This book explores the articulation of white creole identity in Barbados during the age of abolitionism.

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction: white creole culture, politics and identity; 1. The geographical 'problem of slavery'; 2. Joshua Steele and the 'improvement' of slavery; 3. Making a 'well constituted Society': the ambitions and limits of white unity; 4. Locating blame for the 1816 Rebellion; 5. Anti-Methodism and the uncertain place of Barbados; 6. 'Days of misery and nights of fear': white ideas of freedom at the end of slavery; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.