This document outlines Michael Putz's thesis on how natural philosophy and mercantilism worked together to create and consolidate the British Empire in Barbados during the 17th century. It examines primary sources from Richard Ligon, Henry Colt, and Griffith Hughes on the environment, diseases, climate, agriculture, and use of slave labor in Barbados. It also reviews relevant historiography and includes maps and illustrations related to the colonization and development of Barbados.

1. Science, Mercantilism, Empire:
Colonial Development and
Nature on Barbados, 1627-1700
By Michael Putz
Advisor: Dr. Jose Amador
Secondary Reader: Dr.Andrew Cayton

2. Fear of the NewWorld
Map 1. Diego Gutierrez“Map of theWestern Hemisphere.” 1562. Retrieved from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/maps/maps.cfm

3. Transformation of the NewWorld
Map 2. John Senex. “Map of North America.” 1710. Retrieved from
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/maps/maps.cfm

4. Thesis
I argue that natural philosophy, man’s
understanding of his relationship with nature, and
mercantilism, ideas concerning the extraction of
natural resources, worked in tandem to create and
consolidate empire during the seventeenth
century.

5. Definition ofTerms
• Natural Philosophy
• Mercantilism
• Environmental-Mercantile Philosophy

6. Historiography
1) Economic/MercantileTrend
Richard Dunn – Sugar and Slaves (1972)
Sydney Mintz – Sweetness and Power (1985)
2) NatureTrend
Mathew Mulcahy – Hurricanes and Society (2006)
Virgina DeJohn Anderson – Creatures of Empire
(2006)
Susan Scott Parrish – American Curiosity (2006)

7. Primary Sources
Richard Ligon (1585?-1662)
ATrue and Exact History of the Island of Barbados (1657)
Sir Henry Colt (1585-1635)
TheVoyage of Sir Henry Colt to the Islands of
Barbados and St. Christopher (1631)
Griffith Hughes (1707- death unknown)
The Natural History of Barbados (1750)

8. Ligon’s Barbados
Map 3. Richard Ligon. “A topographical description and admeasurement of the
island of Barbados in theWest Indies.” 1657. Retrieved from
http://www.lloydlibrary.org/exhibits/sugar/lloydsugar.html

9. Man (English)
“[T]he inhabitants of hot Countries are of a more
lively Disposition, and more irascible in general,
than the Inhabitants of the Northern Part of the
World…thereby causing them to overlook those
Rules of Method and Connection, that are
observed by Europeans of a cooler and more
regular Fancy” –Griffith Hughes (9)

10. Diseases
“At the time of our arrival, and a month or two
after, the sickness raged so extremely, as the
living could hardly bury the dead” – Richard
Ligon

11. Airs
“And such is the
Serenity and
Clearness of the
Atmosphere, that the
Air is, in general, very
healthy: But what
chiefly conduces to its
Purity, is the
Regularity of the
Trade-Winds, which,
seldom varying
throughout theYear”
- Griffith Hughes (3)
Map 4. unknown. Wind and Ocean Currents of the Atlantic Basins. Retrieved from
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/intro-maps.faces

12. Animals
• Camels
• Horses
• Donkeys
• Sheep
• Goats
Fig 2. unknown. Donkey with some sugar cane.
[photograph]. Retrieved from
http://www.ihana.com/big_trip/diary/2003/07/july2003
_9.htm

13. African Slaves
Fig 3. unknown. An unknown 19th-century artist’s impression of work in the
sugar cane fields. [Drawing]. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/industrialisation_article_0

14. Plantations
Map 5.Richard Ford. A New Map of the Island of Barbados. 1710. Retrieved from
http://www.oldworldauctions.com/archives/detail/126-398.htm

15. Bibliography
Anderson,Virginia DeJohn. Creatures of Empire: How Domestic AnimalsTransformed Early America.
NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed November 13, 2014. http://ebooks.ohiolink.edu/xtf-
ebc/search?keyword=creatures%20of%20empire&text-join=and
Dunn, Richard S. Sugar and Slaves:The Rise of the Planter Class in the EnglishWest Indies, 1624-1713.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972.
Richard Ford, A New Map of the Island of Barbadoes. Map. London: British Library.
http://www.bl.uk/learning/artimages/maphist/deception/barbadoshome/barbados.html (accessed
November 5, 2014)
Diego Gutierrez. Map of theWestern Hemisphere [map]. 1562.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/maps/maps.cfm (accessed April 27, 2015)
Hughes, Griffith. The Natural History of Barbados: InTen Books. London: printed for the author, 1750.
Ligon, Richard. ATrue & Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes. London: Frank Cass & Co., 1970.
Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power:The Place of Sugar in Modern History. NewYork:Viking Penguin Inc., 1985.

16. Bibliography (cont.)
Mulcahy, Matthew. Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater Caribbean, 1624-1783. Baltimore: John
Hopkins University Press, 2006.
Parrish, Susan Scott. American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British AtlanticWorld.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
John Senex. Map of North America [map]. 1710. http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/maps/maps.cfm
(accessed April 27, 2015)
Wind and Ocean Currents of the Atlantic Basins [Map].
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/intro-maps.faces (accessed April 27, 2015)
Donkey with some Sugar Cane [photograph].
http://www.ihana.com/big_trip/diary/2003/07/july2003_9.htm (accessed April 27, 2015)
An unknown 19th-century artist’s impression of work in the sugar cane fields [Drawing].
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/industrialisation_article_01.shtml (accessed April 27,
2015)