Caribbean

The Invention of Rum: Quintessential Atlantic World Commodity

June 21, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Jordan B. Smith’s The Invention of Rum: Creating the Quintessential Atlantic Commodity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025) is a complex history of distilled alcoholic spirit made from sugarcane byproducts, from its production to its consumption, and from its origins in the Caribbean to its impact on the Atlantic World.

It was strong. It was cheap. It was ubiquitous. Fermented and distilled from the refuse of sugar production, rum emerged in the seventeenth-century Caribbean as a new commodity. [Read more…] about The Invention of Rum: Quintessential Atlantic World Commodity

New York: Named For World’s Most Prolific Slave Trader

May 8, 2026 by Alan J. Singer Leave a Comment

A new book, The Crown’s Silence, The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas by Brooke Newman (Mariner Books, 2026), challenges the myth that Great Britain and its monarchs championed the abolition of slavery and details the royal family’s complicity with and profit from the slave trade and the sale of slave produced commodities.

It also reminds us that New York is named for the world’s most prolific slave trader. [Read more…] about New York: Named For World’s Most Prolific Slave Trader

Pineapple Mania & Manhattan Architecture

February 18, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

Pineapples originate from the Orinoco River basin from where indigenous peoples spread specimens across parts of South America and towards the Caribbean and Bahamas. The early history of pineapple cultivation was a European, post-Columbus affair. The American passion for pineapple evolved from the eighteenth century when colonists began importing the fruit from the Caribbean.

Rare and restricted to the elite for some time, imports increased rapidly and the fruit became widely available. Such was its popularity that the pineapple became a feature of America’s cultural identity.

Flavor memories linger to this day (in craft beers for example), despite Donald Trump’s sworn deposition (October 2022) in which he labeled the fruit (as well as tomatoes and bananas) “dangerous stuff,” expressing anxiety that the pineapple had been weaponized by protesters. [Read more…] about Pineapple Mania & Manhattan Architecture

Dutch Arms Dealers & Military Engineers in the Revolutionary War

January 16, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Modern international law prohibits a neutral nation from supplying arms, ammunition, or equipment to any warring party, either directly or indirectly.

Eighteenth-century Dutch legal minds argued the opposite case. They stuck to the principle of “free ships make free goods,” dictating that a vessel under a neutral flag cannot be captured or confiscated.

Neutrality was driven by self-interest, a desire to achieve economic advantage without being involved in hostilities. [Read more…] about Dutch Arms Dealers & Military Engineers in the Revolutionary War

Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Media and Democracy

January 5, 2026 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

In Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Print Culture, Media Change, and Democracy in the Late Nineteenth Century (NYU Press, 2026) by Kelley Kreitz, who leads the digital mapping project C19LatinoNYC.org, uncovers the network of Spanish-language writers and editors in 19th-century New York, whose media innovations fueled anti-colonial struggles and democratic ideals.

At the end of the nineteenth century, New York City was a vital hub for writers from Latin America, providing a haven of press freedom and the latest printing technology. [Read more…] about Printing Nueva York: Spanish-Language Media and Democracy

Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America

December 26, 2025 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

Have you ever wondered why so many Americans drink coffee in the morning? In early America, colonists drank a lot of coffee — and less tea that we usually think. Coffee is among the most common goods traded and consumed worldwide, and so omnipresent its popularity is often taken for granted.

But even everyday habits have a history. When and why coffee become part of North American daily life is at the center of the book Coffee Nation: How One Commodity Transformed the Early United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025). [Read more…] about Coffee: A Commodity That Transformed Early America

Life and Revolution in Boston, Grenada

September 4, 2019 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

What can a family history tell us about revolutionary and early republic America?

What can the letters of a wife and mother tell us about life in the Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions?

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, we join Susan Clair Imbarrato, a Professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead and author of Sarah Gray Cary from Boston to Grenada: Shifting Fortunes of an American Family, 1753-1825 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), to discover more about the letters of Sarah Gray Cart and what they reveal about how she and her family experienced the American Revolution on the island of Grenada. [Read more…] about Life and Revolution in Boston, Grenada

Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

May 8, 2019 by Dr. Liz Covart Leave a Comment

Who do we count as family? It a relative was born in a foreign place and one of their parents was of a different race? Would they count as family?

Eighteenth-century Britons asked themselves these questions. As we might suspect, their answers varied by time and whether they lived in Great Britain, North America, or the Caribbean. [Read more…] about Mixed-Race Britons & the Atlantic Family

Caribbean

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