The Race to White in the 18th-Century West Indies
A perspective on the disturbing pseudoscience behind the colonial obsession with cataloging complexions and “refining” racial mixes in 18th century West Indies.
As Rich as a Creole
In eighteenth-century Jamaica, a creole was a nonindigenous person born on the island, whether of European, African, or mixed descent. Those referenced in the expression “as rich as a creole,” however, were invariably of European descent. The phrase is a variant of...
Jamaica’s Tapestried Past
I did a double take when I saw this work hanging in a Montego Bay exhibit last year. Admittedly, my interest was more than casual. I was writing Voices Echo at the time and visiting Jamaica to flesh out my research. Many of the images in the collage echoed...
A Well-Travelled Cobblestone
The story of well-traveled cobblestones paving America’s streets is a romantic one. But is it true? Did ballast rock from foreign ports pave America’s colonial seaport streets? Ballast Ballast is what’s carried in a ship’s hull so the ship doesn’t topple....“Where’s Your Haggis?”
If you spent any time abroad this summer—especially with children—you might appreciate Samuel Clemens’ humorous disdain for the food he encountered while traveling in 1878: Foreigners cannot enjoy our food, I suppose, any more than we can enjoy theirs. It is not...
A Sticky Subtlety
Kara Walker’s “Subtlety” is Anything But Appearances notwithstanding, it’s safe to say Kara Walker didn’t intend to present a sugarcoated history when she created her cast of sticky subtleties in the defunct New York Domino Sugar refinery earlier this...
