Hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions have always been defining aspects of life in the Caribbean. Negotiating relief and freedom is the first long durée assessment of how those controlling and those living under British colonialism responded to them during the immense changes of the long nineteenth century. In doing so, it provides a unique window on the tensions and continuities emerging in the transition from slavery to free labour. It reveals an interconnected web of policy decisions, prejudices, and colonial environmental degradation that kept the colonies not just dependent on Britain but also made their inhabitants more vulnerable to disaster. Recovery from these devastating events was often a long, drawn-out process filtered through intertwined racial and economic concerns that prioritised shoring up white minority control and 'fiscal prudence' ahead of the relief of suffering. Freedoms gained since the end of slavery could be quickly withdrawn as colonial officials sought to assert control over chaos, but reliant as they were on non-white labour and constrained by the Colonial Office, they did not have an entirely free hand. Instead, they found themselves drawn into negotiations both formal and informal as to balance the restoration of extractive industry against seeking to constrain governmental largesse. This history serves of a stark reminder not only of the role human created conditions play in creating and worsening the impacts of disasters but also of how relief efforts are rarely, if ever, solely humanitarian.