Beyond the Plantation

Abstract

Betty’s Hope functioned as a civic and military space as much as an economic space in the early Codrington years. As governors, Christopher Codrington II and Christopher Codrington III doubled as war leaders, employing their prior service and experience and funneling it into military construction. This chapter examines the role that the Codringtons played in fortifying Antigua in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The intersection of civic, military, and economic leadership expected of the Codringtons, are foregrounded by how local politics dominated the placement and funding of Antigua’s fortifications rather than as part of an imperializing project directed from Britain. Using the lens of locality, Waters shows how fortification of Antigua demonstrates how early planation society formed, as well as reinforcing the autonomy of the Antiguan government within the colonial system.