1790-Apr.: In Dominica, a “mob” gathered in the streets of Roseau to brutally punish an informant named John Blair for reporting the landing of prohibited go…

1790-Apr.: In Dominica, a “mob” gathered in the streets of Roseau to brutally punish an informant named John Blair for reporting the landing of prohibited goods to customs. This violent act of tarring and feathering demonstrated the strength of a black market counterculture that existed alongside legal inter-island trade. Smuggling had become so integrated into the local economy that residents were willing to use lethal force to protect their illicit supply chains from metropolitan interference. For the colonized and disenfranchised, these unguarded coastlines provided essential gaps in the surveillance of the imperial state. The incident underscored the inability of colonial officials to enforce absolute control over maritime commerce and the information that traveled with it.