Description: This book is a collection of essays by several distinguished scholars which began as a series of lectures sponsored by the Department of History at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, to honour internationally recognized Caribbean historian Elsa Goveia. The collection consists of 13 lectures delivered between 1987 to 1998. The book is divided into two broad sections: In Slavery and Freedom, which features critical research on slavery and post-emancipation society, and Gender Paradigms. It will be particularly engaging to readers interested in Caribbean history, social history and gender studies.
Brief description: B.W. Higman is Emeritus Professor of History, University of the West Indies, and Emeritus Professor of History, Australian National University. He is the author of eleven books on Caribbean history, archaeology and geography, including the award-winning publications Slave Population and Economy in Jamaica, 1807-1834; Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807-1834; Jamaica Surveyed: Plantation Maps and Plans of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; Montpelier, Jamaica: A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom, 1739-1912; Writing West Indian Histories; Plantation Jamaica, 1750-1850: Capital and Control in a Colonial Economy; and Jamaican Food: History, Biology, Culture. His most recent books are A Concise History of the Caribbean and How Food Made History.