Description
The West Indian contribution to the United States goes far beyond its influence to the human and natural resources mined and exploited during slavery in the New World. And even though the West Indies and the United States are inextricably linked by this binding influence, so much information still exists and so many stories yet untold of the Caribbean men, women and islands that have impacted American history, politics, economics and culture during that period and long thereafter.
In Making Waves: How the West Indies Shaped the United States, author Debbie Jacob gives an exciting and vivacious account of the Caribbean islands and the famous West Indians who have shaped American society, from the 1700s to the present.
The collection of 30 stories feature the contributions made by renowned West Indians such as Alexander Hamilton, Oscar de la Renta, Bob Marley, Sidney Poitier and Marcus Garvey, at every turn highlighting the ingenuity and significance of the West Indies and its people. Engaging and illuminating, Making Waves also features the crucial yet little known role Barbados played in winning the American Revolutionary War as well as how a West Indian woman started the witch hysteria in Salem.
Contents
Foreword
Introduction • Exploring the Myth
- Peter Stuyvesant: The Dutch West India Company’s Disappearing Act
- Tituba: A West Indian Stirs the Cauldron in Salem
- Jean Baptiste Point du Sable: The Haitian in the Onion Field
- John Paul Jones: The Secret in Tobago
- John Hancock: Fame, Fortune and the West Indies Connection
- St Eustatius: A Thorn in the Side of a Colonial Giant
- George Washington: How Barbados Saved the General
- Alexander Hamilton: The West Indian Who Defined the US
- South Carolina: Nothing Sweet from Barbados Comes
- Toussaint L’Ouverture: From Slave to Iconoclast
- Saint-Domingue Changes America’s Landscape
- Denmark Vesey: The Man Who Bet on Freedom
- Jean Laffite: The Legend of a Pirate
- Oliver Perry: “We have met the enemy…”
- William Alexander Leidesdorff: All That Glitters is Not Gold
- The Invisible West Indians of the Panama Canal
- Hazel Scott: A Class Act
- Marcus Garvey: The Black Star Line
- Fidel Castro: An American Obsession
- Stokely Carmichael: Stoking the Fires of the Civil Rights Movement
- Sidney Poitier: The Big Picture
- Shirley Chisholm: A Barbadian in the House
- Roberto Clemente: Faith, Hope and Charity
- Euzhan Palcy: Making Waves in Hollywood
- Bob Marley: “Rastaman Vibration”
- Kool Herc: Trenchtown Rocks Hip Hop
- Janelle Commissiong: Stealing the Show
- Oscar de la Renta: The Man Who Dressed First Ladies
- Geoffrey Holder: The Toast of the Town
- Patrick Chung: The Wave of the Future
About the Author
Debbie Jacob is a journalist for Trinidad Newsday, Head Librarian of the International School of Port of Spain and an English teacher at Port of Spain Prison in Trinidad and Tobago. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Ohio State University, a Masters degree in International Education from Framingham State University, Massachusetts. She is the author of eight books, including Wishing for Wings.
