Hurricanes created unique challenges for the colonists in the British
Greater Caribbean during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These
storms were entirely new to European settlers and quickly became the
most feared part of their physical environment, destroying staple crops
and provisions, leveling plantations and towns, disrupting shipping and
trade, and resulting in major economic losses for planters and
widespread privation for slaves. In this study, Matthew Mulcahy examines
how colonists made sense of hurricanes, how they recovered from them,
and the role of the storms in shaping the development of the region's
colonial settlements. Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater
Caribbean, 1624-1783 provides a useful new perspective on several topics
including colonial science, the plantation economy, slavery, and public
and private charity. By integrating the West Indies into the larger
story of British Atlantic colonization, Mulcahy's work contributes to
early American history, Atlantic history, environmental history, and the
growing field of disaster studies.