Best caribbean history books according to redditors

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http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Pirates-Caribbean-Swashbuckling-Freedom--/dp/0767919521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347390148&sr=1-1&keywords=0767919521

There are lots of great books about Port Royal in its heyday. The first ones I'd recommend are The Sack of Panama by Peter Earle and Empire of Blue Water by Stephen Talty which both give really solid broad introductions to the politics and environment of the Caribbean and Port Royal's relationship with buccaneers during its heyday in the 1660s until 1671 when England started to crack down on them.

If you want more specialized reading exclusively on Port Royal then I'd recommend Pirate Port: The story of the sunken city of Port Royal by Robert F. Marx for some light reading, and if you want a really excessively meticulous study of everything you ever wanted to know about Port Royal from written records and archaeological findings with lots of maps and reconstructions included then read Port Royal Jamaica by Michael Pawson and David Buisseret.

Lastly, a great primary source on Port Royal in its heyday is the contemporary book The Buccaneers of America which was published by Alexandre Exquemelin in 1678. Exquemelin himself was an actual former French/Dutch buccaneer and the book contains many of his first-person recollections, such as this describing the activities of buccaneers in Port Royal in the 1660s which has clearly influenced some modern pirate tropes:

> Captain Rock sailed for Jamaica with his prize, and lorded it there with his mates until all was gone. For that is the way with these buccaneers -- whenever they have got hold of something, they don't keep it for long. They are busy dicing, whoring and drinking so long as they have anything to spend. Some of them will get through a good two or three thousand pieces of eight in a day -- and next day not have a shirt to their back. I have seen a man in Jamaica give 500 pieces of eight to a whore, just to see her naked. Yes, and many other impieties.

> My own master used to buy a butt of wine and set in the middle of the street with the barrel-head knocked in, and stand barring the way. Every passer-by had to drink with him, or he'd have shot them dead with a gun he kept handy. Once he bought a cask of butter and threw the stuff at everyone who came by, bedaubing their clothes or their head, wherever he best could reach.

> The buccaneers are generous to their comrades: if a man has nothing, the others will come to his help. The tavern-keepers let them have a good deal of credit, but in Jamaica one ought not to put much trust in these people, for often they will sell you for debt, a thing I have seen happen many a time. Even the man I have just been speaking about, the one who gave the whore so much money to see her naked, and at that time had a good 3,000 pieces of eight -- three months later he was sold for his debts, by a man in whose house he had spent most of his money.

The latest video of Unpacked is about a quite unknown part of our history: some of the Spharadim who fled the expulsion of 1492 joined the Caribbeans and engaged in unlawful activities, notably targeting the Spaniards.

The video is short, so if you're looking for more info:
Jewish Pirates — Wikipedia

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean — JPost

Jewish Pirates (book on Amazon, no affiliation)

Hi there! I'd recommend taking a look at the answer I gave here about indigenous people and hurricanes in the Americas. The book I'd recommend Matthew Mulcahy's Hurricanes and Society in the Greater Caribbean, 1624-1783. The book is more about the Caribbean and European/Native encounter, but a lot of his work touches on the development of the eastern seaboard.

Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean

My local Reformed seminary has this book from an Irish ministry to cults and this book.

Try Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean interesting book.

>They weren't targeted for being Jewish

That's not how we Jews remember it.

"The royal decree explicitly stated that the Inquisition was instituted to search out and punish converts from Judaism who transgressed against Christianity by secretly adhering to Jewish beliefs and performing rites and ceremonies of the Jews. No other group was mentioned, no other purpose indicated – a fact that in itself suggest a close relationship between the creation of the Inquisition and Jewish life in Spain. Other facts, too, attest to that relationship." — Benzio Netanyahu

"Unlike its earlier version, the Spanish Inquisition sought to punish Jews who had converted to Christianity but were not really "sincere" in their conversions." — aish.com

>Rather than just kicking all the Muslims and the Jews out they gave them a chance to convert instead

Yes, the Alhambra Decree was quite lenient. Convert, leave, or be tortured to death. Huh.