European plantations require laws to regulate the plantation system and the many slaves imported to work on the plantations.

This legal control is the most oppressive for slaves inhabiting colonies where they outnumber their European masters and where rebellion is persistent, such as Jamaica.

During the early colonial period, rebellious slaves are harshly punished, with sentences including death by torture; less serious crimes such as assault, theft, or persistent escape attempts are commonly punished with mutilations, such as the cutting off of a hand or a foot.

Slaves can only be freed with the consent of their master under British rule,  and therefore freedom for slaves is rare.

British colonies are able to establish laws through their own legislatures, and the assent of the local island governor and the Crown.

British law considers slaves to be property, and thus does not recognize marriage for slaves, family rights, education for slaves, or the right to religious practices such as holidays.

British law denies all rights to freed slaves, with the exception of the right to a jury trial.

Otherwise, freed slaves have no right to own property, vote or hold office, or even enter some trades.

The development of agriculture in the Caribbean requires a large workforce of manual laborers, which the Europeans have found by taking advantage of the slave trade in Africa.

The Atlantic slave trade brings African slaves to British, Dutch, French, Portuguese and Spanish colonies in the Americas, including the Caribbean.

Slaves are brought to the Caribbean from the early sixteenth century until the end of the nineteenth century.

The majority of slaves are brought to the Caribbean colonies between 1701 and 1810.

Abolitionists in the Americas and in Europe become vocal opponents of the slave trade throughout the nineteenth century.

The importation of slaves to the colonies is often outlawed years before the end of the institution of slavery itself.

It is well into the nineteenth century before many slaves in the Caribbean will be legally free.

The trade in slaves is abolished in the British Empire through the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

Men, women and children who are already enslaved in the British Empire will remain slaves, however, until Britain passes the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.

When the Slavery Abolition Act comes into force in 1834, roughly seven hundred thousand slaves in the British West Indies will immediately become free; other enslaved workers will be freed several years later after a period of forced apprenticeship.

Slavery is abolished in the Dutch Empire in 1814.

Spain abolishes slavery in its empire in 1811, with the exceptions of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo; Spain ends the slave trade to these colonies in 1817, after being paid ₤400,000 by Britain.

Slavery itself will not be abolished in Cuba until 1886.

France will abolish slavery in its colonies in 1848.

The exploitation of the Caribbean landscape dates to the Spanish conquistadors starting in the 1490s, who had forced indigenous peoples held by Spanish settlers in encomienda to mine for gold.

The more significant development came when Christopher Columbus wrote back to Spain that the islands were made for sugar development.

The history of Caribbean agricultural dependency is closely linked with European colonialism. which alters the financial potential of the region by introducing a plantation system.

Much like the Spanish exploited indigenous labor to mine gold, the seventeenth century had brought a new series of oppressors in the form of the Dutch, the English, and the French.

By the middle of the eighteenth century sugar is Britain's largest import, which makes the Caribbean colonies that much more important.

Sugar, a luxury in Europe prior to the eighteenth century, becomes widely popular in the eighteenth century, then graduates to becoming a necessity in the nineteenth century

This evolution of taste and demand for sugar as an essential food ingredient unleashes major economic and social changes.

Caribbean islands with plentiful sunshine, abundant rainfalls and no extended frosts are well suited for sugarcane agriculture and sugar factories.

The French Empire regulates slaves under the Code Noir (Black Code), which is in force throughout the empire from 1685, but which is based upon French practices in the Caribbean colonies.

French law recognized slave marriages, but only with the consent of the master.

French law, like Spanish law, gives legal recognition to marriages between European men and black or Creole women.

French and Spanish laws are also significantly more lenient than British law in recognizing manumission, or the ability of a slave to purchase their freedom and become a "freeman".

Under French law, free slaves gain full rights to citizenship.

The French also extend limited legal rights to slaves, for example the right to own property, and the right to enter contracts.

The British government in 1720 instructs governors of American colonies to consent to no Act permitting Bills of Credit.

The South Sea Company, established in 1711 by the Lord Treasurer, Robert Harley, had been granted exclusive trading rights in Spanish South America, anticipating the successful conclusion of the War of the Spanish Succession, which did not end until 1713, and the actual treaty rights granted had not been as comprehensive as Harley had originally hoped.

Needing to provide a mechanism for funding government debt incurred in the course of that war, Harley could not have established a bank, because the charter of the Bank of England made it the only joint stock bank.

He had therefore established what was ostensibly a trading company, though its main activity was in fact the funding of government debt.

In return for its exclusive trading rights, the government had seen an opportunity for a profitable trade-off.

The government and the company had persuaded the holders of around £10 million of short-term government debt to exchange it with a new issue of stock in the company.

In exchange, the government had granted the company a perpetual annuity from the government paying £576,534 annually on the company's books: in essence, a perpetual loan of ten million pounds paying six percent.

This had guaranteed the new equity owners a steady stream of earnings to this new venture.

The Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 had granted the company the right to send one trading ship per year (though this was in practice accompanied by two 'tenders') and the 'Asiento', the monopoly contract to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves.

The company had not undertaken a trading voyage to South America until 1717 and had made little actual profit.

Furthermore, when ties between Spain and Britain deteriorated in 1718 the short-term prospects of the company had been very poor.

Nonetheless, the company had continued to argue that its longer-term future would be extremely profitable.

The company in 1717  had taken on a further two million pounds of public debt, and in 1719 proposed a scheme by which it would buy more than half the national debt of Britain (£30,981,712), again with new shares, and a promise to the government that the debt would be converted to a lower interest rate, five percent until 1727 and four percent per year thereafter.

The purpose of this conversion was similar to the former one, allowing a conversion of high interest, but difficult to trade, debt, into low interest, readily marketable debt/shares of the South Sea Company.

All parties could gain.

The Bank of England proposes a similar competing offer, which does not prevail when the South Sea raises its bid to seven and a half million pounds (plus approximately one point three million pounds in bribes).

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Aislabie, is a strong supporter of the scheme.

Parliament in April 1720 accepts a slightly altered form of the company’s proposal, and the ensuing speculation causes the company’s stock to rise from one hundred and twenty-eight and one-half pounds sterling in January to one thousand pounds sterling in August.

Panic selling by British investors in September 1720 bursts the South Sea Bubble.

The stock has fallen by the end of September to one hundred and fifty pounds.

The company failures now extend to banks and goldsmiths as they cannot collect loans made on the stock, and thousands of individuals are ruined (including many members of the aristocracy).

With investors outraged, Parliament is recalled in December and an investigation begins.

Eastern West Indies (1732–1743 CE): Danish Expansion and the St. John Slave Insurrection

Danish Colonization and Plantation Economy

Between 1732 and 1743, Denmark expanded its Caribbean holdings significantly. Having established colonies on St. Thomas in 1671–1672 and St. John in 1683 (though British claims lingered until 1718), Denmark acquired Saint Croix from France in 1733, completing the trio known today as the United States Virgin Islands.

Due to the lack of local labor resulting from the near-total disappearance of indigenous populations, Denmark relied heavily on enslaved Africans. Attempts to use Danish indentured servants or young emigrants proved insufficient, prompting increased reliance on the transatlantic slave trade. From 1660 to 1806, approximately 85,000 enslaved Africans were transported on Danish ships, primarily through the Danish West India and Guinea Company operating near Accra, Ghana.

The 1733 Slave Insurrection on St. John

By 1733, conditions on St. John were dire due to drought, a severe hurricane, and widespread crop failures. The island’s 1,087 enslaved Africans, mostly from the Akwamu tribe of present-day Ghana, vastly outnumbered the 206 white inhabitants. Many enslaved people from plantations, including the Suhm and Company estates near Coral Bay, began marooning—fleeing plantations due to harsh conditions.

On November 23, 1733, a carefully planned rebellion erupted, led by prominent Akwamu figures such as King June, Kanta, King Bolombo, Prince Aquashie, and Breffu. Rebels, initially admitted into Coral Bay fort under a ruse, swiftly took control after killing most stationed soldiers. A group led by King June maintained control of the fort, while others spread out, capturing estates and killing numerous white settlers.

Battles and Resistance

The rebels intended to establish an independent Akwamu-ruled nation, maintaining sugar production and enslaving non-Akwamu Africans. Moving swiftly from Coral Bay, they targeted the Cinnamon Bay Plantation, encountering resistance from owners John and Lieven Jansen and their loyal enslaved individuals, who eventually escaped to Durloe’s Plantation.

Despite capturing and looting several plantations, rebel advances were halted at Durloe’s Plantation, allowing many planters and their families to flee to safety in St. Thomas.

Suppression and Aftermath

In response, French forces arrived from Martinique on April 23, 1734, providing substantial military strength. By mid-May, these forces successfully reestablished colonial control, returning to Martinique on June 1 and leaving the local militia to pursue remaining rebels. The insurrection ended officially on August 25, 1734, with the capture of surviving maroons by Sergeant Øttingen.

The rebellion had lasting impacts, including significant loss of life and property, prompting many landowners to relocate to St. Croix. Notably, Franz Claasen, an enslaved individual loyal to the van Stell family, was deeded the Mary Point Estate in recognition of his role in alerting the family and facilitating their escape. Recorded officially on August 20, 1738, Claasen became the first documented free colored landowner on St. John.

Conclusion

The era 1732–1743 dramatically reshaped the Eastern West Indies. Denmark solidified its territorial presence, yet faced intense internal conflict exemplified by the 1733 slave rebellion on St. John. This rebellion underscored the profound tensions inherent within plantation-based economies, significantly influencing future colonial policies and social dynamics.

A large trade has grown between the New England and Middle colonies and the French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indian possessions.

Molasses from the British West Indies, used in New England for making rum, which is experiencing rapidly increasing consumption in the West, is priced much higher than its competitors.

The West Indian planters also have no need for the large quantities of lumber, fish, and other items offered by the colonies in exchange.

The British West Indies in the first part of the eighteenth century are the most important trading partner for Great Britain, so Parliament is attentive to their requests.

However, rather than acceding to the demands to prohibit the colonies from trading with the non-British islands, Parliament passes the prohibitively high tax on the colonies for the import of molasses from these islands.

The Molasses Act of 1733, created largely at the insistence of large plantation owners, levies a heavy tax—six pence per gallon—on molasses coming from anywhere except Britain’s Caribbean sugar islands.

The Act is not passed for the purpose of raising revenue, but rather to regulate trade by making British products cheaper than those from the French West Indies.

Largely opposed by colonists, who profit from a lucrative trade with the French sugar islands, the tax will be rarely paid, and smuggling to avoid it will become prominent.

If actually collected, the tax would have effectively closed that source to New England and destroyed much of the rum industry, yet smuggling, bribery or intimidation of customs officials will effectively nullify the law.

The growing corruption of local officials and disrespect for British Law caused by this act and others like it, such as the Stamp Act or Townshend Acts, will eventually lead in 1776 to the American Revolution.

Eastern West Indies (1744–1755 CE): Colonial Warfare and Shifts in Territorial Control

War of the Austrian Succession in the Caribbean

Between 1744 and 1755, the War of the Austrian Succession extended European conflicts into Caribbean colonial territories, intensifying military confrontations and strategic maneuvering. British forces from Saint Kitts invaded the French-controlled half of neighboring Saint Martin in 1744, occupying it until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.

French Invasion of Anguilla

In retaliation, a French fleet led by Commodore La Touché, consisting of two royal frigates, three privateers, and two Dutch support vessels, departed Martinique in late May 1745 to capture Anguilla. The British defenders, comprising around 150 militia and regular soldiers under Governor Arthur Hodge, fortified their position despite being outnumbered.

On May 21, the French forces, numbering 759 men, landed unexpectedly at Rendezvous Bay, achieving initial surprise. However, Governor Hodge strategically positioned British defenders along a narrow path, resulting in a highly effective ambush. British forces, led by Captain Richardson, inflicted heavy casualties, quickly breaking French ranks. The subsequent British counterattack turned the French retreat into a rout, forcing the attackers back to their ships amid chaos, heavy losses, and drownings.

The French fleet withdrew to Martinique following the battle, leaving behind at least 100 French casualties, including notable officers such as Commodore La Touché's second captain, the first lieutenant of another frigate, Captain Rolough of a privateer, and the son of the Governor of Saint Barthélemy. La Touché himself was wounded and later negotiated unsuccessfully for prisoner exchanges. The British, suffering only seven casualties, captured two French colors, firearms, grenades, and swivel guns, rewarding the enslaved Africans who aided in their defense efforts.

Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and Colonial Adjustments

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) provided minimal clarity regarding territorial claims in the Caribbean, leaving many disputes unresolved. However, the treaty established neutrality for Tobago, Grenada, Saint Vincent, and Dominica, allowing economic access without garrisons. Significantly, France gained definitive control of Saint Luciaas a colony.

Danish Administrative Changes

The Danish presence in the Caribbean, through the Danish West India and Guinea Company, continued its economic prosperity based primarily on the North Atlantic triangular trade. In 1754, administrative control of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas transitioned directly to the Danish crown under King Frederick V, making them royal Danish colonies and marking the end of the Danish West India Company's governance.

Conclusion

The period from 1744 to 1755 in the Eastern West Indies was marked by intense colonial warfare and territorial readjustments. Battles like the decisive British victory on Anguilla demonstrated the volatility of colonial control, while diplomatic outcomes such as the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle reshaped political boundaries and colonial policies. Simultaneously, the Danish shift to direct royal governance underscored the evolving complexities and geopolitical significance of the Caribbean colonies.