The Conclusion begins with some thoughts on two historical changes that seem especially pertinent to the study at hand: the relationship between imperial authority and colonial autonomy, and the rise of British power in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. The chapter then returns to the microregional framework of analysis presented in Chapter 1 and its specific dynamics in the context of the colonial Leeward Islands, followed by a discussion of the relevance of the concept for global imperial and maritime history more broadly, as well as for the study of nineteenth-century globalization. In exploring the usefulness of the microregional framework for analysis, the chapter discusses other inter-imperial microregions across the nineteenth century, including the Gold Coast in West Africa, Mauritius and Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, Singapore and the Strait of Melaka, the South China Coast, and Shanghai during the period of the International Settlement.

Chapter 1 outlines the arguments of the book, provides a brief introduction to the Caribbean during the age of revolutions, and gives an overview of the geography, population, and political composition of the Leeward Islands, focusing in particular on the Danish West Indies, the British Virgin Islands, and Swedish St. Barthélemy. It then places the book within broader historiographical debates about Atlantic, global, and imperial history, before presenting the analytical model of the inter-imperial microregion. This model draws on relational theory and practice analysis to provide a framework for understanding zones of interaction and integration in the borderlands of overseas empires, emphasizing networks of border-crossing practice involving the subjects of multiple empires and colonies.

Chapter 5 analyzes slave societies in the Leeward Islands by focusing on slave law and communities of free people of color. Within the microregion, slave laws and free communities brought together different colonies in different ways. New trans-imperial networks formed on the basis of the growing population of free people of color traversing the region, forming connections across colonial and imperial borders and strengthening the integration and communication between nonwhite communities. At the institutional level, legal codes became a crucial arena for contesting authority between imperial capitals and colonial territories. Such laws were also prime examples of the adaptation and translation of codes and practices taking place across different colonies, ultimately creating a number of legal norms that spanned imperial borders. Colonial legal codes functioned both as a force of institutional oppression and, with time, as an arena for pushing back against such oppression. The chapter also analyzes the practice of maritime marronage, as enslaved individuals threw off their shackles and fled across the water to freedom or greater autonomy within a different imperial jurisdiction.

Chapter 6 begins with an analysis of the inter-imperial political context within which the abolition of the slave trade was enacted, focusing in particular on the Danish and British edicts outlawing the trade in 1803 and 1807, respectively. It continues with an examination of the practical implementation of the ban and ends with a more detailed treatment of the continuation of the illicit intercolonial trade as carried out within the microregion of the Leeward Islands. The history of the abolition of the slave trade has most often been told from the perspective of imperial legislators and advocates of abolition. When the implementation of the abolition has been treated with serious effort, it has typically been done either through a top-down analysis of diplomacy and international politics or via studies of the places most notably evading the abolition. Employing a microregional perspective and using the Leeward Islands as the historical case reveals a different side of the story of abolition. This analysis largely confirms the hierarchical dimension of the slave trade abolition in an inter-imperial context, but it also illustrates the vast gaps between imperial policy and colonial practice by showcasing the myriad ways in which local actors and networks circumvented official decrees and continued trading in slaves.

Chapter 2 considers the microregion of the Leeward Islands in terms of political economy and commercial practices. Since cross-imperial trade played such a crucial role in the formation and development of the region’s intercolonial networks, an understanding of the extent and texture of this trade, as well as the related dynamics of smuggling and investment, is key to fully grasping the other aspects of the microregion. Not only did commercial practices drive contact and competition between colonies and groups, but the flow of trade was also a crucial concern for the various regulatory attempts of individual empires in the region, in terms of both inter-imperial interaction and intra-imperial legislation. The analysis presented here forms part of the foundation for the following chapters, by examining the networks and structures of the inter-imperial microregion and some of the ways in which European metropoles responded to local conditions. The chapter also illuminates some of the shifts taking place within the region as a consequence of the emerging globalization of the early nineteenth century, a process that the Leeward Islands were initially at the center of in the Atlantic context but that ultimately led to their near-disappearance from the global economic stage.

While later chapters examine the institution of slavery through its legal framework and the dynamics of the slave trade, Chapter 3 looks at the way in which the fear of slave uprisings shaped the security complex of the islands and became a significant force for intercolonial integration. Although the microregion thus increasingly took on the state-like functions of an internal security guarantor, such practices did not completely supplant existing inter-imperial rivalries. Rather, these two dynamics – mutual security reliance and political rivalry over trade and territory – coexisted in an uneasy constellation, the balance between them often depending on the strength of local and imperial ties of centrally placed actors within the islands’ intercolonial networks. The first half of the chapter analyzes the mutual security networks of the Leeward Islands associated with slave revolts, while the second half explores inter-imperial warfare in the region, with a particular focus on the prolonged periods of military occupations of smaller islands by the British Empire in particular.

Chapter 4 examines the resurgent privateering of the early nineteenth century in order to analyze the way in which trans-imperial networks of the Leeward Islands were connected to wider regional and oceanic networks. Privateering as a political and strategic tool was a thoroughly Atlantic phenomenon, with actors on either side of the ocean employing privateers in order to weaken the maritime sinews of their rivals or to project claims of sovereignty to foreign powers. The Caribbean was at the center of the practice as the region provided fertile ground for recruiting crews, outfitting vessels, and raiding rival ships. The chapter also delves into the specifics of the colonial prize court system, particularly in the British Empire, in order to illuminate the legal framework for privateering and the crucial role played by vice admiralty courts in imperial clashes over jurisdiction and politico-legal power