Ordinary Lives in the Early Caribbean : Religion, Colonial Competition, and the Politics of Profit

326 Pages·2012·4.528 MB·English

by  Kristen Block

Ordinary Lives in the Early Caribbean
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Early American Places is a collaborative project of the
University of Georgia Press, New York University Press, and
Northern Illinois University Press. The series is supported by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information,
please visit www.earlyamericanplaces.org.
Advisory Board
Vincent Brown, Duke University
Stephanie M. H. Camp, University of Washington
Andrew Cayton, Miami University
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut
Nicole Eustace, New York University
Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University
Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of Chicago
Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University
Joshua Piker, University of Oklahoma
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
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Ordinary Lives in the
Early Caribbean
Religion, Colonial Competition,
and the Politics of Profit
kristen block
The University of Georgia Press
athens and london
© 2012 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org

All rights reserved

Printed digitally in the United Statesof America

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Block,Kristen.
Ordinary lives in the early Caribbean : religion, colonial competition, and the politics of
profit / Kristen Block.
p. cm. — (Early American places)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3867-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8203-3867-2 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-3868-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8203-3868-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Caribbean Area—Social conditions—17th century.2. Caribbean Area—Social
conditions—18th century.3. Caribbean Area—History—17th century.4. Caribbean
Area—History—18th century.5. Caribbean Area—Biography. I. Title.
F2161.B582012
972.903—dc23
2012001900

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4375-4
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
part i Isabel: “If Her Soul Was Condemned, It Would Be
the Authorities’ Fault”
1 Contesting the Boundaries of Anti-Christian Cruelty
in Cartagena de Indias 19
2 Imperial Intercession and Master-Slave Relations
in Spanish Caribbean Hinterlands 38
3 Law, Religion, Social Contract, and Slavery’s
Daily Negotiations 51
part ii Nicolas: “To Live and Die as a Catholic Christian”
4 Northern European Protestants in the Spanish Caribbean 65
5 Empire, Bureaucracy, and Escaping the Spanish Inquisition 81
6 Conversion, Coercion, and Tolerance in Old
and New Worlds 92
part iii Henry: “Such as will truck for Trade
with darksome things”
7 Cromwellian Political Economy and the Pursuit
of New World Promise 109
viii / contents
8 The Politics of Economic Exclusion: Plunder, Masculinity,
and “Piety” 119
9 Anxieties of Interracial Alliances, Black Resistance,
and the Specter of Slavery 134
part iv Nell, Yaff, and Lewis: “He hath made all
Nations of one Blood”
10 Quakers, Slavery, and the Challenges
of Universalism 149
11 Evangelization and Insubordination: Authority
and Stability in Quaker Plantations 166
12 Inclusion, the Protestant Ethic, and the Silences
of Atlantic Capitalism 181
conclusion Cynicism and Redemption
13 Religion, Empire, and the Atlantic Economy
at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century 201
Notes 231
Index 303
Figures
1–2 Modern views of Cartagena de Indias’s
principal cathedral and Inquisition Palace 28
3 Modern view of the Jesuit Colegio in Cartagena’s
Plaza San Pedro Claver 30
4 Engraved portrait of San Pedro Claver
(Marcus Orozco, 1666) 31
5 Plan of the city of Cartagena de Indias (1735) 32
6 Engraved view of Sir Francis Drake’s attack
of Cartagena (Boazio, 1588) 43
7 Modern display of the rack in Cartagena’s
Inquisition Museum 90
8 Portrait frontispiece to The world encompassed
by Sir Francis Drake (London, 1628) 116
9–10 Modern views of Cartagena’s
San Felipe fortifications 132
11 Illustrated frontispiece to Tears of the Indians
(London, 1656) 141
12 Dutch engraving, “English Quakers and tobacco
planters in Barbados” (ca. 1700) 159
1 3–14 Map of Barbados (Richard Forde, 1675),
with detail showing Morris landholdings 168, 175