Reproducing the British Caribbean

Abstract

This book traces the history of ideas and colonial policymaking concerning population growth and infant and maternal welfare in Caribbean colonies wrestling with the aftermath of slavery. Focusing on Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados in the nineteenth century through the violent labor protests that swept the region in the 1930s, the book takes a comparative approach in analyzing the acrimonious social, political, and cultural struggles among former slaves and masters attempting to determine the course of their societies after emancipation. Concerns about the health and size of populations were widespread throughout the colonial world in the context of an emergent black middle class, rapidly increasing immigration to the Caribbean, and new attitudes toward medicine and society. Invested in the success of the “great experiment” of slave emancipation, colonial officials developed new social welfare and health policies. While hemispheric and diasporic trends influenced the nature of these policies, the book shows that the actions of the physicians, philanthropists, midwives, and impoverished mothers who were the targets of the policies were central to shaping and implementing efforts to ensure the health and reproduction of Caribbean populations on the eve of independence after World War II.

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