In a Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean [Hardcover]

A history of imperial competition, colonial cooperation, and revolutionary currents in the maritime borderlands of the early nineteenth-century Caribbean.By exploring transnational networks involved in smuggling, privateering, slave trade, marronage, and corruption, Jeppe Mulich illuminates the entangled nature of imperial politics and colonial law in the maritime borderlands of the Caribbean during the age of revolutions.By exploring transnational networks involved in smuggling, privateering, slave trade, marronage, and corruption, Jeppe Mulich illuminates the entangled nature of imperial politics and colonial law in the maritime borderlands of the Caribbean during the age of revolutions.At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Caribbean was rife with revolutionary fervor and political turmoil. Yet, with such upheaval came unparalleled opportunities. In this innovative and richly detailed study, Jeppe Mulich explores the interconnected nature of imperial politics and colonial law in the maritime borderlands of the Leeward Islands, where British, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish, and Swedish colonies both competed and cooperated with one another. By exploring the transnational networks involved in trade, slavery, smuggling, privateering, and marronage, he offers a new account of the age of revolutions in the Caribbean, emphasizing the border-crossing nature of life in the region. By approaching major shifts in politics, economy, and law from the bottom-up, a new story of early nineteenth-century globalization emerges  one that emphasizes regional integration and a multiplicity of intersecting networks.1. Introduction; 2. Free ports and black markets; 3. Imperial warfare, colonial violence; 4. Prize courts and privateers; 5. Slave laws and free communities; 6. Abolition and the illegal slave trade; Conclusion.Through its examination of illicit trade, privateering and slave trading in the Leeward Islands, this book uncovers hitherto unstudied trans-imperial networksl>