Abstract
Recent scholarship recognizes continuing connections and influences among people from Europe, Africa, and the Americas well past 1800. Drawing on a diverse selection of archival and printed sources, this paper argues that the Florida Keys in the period 1822-1845 is a place that deserves the attention of Atlantic historians. Its remoteness and singular mode of living during its Territorial Period (1822-1845) illuminate a kaleidoscope of forces playing out across transregional, transnational, and transatlantic geographies. Though small and on the edge, the Keys refracts a larger vision of the early nineteenth century. By looking at the livelihoods of the people who lived in Indian Key or Key West, slavery and freedom, empire and democracy, globalization and industrialization come into view.