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Traces the impact of world events on St Helena's topography, ecology and human population, from the early 1500s to the present day.
Since its discovery in the early 1500s, St Helena – though remotely situated – has repeatedly participated in events taking place on a world stage; evidence of those encounters is etched on the topography, ecology and human population of the island. This book examines the impacts of a century of casual but destructive visits from sailing ships of various nations followed by settlement by the East India Company; the fortification and population of the island by the Company, including the importation of an enslaved population; efforts to make it economically self-reliant; its employment a base for scientific observations from Edmond Halley to Joseph Hooker and beyond; its role as a prison-fortress from Napoleon to the twentieth century and as a base for anti-slavery patrols in the South Atlantic following the Abolition of Slavery; its decline since the end of the days of sail; measures taken to reconnect it with the modern world in terms of sea and air travel as well as electronic communication; and efforts to regain to some degree the ecological diversity of the virgin island setting.
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Genesis: The island and its setting; The loss of Eden
2. The Breach: Europe and St Helena collide
3. Population and environment: early impacts
4. Population and environment: asserting control
5. 'The citadel of the South Atlantic'
6. Scientists in transit: St Helena as a centre for scientific investigation
7. Napoleon at St Helena
8. Later detainees, 1800s and 1900s
9. A place in the modern world
Appendix: Governors of St Helena
Bibliography
Index
Arthur MacGregor, LVO, MA, MPhil, DLitt, is an Andrew W. Mellon Visiting Professor at the Victoria and Albert Museum Research Institute, UK.
