In an exploration of the oceanic connections of the Atlantic world,
Michael J. Jarvis recovers a mariner's view of early America as seen
through the eyes of Bermuda's seafarers. The first social history of
eighteenth-century Bermuda, this book profiles how one especially
intensive maritime community capitalized on its position "in the eye of
all trade."
Jarvis 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, he 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.