The emergence of nationalist movements and the increase in black consciousness in the Caribbean have for many years diverted historical scholarship away from the white elite to the recording of the experiences of the black and coloured populations. The White Minority in the Caribbean reverses this trend by focusing on the strategies adopted by the white community to shape and dominate the social and economic environment in a region which is predominantly non-white.

The unifying perspective of the essays in this volume is that in spite of changing relationships with other races in the Caribbean, the white minority has maintained its elite position by uniting its constituent ethnic and social groups whenever its dominance has been challenged. Other strategies included cementing links to political power and maintaining access to domestic and foreign capital.

This discussion is not limited to the Anglophone Caribbean; a discussion of the French and Dutch territories is included in this comprehensive analysis.

Contents:

Acknowledgements 

Introduction 

1. White Women and a West India fortune: Gender and Wealth during slavery 

Hilary McD. Beckles

2. Salmagundis vs Pumpkins: White Politics and Creole

Consciousness in Barbadian Slave Society, 1800-34 

Karl Watson

3. The White Elite of Trinidad, 1838-1950 

Bridget Brereton

4. Bay Street, Black Power and the Conchy Joes: Race and Class in the Colony and Commonwealth of the Bahamas, 1850-2000 

Michael Craton

5. The Culture of the Colonial Elites in Nineteenth-century Guyana 

Brian L. Moore

6. The White Minority in Jamaica at the end of the Nineteenth Century 

Patrick Bryan

7. In the Name of the People: Populist Ideology and Expatriate Power in Belize 

Karen Judd

8. Ethnicity and Social Change in Curaçao 

Réne A. Römer

9. French Republicanism under Challenge: White Minority (Béké) Power in Martinique and Guadeloupe 

Fred Constant

Contributors

Howard Johnson is Professor of Black American Studies and History at the University of Delaware

Karl Watson lectures in History at the university of the West Indies, Cave Hill.