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The Process Of Colonial Adaptation: English Responses To The 1692 Earthquake At Port Royal, Jamaica, Julie Yates Matlock
The Process Of Colonial Adaptation: English Responses To The 1692 Earthquake At Port Royal, Jamaica, Julie Yates Matlock
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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 …