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In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783

Online ISBN:
9781469600291
Print ISBN:
9780807833216
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press
Book

In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783

Published:
1 April 2010
Online ISBN:
9781469600291
Print ISBN:
9780807833216
Publisher:
University of North Carolina Press

Abstract

In an exploration of the oceanic connections of the Atlantic world, this book recovers a mariner's view of early America as seen through the eyes of Bermuda's seafarers. A social history of eighteenth-century Bermuda, it profiles how one especially intensive maritime community capitalized on its position “in the eye of all trade.” The book takes readers aboard small Bermudian sloops and follows white and enslaved sailors as they shuttled cargoes between ports, raked salt, harvested timber, salvaged shipwrecks, hunted whales, captured prizes, and smuggled contraband in an expansive maritime sphere spanning Great Britain's North American and Caribbean colonies. In doing so, it shows how humble sailors and seafaring slaves operating small family-owned vessels were significant but underappreciated agents of Atlantic integration. The American Revolution starkly revealed the extent of British America's integration before 1775 as it shattered interregional links that Bermudians had helped to forge. Reliant on North America for food and customers, Bermudians faced disaster at the conflict's start. A bold act of treason enabled islanders to continue trade with their rebellious neighbors, and helped them to survive and even prosper in an Atlantic world at war. Ultimately, however, the creation of the United States ended Bermuda's economic independence and doomed the island's maritime economy.

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