This course explores the history of islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica from slavery to the present. The goal of the class is to trace the emergence of modern multi-ethnic Caribbean nations from the slave colonies of the not-so-distant past. We will show that though they may be picturesque vacation destinations, the islands of the Caribbean have played a central role in the history of the Atlantic world for the last 500 years. In particular, the course focuses on the moments when leaders and residents of these islands were in contact with each other and how they imagined those relationships. This means that readings will explore topics of migration, moments of political alliances, as well as periods of social disturbance. Sources will include speeches, song lyrics, films, testimonios, and other historical documents that shed light on the history of Caribbean nations. The course has three sections: the early history of the Caribbean, leading up to the Haitian Revolution; nineteenth-century developments, including slave emancipation and early nationalist and independence movements; and the twentieth century, which pays particular attention to how Caribbean peoples have acted on their understandings of those two prior periods.