The Last Turtlemen of the Caribbean - (Flows, Migrations, and Exchanges) by Sharika D Crawford

About the Book

"Crawford begins in the sixteenth century, laying out the stakes for the British and Spanish empires that first viewed the Caribbean as "an Atlantic commons"-an open space where all could compete to control diverse Caribbean peoples, lands, and waters and exploit the region's raw materials. Turning to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Crawford traces and connects the expansion and decline of turtle hunting to matters of race, labor, political and economic change, and the natural environment. Like the turtles they had chased, the boundary-flouting laborers exposed the limits of states' sovereignty for a time, but ultimately they lost their livelihoods, having played a significant role in legislation delimiting maritime boundaries. Still, today, former turtlemen have found their deep knowledge valued in efforts to protect sea turtles and recover the region's ecological sustainability"--

Book Synopsis

Illuminating the entangled histories of the people and commodities that circulated across the Atlantic, Sharika D. Crawford assesses the Caribbean as a waterscape where imperial and national governments vied to control the profitability of the sea. Crawford places the green and hawksbill sea turtles and the Caymanian turtlemen who hunted them at the center of this waterscape. The story of the humble turtle and its hunter, she argues, came to play a significant role in shaping the maritime boundaries of the modern Caribbean.

Crawford describes the colonial Caribbean as an Atlantic commons where all could compete to control the region's diverse peoples, lands, and waters and exploit the region's raw materials. Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Crawford traces and connects the expansion and decline of turtle hunting to matters of race, labor, political and economic change, and the natural environment. Like the turtles they chased, the boundary-flouting laborers exposed the limits of states' sovereignty for a time but ultimately they lost their livelihoods, having played a significant role in legislation delimiting maritime boundaries. Still, former turtlemen have found their deep knowledge valued today in efforts to protect sea turtles and recover the region's ecological sustainability.

Review Quotes

"A compelling and insightful study of the human and nonhuman relationships that shaped the important Caribbean industry of turtling, with a focus on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."--American Historical Review

"A great resource for teaching. . . . The history of the turtlemen appeals to historians of all sorts; whether one is interested in transnational governance, labour and empire, or environmental change and conservation, there is a chapter for you in this book."--The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History

"A valuable maritime perspective of the Caribbean past. . . . [The Last Turtlemen of the Caribbean] reminds its readers that . . . [n]ot only humans were global in their movements and impact."--World History Connected

"Crawford's book is a timely reminder that the sea has long been at the center of regional debates . . . expertly woven narrative of a fishery in decline could be superimposed upon any community of fishers in the Caribbean today."--H-LatAm

"Well written and richly documented . . . [and] supported by impeccable writing and thorough historiographical research and analysis."--New West Indian Guide