Negotiating relief and freedom is an investigation of short- and long-term responses to disaster in the British Caribbean colonies during the ‘long’ nineteenth century. It explores how colonial environmental degradation made their inhabitants both more vulnerable to and expanded the impact of natural phenomena such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It shows that British approaches to disaster ‘relief’ prioritised colonial control and ‘fiscal prudence’ ahead of the relief of suffering. In turn, that this pattern played out continuously in the long nineteenth century is a reminder that in the Caribbean the transition from slavery to waged labour was not a clean one. Times of crisis brought racial and social tensions to the fore and freedoms once granted, were often quickly curtailed.
Price: £85.00
Pages: 224
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: Studies in Imperialism
Publication Date:
12 September 2023
ISBN: 9781526160393
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Caribbean & West Indies / General, History, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Imperialism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disasters & Disaster Relief, Colonialism and imperialism, Natural disasters, Aid and relief programmes
Negotiating relief and freedom provides a thorough and rich study. Webber introduces a more profound concern with the political, economic, and social dimensions of rebuilding society in the wake of disaster.
—Rasmus Christensen, New West Indian Guide
'Webber's book is a significant contribution to the literature on the nineteenth-century British Caribbean and to the literature on disasters and disaster relief. Scholars in those fields will want to have this book on their shelves.'
Matthew Mulcahy, Journal of British Studies
Negotiating Relief and Freedom is a rigorously researched, archive-driven study... an important
contribution to the field of environmental and imperial history.'
Robert M. Rouphail, Victorian Studies
Oscar Webber has been previously temporarily employed at the University of Leeds, The London School of Economics and has held a research fellowship at the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of London
Introduction
1 Disaster and providence
2 Passing visitors
3 ‘Aid’ in the absence of freedom
4 ‘Freedom’, decline and fear
5 Practical sympathy
Conclusion
