I’m probably highlighting serious deficits in my knowledge with this, and if so just tell me to get to a library. However, if it’s not a stupid question, I’d like to know:
Was there ever a chance that Britain’s other colonies in the Americas, such as those in the Caribbean, might side with the rebels in the American War of Independence? If not, why not? Were there distinct differences between the 13 colonies and the Caribbean colonies?
It’s a good question–I have no clue why, say, Massachusetts got up on its high horse and told King George to take a long walk off a short pier and Antigua didn’t, other than the fact that the Caribbean colonies were founded mainly as sugar production factories, for planters to get their profits and get out, whereas the North American colonies were founded mainly as places for people to actually live.
But then, that doesn’t explain why Nova Scotia stayed in the fold.
If anybody’s interested, here’s a list of former British colonies in the Caribbean (with “North American colonies besides the U.S.A.” further down the page)
http://www.sas.ac.uk/commonwealthstudies/library/libcolonies.html#carib
Here’s the list of the original 13 American colonies, to refresh everybody’s faulty memory. (No, NOT Maine…) 
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
Well, there was a real hope that the Canadians would join the revolution. However, the Carribean colonies weren’t very revolutionary for a few reasons:
They didn’t have a very large British population. Most of them were gigantic sugar plantations with a port city attached.
They needed a market for their sugar, and they were economically dependent on Britain for that market. Revolution would disrupt the sugar trade.
There wasn’t as strong a tradition of self government. Most of the Carribean colonies were ruled directly by an appointed governor, and there weren’t legislatures, as there were on the American mainland, to check his power or, for that matter, to provide colonial leaders. A Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry wouldn’t be able to emerge.
Their interests were strongly represented in Parliament. The Carribean planters had close ties with London merchants, and between the two groups, provided an effective lobbying group.
I was looking at this woodcut by Benjamin Franklin the other day, and couldn’t help noticing that Georgia is conspicuously absent. (Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are presumably included in the head section labeled “N. E.” and a minor defect makes the “P” for Pennsylvania look like an “R” at first glance.)
It turns out that Georgia was far less enthusiastic about the Revolution than other colonies. Low population, a high percentage of slaves, and a significant interest in keeping British troops on hand to guard against Indian raiders kept them from sending delegates to the first Continental Congress. South Carolina appears to have been instrumental in bringing Georgians around by rather magnanimously “guaranteeing” Georgia’s future support by promising trade sanctions if the colonly did not join up.
Not a direct response, but the following earlier threads provided some information on the subject:
Wait a minute… Where the hell is Delaware? Now I’m all screwed up…
Presumably, Mr. Franklin made the wood-cut before 1776. Until that year, Delaware was part of Pennsylvania
Sua
There was a thread here a year or two ago about the existence of Delaware. After all, has anyone actually ever been to Delaware?
Or met someone from Delaware?
It’s my understanding that New Brunswick was all set to join the rebellion when some boneheaded Yankee skipper showed up and shelled the port, thus ending any pro-American sentiment.
I’ve been to Delaware, and believe me, you haven’t missed much.
