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The Stamp Act Crisis in the British West Indies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Donna J. Spindel
Donna J. Spindel
Affiliation:
Marshall University, West Virginia
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Extract

Traditionally, colonial scholars have focussed their attention on the North American continent, where dramatic conflicts with Britain culminated in Revolution. No major article or book has yet dealt with British West Indians as active participants in the pre-Revolutionary struggle. This study attempts to correct that situation. Focussing on the Stamp Act crisis, it seeks to clarify the role of island colonists during the pre-war period and argues for a comprehensive appraisal of that role.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , August 1977 , pp. 203 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

1 The most comprehensive study of the Stamp Act crisis, Edmund, S. and Morgan, Helen M., The Stamp Act Crisis (New York: Collier Books, 1953)Google Scholar, devotes two pages to the response to the Stamp Act in the British West Indies. The best and most recent works on the British West Indies — Carl and Bridenbaugh, Roberta, No Peace Beyond the Line: The English in the Caribbean 1624–1690 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972)Google Scholar; Dunn, Richard S., Sugar and Slaves: The Rise of the Planter Class in the English Colonies, 1624–1713 (Chapel Hill, N.C.; Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1972)Google Scholar; and Sheridan, Richard B., Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623–1775 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1973)Google Scholar — either concentrate on an earlier time or fail to deal at any length with the Caribbean response to royal authority during the pre-Revolutionary decade. See Goveia, Elsa, A Study of the Historiography of the British West Indies to the End of the Nineteenth Century (Mexico: Pan American Institute of Geography and History, 1956)Google Scholar.

2 Sources which contributed to the findings herein include letters of West Indian governors and stamp officers, journals of island assemblies, and the observations of islanders. Mainland newspapers provided excerpts from Caribbean gazettes no longer extant, letters from island merchants, and a distinctly American point of view regarding island events during the Stamp Act period.

3 In 1765 the English possessions in the West Indies consisted of the Bahamas, Jamaica, and the Lesser Antilles (Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, Tobago, and Tortola).

4 Barbados was founded in 1627. Other Windward Islands alternated between British and French control during the 18th century. These included Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada. The Leeward Islands were settled by Britain as follows: St. Kitts, 1624; Nevis, 1628; Montserrat, 1628; and Antigua, 1632. A permanent settlement was founded at the Bahamas in 1713.

5 Labaree, Leonard W., Royal Government in America (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1930), p. 426Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 42. 79.

7 Dunn, p. 339. Also see Lewis, Gordon K., “British Colonialism in the West Indies: The Political Legacy,” Caribbean Studies, 7 (04, 1967), 3Google Scholar; and Sheridan, p. 57. Only during the last quarter of the eighteenth century, as a result of white emigration, did the balance of power begin to shift from large sugar planters to smaller landholders, merchants, and professionals. See Goveia, Elsa, Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Century (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1965), p. 90Google Scholar. In Barbados a man owning ten acres could vote, but no more than 25% of the white adult male population met this requirement. In Virginia, where the property requirement was 100 acres of unsettled land or 25 acres of settled land, about 80% of the white adult male population could vote. See Dunn, pp. 92–93; Williamson, Chilton. American Suffrage: From Property to Democracy 1760–1860 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1960), p. 13Google Scholar; Robert, E. and Brown, Katherine B., Virginia 1705–1786: Democracy or Aristocracy? (East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State Univ. Press, 1964), p. 51Google Scholar. As Robert Wells points out, larger populations and larger proportions of free men on the mainland produced “a much broader base for political activities.” See Wells, Robert V., Population of the British Colonies in America before 1776 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1975), p. 286Google Scholar.

8 Spurdle, Frederick G., Early West Indian Government (New Zealand: published by the author, 1962), p. 215Google Scholar; Metcalf, George, Royal Government and Political Conflict in Jamaica 1729–1783 (London: Longmans, 1965), p. 2Google Scholar; Clarke, Mary P., Parliamentary Privilege in the American Colonies (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1943), p. 81Google Scholar.

9 London residents with West Indian connections, including agents, merchants, and absentee planters, met informally as a group until about 1770, when the West India Committee was formed. This group may have been “one of the most powerful parliamentary lobbies England has ever known.” See Parry, J. H. and Sherlock, P. M., A Short History of the British West Indies (London: Macmillan, 1956), p. 131Google Scholar, and Penson, Lillian M., Colonial Agents of the British West Indies: A Study of Colonial Administration, Mainly in the Eighteenth Century (London, 1924), pp. 380–83Google Scholar.

10 Thomas, P. D. G., British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), p. 32Google Scholar, and SirNamier, Lewis and Brooke, John, House of Commons 1754–1790 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1964), 1, 157–159Google Scholar. The actual number of West Indians in Parliament at any one time is difficult to determine. Sheridan, , Sugar and Slavery, 101Google Scholar, calculates that 70 absentee planters served in the House between 1730 and the outbreak of Revolution. SirNamier, Lewis, England in the Age of the American Revolution (London: Macmillan, 1930), p. 235Google Scholar, finds that in 1761, the House of Commons had 13 West Indian members, men who were either born in the islands, lived there for a long time, or held important posts there. In relative numbers, West Indian M.P.s always constituted a very small minority. Namier suggests that they secured favorable acts of trade because their “commercial demands” agreed with the prevailing British concept of mercantilism. See Namier, , England in the Age of the American Revolution, p. 239Google Scholar.

11 On West Indian votes in Parliament see Namier, and Brooke, , House of Commons, 1, 157–159Google Scholar. For a list of those who voted against repeal see Debates and Proceedings of the British House of Commons 1765–1768 (London, 1772), pp. 141–47Google Scholar. Two notable Commoners with West Indian interests who spoke out against the Stamp Act were William Beckford, the largest landowner in Jamaica, and Rose Fuller, a wealthy Jamaican absentee. See Jared Ingersoll to Thomas Fitch, 11 Feb., 1765, “Fitch Papers,” Connecticut Historical Society, Collections, 2 (Hartford, 1920), 321Google Scholar.

12 For example, Britain annexed no rival sugar colonies at the end of the Seven Years' War, and with the Sugar Act of 1764, established procedures for enforcing restrictions on the foreign sugar trade. See Penson, , Colonial Agents, pp. 75–76Google Scholar, and Craton, Michael and Walvin, James, A Jamaican Plantation: A History of Worthy Park, 1670–1970 (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1970), pp. 355–57Google Scholar.

13 For an excellent, general history of the British West Indies see Burns, Alan, History of the British West Indies (London: Allen and Unwin, 1954)Google Scholar.

14 Recent studies indicate that the negative effects of planter absenteeism have been overstressed. See Hall, Douglas, “Absentee-Proprietorship in the British West Indies to About 1850,” Jamaican Historical Review, 4 (1964), 15–35Google Scholar.

15 For an analysis of Caribbean society see Dunn, pp. 267, 335–41; Bridenbaugh, , No Peace Beyond the Line, pp. 367–76Google Scholar.

16 Wells, , Population of the British Colonies, pp. 266–67, 280–82Google Scholar. Slave majorities resulted from a combination of white exodus, high white mortality, and black importation. See ibid., pp. 280–82.

17 Dunn, , Sugar and Slaves, p. 256Google Scholar, identifies “seven separate slave revolts in the English islands between 1640 and 1713 in which fifty or more Negroes participated and in which blacks and whites were killed.” Also see Sheridan, pp. 255–56. Unfortunately, comparative studies of slavery in North America and the West Indies are few, and much work needs to be done in this area.

18 Sheridan, p. 446.

19 Craton and Walvin, p. 76.

20 Jamaican quote: extract of a letter from Jamaica, 23 10 1765, New Hampshire Gazette, 6 12 1765. Mainland newspaper: New Hampshire Gazette, 18 03 1766. Jamaicans bought £2,097 worth of stamps. See “List of Stamp Distributors and Consignments of Stamps to America,” A.O. 3/1086, Public Record Office. Two northern captains reported on a return voyage from Jamaica that “8 vessels were taken there for want of stamp papers.” See Boston Post-Boy, 10 02 1766.

21 Journals of the House of Commons, 30, 148, 532. Rose Fuller, who presented the petition of 1765, eventually withdrew it. See Thomas, , British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis, p. 94Google Scholar.

22 “Tranquility” at Jamaica: William H. Lyttelton to Board of Trade, 24 12 1765, C.O. 137/34, Public Record Office. Howell quote: John Howell to ?, 7, 02 1766, Wentworth-Woodhouse Muniments, Papers of the Second Marquis of Rockingham, Sheffield Central City Library, Sheffield.

23 Violence to Howell: Howell to ?, 31 May 1766, C.O. 137/62. The stamps were stored in Spanish Town at the office of the secretary of the colony which was the depository for deeds. Howell's opinion on stamp office: Howell to ?, 7 Feb. 1766, Wentworth-Woodhouse Muniments. Also see Lyttelton to Charles Lowndes, 28 Feb. 1766, T. 1/448, Public Record Office.

24 Ships were apparently clearing Port Royal without stamps by the end of Nov. 1765. See Massachusetts Gazette, 2 Jan. 1766. For a later confirmation of ships trading at Jamaican ports without stamps see ibid., 27 Mar. 1766.

25 South Carolina Gazette, 21 July 1766.

26 Testimony of James Carr, merchant, before Parliament on 17 Feb. 1766, Add. Mss. 33030, British Museum.

27 During the Stamp Act period, the assembly was repeatedly prorogued for challenging Lyttelton on his interpretation of a question of parliamentary privilege. On the debate between governor and assembly see Metcalf, , Royal Government in Jamaica, pp. 160–69Google Scholar, and Clarke, , Parliamentary Privilege, pp. 252–57Google Scholar.

28 Metcalf, p. 141.

29 On suspension of public business see Hall, Neville T., “Public Office and Private Gain: A Note on Administration in Jamaica in the later 18th Century,” Caribbean Studies (10 1972), p. 18Google Scholar.

30 So intense was the rivalry between these two groups that it resulted in the temporary transfer of the island capital from Spanish Town to Kingston in 1755. See Metcalf, pp. 122–34, and Craton, and Walvin, , A Jamaican Plantation, p. 78Google Scholar.

31 Wells, , Population of the British Colonies, p. 196Google Scholar.

32 Captain Southey, Thomas, Chronological History of the West Indies (1872; rept. London: 1968), 1, 384Google Scholar.

33 Jamaica militia: extract of a letter from Kingston, 23 Dec. 1765, Massachusetts Gazette, 6 Mar. 1766. On the weakness of West Indian militia in general see Pares, Richard, War and Trade in the West Indies 1739–1763 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936), p. 229Google Scholar.

34 Military at Port Royal: Hamshere, Cyril, The British in the Caribbean (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1972), p. 187Google Scholar, and Pares, , War and Trade, p. 274Google Scholar. Newspaper quote: Maryland Gazette, 17 Apr. 1766; also see Boston Post-Boy, 13 Jan. 1766. Suppression of rebelliousness: Greene, Jack P., “An Uneasy Connection: An Analysis of the Preconditions of the American Revolution,” in Kurtz, Stephen G. and Hutson, Hames H. (eds.), Essays on the American Revolution (New York: Norton, 1973), p. 40Google Scholar.

35 Jamaican sugar exports: Sheridan, , Sugar and Slavery, p. 489Google Scholar. Increased prosperity in Jamaica: Craton and Walvin, p. 75.

36 Complaints against Parliament: extract of a letter from Philadelphia, 26 11 1765. Massachusetts Gazette, 6 Dec. 1765; extract of a letter from Barbados, 4 11 1765, ibid., 12 Dec. 1765. Praise of northern resistance: New Hampshire Gazette, 7 03 1766. Pinfold quote: Charles Pinfold to George Walker, 30 Apr. 1766, Pinfold Manuscripts, Library of Congress.

37 Pinfold quote: Pinfold to Henry Conway, 26 Aug. 1765, C.O. 28/50. Whitehead quote: William Whitehead to Commissioner of Stamps, 10 Nov. 1765, T. 1/455. Sale of stamps: Barbadians bought at least £500 worth of stamps; see “List of Stamp Distributors,” A.O. 3/1086.

38 Advocates of peace: Sheridan, , Sugar and Slavery, p. 145Google Scholar; Pinfold to Walker, 30 Apr. 1766, Pinfold Manuscripts. Barbados Assembly: Barbados Assembly to Pinfold, 26 Nov. 1765, C.O. 31/32; on 17 Dec. 1765, the Assembly resolved to send a statement of grievances to the King, Assembly Minutes, C.O. 31/32, and extract of a letter from the Committee of Correspondence of Barbados to its agent in London, Massachusetts Gazette, 15 May 1766. North American “threats”: Pinfold to Board of Trade, 21 Feb. 1766, Pinfold Manuscripts.

39 Threat of American captains: Massachusetts Gazette, 26 12 1765, and 23 Jan. 1766. Quote of islander: extract of a letter from Barbados, 23 Jan. 1766, ibid., 20 Mar. 1766.

40 Resumption of trade on unstamped clearances: Pinfold to Lowndes, 24 Feb. 1766. Pinfold Manuscripts; James Drinker to William Browne, 1 Mar. 1766, James and Drinker Letterbook, 1764–1766, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; extract of a letter from Barbados, 23 Jan. 1766, Massachusetts Gazette, 27 Mar. 1766.

41 In 1773, Barbados was 78.2% black. See Wells, , Population of the British Colonies, p. 238Google Scholar. On man-of-war at Bridgetown see Hamshere, p. 187.

42 On 4.5% duty see Makinson, David, Barbados: A Study of North American West Indian Relations (London: Mouton, 1964), p. 71Google Scholar. The 4.5% duty was also passed by the assemblies of Nevis, Montserrat, and Bermuda. Half the revenues were to support local government on the island in which the duty was imposed, and half reverted to the crown. However, monies collected from the tax at one time paid the governor's salary in Massachusetts, South Carolina, and the Isle of Jersey. See Clark, Dora Mae, Rise of the British Treasury (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1960), pp. 68–70Google Scholar. On expedition against Martinique see Annual Register, 8, 240–41.

43 Sheridan quote: Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery, p. 124. Assembly quote: Barbados Assembly to Pinfold, 26 11 1765, C.O. 31/32. Walker quote: Walker to Committee of Correspondence of Barbados, 19 11 1765, C.O. 31/33.

44 Minutes of the Council of St. Kitts, 5 Nov. 1765, C.O. 241/9.

45 Tuckett's account: William Tuckett to George Thomas, 5 Dec. 1765, C.O. 152/47.

46 Guy Fawkes Day parade: extract of a letter from St. Kitts, Boston Post-Boy, 30 Dec. 1765; Massachusetts Gazette, 12 Dec. 1765. Threats to Tuckett: Tuckett to Thomas, 5 Dec. 1765, C.O. 152/47. St. Kitts “Sons of Liberty”: New Hampshire Gazette, 28 Feb. 1766. Activities at Nevis: extract of a letter from Philadelphia, 26 Nov. 1765. Massachusetts Gazette, 6 Dec. 1765; Boston Post-Boy, 30 Dec. 1765.

47 Vote of St. Kitts Council: Minutes of the Council of St. Kitts, 5 Nov. 1765, C.O. 241/9. Governor's reward: Minutes of the Assembly of St. Kitts, 17 12 1765, C.O. 241/10.

48 American captain: Boston Post-Boy, 9 Dec. 1765; New Hampshire Gazette, 13 Dec. 1765. St. Christopher Gazette: Boston Post-Boy, 9 Dec. 1765.

49 On suspected smugglers, see extract of a letter from John Nelson, collector of customs at Nevis, n.d., Wentworth-Woodhouse Muniments. On influence of New England crews see Annual Register, 1765, p. 56.

50 The Leeward Islands were governed by a captain-general or governor, who lived at St. John's, Antigua. A lieutenant-governor served as chief executive on individual islands. Since most lieutenant-governors were absentees, the highest authority in each of the Leeward Islands, except Antigua, was the president of the council. See Goveia, Slave Society, p. 52. A British regiment and man-of-war were stationed at Antigua. See Harper and Hartshorn to Thomas Clifford, 25 Nov. 1765, Clifford. Correspondence, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

51 Absenteeism at St. Kitts: Ragatz, Joseph L., Fall of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean, 1763–1833 (New York: Century, 1928), p. 14Google Scholar; Sheridan, Richard, An Era of West Indian Prosperity (Barbados: Caribbean Univ. Press, 1970), p. 86Google Scholar; and Evangeline, W. and Andrews, Charles M. (eds.), Journal of a Lady of Quality (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1939), pp. 92–93Google Scholar. On lack of wealthy planters see Ragatz, p. 47, and Goveia, Slave Society, pp. 87–88, 91. Petition for repeal: Minutes of Assembly of St. Kitts, Jan., 1766, C.O. 241/10.

52 The St. Kitts population was 90% black: Wells, , Population of the British Colonies, p. 212Google Scholar. For information on the ratio of whites to blacks in towns, see Goveia, , Slave Society, p. 240Google Scholar.

53 Dunn quote: Dunn, , Sugar and Slaves, pp. 258–59Google Scholar. Free blacks: in 1774 there were 417 free blacks at St. Kitts. See Wells, p. 214.

54 Late arrival of stamps: John Batho to Father, 10 Nov. 1765, John Batho Letterbook, 1765–1767, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Massachusetts Gazette, 12 Dec. 1765. Stampmaster William Ottley Jr.: “List of Stamp Distributors,” A.O. 3/1086.

55 Observer quote: Batho to Father, 10 Nov. 1765, John Batho Letterbook. Actions of Governor Thomas: Thomas to Conway, 21 12 1765, C.O. 152/47. Warner's resignation: Harper and Hartsthorn to Clifford, 25 11 1765, Clifford Correspondence. Enforcement of Stamp Act by Atkinson: Harper and Hartshorn to Clifford, 25 Nov. 1765 and 21 Jan. 1766, Clifford Correspondence. Resignation of Atkinson: extract from the Antigua Gazette, 24 Dec. 1765, in Massachusetts Gazette, 6 Feb. 1766.

56 Josiah Martin to Samuel Martin Jr., 7 Aug. 1767, in Stumpf, Vernon O., “Josiah Martin and His Search for Success,” North Carolina Historical Review, 53 (01, 1976), 64–65Google Scholar.

57 Massachusetts Gazette, 6 Feb. 1766.

58 Trader's quote: copy of a letter from Antigua, 22 Dec. 1765, enclosed in a letter from Kender Mason to Charles Lowndes, 15 July 1766, Wentworth-Woodhouse Muniments. Rejection of land warrant and petition by Antigua Assembly: Massachusetts Gazette, 20 Mar. 1766. Petition for repeal: Minutes of St. Kitts Assembly, 15 Dec. 1765, C.O. 9/28. Assembly support of Stamp Act: Stumpf, “Josiah Martin,” 64–65.

59 “List of Stamp Distributors,” A.O. 3/1086.

60 Enforcement of Stamp Act: Mason to Lowndes, 13 Feb. 1766, T. 1/452. Stamp Act not enforced in ports: Harper and Hartshorn to Clifford, 21 Jan. 1766, Clifford Correspondence; extract of a letter from Antigua, 18 Jan. 1766, Neiv Hampshire Gazette, 21 Feb. 1766.

61 Goveia, Slave Society, p. 65.

62 Harper and Hartshorn quote: Harper and Hartshorn to Clifford, 25 Nov. 1765, Clifford Correspondence. Quote of islander: Batho to Father, 10 Nov. 1765, John Batho Letterbook.

63 Only Jamaica and Tobago had a higher concentration of blacks. See Wells, , Population of the British Colonies, pp. 265–67Google Scholar.

64 Goveia, , Slave Society, pp. 52, 76Google Scholar.

65 Tortola, : Massachusetts Gazette, 23 01 1766Google Scholar. Absence of stamps at Montserrat: ibid., 6 Dec. 1765. Threat to burn stamps at Montserrat: Harper and Hartshorn to Clifford, 25 11 1765, Clifford Correspondence.

66 The Grenada stampman was Robert Seaman. See “List of Stamp Distributors,” A.O. 3/1086.

67 Quote of American captain: Boston Post-Boy, 3 Mar. 1766. Stamp Act in force at Antigua: George Champlin to Christopher Champlin, 17 Feb. 1766, Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, 7th Ser., 9 (Boston: Published by the Society, 1914), 144Google Scholar.

68 See Craton, Michael, A History of the Bahamas, 2nd ed. (London, 1968)Google Scholar, and Wells, p. 183.

69 Shirley appointed stampmaster: Grey Cooper to John Brettell, 17 10 1765, T. 27/29. Shipment of stamps: the Bahamas was the only West Indian colony to return its entire supply of stamps to London intact; see “List of Stamp Distributors,” A.O. 3/1086. Quotes of American captains: Massachusetts Gazette, 12 Dec. 1765, and New York Gazette, 2 Dec. 1765. Resignation of stampmen: Massachusetts Gazette, 17 10 1765. Shirley quote: Bahamas Council Minutes, 1764–72, in Burns, , History of the British West Indies, p. 517Google Scholar.