Laura Hollsten

• Åbo Akademi University

The environmental history of the Caribbean has been strongly associated with the consequences of sugar cane agriculture and extreme weather phenomena. Consequently, other aspects of environmental change at play in the Caribbean region have remained less known. However, islands such as Anguilla, Barbuda, and Saint Barthélemy had no or very few sugar...

This article analyzes the temporal and spatial regimes on early modern Caribbean sugar plantations by examining ways in which slaves spent their leisure hours. Drawing from travel narratives, letters, and historical works, it discusses how slaves engaged in activities of their choice, most of which took place at night and were shaped by conditions...

Artikeln studerar europeiska, i huvudsak franska, beskrivningar av karibiska papegojor på 1600- och 1700-talen ur ett miljöhistoriskt perspektiv. Genom att studera papegojans natural- och kulturhistoria under tidigmodern tid argumenterar artikeln för att skillnaden mellan kategorierna vild och tam var en viktig distinktion i relation till papegojor...

This paper investigates the naming of plants in the work of the French botanist Charles Plumier (1646–1704). Plumier made three trips to the French Antilles between 1690 and 1697, was appointed royal botanist in 1693, and published his first work, Description des Plantes de l'Amérique, in the same year. Plumier was the first 'modern' botanist to de...

In the seventeenth century, the Caribbean islands were increasingly incorporated into the international trade network, the core of which was constituted by the European colonial powers. The growth of markets and buying power in Europe stimulated investments in sugar plantations. Consequently, sugar cane agriculture in the Caribbean developed into a...