston–San Juan sea lanes, the Hispaniolan cordilleras, the Caroni and Naparima plains of Trinidad, and the Windward–Leeward channels that structured trade, migration, and naval passage.

• Western West Indies — Cuba, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and the Inner Bahamas (Andros, New Providence, Great Exuma, and neighboring islands). Anchors include Havana Harbor, the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, the Andros Barrier Reef, and the Cayman Trench.

Fertile volcanic soils, limestone valleys, and strategic sea lanes made these islands central to Atlantic commerce and imperial rivalry from the age of sugar through decolonization.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The tropical climate brought seasonal hurricanes and variable rainfall. Deforestation and plantation monoculture caused erosion and flooding, while earthquakes periodically struck Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. By the 20th century, hurricanes became a recurring test of infrastructure and governance. Marine resources, from coral reefs to fisheries, sustained local economies even as tourism and oil refining reshaped coasts.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Plantation economies dominated the 19th century, producing sugar, coffee, cocoa, and bananas under systems of wage labor that replaced slavery after emancipation (1834–38 in the British colonies, 1848 in the French, 1863 in the Dutch, 1886 in Cuba, and 1898 in Puerto Rico).

• Peasant freeholds emerged across Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad, where former slaves cultivated provisions and cash crops. In Hispaniola, smallholder coffee and cacao farming thrived.

• Urban growth accelerated: Havana, San Juan, Port of Spain, and Kingston became centers of trade, education, and politics.

• Migration shaped the region: Indian indentured laborers arrived in Trinidad, Guyana, and Saint Lucia after 1838; inter-island migration filled estates and urban jobs; transatlantic migration linked the islands to New York and London.

Technology & Material Culture

Steamships, railways, and telegraphs integrated the Caribbean into global networks by the late 19th century. Sugar mills, rum distilleries, and port warehouses dominated industrial landscapes. Oil refining began in Trinidad (early 20th century) and later in Curaçao and Aruba. After WWII, airports, cruise terminals, and tourism infrastructure redefined economies. Architecture ranged from Georgian and Spanish colonial to modernist hotels and government buildings, while vernacular crafts—baskets, pottery, steelpan drums, and carnival costumes—remained cultural hallmarks.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Sea lanes: The Windward Passage, Mona Passage, and Florida Straits were arteries for trade, migration, and naval power.

• Diaspora routes: Caribbean laborers moved to Panama for canal construction, to Cuba and the U.S. for seasonal harvests, and to Britain after WWII (the “Windrush Generation,” 1948 onward).

• Regional travel: Steamers and later airlines linked colonial capitals—Kingston, Port of Spain, Havana, San Juan, and Bridgetown—into circuits of commerce, religion, and politics.

• Military and naval routes: U.S. expansion after 1898 established bases in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda; naval stations in the Bahamas and British bases in Bermuda remained strategic through WWII and the Cold War.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Caribbean identity fused African, European, and Asian elements.

• Religion: Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, and Afro-syncretic faiths such as Obeah, Vodou, and Orisha coexisted and intertwined.

• Language and literature: Creoles flourished beside English, Spanish, and French; writers such as Aimé Césaire, Claude McKay, and Derek Walcott articulated decolonizing consciousness.

• Music: Calypso, mento, ska, steelband, salsa, and reggae emerged from island streets and festivals, broadcasting Caribbean rhythms worldwide.

• National festivals: Carnival, Junkanoo, and independence parades turned the streets into theaters of memory and resistance.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Smallholders diversified crops and maintained intercropping traditions to buffer hurricanes and price shocks. Coastal communities rebuilt with coral stone and timber after storms. Water catchment, terrace farming, and fishing cooperatives sustained rural livelihoods. Postwar conservation and marine parks (e.g., in the Bahamas and Virgin Islands) began to protect reefs and mangroves as tourism expanded.

Political & Military Shocks

• Emancipation and post-slavery transitions: Freed populations negotiated wages and land rights amid planter resistance.

• Imperial changeovers: The Spanish–American War (1898) transferred Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam to the United States; the U.S. Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark (1917).

• Nationalism and federation: The early 20th century saw labor uprisings and the rise of Caribbean socialism—Butler, Bustamante, Manley, Williams, and Castro among key figures. The West Indies Federation (1958–62) sought unity but collapsed amid national rivalries.

• Independence waves:

  • Cuba (1902, revolution 1959), Dominican Republic (sovereignty restored 1844, renewed independence 1865), Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (1962), Barbados (1966), Bahamas (1973, beyond our span).

  • U.S. territories—Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Guam—retained commonwealth or dependency status.

• Cold War and revolutions: The Cuban Revolution (1959) redefined regional politics; U.S. interventions in the Dominican Republic (1965) and elsewhere revealed hemispheric tensions.

Transition

Between 1828 and 1971, the West Indies transitioned from plantation colonies to a constellation of independent and semi-autonomous nations. Slavery’s abolition gave rise to peasantries, diasporas, and new cultural syntheses; oil and tourism replaced sugar as economic engines. The region’s music, literature, and politics voiced both emancipation and aspiration. By 1971, the Caribbean stood as a microcosm of decolonization—its seas crossed by cruise ships and memory, its islands bound by shared histories of survival, creativity, and unbroken connection to the wider Atlantic world.

Eastern West Indies (1828–1971 CE): Emancipation, Nation-Making, and New Economies

Geographic & Environmental Context

The subregion of Eastern West Indies includes Trinidad, Saint Lucia, Barbados, most of Haiti, most of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Anchors include Kingston-to-San Juan sea lanes, the Hispaniolan cordilleras, the Caroni and Naparima plains (Trinidad), and the Windward–Leeward channels that structured trade, migration, and navies.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

Recurring major hurricanes (e.g., 1899 in Puerto Rico; 1930 in the Dominican Republic; 1955/1963 across the arc) and periodic droughts tested smallholders and towns. Deforestation for cane and charcoal reduced watershed resilience; mid-20th-century reforestation and conservation began piecemeal.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Haiti: Independent since 1804; rural peasantry consolidated smallholdings (lakou systems) in coffee/food crops. Political instability, debt, and later the U.S. occupation (1915–1934) constrained growth.

• Dominican Republic: Independence from Haiti in 1844; annexation to Spain (1861–1865) and restoration followed. Coffee, cacao, tobacco, and cattle underpinned regional economies; the U.S. occupation (1916–1924) reshaped customs and finance.

• Puerto Rico: Spanish colony until 1898, then under U.S. sovereignty; sugar corporations expanded, later giving way to industrialization and migration under Operation Bootstrap (1947–1950s).

• Barbados & Saint Lucia: Emancipation (1834–1838) reconfigured labor; sharecropping and peasantries grew alongside estates. 20th-century diversification moved toward tourism and services; Barbados achieved independence (1966).

• Trinidad: Emancipation (1834–1838); post-emancipation estates imported indentured labor (primarily from India, from 1845). Oil and asphalt (Pitch Lake) shifted the economy; independence (1962) arrived mid-century.

• Virgin Islands: The Danish West Indies (St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix) abolished slavery in 1848; sold to the United States (1917) as the U.S. Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands remained a small, agrarian colony moving toward financial/tourism niches.

Technology & Material Culture

Railways, centrals, and company towns modernized cane zones; oil refineries and ports transformed Trinidad. Concrete sea defenses, lighthouses, and breakwaters hardened coasts. Urban fabrics—Havana-style arcades in San Juan’s old quarter, gingerbread houses in Cap-Haïtien, Georgian stone in Bridgetown, cast-iron galleries in Castries—signaled layered colonial inheritances. Afro-Indo-Creole cuisines, steelpan (Trinidad), and carnival costuming flourished.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Steamship and later air routes knit Port of Spain, Bridgetown, San Juan, and St. Thomas to New York, London, and Caracas.

• Labor migrations: post-1838 indenture to Trinidad; 20th-century movements from Barbados and St. Lucia to Panama, Britain’s Windrush era, and the U.S. mainland; circular migration within Hispaniola.

• Naval corridors shifted with U.S. ascendancy (Guantánamo nearby; U.S. bases in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Afro-Caribbean faiths—vodou (Haiti), orisha/Ifá strands in Trinidad, Shango and Spiritual Baptist practices—coexisted with Catholic and Protestant establishments.

• Mass festivals—Carnival (Trinidad/Barbados), Jounen Kwéyòl strands in Saint Lucia, Fête Dieu processions—encoded memory and resilience.

• Literary and musical renaissances (calypso, son, merengue, steelpan) articulated post-emancipation identities; nationalist symbols crystallized in independence movements.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Peasant mosaics (cacao/coffee/intercropping) stabilized hillsides; terrace and contour farming limited erosion. Coastal towns rebuilt repeatedly after cyclones with concrete and hurricane-strapped roofs. Oil and tourism diversified beyond sugar; cooperative credit, diaspora remittances, and mutual-aid lodges buffered shocks.

Transition

By 1971 CE, the Eastern West Indies spanned independent states (Trinidad and Barbados), U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands), British colonies on paths toward autonomy (Saint Lucia, British Virgin Islands), and Hispaniolan republics wrestling with debt, dictatorship, and development. Across the arc, the legacies of slavery, emancipation, indenture, and revolution had yielded a distinctly Caribbean modernity—maritime, migratory, and culturally incandescent.

Roughly seven hundred thousand enslaved workers in the British West Indies immediately become free when the Slavery Abolition Act comes into force in 1834; others will be freed several years later after a period of forced apprenticeship.

Slavery had been abolished in the Dutch Empire in 1814, and in the Spanish Empire in 1811, with the exceptions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo; Spain had ended the slave trade to these colonies in 1817, after being paid four hundred thousand pounds by Britain.

Slavery itself will not be not abolished in Cuba until 1886.

France will abolish slavery in its colonies in 1848.

The local Caribbean assemblies are encouraged to import nominally free laborers from India, China, and Africa under contracts of indenture to mitigate labor difficulties here.

Apart from the condition that they have a legally defined term of service and are guaranteed a set wage, the Asian indentured laborers are treated like the African slaves they partially replace in the fields and factories.

Between 1838 and 1917, nearly five hundred thousand East Indians (from British India) will come to work on the British West Indian sugar plantations, the majority going to the new sugar producers with fertile lands.

Trinidad imports one hundred and forty-five thousand; Jamaica, twenty-one thousand five hundred; Grenada, two thousand five hundred and seventy; St. Vincent, eighteen hundred and twenty; and St. Lucia, fifteen hundred and fifty.

Eastern West Indies (1840–1851 CE): Indentured Labor, Political Instability, and Dominican Independence

Indentured Labor and Post-Emancipation Economy

Following emancipation, the Eastern West Indies faced profound labor shortages. To sustain sugar production, British Caribbean assemblies began importing indentured laborers from India, China, and Africa, who, though legally free and contracted for fixed terms, often faced conditions reminiscent of slavery. Between 1838 and 1917, nearly 500,000 East Indians migrated to the British West Indies, notably 145,000 to Trinidad, 21,500 to Jamaica, and smaller numbers to Grenada, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia. Despite nominal freedoms, their harsh living conditions and limited rights highlighted continuing economic exploitation.

Political Turmoil in Haiti

In 1843, Charles Rivière-Hérard overthrew President Jean-Pierre Boyer, marking the start of prolonged instability. Boyer's presidency, notable for its length and internal reunification, had also deepened racial and class divisions, ultimately prompting his downfall. Rivière-Hérard's short-lived rule (1843–1844) succumbed rapidly to internal and external pressures, including failed military campaigns and rural uprisings by piquets led by Louis Jean-Jacques Acaau, emphasizing rural dissatisfaction.

The period that followed was marked by swift political turnovers orchestrated by mulatto elites, notably the Ardouin brothers, who manipulated successive black presidents like Philippe Guerrier (1844–1845), Jean-Louis Pierrot (1845–1846), and Jean-Baptiste Riché (1846–1847). In 1847, they installed Faustin Soulouque, who quickly turned against his backers, establishing a brutal dictatorship maintained through secret police (zinglins) and terror tactics.

Haitian Economic Decline and Social Conditions

Economic stagnation became pervasive as agricultural revenues declined, exacerbated by chronic defaults on payments owed to France. Increasingly desperate Haitian presidents sought foreign loans and relied on German merchant-funded coups led by mercenary cacos. By mid-century, Haiti's poverty deepened drastically, with annual per capita income averaging only US$20 and over 90% illiteracy, compounded by rampant tropical diseases.

Dominican Independence and Early Governance

Haiti’s internal chaos provided the opportunity for Dominican independence. On February 27, 1844, Dominican rebels led by nationalists including Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, Ramon Mella, and inspired by Juan Pablo Duarte, captured the Ozama fortress, marking Dominican Independence Day. Duarte’s return from exile on March 14 briefly inspired optimism, but internal rivalries quickly emerged.

Dominican politics became dominated by strongmen, particularly Pedro Santana Familias and Buenaventura Báez Méndez. Santana, leveraging his military influence, became the dominant figure, sidelining liberal nationalists like Duarte. The 1844 Dominican Constitution, though remarkably liberal, was undermined by Santana's insistence on extraordinary powers, leading to authoritarian governance and violent political cycles.

International Rivalries and Diplomatic Maneuvering

Dominican leaders actively sought foreign protection to safeguard independence from Haitian aggression. Both Santana and Báez approached powers such as France, the United States, and Britain. Báez strongly favored French intervention, while Britain, keen to preserve strategic commercial interests, brokered a treaty between Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1851, further involving itself in regional politics.

Key Historical Events

• Arrival of indentured laborers (1838–1917), significantly impacting the post-slavery economy.

• Overthrow of Jean-Pierre Boyer (1843) and the subsequent political turmoil.

• Dominican independence declared (February 27, 1844) under leadership figures such as Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez, and Ramon Mella.

• Pedro Santana’s authoritarian rule and manipulation of constitutional powers.

• Buenaventura Báez’s diplomatic overtures toward foreign powers, particularly France and Britain.

Long-Term Consequences and Historical Significance

The period 1840–1851 solidified complex economic, political, and social transformations in the Eastern West Indies. Indentured labor reshaped demographic and social dynamics, while Haiti and the Dominican Republic experienced intense political instability marked by violent power struggles. Dominican independence and subsequent diplomatic maneuverings underscored ongoing geopolitical significance, highlighting persistent vulnerabilities and external dependencies in Caribbean politics.

One hundred and forty-four thousand East Indian laborers will go to Trinidad and thirty-nine thousand will to Jamaica between the years 1850 to 1880.

The British govern the last Caribbean possessions ceded by the French—Trinidad and St. Lucia—in a radically different manner from the two patterns just discussed.

Employing a system known as crown colony government, the British rule directly through appointed officials rather than elected representatives.

Royal governors are vested with virtually autocratic powers.

At the same time, the British have retained the previous Spanish, French, and Dutch forms of government, gradually altering them through time.

No sustained attempt has been made to foster local government in these newer colonies, although the leading cities—Port-of-Spain in Trinidad and Castries in St. Lucia—have municipal councils.

Perhaps as a result, a strong grass-roots democracy fails to develop early in the latter territories.

The British decision to administer Trinidad and St. Lucia as crown colonies results from a number of complex factors.

First, the British, cognizant of the difficulty that they had had with the various local planters' assemblies, are not anxious to create legislative bodies on two more islands.

Beyond that, the acquisition of Trinidad had presented the British with several new challenges.

First, the free nonwhite population on the island outnumbered the white residents.

The British were unwilling to extend voting rights to a nonwhite majority but also felt that free nonwhites would not accept an electoral system only open to whites.

Second, French and Spanish planters on the island outnumbered those from Britain.

Even if a way could be found to restrict the vote to whites, "foreigners" would dominate the assembly.

Finally, with the British abolition of the slave trade in 1808, the British had wanted to prevent illegal arrivals of new slaves into Trinidad.

Enforcement of the new law could be handled more easily through direct control.

The political traditions of the Commonwealth Caribbean islands reflect the diverse ways in which they were brought into the British Empire and administered, as well as the dominant political views in London at the time of their incorporation.

Some of these traditions can still be observed in the operation of contemporary politics in the region.

Three patterns have emerged: one for colonies settled or acquired before the eighteenth century; another for colonies taken during the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and ceded by France in 1763; and a third for colonies conquered in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and ceded by France in the early nineteenth century.