The Bigards of St. Barths: A Maritime Family
Event: The Bigards of St. Barths: A Maritime Family
Time/Date: July 6th, 2024 at 2pm AT
Length: 40 minute lecture, followed by Q&A
Methods of Attending: Virtual via Zoom.
Cost: Free for Members and $5 for Non-Members. Non-Members can sign up from this page using the Buy Tickets button.
About the Presentation:
Who were the people who lived in Gustavia, St. Barths, in the early 1800s? Many of them came from merchant or sailing families and were the important links between St. Barths and the surrounding islands. In this presentation, Dr. Felicia Fricke (University of Copenhagen) will discuss one of these families, the Bigards. Much previous historical work on trade networks and sailing communities in the Caribbean has focused on the 1700s and on larger islands and empires. However, recently scholars have become more interested in trade relations between the smaller islands and in the imperial powers of Northern Europe. Dr. Fricke’s work is part of this trend, but it also contributes a new focus on the maritime family that gives a human face to these trade networks. Using shipping data from newspapers, it puts the French Caribbean Bigard family into the larger trade context to assess their reach and impact. It also uses manuscript sources to complicate the internal workings of the family network, providing an intimate picture of early 1800s small island trade that is grounded in the agency of the maritime family.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Felicia Fricke is a British/Dutch scholar with Dutch Caribbean family ties. She has a PhD (University of Kent, 2019) in the archaeology, osteology, and oral history of enslaved lifeways in the Dutch Caribbean. Her book Slaafgemaakt: Rethinking Enslavement in the Dutch Caribbean (Common Ground Research Networks, 2020) presents her doctoral research results for a general audience. She has also published journal articles and book chapters in English, Dutch, and Papiamentu. Her current research in the IN THE SAME SEA history project at the University of Copenhagen explores interisland connections in the Lesser Antilles in the early 19th century, particularly how rumour, trade, and print culture helped to create this region as a social space. These topics align with her enduring interest in examining the pressures placed on individuals by power imbalances and exploitation, and in exploring creativity and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.”
Library Membership:
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About the Library:
The Caribbean Genealogy Library’s mission is to identify, preserve and provide access to Caribbean genealogy, history and cultural heritage information resources for the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. The library houses unique and rare books on Virgin Islands and Caribbean history and culture, funeral booklets, community booklets, reference books, and provides access to church records, newspapers and other material. CGL is a FamilySearch affiliate library. This affiliation allows for access to millions of digitized records within the FamilySearch collection. The library is in Al Cohen Plaza, Building 3, Raphune Hill, St. Thomas. The library's website is: www.cgl.vi.