Volcanic hazard in a slave society: the 1812 eruption of Mount Soufrière in St Vincent

This study analyses the impact of Mount Soufrière’s 1812 eruption on St Vincent: a British West India colony with an economy based on plantation slavery. Output losses are estimated at 14% of island GDP and infrastructure damage at 7% of physical capital invested in sugar estates. In contrast, casualty rates during the eruption and its aftermath proved minimal. Losses were concentrated in two northern coastal regions lying closest to the volcano: firstly, long-established plantations and estates on the Leeward side; secondly, recently-established estates on the Windward side. Leeward cultivators recovered only three-quarters of their pre-disaster output level during the 5 years after 1812. In contrast, Windward producers nearly doubled their output. The role of public authorities in disaster response was confined to securing emergency food relief from overseas and collating loss estimates for use in securing imperial assistance from Britain. Parliamentary grants and loans aided Windward planters in their reconstruction efforts, leading to a rise in slave numbers inhabiting the most hazardous zone. Contemporary descriptions of 1812 portray events as a calamity which no human effort could avert. This depiction, while effective lobby material and an inspiration to artist J.M.W. Turner, exaggerates the extent of destruction, downplays the role of human agency, and obscures the connections between colonisation and the conceptualisation of events as a disaster.