The History of the First West India Regiment

In the dying light of the eighteenth century, the British Empire faced a problem it couldn't solve with redcoats alone. The Caribbean colonies, wealth generators for the crown, lay vulnerable and undermanned. The solution was radical: an army recruited from enslaved and free Black subjects, the First West India Regiment. A.B. Ellis's meticulously researched account traces this unusual military unit from its formation during the American Revolutionary War through its service across the Americas and Caribbean, documenting campaigns that defined imperial power in the Atlantic world. These soldiers, often promised freedom in exchange for service, fought with remarkable distinction against French, Spanish, and American forces, yet their story has been largely erased from the colonial narratives that dominate military history. Ellis illuminates the complex identities of the men who served, the British commanders who led them, and the strategic calculations that made such a unit possible. The result is a window into a forgotten corner of military history where questions of race, loyalty, and empire collided on battlefields from Jamaica to Florida.