O'Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson

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O'SHAUGHNESSY, Andrew Jackson

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Attended Columbia University, 1979; Oriel College, Oxford, B.A. (modern history), 1982, M.A. (modern history), 1987, Ph.D., 1988.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—Thomas Jefferson Foundation, P.O. Box 316, Charlottesville, VA 22902; fax: 434-296-1992. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian and educator. Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire, England, master, 1988; Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, visiting assistant professor, 1989; University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, assistant professor, 1990-97, associate professor, 1997-2002, professor of American history, 2002-03, chair of department, 1998-2003; International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, VA, Saunders Director, 2003—. Also lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford, 1986.

MEMBER: Royal Historical Society (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellowships from University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Brown University, Amherst College, and University of Wisconsin, Madison; Distinguished Professor Award, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, 1996; University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, postdoctoral fellow, 2001-02.

WRITINGS:

An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and theBritish Caribbean ("Early American Studies" series), University of Pennsylvania Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2000.

Associate editor of Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 1997-2004. Author of numerous scholarly articles and papers.

SIDELIGHTS: Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, who holds dual British and United States citizenship, was educated in England and teaches in the United States. O'Shaughnessy has written scholarly articles and papers on colonial America, the American Revolution, and the history of the British Caribbean, and these subjects are incorporated in his An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean.

As O'Shaughnessy notes, at the start of the American Revolutionary War (1775-83) there were actually twenty-six American colonies, not thirteen; six of them—Jamaica, Barbados, the Leeward Islands, Grenada and Tobago, St. Vincent, and Dominica—were the sugar colonies of the Caribbean. Among the richest of the group, these southernmost colonies were closely linked to those in the mainland, nearly all of which were located along eastern North America, making trade between the islands and the mainland very accessible. Because the plantation systems of the southern colonies and those of the islands were so similar, they were, in fact more alike than the southern colonies were to the northern colonies.

The division between the mainland and island colonies came about after the Stamp Act crisis of 1765-66, when the colonists of the British West Indies chose not to follow the example of the mainland patriots, and instead overlooked infringements on their civil rights and remained loyal to the British who provided the markets for their sugar. Before detailing this period, O'Shaughnessy defines the population of these islands, both the white elite and the black majority. He notes that Caribbean loyalists did not always approve of British imperial policies, particularly when their economic livelihood was threatened, as it was during wartime. They asked that a friendlier position toward the Americans be adopted in 1775 and 1776, but when slave rebellion erupted in Jamaica and the Windward Islands, pro-American sympathy fell off.

Kenneth Morgan noted in the English Historical Review that "West Indians initially felt that the War of Independence should have been avoided, but their position changed when France and Spain's entry into the war on the American side increased the direct economic and strategic threat to the British Caribbean. It was not until 1783 that the West Indians became more vocal against the imperial government as they suffered from trade restrictions imposed on their commerce with Yankees." Relations between the islands and Mother England weakened as did support for slavery. Following the war, black loyalists who had supported the Tories (British loyalists) settled in the islands and were responsible for the development of an Afro-Christian religious movement.

A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "O'Shaughnessy has crafted a study that promises to reshape the way Americans think of the Revolution." Thomas Agostini, who reviewed An Empire Divided for H-Net Reviews, said that the book "is well organized, clearly written, and includes a useful select bibliography. Its assertion that West Indian developments, while exceptional, merit equal attention to events on the mainland represents a challenging addition to the historiography of the American Revolution and its approach should serve as a model for scholars anxious to view the movement for colonial independence from an Atlantic perspective."

In 2003 O'Shaughnessy was named Saunders Director of the International Center for Jefferson Studies, founded by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in cooperation with the University of Virginia to foster Jeffersonian scholarship. O'Shaughnessy, who succeeded James Horn, oversees the research, education, and archaeology departments at Monticello (Jefferson's estate, including the mansion he designed), the Jefferson Library, and the editorial staff of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series.