Dave Gosse - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dave Gosse
Caribbean Quarterly
One of the ironies of Eric William's ground breaking work Capitalism and Slavery is that raci... more One of the ironies of Eric William's ground breaking work Capitalism and Slavery is that racism as a feature of slave society in the British West Indies has been relegated in favor of economic determinism. Although some scholars argue that racism is most difficult to measure plantation correspondence is replete with racial assumptions. One would be very surprised at the extent of racial comments by the Jamaican planters resulting from the Haitian revolution. Many of the Jamaican planters, while concerned with issues of security, were more concerned with the implications of a Jamaican society managed by former enslaved Africans. They could not imagine "uncivilized" Africans creating an orderly, stable and successful society. This paper argues that the paranoia among many of the Jamaican planters to the Haitian revolution, indirectly, contributed to further socio- economic and political decay in early 19th century Jamaican slave society. The planters' hysteria and repression towards their enslaved Africans were racially motivated1 and resulted in their vigorous resistance and sabotage of amelioration that was being recommended by the metropolitan authorities. The Jamaican planters were fearful of the results of amelioration. With the constant decline in the protection of British West Indian sugar from free trade advocates in London, the Jamaican planters' resistance to amelioration was counter-productive to efficient plantation management. Secondly, this paper refutes Eric Williams' argument that racism was a result of the economic forces existent in British West Indian slave society. I will show that both racism and economics operated simultaneously from the very beginning of British West Indian slave society. Thus, racial and economic motives were not in opposition to each other but were mutual partners.2 Development of Racial Theory: The larger European context from which the British emerged has to be the starting point for any serious study of racism in the Americas.3 Were the British racists in their categorization of Africans even before they arrived in the New World, as hinted by William Green?4 Was racism a by-product of slavery, as Williams claimed? In examining the development of racial theory the definition of 'race' has to be first studied followed by its meaning in both Catholic and Protestant thought. When that is examined, then, the practice of European racism can be described as a continuous development. European racism towards Africans started before their arrival in the Caribbean and developed into the scientific racism of the late 19th century.5 Franklin Knight argues that attitudes towards race and towards slavery were not necessary the same. The European concept of race started as a form of identification among the extended family, friends and members of one's village. It then moved onwards and outwards to the larger society. Thus, Englishmen in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries thought of themselves as a race distinct from the Spanish, the Portuguese and other Europeans. Nevertheless, as the Englishmen pushed farther and farther into the wider world and as they began to realize the diversity of the colours and conditions of man and society they changed their notions of race. Race took on characteristics of colour since all Europeans had similar features to be classified as white; Asians had similar features to be described as yellow and Africans south of the Sahara had similar features to be described as black. The colour element in race replaced the previous distinctions of 'Christians' and 'Infidels'.6 Once colour and culture became associated with race then the next logical step was the stereotyping of cultures which eventually led to racial discrimination. By the 16th century European ethnocentrisms had a tendency to place all non-Europeans in a colour continuum. Those more closely approximating white in appearance were regarded as more pleasing,7 while those less approximating white were less pleasing. …
African American Studies Center, 2016
IntroductionSeveral historians, such as Michael Craton, Kenneth and Virginia Kiple, Richard Sheri... more IntroductionSeveral historians, such as Michael Craton, Kenneth and Virginia Kiple, Richard Sheridan and Barry Higman have written on the state of health care in Jamaica during the era of slavery. They have highlighted the contributions of both the European-trained doctors and the African "doctors" (enslaved Africans who practised medicine).1 Barry Higman, for example, argues that the European-trained doctors in the British West Indies had some success in public health initiatives. He further asserts that their apparent failure to improve the health of enslaved Africans should be attributed largely to the kinds of miasma theory that they learnt.2 Thus, the European doctors were victims of their own training. Michael Craton agrees with Higman to a certain extent by arguing that the European doctors' training in humoral theory was one of the contributing factors to their overall ineffectiveness. Craton asserts that at times the medicine that the European doctors dispense...
The Journal of Caribbean history, 2010
Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805, Philip Wri... more Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805, Philip Wright, ed., with a foreword by Ver ene A. Shepherd, Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2002, 331 pp.This work, edited by Philip Wright, contains journal or diary entries of events, visits and other aspects of plantation life made by Lady Maria Nugent, wife of George Nugent, governor of Jamaica, during her sojourn on the island between 1801 and 1804. These entries, which may be viewed as very informative social commentaries on social life in Jamaica, are of interest to academics and students of Caribbean history in their analyses of Caribbean plantation society. However, some Caribbean historians might find the work disappointing, as it fails to elaborate on many of the debatable themes in Caribbean history. In fact, Lady Nugent quite tactfully avoided making detailed comments on socio-economic and political matters. But this is to be expected; she was the governor's wife.No...
Caribbean Quarterly, 2010
Among the more debatable topics in Caribbean History, the ending of the British trans-Atlantic Tr... more Among the more debatable topics in Caribbean History, the ending of the British trans-Atlantic Trade in Africans 1807, is arguable the most political, as the issue of morality is deeply embedded in the discussion. However, most revisionist historians of the Caribbean are critical of the role of morality as the leading factor in abolition. Instead, these scholars believe that economics was the singular most important reason for the 1807 Abolition Bill. This chapter seeks to extend this economic argument by examining the socio-economic context of the late 18th to early 19th century Jamaica, when the island was one of Britain's important sugar colonies. The British authorities publicly used the issue of morality as a politically convenient tool; but in their private correspondence they urgently sought to alter the declining social and economic context of British Caribbean slavery. They wanted to reform the ways in which slavery was practiced in the British-colonised Caribbean. The “peculiar institution of slavery” was to become more cost effective and economically profitable.
Caribbean Quarterly, 2016
IntroductionSINCE THE 1978 PUBLICATION OF RANDALL BURKETT'S tWO books, Garveyism US a Religio... more IntroductionSINCE THE 1978 PUBLICATION OF RANDALL BURKETT'S tWO books, Garveyism US a Religious Movement and Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak for the Garvey Movement,: there have been other publications in support of the view that Garveyism was a religious movement. Burkett argued that Marcus Garvey was a black theologian and that Garveyism was indeed a civil religion, since there was a prevalence of religious personalities, religious symbols, religious rituals and beliefs in all the UNIA chapters.2Roderick McLeans Theology of Marcus Garvey, both supporting and critiquing the work of Burkett, was another significant monograph. McLean argued that Marcus Garvey was indeed the preeminent black theologian of the early twentieth century, since he was more interested in positing a pragmatic theological framework to interpret his people's origin, history and destiny. The theological and religious features of the movement were only necessary as Garvey had to enter the theological realm to demythologise, for the black race, concepts of God, Christ and humanity.3 This was necessary if the black community was to be truly liberated.Brada Imani's The Gospel According to Marcus Garvey: His Philosophies and Opinions about Christ,4 was also significant. The book contains a selection of speeches, words and opinions of Marcus Garvey, detailing his personal views about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Christianity and other important religious and spiritual themes. The book clearly shows that Marcus Garvey saw the importance and the necessity of religion in building his philosophy.5Significant articles have also emerged in support of Burkett and McLean. Ernie P. Gordon argued that Garvey was indeed a shrewd black theologian, and that Garveys interpretation of the Bible was not only revolutionary but demonstrated that he understood theological terminology and re-interpreted theology in order to raise the consciousness of the black man.6 Phillip Potter also argued that Garvey was in fact calling for a new hermeneutic or interpretation of the Bible, as it has to be read with discernment and discrimination from the core of its message about God, Christ and humanity. This was critical to ensure justice for all, along with mutual well-being and peace.7Cardinal Aswad Walker compared the theology of both Marcus Garvey and one of his followers, the Reverend Albert B. Cleage Jr. Walker argued that Garvey was indeed a profound theologian and as such had an impact on the theology of Cleage Jr; they differed fundamentally, however, in their ecclesiology, as Garvey did not want to institutionalise organised religion. Garvey sought to transcend church denominationalism by building an all-embracing movement which was religious, social and political. Cleage Jr, on the other hand, viewed religious denominationalism as fundamental to the successful liberation of the black community, as the black church was one of the few institutions in black communities which blacks owned. As such, he drew on much of Garvey's theological beliefs to build his religious community.8Despite the growing number of publications on the importance of religion to the Garvey movement, Garvey's theology is not highlighted by some Garvey scholars as critical to the nature of the movement. Robert Hill, for example, a major Garvey scholar, does not believe that religion had a fundamental impact on the Garvey movement. Instead Hill argues that Garvey wisely and deliberately used religious dogma, litanies and language to effectively communicate to his audiences.9 Hill also believes that Garvey tried to develop an objective scientific knowledge of religion as one way to unite blacks as a strategy.10To underscore Garvey's use of religion, Hill further argues that Garvey outspokenly declared himself to be nonreligious in the traditional sense and reportedly defined his concerns as secular. Garvey, in closing the second Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) convention in 1921, asserted that "we are living in a material world, even though it is partly spiritual and since we have been very spiritual in the past, we are going to take a part of the material now, and will give to others the opportunity to practise the spiritual side of life". …
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2014
this respect and in others, 'elite English men' engaged in empire may not have been as single-min... more this respect and in others, 'elite English men' engaged in empire may not have been as single-minded as Shaw suggests. Of course, as Shaw ably shows in this stimulating book, these tensions and contradictions are exactly what one should expect from the 'messy and complex' world of everyday life in the Caribbean (190). Note [1] For a sensitive discussion of this process, see Natalie A. Zacek, Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), which engages some of the same themes and sources as Shaw but focuses instead on the ways white settlers struggled and succeeded in creating English societies in the Caribbean.
Journal of American History, 2006
... Equiano is also the subject of a biography published in 1998 by James Walvin, an eminent hist... more ... Equiano is also the subject of a biography published in 1998 by James Walvin, an eminent historian of slavery and the slave trade. ... Page 21. PREFACE xvii eyewitness to the evils of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in its vari-ous eighteenth-century forms. ...
Caribbean quarterly, 2015
African American Studies Center, 2016
Caribbean Quarterly
One of the ironies of Eric William's ground breaking work Capitalism and Slavery is that raci... more One of the ironies of Eric William's ground breaking work Capitalism and Slavery is that racism as a feature of slave society in the British West Indies has been relegated in favor of economic determinism. Although some scholars argue that racism is most difficult to measure plantation correspondence is replete with racial assumptions. One would be very surprised at the extent of racial comments by the Jamaican planters resulting from the Haitian revolution. Many of the Jamaican planters, while concerned with issues of security, were more concerned with the implications of a Jamaican society managed by former enslaved Africans. They could not imagine "uncivilized" Africans creating an orderly, stable and successful society. This paper argues that the paranoia among many of the Jamaican planters to the Haitian revolution, indirectly, contributed to further socio- economic and political decay in early 19th century Jamaican slave society. The planters' hysteria and repression towards their enslaved Africans were racially motivated1 and resulted in their vigorous resistance and sabotage of amelioration that was being recommended by the metropolitan authorities. The Jamaican planters were fearful of the results of amelioration. With the constant decline in the protection of British West Indian sugar from free trade advocates in London, the Jamaican planters' resistance to amelioration was counter-productive to efficient plantation management. Secondly, this paper refutes Eric Williams' argument that racism was a result of the economic forces existent in British West Indian slave society. I will show that both racism and economics operated simultaneously from the very beginning of British West Indian slave society. Thus, racial and economic motives were not in opposition to each other but were mutual partners.2 Development of Racial Theory: The larger European context from which the British emerged has to be the starting point for any serious study of racism in the Americas.3 Were the British racists in their categorization of Africans even before they arrived in the New World, as hinted by William Green?4 Was racism a by-product of slavery, as Williams claimed? In examining the development of racial theory the definition of 'race' has to be first studied followed by its meaning in both Catholic and Protestant thought. When that is examined, then, the practice of European racism can be described as a continuous development. European racism towards Africans started before their arrival in the Caribbean and developed into the scientific racism of the late 19th century.5 Franklin Knight argues that attitudes towards race and towards slavery were not necessary the same. The European concept of race started as a form of identification among the extended family, friends and members of one's village. It then moved onwards and outwards to the larger society. Thus, Englishmen in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries thought of themselves as a race distinct from the Spanish, the Portuguese and other Europeans. Nevertheless, as the Englishmen pushed farther and farther into the wider world and as they began to realize the diversity of the colours and conditions of man and society they changed their notions of race. Race took on characteristics of colour since all Europeans had similar features to be classified as white; Asians had similar features to be described as yellow and Africans south of the Sahara had similar features to be described as black. The colour element in race replaced the previous distinctions of 'Christians' and 'Infidels'.6 Once colour and culture became associated with race then the next logical step was the stereotyping of cultures which eventually led to racial discrimination. By the 16th century European ethnocentrisms had a tendency to place all non-Europeans in a colour continuum. Those more closely approximating white in appearance were regarded as more pleasing,7 while those less approximating white were less pleasing. …
African American Studies Center, 2016
IntroductionSeveral historians, such as Michael Craton, Kenneth and Virginia Kiple, Richard Sheri... more IntroductionSeveral historians, such as Michael Craton, Kenneth and Virginia Kiple, Richard Sheridan and Barry Higman have written on the state of health care in Jamaica during the era of slavery. They have highlighted the contributions of both the European-trained doctors and the African "doctors" (enslaved Africans who practised medicine).1 Barry Higman, for example, argues that the European-trained doctors in the British West Indies had some success in public health initiatives. He further asserts that their apparent failure to improve the health of enslaved Africans should be attributed largely to the kinds of miasma theory that they learnt.2 Thus, the European doctors were victims of their own training. Michael Craton agrees with Higman to a certain extent by arguing that the European doctors' training in humoral theory was one of the contributing factors to their overall ineffectiveness. Craton asserts that at times the medicine that the European doctors dispense...
The Journal of Caribbean history, 2010
Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805, Philip Wri... more Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805, Philip Wright, ed., with a foreword by Ver ene A. Shepherd, Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2002, 331 pp.This work, edited by Philip Wright, contains journal or diary entries of events, visits and other aspects of plantation life made by Lady Maria Nugent, wife of George Nugent, governor of Jamaica, during her sojourn on the island between 1801 and 1804. These entries, which may be viewed as very informative social commentaries on social life in Jamaica, are of interest to academics and students of Caribbean history in their analyses of Caribbean plantation society. However, some Caribbean historians might find the work disappointing, as it fails to elaborate on many of the debatable themes in Caribbean history. In fact, Lady Nugent quite tactfully avoided making detailed comments on socio-economic and political matters. But this is to be expected; she was the governor's wife.No...
Caribbean Quarterly, 2010
Among the more debatable topics in Caribbean History, the ending of the British trans-Atlantic Tr... more Among the more debatable topics in Caribbean History, the ending of the British trans-Atlantic Trade in Africans 1807, is arguable the most political, as the issue of morality is deeply embedded in the discussion. However, most revisionist historians of the Caribbean are critical of the role of morality as the leading factor in abolition. Instead, these scholars believe that economics was the singular most important reason for the 1807 Abolition Bill. This chapter seeks to extend this economic argument by examining the socio-economic context of the late 18th to early 19th century Jamaica, when the island was one of Britain's important sugar colonies. The British authorities publicly used the issue of morality as a politically convenient tool; but in their private correspondence they urgently sought to alter the declining social and economic context of British Caribbean slavery. They wanted to reform the ways in which slavery was practiced in the British-colonised Caribbean. The “peculiar institution of slavery” was to become more cost effective and economically profitable.
Caribbean Quarterly, 2016
IntroductionSINCE THE 1978 PUBLICATION OF RANDALL BURKETT'S tWO books, Garveyism US a Religio... more IntroductionSINCE THE 1978 PUBLICATION OF RANDALL BURKETT'S tWO books, Garveyism US a Religious Movement and Black Redemption: Churchmen Speak for the Garvey Movement,: there have been other publications in support of the view that Garveyism was a religious movement. Burkett argued that Marcus Garvey was a black theologian and that Garveyism was indeed a civil religion, since there was a prevalence of religious personalities, religious symbols, religious rituals and beliefs in all the UNIA chapters.2Roderick McLeans Theology of Marcus Garvey, both supporting and critiquing the work of Burkett, was another significant monograph. McLean argued that Marcus Garvey was indeed the preeminent black theologian of the early twentieth century, since he was more interested in positing a pragmatic theological framework to interpret his people's origin, history and destiny. The theological and religious features of the movement were only necessary as Garvey had to enter the theological realm to demythologise, for the black race, concepts of God, Christ and humanity.3 This was necessary if the black community was to be truly liberated.Brada Imani's The Gospel According to Marcus Garvey: His Philosophies and Opinions about Christ,4 was also significant. The book contains a selection of speeches, words and opinions of Marcus Garvey, detailing his personal views about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Christianity and other important religious and spiritual themes. The book clearly shows that Marcus Garvey saw the importance and the necessity of religion in building his philosophy.5Significant articles have also emerged in support of Burkett and McLean. Ernie P. Gordon argued that Garvey was indeed a shrewd black theologian, and that Garveys interpretation of the Bible was not only revolutionary but demonstrated that he understood theological terminology and re-interpreted theology in order to raise the consciousness of the black man.6 Phillip Potter also argued that Garvey was in fact calling for a new hermeneutic or interpretation of the Bible, as it has to be read with discernment and discrimination from the core of its message about God, Christ and humanity. This was critical to ensure justice for all, along with mutual well-being and peace.7Cardinal Aswad Walker compared the theology of both Marcus Garvey and one of his followers, the Reverend Albert B. Cleage Jr. Walker argued that Garvey was indeed a profound theologian and as such had an impact on the theology of Cleage Jr; they differed fundamentally, however, in their ecclesiology, as Garvey did not want to institutionalise organised religion. Garvey sought to transcend church denominationalism by building an all-embracing movement which was religious, social and political. Cleage Jr, on the other hand, viewed religious denominationalism as fundamental to the successful liberation of the black community, as the black church was one of the few institutions in black communities which blacks owned. As such, he drew on much of Garvey's theological beliefs to build his religious community.8Despite the growing number of publications on the importance of religion to the Garvey movement, Garvey's theology is not highlighted by some Garvey scholars as critical to the nature of the movement. Robert Hill, for example, a major Garvey scholar, does not believe that religion had a fundamental impact on the Garvey movement. Instead Hill argues that Garvey wisely and deliberately used religious dogma, litanies and language to effectively communicate to his audiences.9 Hill also believes that Garvey tried to develop an objective scientific knowledge of religion as one way to unite blacks as a strategy.10To underscore Garvey's use of religion, Hill further argues that Garvey outspokenly declared himself to be nonreligious in the traditional sense and reportedly defined his concerns as secular. Garvey, in closing the second Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) convention in 1921, asserted that "we are living in a material world, even though it is partly spiritual and since we have been very spiritual in the past, we are going to take a part of the material now, and will give to others the opportunity to practise the spiritual side of life". …
Hispanic American Historical Review, 2014
this respect and in others, 'elite English men' engaged in empire may not have been as single-min... more this respect and in others, 'elite English men' engaged in empire may not have been as single-minded as Shaw suggests. Of course, as Shaw ably shows in this stimulating book, these tensions and contradictions are exactly what one should expect from the 'messy and complex' world of everyday life in the Caribbean (190). Note [1] For a sensitive discussion of this process, see Natalie A. Zacek, Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, 1670-1776 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), which engages some of the same themes and sources as Shaw but focuses instead on the ways white settlers struggled and succeeded in creating English societies in the Caribbean.
Journal of American History, 2006
... Equiano is also the subject of a biography published in 1998 by James Walvin, an eminent hist... more ... Equiano is also the subject of a biography published in 1998 by James Walvin, an eminent historian of slavery and the slave trade. ... Page 21. PREFACE xvii eyewitness to the evils of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery in its vari-ous eighteenth-century forms. ...
Caribbean quarterly, 2015
African American Studies Center, 2016