Atlantic plantations have long been held up as vital nodes within the intercontinental trading and migratory systems that drove the direction of imperial development. As centres of commodity production they offered the British an alternative to the mines of the Spanish Empire and one that was almost as lucrative. However, while areas in the Caribbean where these plantations were located are certainly part of the history of the British Empire and the British Atlantic world, they have not received the same attention of their northern neighbours—the colonies that would become the foundation of the United States of America in the later eighteenth century. Considering the importance of these plantations for British trade and migration—particularly forced migration from Africa through slavery—this is surprising and it is this issue that Matthew Mulcahy’s book seeks to address.

In Hubs of Empire Mulcahy explores the history of the Caribbean from the earliest days of English enterprise in the region during the sixteenth century through to the later eighteenth century. It is broad in both chronological scope and geographical scale, and offers a narrative that links across the boundaries that have often held back research in this area. In doing so, Mulcahy reminds us of the importance of the Caribbean (and the southeastern lowcountry) within a broader Atlantic context. However, Hubs of Empire also has a more specific aim: to make an argument for “considering the British plantation colonies in the Caribbean—particularly the major islands of Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Christopher, Nevis, and Montserrat—and the Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry—a coastal zone stretching from the Cape Fear River to the Altamaha River in Georgia and inland fifty miles—as a distinct region, the British Greater Caribbean” (2).

In Mulcahy’s view, regions have dominated the teaching of American history and the “British Greater Caribbean” offers a useful means of defining and distinguishing this complex region within the broader developments of Britain’s overseas activities. Hubs of Empire is entirely structured around this idea, with part of each chapter dedicated to making this point. Whether or not there is really a need for another regional approach, Mulcahy has produced a book that, at the very least, offers an accessible overview of the history of this region and asks interesting questions about how the Caribbean differed from other parts of America in the British imperial experience.

In his opening three chapters Mulcahy explores the development of plantation colonies in the Caribbean. In the first, he explores the geographic and environmental conditions of the region, demonstrating that while each island had its own peculiarities, the region as a whole is defined in many respects by its climate—specifically how tropical and sub-tropical conditions made cultivations of plantations more plausible and effective than in other parts of the British Empire. He goes on to discuss the native inhabitants of the region and their varied responses to British colonisation in the area before running through the earliest English attempts to plant colonies in the area. The second chapter more specifically focuses on the movement towards sugar plantation, with Barbados and its regionally replicated social and political model providing the perfect environment for developing plantations. By describing how sugar plantations developed, Mulcahy narrates how slavery became vital for the region and how Barbados was the first colony to rely heavily from slaves brought from Africa. In Mulcahy’s third chapter, this time focusing on Jamaica, we see how the colonisation of Barbados created a blueprint for expansion to other islands but also how, from around 1650 onwards, the British state was much more active in pushing colonisation forward as part of the Western design. Captured from Spain, Jamaica would become the centre of British trading and raiding in the region and by the eighteenth century this economy built on sugar “had become Britain’s richest and most important possession in its American empire” (83).

By discussing the development of these island colonies, Hubs of Empire is neatly positioned to step into the idea of the British Greater Caribbean, with the second half of the book dedicated to the relationships and similarities that Mulcahy identifies across the region. The fourth chapter, “Carolina in ye West Indies”, sets the stage for this analysis with the coastal region presented as a second stage of expansion from Barbados, serving “as a ‘nursery’ for a new colony” just as it had for Jamaica (84). This fact is seen in the migration of numerous Barbadian settlers to the lowcountry but is also evident in the structure of the Carolina colony—it was built on the production of rice rather than sugar and the large scale plantations resulted in a social, political and cultural landscape that mirrored those found in Barbados and Jamaica. This relationship is strengthened further after the end of war with the Yamasee and the consequent growth of the slave trade to the lowcountry. These similarities become the focus of the final chapters of the book. Chapter five explores the reliance on slavery in the British Greater Caribbean and how the livelihoods of slaves in plantations—including their rebellions and resistance—shaped the region. The sixth chapter focuses on creole societies that emerged during the eighteenth century, including the role of women and family life and the unique cultural lives of those in the region. Mulcahy suggests that contemporaries accepted this regional distinction and that “whether they offered praise or denunciations, however, all commentators agreed that despite the trappings of British society, colonists had created a distinct world in the greater Caribbean” (175). Chapter seven presents the political context of this distinct region by showing how it emerged as part of the marine empire but was also distinct within it, and how there was a reliance on exchange and interaction throughout the Atlantic world. This final point, of the importance of the broader Atlantic to the Caribbean, is perhaps clearest in the area’s reliance on the slave trade. But Mulcahy draws many other connections, including numerous interesting connections between the region and the northern colonies of the Atlantic mainland. While it is clear that aspects of the Greater Caribbean may have existed, these were local characteristics for a region that was part of a much broader, Atlantic or global, world.