Date of Award
January 2012
Degree Type
Open Access Thesis
Document Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
Department Name when Degree Awarded
History
First Advisor
Bradford J. Wood
Department Affiliation
History
Abstract
This research investigates how colonists adapted to their new tropical environment after a destructive earthquake occurred in Jamaica on June 7, 1692. This earthquake killed approximately two thousand people and destroyed half of the bustling harbor town of Port Royal. The earthquake dramatically changed the landscape of England's most successful Caribbean town and affected the colonists.
Historian Richard Dunn contended that colonists did not adapt to their tropical environment for at least a century after first inhabiting the Caribbean. This study argues against Dunn's theory in that the earthquake served as a catalyst in accelerating the colonists' rate of adaptation to their environment. This adaptation is evident because colonists changed the inherited ideas brought with them from England regarding building styles and town design, and the earthquake accelerated Jamaica's transition to a planter-dominated society.
Copyright
Copyright 2012 Julie Yates Matlock
Recommended Citation
Matlock, Julie Yates, "The Process of Colonial Adaptation: English Responses to the 1692 Earthquake at Port Royal, Jamaica" (2012). Online Theses and Dissertations. 109.
https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/109
