In this moving microhistory of nineteenth-century Haiti and Jamaica,
Matthew J. Smith details the intimate connections that illuminate the
conjoined histories of both places after slavery. The frequent movement
of people between Haiti and Jamaica in the decades following
emancipation in the British Caribbean brought the countries into closer
contact and influenced discourse about the postemancipation future of
the region. In the stories and genealogies of exiles and politicians,
abolitionists and diplomats, laborers and merchants--and mothers,
fathers, and children--Smith recognizes the significance of
nineteenth-century Haiti to regional development.
On a broader level, Smith argues that the history of the Caribbean is
bound up in the shared experiences of those who crossed the straits and
borders between the islands just as much as in the actions of colonial
powers. Whereas Caribbean historiography has generally treated
linguistic areas separately and emphasized relationships with empires,
Smith concludes that such approaches have obscured the equally important
interactions among peoples of the Caribbean.