Mary Draper

Listen to podcasts about my research on the British Caribbean. I discuss drought in Antigua during the American Revolution, the widespread consumption of turtle in Jamaica, and the insatiable need for timber in Barbados.

“The Sugar,” Worlds Turned Upside Down, 2024, https://podcasts.rrchnm.org/show/worlds-turned-upside-down/episode-9-the-sugar/

Hear more about the role of the British Caribbean during the American Revolution.

“Going Timbering and Turtling in the Caribbean,” Conversations at the Washington Library Podcast, March 2020, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/podcast/going-timbering-and-turtling-in-the-caribbean-with-mary-draper/

Hear how British colonists used waterways to scour for foodstuffs and timber in the British Caribbean.

Read press about my research and teaching.

This interview highlights my research on the green sea turtle (chelonia mydas). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the green sea turtle was a mainstay of the colonial diet in the Americas. Because of their delectability, merchants started shipping these turtles across the Atlantic Ocean to sell—for considerable sums—in English markets. Yet, these turtles seldom survived the long, arduous journey. So English chefs created mock turtle soup (of Alice and Wonderland fame) to imitate the real thing.