In 1629, English colonists occupied a small, uninhabited Caribbean island off the coasts of modern Nicaragua and modern Colombia. They named it Providence, and in the next decade built a colony in which English and Dutch settlers, traders and traffickers, Angolan and Guinean enslaved captives, Pequot prisoners of war, and Miskito captives and diplomats all played large roles. The island quickly became contested territory: Spanish and English soldiers fought over it in the seventeenth century, and it has remained contested ground ever since. In the twenty-first century it has been claimed by both Nicaragua and Colombia, and many of its Raizal inhabitants question and contest their belonging within the Colombian nation. Today it is known as Providencia, and is part of the San Andrés y Providencia department of Colombia.

Providence and Providencia sit within Caribbean, Latin American, Atlantic, and Global histories. The island and its inhabitants have much to teach scholars of early modern empires, Caribbean slavery, indigenous life in North and Central America, postcolonial development, and nation-building in Latin America.

The definitive account of the island’s early history is Professor Karen Kupperman’s book, Providence Island, 1630-1641: The Other Puritan Colony (Cambridge University Press, 1993). This roundtable, convened in honour of Kupperman’s trailblazing work, brings together scholars who have written on all aspects of Providence and Providencia’s history from 1629 to the present. Participants are specialists in fields ranging from human trafficking and empire-building in the Caribbean, to indigenous histories in Central and North America, migration and religion in the Atlantic world, and development and nation-building in modern Latin America.

Each participant will offer a short reflection on how scholarship on the island has evolved since the publication of Kupperman’s book, offer suggestions about future directions that research may take, and reflect on the importance of the island in Caribbean, Latin American, Atlantic, and Global history. We anticipate approximately half an hour of comments from panellists, followed by approximately an hour of conversation between panellists and the audience. Professor Kupperman will also offer a short comment.