ITSS Postdoctoral Fellow to Give Public Lecture in St. Barths
On Wednesday 21st August 2024, at 5.30pm at the Harbour Conference Room, Gustavia, St. Barths, IN THE SAME SEA Postdoctoral Fellow Felicia Fricke will give a public presentation of her work-in-progress, entitled 'The Bigards of St. Barths: A Maritime Family'.
Much prior scholarship on trade networks and sailing communities in the Caribbean has focused on the booming eighteenth century trade, and on larger islands and empires. However, in recent years, scholars have become more interested in trade relations between the smaller islands and in the neglected imperial powers of Northern Europe. Furthering this trend, this study examines trading families at the Swedish early nineteenth century free port of Gustavia, St. Barths. It contributes to the field a new focus on the maritime family that contributes a human face to the trade networks that connected the eastern Caribbean. Using shipping data from contemporary newspapers in online repositories, it puts the trading networks of the French Caribbean Bigard family into the larger context of early nineteenth century Caribbean shipping in order to assess their reach, impact, and embeddedness within the larger whole. It then utilises manuscript sources from the (mainly French) national archives to complicate the internal workings of the family network, providing an intimate picture of early nineteenth century trade on small islands that is grounded in the agency of the maritime family.
The presentation will be in English and will be followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.