Buckley's acute analysis shows how the creation of a large body of slave soldiers caused dramatic modifications in the social order. To avoid conflict with police regulations, for example, it was necessary in 1807 for Parliament to manumit 10,000 military slaves by a single act. Slaves in Red Coats is the first systematic analysis of the effect of war on New World slavery.
An elite regiment from the CaribbeanThis is an excellent regiment history of a British colonial force raised in the West Indies among the coloured population whose ancestors had in former times been brought against their will to the islands as slaves. Essential for all those interested in the British Army and its colonial forces. It saw service away from its familiar shores including the War of 1812 during the Napoleonic period and on the African continent in action against the Ashanti.This fascinating book reveals the exploits of an unusual regiment undertaking exemplary service in unusual theatres of operation. Lucia, Dominica, Barbados and many others islands. Vincent, St. Its service continued through many actions in the Indies themselves including service on Martinique, St. The regiments has a long career dating to the middle of the eighteenth century and the War of American Independence. However, the fact remains this regiment has been highly regarded and received the warmest praise from every commander who served with them-including the legendary Sir John Moore of Peninsular War fame, who believed them to be invaluable. This would be an understandable reason why such troops would not necessarily be of the highest order. Available in soft cover or hard cover with dust jacket for collectors.
Glenford Howe's social history of the soldiers of the British West Indies Regiment assesses the impact of World War One on West Indian history and reveals the true nature of military relations and the gradual decline in morale.
In 1914 Britain was home to at least 10,000 black Britons, many of African and West Indian heritage. Most of them were loyal to the 'mother country' when the First World War broke out. Despite being discouraged from serving in the British Army, men managed to join all branches of the forces, while black communities contributed to the war effort on the home front. By 1918 it is estimated that Britain's black population had trebled to 30,000, as many black servicemen who had fought for Britain decided to make it their home. It was far from a happy ending, however, as they and their families often came under attack from white ex-servicemen and civilians increasingly resentful of their presence. With first-hand accounts and original photographs, Black Poppies is the essential guide to the military and civilian wartime experiences of black men and women, from the trenches to the music halls. It is intended as a companion to Stephen Bourne's previous books published by The History Press: Mother Country: Britain's Black Community on the Home Front 1939–45 and The Motherland Calls: Britain's Black Servicemen and Women 1939–45.
This is a military-political history with a vital and all-pervading cultural and social theme which shapes the narrative - race, color and prejudice. But despite this, there is an extraordinary underlying theme of empire loyalty among serving soldiers - NCOs and private soldiers - and a growing grasp of political ideas and liberal democracy. And the loyalty to the British crown as an agent of the ending of slavery will be amazing to some readers. War experience was a powerful catalyst and contributed to a 'West Indianess' and desire for political advance. But even here the desire was for independence within the empire - a 'West Indian Dominion' as with 'elder sisters' of empire, the Dominions of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. The political and economic status of the islands was a potent reason for the 'colored contingents' enlisting - work was scarce - but a major impetus was the cultural concept of 'manliness' and empire-status - shared by George V, who insisted, against government pressure, on allowing West Indians to serve with white British soldiers. But all were volunteers and not enlisted men. The West Indies Regiment was small and its contribution in action limited, and restricted largely to Egypt and Mesopotamia, and with limited service on the Western Front. But it shows vividly the ingrained racialism and color prejudice of British society and the British Army and above all, in the insensitive omission of the West Indies Regiment at the Victory Parade in 1919.
This book highlights the important, yet often forgotten, roles that Jamaican women played in the World Wars. Predicated on the notion that warfare has historically been an agent of change, Dalea Bean contends that traces of this truism were in Jamaica and illustrates that women have historically been part of the war project, both as soldiers and civilians. This ground-breaking work fills a gap in the historiography of Jamaican women by positioning the World Wars as watershed periods for their changing roles and status in the colony. By unearthing critical themes such as women’s war work as civilians, recruitment of men for service in the British West India Regiment, the local suffrage movement in post-Great War Jamaica, and Jamaican women’s involvement as soldiers in the British Army during the Second World War, this book presents the most extensive and holistic account of Jamaican women’s involvement in the wars.
The Life of Captain Cipriani (1932) is the earliest full-length work of nonfiction by the Trinidadian writer C. L. R. James, one of the most significant historians and Marxist theorists of the twentieth century. It is partly based on James's interviews with Arthur Andrew Cipriani (1875–1945). As a captain with the British West Indies Regiment during the First World War, Cipriani was greatly impressed by the service of black West Indian troops and appalled at their treatment during and after the war. After his return to the West Indies, he became a Trinidadian political leader and advocate for West Indian self-government. James's book is as much polemic as biography. Written in Trinidad and published in England, it is an early and powerful statement of West Indian nationalism. An excerpt, The Case for West-Indian Self Government, was issued by Leonard and Virginia Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1933. This volume includes the biography, the pamphlet, and a new introduction in which Bridget Brereton considers both texts and the young C. L. R. James in relation to Trinidadian and West Indian intellectual and social history. She discusses how James came to write his biography of Cipriani, how the book was received in the West Indies and Trinidad, and how, throughout his career, James would use biography to explore the dynamics of politics and history.
