Intimate Enemies: French and English Settlers and Commentators in Colonial St. Kitts

This article examines a variety of texts produced by the French and English colonists of the island of St Kitts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During this time, the island was jointly settled by these two groups, a situation which created considerable tension and frequent hostilities between them. By placing these texts in dialogue with one another, we gain a clearer and more nuanced understanding of the extent to which these competing imperial projects resembled and differed from one another, allowing us a new perspective on European settlement in the Caribbean in the era of slavery.