

































The Early Colonial Circum-Caribbean: 
Affected and Infected by Colonialism and Disease

Kennedy-Jude Providence
University of Toronto
FAS Biology and Health and Disease/Caribbean Studies

Oftentimes when thinking about the plantoc-
racy, slavery and the Circum-Caribbean 
region, the first thing that comes to mind is 
the suffering endured by millions of Indige-
nous populations, genocide and forced 
African migrants, enslaved, and tortured for 
the singular benefit of European enrichment. 
Any historical thought process is usually 
followed by a celebration of the region’s 
nutrient rich soil, an ideal climate for 
successful agriculture. However, there are 
further aspects that are not often given due 
weight in consideration, including the 
numerous subtle and intricately intertwined 
ways Colonialism impacted the region 
scientifically, specifically through disease 
and immunological degradation. This 
research paper seeks to highlight and consid-
er the multiple ways in which the region was 
not only affected but also infected by disease 
and Colonialism.

A B S T R A C T

Mining, Hispaniola, late 16th  Century, 
courtesy of  SlaveryImages.org.

Keywords: Colonialism, 
Immunology, 

Disease, Caribbean, Slavery.

B I O

Kennedy Providence is a 4th year Biology, and Health and Disease double major, also 
pursuing a minor in Caribbean Studies at the University of Toronto. The diverse, shared 
history of the West Indies has been an interest of hers for as long as she can remember.

© 2021 Kennedy-Jude Providence
Caribbean Studies Students’ Union, Canada - https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/cquilt/

                       This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 
                       To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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While there are numerous ways in which 
one may consider the colonial project in 
the Circum-Caribbean, it may be argued 
that its histo-environmental effects are 
often given insufficient consideration. 
The suffering and genocide endured by 
millions of Indigenous peoples and the 
forced migration, torture, and enslave-
ment of Africans had a detrimental 
impact on the physical and psycho-social 
environment of the region. Collectively, 
through the mono-cultivation of the king 
crop- sugarcane, the mining of precious 
metals, and the introduction of novel 
disease, European powers slowly but 
most steadfastly, drained the unadulterat-
ed treasury that was the Caribbean basin 
to support the rapid proliferation of their 
emerging, mercantilist societies. Focus-
ing on the Early colonial Caribbean, this 
paper seeks to consider the ways in 
which immunological degradation was 
used to benefit and further the colonial 
project in the 17th and 18th Century.

Indigenous peoples faced an even greater 
threat than armed invasion – disease 
(Montenegro and Stephens 2006, 186). In 
order to wholly comprehend the reason 
for the devastating impact disease had on 
the Indigenous Populations of the region, 
we must first briefly discuss and have a 
basic understanding of the Human 
Immune system. Scientifically speaking, 
immunological memory against disease is 
acquired once one is exposed to a patho-
gen – a disease causing organism (Bal-
loux and van Dorp 2017, 1). Following 
this initial encounter, the body deploys its 
immediate, or innate immune system to 
not only fight the infection but produce 
antibodies which invoke immunological 
‘memory’ to ‘remember’ this virus in the 

Indigenous Caribbean inhabitants’ 
immune systems, unaccustomed to alien 
diseases, viral and bacterial infection 
exploded into the leading cause of death 
of these once virile populations. As a 
result, disease ultimately posed a greater 
threat to survival than armed invasion 
(Montenegro and Stephens 2006, 1861).

Soon after 1492, European sailors 
inadvertently introduced diseases, such as  
smallpox and measles, mumps, whooping 
cough, influenza, chicken pox, and 
typhus to the Americas. In the first 
century after the initial Columbian 
exchange, approximately 93% of the 
Caribbean’s Indigenous population died – 
a massive demographic collapse that 
scholars often mainly attribute to the 
foreign bacterial and viral diseases 
introduced by Europeans (Montenegro 
and Stephens 2006, 1861). However, this 
infers that regardless of colonial modes 
of subjugation, Indigenous populations 
were too weak to ward off novel infec-
tion. This is despite the fact that “Indige-
nous peoples in [the Circum-Caribbean] 
had perhaps one of the most sophisticated 
and diverse Indigenous health systems in 
the world” (Montenegro and Stephens 
2006, 1865). The experienced medicinal 
and herbal proficiency of Indigenous 
peoples translated into a wisdom that 
offered a multitude of natural remedies 
for pre-Colombian illnesses. This was 
due in part to the fact that these popula-
tions were naturally, a migratory people. 
The organic movement of the Indigenous 
population, whether stimulated by 
amicable or hostile terms, supported the 
exchange of medicinal practices and 
herbal knowledge during regional 
encounters.

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Considering this broad and sophisticated 
medical knowledge base however, 
questions arise from the inability to 
rehabilitate their dying population from 
these novel ailments plaguing the region. 
Such a question, however, places insuffi-
cient consideration on the unjust, 
demanding working conditions, that 
created harsh and inhumane physical 
environments but also inhibited sufficient 
recovery time for the infected and ill. 
Under the stress of excessive labour 
requirements “the viruses suffered by the 
Indigenous populations [left] victims who 
escape, killed, or as weak as a kitten for 
weeks.” (McNeill 2012, 35) 

Despite the sometimes ambient, some-
times encircling biological genocide, the 
Europeans never lost sight of their goal 
of resource exploitation. Columbus and 
his men first noted the richness of the 
soil, in their recounts of the islands 
protection by a vast, barrier-like wall of 
foliage. However, upon meeting the 
people who inhabited the land, the 
colonizers’ focus shifted quickly to the 
brilliant gold and silver pieces adorning 
the autochthonous population, the latter 
oblivious to the European attraction and 
value placed on their ornaments. Apply-
ing forced privilege, power and suprema-
cy, the invaders established control over 
the islands and mining operations were 
initiated; with native populations made to 
toil underground, endure barbaric work-
ing conditions, and extract precious 
metals for the financial gain of Europe.

As a result, this research posits that 
through these working conditions, 
European invasion altered the region’s 
socio-environmental history by diverting 
the natural course of science away from 
the acquisition of immunological 
memory and the subsequent maturation 
and development of immune systems – 
resulting in extinction. The Indigenous 
populations were denied the opportunity 
to develop immunity on their own terms 
and denied biological knowledge of 
newly introduced euro-diseases which 
itself shaped the direction of the scientific 
history of indigenous peoples.

While the Spaniards came to the New 
World in search of the proverbial “el 
dorado”, imagined to be overflowing 
abundantly, the realization that this 
resource was in fact quite scarce and 
difficult to find and extract meant they 
shifted  focus at the end of the 17th 
century to establishing an agrarian-based 
economic structure. Of all the cultiva-
tions, sugar cane flourished in the Tropi-
cal-Marine Caribbean climate and 
emerged as providing the most wealth to 
the Empire. Notwithstanding the ease 
with which the unrefined fruitage grew, 
the success of refining the crop relied on 
two integral factors: cheap, readily 
available labour, and cheap, easily 
accessible fuel. The Indigenous popula-
tion, having been grossly depleted by the 
year 1620, mainly because of disease, 
now on the verge of extinction, was 
rendered an insufficient and therefore, 
unusable source of cheap, forced labour, 
prompting European invading nations to 
begin exploring new options: Africans.

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As the British Colonial Empire gradually 
grew in power simultaneously with the 
increasing value of sugar, the declaration 
of ownership and seizure of various 
territories in the Caribbean increased 
British colonies. These invaders brought 
with them ‘suitable’ labour, that is, 
massive numbers of enslaved, African 
migrants. Again, science repeated itself 
as the introduction of multiple unfamiliar 
populations, invited disease, epidemic, 
and death, hence, brutal suffering to a 
mass number of people, African enslaved 
and European alike, owing to a lack of 
immunological memory. In the case of 
the African slaves, yellow fever (McNeill 
2012, 41) was one disease that accompa-
nied their involuntary passage to the 
Caribbean, ‘eager’ to be released upon 
new, upcoming territories and hosts.

It is imperative to note that the climate of 
the region not only supported the inten-
sive cultivation of crops, but also the 
reproduction and survival of insects that 
served as the vectors or ‘vessels’ for the 
transmission of diseases. Though the 
Aedes aegypti mosquito, the disease 
carrying agent for yellow fever, was not 
indigenous to the Caribbean, and arrived 
as a result of the European slave trade, 
these vectors occupied a specific niches 
that the plantation society coupled with 
the Tropical marine climate unintention-
ally nurtured. Unlike many mosquitoes, 
A. aegypti eggs require clean, unpolluted 
water to mature into larvae and pupae 
(McNeill 2012, 41). As we envision the 
containers used to store the gargantuan 
volumes of sugar produced, as well as the 
additional barrels kept in case of excesses 
of production, coupled with the climate’s 
high levels of seasonal and intermittent 

rainfall, this stagnant, fresh water collect-
ed, would have provided optimum 
conditions for the rapid and prolific 
reproduction and survival of this vector.

What is interesting about the science of 
this disease and its successive, detrimen-
tal effect, is that it was not unfamiliar to 
the enslaved African population, as the 
mosquito is of African origin, however, 
the living conditions endured by the 
enslaved, facilitated the effortless and 
most vicious transmission of the disease. 
With mosquito-borne diseases, the 
cycle’s efficiency depends chiefly on 
three things: the population densities of 
people and vectors; the feeding focus of 
the vector, that is, whether or not it bites 
only people or bites people among other 
mammals; and the longevity of the 
vector. With attention to the first, it is 
plausible that the growing slave popula-
tion, in any given island or territory, 
would have provided the virus with a 
more than satisfactory availability of 
hosts for easy, widespread replication and 
infection. Perhaps, as well, the intimate, 
ultra-close and unhygienic physical 
spaces provided as accommodation of 
enslaved persons, facilitated constant 
contact and ultimately fostered an 
environment again, ideal for disease 
transmission. These highly influential 
factors led to the infection of a plethora 
of people, and when many people were ill 
at the same time. This increase the 
virulence of the disease.

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Planters, disgruntled by slave population 
reduction aka asset loss and impediments 
to support and sustain consistent produc-
tion capacity, used the opportunity of 
disease to create racist, gendered stereo-
types that bolstered the stability of the 
plantocracy. As scholars often note, “the 
plantation’s wealth relied on its structure 
being by necessity racist” (McWatt 2019, 
66). 17th and 18th-century observers 
often claimed that men were more 
vulnerable than women, although this 
characterization is tempered by a colonial 
mentality that saw vulnerability as a 
consequence of intemperance – a trait 
typically associated with males (Mcneill 
2012, 35).

If we think about McNeill’s statement, it 
is quite alarming because, in spite of the 
numbers of enslaved people that fell ill, 
including those that succumbed to their 
illness, many Europeans also contracted 
the disease and endured intolerable 
sufferings and death. Yet, I am not 
surprised with McNeill’s statement for 
two reasons: First, though the Europeans 
placed the African enslaved at the bottom 
of their social strata, they expected this 
labour force to be able to withstand the 
most unbearable of conditions, while 
maintaining a submissive attitude. The 
high expectations set for these forced 
migrants were in stark contrast to the 
lowly treatment meted out by their 
masters. Second, the foundation of the 
plantocracy was built on racism and 
social divisions. The ease with which the 
European observers were able to make 
spurious claims – that the virus may 
affect more men than women, and by 
further offering some rationale for that 
vulnerability – though due to illness, was 

indicative of the Euro-defined traits of 
the “disobedient” African male, one of 
several racially-driven stereotypes about 
the enslaved population; indirectly 
referencing the white man’s superior 
discipline, intelligence and apparently 
resistance to disease.

The living conditions and density of the 
slave population in the Caribbean result-
ed in a mass number of slaves becoming 
immunologically affiliated with viral 
infection. This is significant as the 
plantation depended on these labouring 
imports to fuel the economy, withstand, 
and supply the high demand for Caribbe-
an sugar, and fund the planters, their 
families and Europe. With a large portion 
of the labour force dead or substantially 
“weak as kittens”, this slowed produc-
tion, and negatively impacted the finan-
cial bottom-line of the plantocracy. 
Regardless of this fact, planters seeming-
ly found a way to achieve their ambitious 
goals, despite widespread illness and a 
weakened labour force. I propose that the 
planters, driven by insatiable appetites, 
would have imported more slaves at 
formidable cost to quickly replace the 
dead. It is possible and is not far-fetched 
that there was some degree of manipula-
tion or misappropriation that monetized 
loss of property, yielding monetary 
compensation from England ergo, a 
revolving reimbursable fund for new, 
more people-property acquisitions. 
History tells us that planters often insured 
their slaves, so it is possible that, due to 
the oceanic separation between the 
Caribbean region and the continent, slave 
losses due to diseases may have been 
overstated, exacerbated then unjustifiably 
funded, for unaudited personal benefit. 

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41

This is not a preposterous allegation, 
especially if we consider the Zong 
Massacre of 1781, an indescribably tragic 
incident which involved the premeditated 
death of 130 slaves due to the respective 
Europeans’ attempts to claim insurance 
on their murdered bodies. Jeremy Krikler 
(2012) notes that many planters and slave 
traders’ written accounts, note that slaves 
were hand-picked by surgeons aboard 
slave ships, ensuring health, strength, and 
youth, before purchase. Regardless of the 
medical ‘clearance’, disease was heralded 
as the leading cause of death on slave 
ships. We remember that illness was 
viewed as vulnerability, and vulnerabili-
ty- intemperance, justifying slavers’ 
decisions to throw infected African 
bodies overboard; to avoid the spread of 
infection to other slaves, and crew 
members, to conserve the limited 
resources and it may be argued, it was 
similarly used to also invoke fear in the 
newly purchased cargo. All this is to say, 
slave owners and traders were able, from 
time to time to ‘justly’ kill their slaves, 
subsequently reap the benefits of this 
dastardly practice, and defend any 
imminent claims. 

No doubt, Colonialism shaped the 
development of scientific history and 
anomalies of the early Caribbean through 
its imposition of deadly, novel, and 
infectious diseases to an immunologically 
unprepared, and unsuspecting Indigenous 
population. However, more importantly 
this immunological degradation was used 
to benefit and further the colonial project 
in the 17th and 18th Century by a) 
reducing the Indigenous population’s 
ability to leverage existing medical 
knowledge to combat diseases and 

b) linking colonially defined intemper-
ance to vulnerability and infection to 
subjugate African slaves. 

The effects of these infectious diseases 
on the ‘pioneer’-to-enslaved Indigenous 
and enslaved African populations devel-
oped an agrarian based economy, and not 
only shaped the scientific history, but 
added to growing fields of scientific 
research and ultimately, the overarching 
history stemming from the theft and 
colonization of the Circum-Caribbean 
region.

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42

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