The Caribbean History Archives

The Code Noir

2012-03-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

Taken from The History of the Island of Trinidad under theSpanish Government

By Pierre-Gustave-Louis Borde

The Royal Cedula for Colonisation

The Code Noir

(1779-1784)

Governors of the Period:

Don Martin de Salaverría

Don Juan Francisco Machado

Don Antonio Barreto

As soon as he had been relieved ofhis duties as a judge, Roume de Saint Laurent hastened to proceed to Trinidadin order to supervise the work on his properties, and in consultation with theGovernor, to try to urge by all possible means, the colonization of the island.On this occasion he was accompanied by a good many of his comptatriots, among whomwere three of his intimate friends, Mr. Dominique Dert, Mr. Étienne Noël andMr. Picot de Lapéyrouse.[i]It was the latter who established the first sugar factory in the island, onlands which today form the cemetery in Port of Spain, and which continues tobear his name.

As was to be expected, Spain hadnot yet made any decree on the memorandum of the Coloniser, but she hadhowever, taken administrative measures which proved her preoccupation with theinterests of the colonists of the island. She had doubled the administration ofgovernment, and had appointed two governors, one of whom was concerned entirelywith civil and commercial matters, and the other with purely military affairs.The civil governor was entirely independent of the military governor, andconsequently he was concerned only with the progress of the colonisation of theisland. Spain had appointed to this superior post Don Martin de Salaverrîa, whowas the sub-delegate of the Intendant at Caracas and only the sinecure ofmilitary government was left (13^th April 1779) to Don ManuelFalquez. But on the arrival of the dispatch on the 21^st August 1779,[ii]Don Manuel Falquez had already been dead for over a month, and therefore DonRafael Delgado, who was commanding the troops, took over the militarygovernment. The new civil and commercial governor was a gentle and affable man,and at the same time, he was extremely able and had the prosperity of theisland very much at heart.[iii]In the negotiations which this Governor had with Roume de Saint Laurent, thelatter had no trouble in winning him over to his ideas. The one difficultyhowever, was to get the metropolitan government of Spain to accept theirproposals, and this, in the opinion of the Governor, was a considerable one. Toovercome this, he considered that the aid of the Intendant at Caracas wasindispensable, and he urged Saint Laurent to go to Caracas to explain thedetails of his plan, and to get him to approve it. As a preliminary step, andin order to gain the confidence of this high official, it was agreed that SaintLaurent should go in person to the smaller islands with the object ofrecruiting the inhabitants to come to Trinidad. Complying with thisarrangement, Phillipe Rose Roume de Saint Laurent was appointed Alcade of theFirst Election for the year 1780, and in this capacity he was authorised by adecree from the Governor, dated 29^th April 1780, to proceed to theFrench islands, and furnished with a copy of the Royal Decree granted by HisMajesty the King of Spain, which was translated into French and English, he wasto invite the French and Irish inhabitants to establish themselves in Trinidad.[iv]

On returning from his voyage, whichhad not resulted in matters of much importance to the country, he had however,been able to recruit a number of French families over and above the previousones.[v]When he arrived in Trinidad, he received the sad news that during his absencehis friend Dominique Dert had been put into prison. Mr. Dert had set up acoffee plantation near to the sugar factory of Mr. de Lapéyrouse on a sitewhich is today occupied by the road which bears his name (Dert Street). Onenight his young coffee trees were destroyed by a horse belonging to themilitary Governor. He impounded the horse and refused to return it without receivingcompensation for the damage which the animal had caused. Don Rafael Delgadorefused to consider such a claim, and Mr. Dert persisted in retainingpossession of the animal. Thereupon, he was arrested by the military Governor,in spite of protests from the civil Governor, Don Martin de Salaverría. Roumede Saint Laurent found great public indignation aroused by this arbitrary act,and in consequence the colonization of the island was seriously compromised.Owing to his friendship with Mr. Dert, and actuated by a desire to settle sucha delicate matter, he took the affair in hand, but without success. Thebad-tempered and brutal military Governor would not consent to release theprisoner unless he apologized very humbly, and the prisoner, considering thathe had done nothing reprehensible, refused to submit to this humiliation.Having reached this point, the difficulty could not be settled except by thesuperior authority of the Captain General in Caracas, and Roume de SaintLaurent, on the advice of Governor Salaverría, took the opportunity of going toCaracas and submitting to the Intendant, Done José de Abalos, his plan forcolonization, and asking for his approval of it.[vi]

The Coloniser left for Caracasaccompanied by his friend Mr. Noël and Mr. de Lapéyrouse. He had no difficultyin obtaining full and entire justice from the Captain General. Don RafaelDelgado was thrown out and declared incapable of occupying any otherappointment in government.[vii]Don Juan Francisco Machado was appointed to succeed him on 31^stMarch 1781.[viii]With the Intendant, the Coloniser had equal success. The writer whom we followhere says, that Saint Laurent had such a very strong and attractive personalityin his role of a prospective planter of a colony in what was then a desert,that it was easy for him to communicate his enthusiasm to such a benevolent manas Don José de Abalos. With an easy eloquence, he showed how Trinidad, whichwas so important for the military establishments and commerce of Spain, was anisland which was gradually stagnating. He also pointed out the dangers andprivations which would have to be endured by foreign colonists who were toestablish themselves there, and the necessity of offering them advantages tocover the risks and perils which they would be undertaking. He said that it wasonly under such conditions that one could hope to colonise the island within areasonable time. The Intendant, who was already impressed by these ideas,studied the memorandum with much care. He was struck by such a splendidproject, and promised to give it his support when sending it to the Court inSpain, seeing that it already had the approval of the two Governors, Falquezand Salaverrîa. However, he raised only two objections of detail, and to whichSaint Laurent felt that he had to agree in order to obtain the approval inprincipal of his plan. The objections raised were on the subject of theintroduction of French priests, and about the equality of advantages granted toforeign colonists, both white and coloured.[ix]

Roume de Saint Laurent returned toTrinidad with the hope that the support given to him by the Intendant wouldfinally lead to the acceptance of the plan of colonization which he had drawnup and submitted to the Court in Spain, at least four years ago. Nevertheless,nothing happened, and after he had waited anxiously until the end of that year,he decided with the approval of Don José de Abalos, to proceed to Spain for thepurpose of stimulating the colonial zeal of the Minister, and for coming to anunderstanding with him. In order to get together the necessary funds for such along voyage, he was obliged to dispose of all his possessions and turn theminto money, and he left his family in the charge of his mother. Noconsideration of personal interest was allowed to be an obstacle in hisdevotion to his new country. He paid a second visit to Caracas in order to getletters of recommendation from the Intendant, and also to obtain favourablereports on his project, and following this, eh ambarked for Europe in thebeginning of 1782.[x]After a successful voyage, he arrived in France and proceeded to Paris where hesubmitted his colonization plan to the Spanish Ambassador, with a view toobtaining from him as well, his approval and recommendations. It will be seenthat the Coloniser neglected nothing which might help the success of hisenterprise. The Spanish ambassador at that time, was the illustrious Countd’Aranda, the previous minister who had advised the King to adopt a liberalpolitical attitude towards this matter in view of the coming independence ofthe New England Provinces, and the revolutionary influence which thisindependence brought about in the Spanish possessions in the New World. He gavea very favourable welcome to the project of the colonization of the Spanishislands through the admission of foreign Catholics, and gave his support to theColoniser. He advised him about the line of conduct which he should follow inorder to conciliate the Minister in Spain, and to get him to agree to his planwithout losing too much time. It is said[xi]that he carried his good will to the point of urging him to lose no time intaking these steps, because he knew that in the peace treaty which was about tobe negotiated, England was proposing to demand the island of Trinidad inexchange for Gibraltar.

Armed with these recommendationsand information, Roume de Saint Laurent arrived in Madrid. There he had nodifficulty in getting an interview with the Minister, and it did not take himlong to gain his interest with the same facility with which he had been able toget approval from all others to whom he had submitted his plans. All theadvantages which had been agreed upon with the Intendant at Caracas wereliberally granted in support of the foreign Catholic emigration, andparticularly those accorded to the French colonists, which as was right, washis particular aim. In a short time there was not much more to be done than toundertake the legal recording of these advantages, but the Minister would notconsent to give them the force of law until after the conclusion of peace.While waiting for the Peace Treaty, which was being negotiated at Versailles,St. Laurent occupied his time in establishing business relations between Europeand Trinidad. To this end he visited the principal towns of commerce, both inFrance and Spain, where he succeeded in establishing business connections infavour of many of his friends in the island. Everywhere he spoke so favourablyabout the commercial and agricultural advantages of the country, that hepersuaded many wealthy European merchants and others to acquire land there.[xii]At last the Peace Treaty was signed on 3^rd September 1783 atVersailles, and immediately after this, the Court at Madrid took up the duty ofmaking the necessary administrative changes for the new colonial organisationin the island. By a ministerial decree dated 18^th October 1783, theGovernor Don Martin de Salaverría was promoted to another post, and GovernorDon Juan Francisco Machado was appointed to administer provisionally, both thecivil and military government of the island, whilst awaiting the arrival of thenaval Captain Don José María Chacon, who had been appointed Captain General,and whose mission it was to carry out the plan of colonization which had beenadopted by the Royal Court of Spain.[xiii]

On the 24^th November1783 the colonization plan was legally formulated and was duly stamped with theRoyal Seals at the Palace of San Lorenzo. The foreword of the Cedula statesthat, in the instructions given on the 3^rd September 1776 to CaptainDon Manuel Falquez on his nomination as Governor of the Island of Trinidad deBarlovento, and in the commission deliveredto Don José de Abalos when he was invested as Intendant of Caracas, regulationswere then established and privileges accorded for the advancement of thepopulation and commerce of the island. Now, on the demand of the saidIntendant, and on the representations of foreign colonists who were alreadyestablished on the island, as well as for those who were desirous ofestablishing themselves there, it had become necessary to make more completeregulations. This declaration of intended policy is followed by a document oftwenty-eight articles as follows:

The first prescribes that every newcolonist of a foreign friendly nation, already established in the island ordesirous of doing so, should prove his quality as a Roman Catholic. Thoseexempted from this regulation were the Spaniards, either from Europe or theIndies, as in their case no doubt exists about their religion.

The second insists that foreigncolonists shall take the oath of allegiance to the King of Spain, and undertaketo obey the laws of the Indies. In return for this, they were given a free andperpetual title to lands which they were authorized to possess under theprovision of the following article.

The third provides that every whitecolonist of either sex has a right to four fanegas and two sevenths, or tensquares of land[xiv] (or 32acres in English measurements), and half of this amount for every slave whichhe shall bring into the island. It recommended an equal distribution of theselands so that the good, middling and bad should be equally divided among all;and it prescribed the recording of each one of these concessions of land in theLibro Becerro de Poblacion, (theRegister of Population), together with the name of the concessionaire colonist,the date of his admission, the number of members of his family, his professionand the place from which he had come. An authenticated copy of each of theserecords was to be handed to the concessionaire as a title to their property.

The fourth grants the sameprivileges to black or coloured colonists, but only one half of the quantity ofland given to the white colonists. The lands given to the slaces remainpractically the same.

The fifth stipulates that theforeign colonists after a stay of five years in the island, and on theirpromise to continue to live there, will enjoy all the rights and privilegesattached to nationalization, which would include the children whom they hadbrought with them and those who had been born since. In consequence, they wouldbe admitted to honourable appointments in the administration and militia,according to their aptitude and ability.

The sixth exempts all the whitecolonists from all head or personal tax, but it hit them through their slaves,in that after a period of ten years in the island, they paid a tax of onestrong piaster (or a dollar) per head per annum, but the cost of this was everto be increased.

The seventh grants to the Spanishand foreign colonists, after a period of five years from the date of theirarrival in the island, the facility to leave, together with the valuables whichthey had brought with them, without any export tax. The valuables acquired duringtheir stay in the island were subject to an export tax of ten percent, and thelands which had been granted to them, were returned to the Crown.

The eighth grants to the alreadyestablished and new colonists who have no natural heirs in the island, thefacility of makings wills in favour of their relatives and friends abroad, andsuch heirs from abroad who came to establish themselves in the island, were toenjoy the same privileges as their benefactors. But if they prefer to transfertheir inheritance elsewhere, they would have to pay an export duty of fifteenpercent, and if they stayed over five years, they would have to pay an exportduty of fifteen percent. The same privileges are granted to natural heirs whoare established abroad in the case of their relatives in Trinidad dyinginstestate.

The ninth also grants to thecolonists established in the island, the power to bequeath in accordance withSpanish laws, their real properties which are not capable of division either toone or many of their children, provided that this does not result in anyprejudice to the legitimacy of others and to that of the widow of the Testator.

The tenth permits the colonists onaccount of legal processes or because of other urgent private affairs, to leavethe colony to go to Spain, to Spanish colonies and to foreign countries,provided they are not enemy countries, after having obtained permission fromthe Governor.

The eleventh exempts the Spanishand foreign colonists from the payment of tithes during ten years from the 1^stJanuary 1785, and from the expiration of this period, their contribution isfixed at half tithes or five percent.

The twelfth also exempts these saidcolonists from payment of the “alcabala”, which is the tax payable on the saleof their produce and merchandise, during the same period of ten years. On theexpiration of this time, a tax of five per cent is payable on all exports,except those sent to Spain in Spanish ships, as these had freedom from alltaxation in perpetuity.

The thirteenth in peace timeimposes a duty on all colonists to keep themselves armed in order to controltheir slaves and to resist any attacks from pirates, and for these purposesthey were formed into corps of regular militia. In time of war, or if thereshould be a revolt of slaves, their obligation was to rally the defense of theisland.

The fourteenth imposes on bothformer and recent colonists who are the owners of vessels of any size and make,the obligation to put these under the Spanish flag, in addition to those whichthey might have purchased abroad up to the end of 1786. This was to be donewithout cost of registration or naturalization. Those of the colonists whowished to build vessels in the island, were granted permission to cut timberfree of charge from the Crown forests.

The fifteenth permits free of anyfranchise, the introduction of black slaves and the trade in them, for a periodof ten years from the 1^st January 1785. On the expiration of thisterm a duty of five per cent was payable on slaves imported into the island,and six per cent on those who were exported to other Spanish colonies.

The sixteenth permits colonists toleave for the purpose of selling their produce in the foreign but friendlyislands, provided that an export tax of five per cent was paid, and alsoprovided that the profits from these ventures should be used for the purchaseof slaves. The same tax is imposed on merchants who import slaves, but thisdoes not include the import tax from which colonists alone were exempt.

The seventeenth grants an absolutefree franchise on all direct commerce between Spain and Trinidad and also onthe produce of the island shipped to Spanish possessions in the Indies, duringthe period of ten years as from the 1^st January 1785. At theexpiration of this term the only articles which were declared free were thosein the final schedule of commerce which were all exempted.

The eighteenth grants during thesame period of ten years the same free franchise on all importations from Spainof materials and merchandise, Spanish and foreign, also provisions and liquorsfrom Spain, and of all these imports no export was allowed to the othercolonies except of Spanish articles. These were subject to the taxes in theschedule of commerce recently published.

The nineteenth, during the sameperiod of ten years, authorizes Spanish vessels to accept cargoes for Trinidadin the French Consular Ports. In Trinidad, cargoes for the said ports paid atax of five per cent on entry and the same on export of produce, except on thosewhose export was prohibited.

The twenthieth in cases of urgentnecessity grants permission to give all colonists the same privileges for theFrench islands in America on payment of the same tax of five per cent on entryand exit of provisions and merchandise.

The twenty first promises thecolonists that orders will be sent to the Captain General at Caracas to supplythem at current prices, with the necessary cattle for their food industries andagriculture, up to the time when the colonists themselves have been able tobreed sufficient for their own requirements.

The twenty second also promises tothe colonists that similar orders will be sent to allow them to import flourduring the period of ten years from the 1^st January 1785. In thecase of scarcity, they would be allowed to go elsewhere to buy under theSpanish flag, and in payment they would export produce which would be charged afive per cent duty, similar to that imposed on flour received in exchange.

The twenty third also promises tothe colonists the sending of similar orders to the factories in Biscay, so thatduring the same period of ten years, they could be supplied with theagricultural tools, and in case they should not arrive, they are authorized toprocure them from the foreign and friendly islands, on the same conditionsestablished for flour in case of scarcity.

The twenty fourth also promises tonewly arrived colonists, that two priests who knew foreign languages would besent to them as parish priests, and to these would be given sufficient incomeso that they can live according to their character, as without this, they wouldhave to recourse to the purses of their parishioners.

The twenty fifth obliges allcolonists to submit to the King, through the Governor, the regulation whichseems to be the best for the conduct of their slaves, on condition that thisregulation should be in accordance with instructions which the Governor willreceive regarding this matter, and this must be based on the principle of therestitution of fugitive slaves from the foreign islands.

The twenty sixth recommends a verysevere surveillance in order to prevent the introduction from neighbouringislands of destructive ants.[xv]It orders a rigorous inspection of vessels and also of luggage and effects ofnew colonists who arrive from the ant-ridden islands.

The twenty seventh promises to givethe colonists the right to establish sugar refineries in Spain when the sugarcrops in Trinidad had become sufficient for them to make a profit. They willenjoy the same privileges and liberties granted to foreign nationals. It alsopromises, but later on, the establishment of a Consular Court or Commerce Courtin the island, in order to extend protection to agriculture, shipping andcommerce. It also recommends that in the meantime the Governor and other judgesshould undertake an administration which is just and prompt and humane, so thatjustice can be done to all inhabitants, both Spaniards and foreigners.

The twenty eighth gives the rightto all inhabitants of the islands, to petition the King through theintermediary of the Governor. They are also granted the facility to go to Spainin person for the purpose of obtaining relief from the wrongs which they mayhave suffered. A final paragraph stipulates, as is usual, that all provisionsof the law which are contrary to the present Cedula remain in abeyance, and theofficials of the American colonies and the Consuls in the Consular Ports inFrance, are hereby ordered to obey.[xvi]

In order to understand the completeplan for colonization adopted by Spain, we must remember, following the Cedulaof Population, the Code Noir, drawn up by Roume de Saint Laurent, and promisedby the twenty fifth article of the Cedula, even though it did not come intoforce until six years later. It is actually dated at Aranjuez, the 31^stMay 1789, and carries the title of the Roual Cedula for Protection of Slaves inthe Spanish Colonies. This work undertaken by the new colonists in Trinidad,plainly gives effect to the noble thoughts of Roume de Saint Laurent who said,that he wished to make the life of slaves as happy as their state would allow,because he was well known for his great humanity. The honour of preparing thisCedula was confided to Mr. Joseph de la Forest, a French colonist from Grenadawho was the Syndic Procurer (or Attorney General) of the Cabildo in 1785. Thisduty could not have been confided to anyone with more philanthropic ability.[xvii]The regulations are preceeded by a long preamble which states that, many abuseshaving been introduced into the education, treatment and work of slaves bytheir masters or owners, it had become necessary to remedy these matters,particularly at this moment when liberty having been granted to the Spanishsubjects by a Royal Order dated 28^th February 1785, it had becomenecessary to regulate the treatment of the blacks, as the number of slaves inthe Americas was bound to increase considerably. The regulations are dividedinto fourteen articles as follows:

1. Education – Every single proprietor, whoever he may be, isobliged to instruct them in the precepts of the Roman Catholic Religion inorder that they may be baptized within the year of their instruction; he isalso bound to grant them rest on public holidays, except at harvest time. Onthose days, as the slaves will have to attend Mass, a priest will be providedat the expense of the master. Every day after working hours, they will have tosay the rosary with devotion, in the presence of the master or his steward.

2. Food and Clothing – The master is under the obligation offeeding his slaves, as well as their wives when they can earn their keep, whichis fixed at twelve years for girls and fourteen for boys. As there is no otherfixed rule as to the quality of the difference of climate, it is stipulated thatthe magistrate or syndic appointed for the protection of slaves will decide thequality and quantity of food and clothing to be allowed to them according totheir age and sex. This regulation shall be fixed upon the door of the TownHall and of the church of each district so that everyone may be informed.

3. Work of Slaves – The slaves will be principally employed inagriculture. In order to make their services profitable to their masters and tothe state, their tasks will be regulated by the magistrates and syndics in themanner as said in the foregoing chapter. The rule is that for two hours eachday they will be free to do whatever work they want to their own personalinterests, and every year they will receive from their masters two dollars forthe use of their families; over sixty years and under seventeen years they willnot be at the service of these masters, and women will not be employed in anywork which is not comformable to their sex.

4. Relaxation – On public holidays, after attending Mass followedby religious instruction, the slaves will be allowed to relax in the presenceof the master or steward, men and women separately, excluding those ofneighbouring estates. Attention must be paid that there should be no excessivedrinking and that their amusements should end before evening prayer.

5. Housing and Infirmary – All slaves will be accommodated insuitable houses to protect them from all types of weather, unmarried men apartfrom women, and each house will be provided with beds, blankets, and othernecessary objects; each man will have his bed and there shall be no more thantwo beds in each house.
Another house, warm and comfortable, will be for the sick, and there they oughtto receive all that will be necessary for them. If they have to be sent to thehospital due to lack of space or the proximity of a town, the master will bebound to pay their daily hospital fees decided upon by the magistrate accordingto what was stated in Chapter 2. In case of death, the master will have toreimburse the hospital the funeral expenses.

6. The Aged and the Infirm – Those who due to old age or illnessare incapable of work, as well as children of both sexes, must be provided forby their masters. Such people cannot be given their liberty in order to get ridof them unless a sufficient amount of money be given to them to ensure theirsubsistence; the sum to be decided upon by the magistrates and syndics.

7. Marriage of Slaves – The master must not allow concubinage butmust encourage marriage among his slaves. Neither must he hinder them frommarrying the slaves belonging to other masters; in the latter case, if theestates are distant from one another so that the newly married couple areunable to fulfill the object of marriage, the master shall purchase the wife ofthe husband at a price fixed by two experienced arbitrators nominated by thetwo parties, and in case of disagreement, a third will be chosen by the twoarbitrators. If the husband’s master refuses to buy his wife, the wife’s masterwill have the right to buy the husband.

8. Duties and Punishments of Slaves – As masters of slaves areobliged to maintain them, to educate them and to employ them in useful workproportional to their strength, age and sex, without forsaking their childrenand those who are old and sickly, so on the other hand there is an obligationon the part of the slaves to obey and respect their masters and stewards, toperform the work which is given to them to do according to their strength, andto respect them as the heads of their family. Consequently those who fail tofulfill those duties will be punished in the measure of the seriousness oftheir offence. The punishment will consist of imprisonment, chains or whip, thelatter not to exceed the number of twenty five lashes so as not to cause anycontusion or bleeding. These punishments cannot be imposed on slaves except bythe master or steward.

9. Applying Greater Punishments – When slaves commit crimes whichdeserve a more severe punishment, the master, his steward or any other witnesswill have the culprit arrested and will inform the court so that in thepresence of his master and his defender he will be judged and punished inaccordance with the seriousness of his offence. The same procedure as appliedto common criminals will also be applied to the slaves. If the slave iscondemned to pay a third of the expense of the trial, and even if the corporalpunishment inflicted on him according to the seriousness of his crime, goes asfar as death or the mutilation of his limbs, the master will be responsible forit.

10. Omissions or Excesses of Masters and Stewards – The master orhis steward who fails to provide education, food, clothing, relaxation,housing, etc of slaves or who should forsake their children and those amongthem who are sick, will pay a fine of $50 for the first time, $100 for thesecond time and $200 for the third time. These fines will be paid by the mastereven when his steward is at fault. If the latter is not in a position to paythem, one thurd will be for the informer, one third for the judge, and onethird for the Fines Chest which will be mentioned later. In case these fines donot produce the desired effect, the Queen will be informed so that she maydecide whatever she may wish. If the masters or their stewards are guilty ofexcess in punishing their slaves causing wounds, bleeding or mutilation oflimbs, beside paying fines, they shall be prosecuted as criminals and will bepunished in proportion to their crime. The slave shall be taken away and soldto another master if he is able to work. The amount of the sale shall be put inthe Fines Chest. If the injured slave is no longer able to work and thereforecannoy be sold, he will not be returned to his master but the master will bebound to provide a daily sum which shall be fixed by the magistrate for hissubsistence, and this for the rest of his life, paying every month in advance.

11. Of those who injure Slaves – Slaves can only be punished bytheir masters or their stewards, therefore no other person will be permitted toill-treat, chastise, wound or kill without incurring the punishment enacted bythe law against those who commit the like excesses towards free people. Themaster of the slave who has been thus ill-treated, has the right to file a lawsuit against the criminal which will be defended by the Attorney, the Protectorof Slaves.

12. List of Slaves – The slave masters are bound to provide themagistrate of their district with a list of the slaves they possess, mentioningthe age and sex of each one, so that the Notary of the Town Hall may enter themon a separate register which will be kept in the said Town Hall to this effect.Each master whose slave runs away is bound to inform the magistrate within 3days so that mention will be made of it in the register to avoid suspicion ofmurder. Should the master not fulfill this obligation, he will be obliged toproduce proof either of the absence or the natural death of his slave; failingwhich he will be brought to court.

13. Method of Investigating the Excesses of Masters and Stewards –As it will be difficult for slaves to bring their complaints to the lawfulauthority, it will be necessary to find out how they are treated by theirmasters. To this effect the priest responsible for the religious instruction ofslaves on each estate, will seek information about the treatment they receive.Should there be reason to complain, he will secretly let the Attorney Generalknow, and it will be the duty of the latter to open an enquiry. If thecomplaints are unfounded, the priest will not be held responsible for informingthe Attorney, as the mission of the latter will be only to notify themagistrate to open the enquiry and to pursue whatever procedure he may havebegun. Besides these means, it will be necessary that trustworthy persons be appointedby justices and magistrates to visit estates three times a year and to reportwhatever they will have observed contrary to regulations of the foregoingchapter; it is also declared that the denunciation of every infraction of theseregulations is a public law which gives the privilege of secrecy to everyinformer, and that no one will be charged for his information.
Finally it is declared that the justices and Attorneys as Protectors will beanswerable for any neglect of theirs in making use of any necessary means toenforce these Royal Resolutions.

14. Chest of Fines – In the towns and villages where theforementioned regulations will be enforced and wherever there will be Court ofJustice, a Chest with three keys will be put and kept in the Town Hall, one ofwhich will be delivered to the Justice of the Peace, another to the Governor,and the third to the Attorney General. In this Chest will be kept the amount offines received from those who have not obeyed the Royal Orders. The money willbe used as a means of enforcing these same orders, and cannot be touchedwithout an order signed by the three entrusted with the keys, who will beresponsible for whatever may be missing and are obliged to replace it so thatthe yearly accounts which have to be presented to the Intendant of the Provincemay be approved of by him. Then comes the final required section where it isstipulated that every law or custom opposed to the present Cedula, is andremains cancelled, and that the Supreme Council of the Indies and the Americanpublic servants are obliged to conform and have it enforced.[xviii]

Such is the collection ofregulations of colonization adopted by Spain on the recommendation of Roume deSaint Laurent. These regulations applied to all the different colonial classesof the time including whites, people of colour and the slaves, and they becamethe basis of our public laws. They did not however, apply to the Indians whowere still confined to their missions and subject to the double tutelage of thepriests and the magistrates. The regulations are remarkable for theirliberality and consideration. The Code Noir cuts right across the dragon-likelegislation which applied to the slaves at the time. It is highly honourable tothe colonist who proposed it and the government which adopted it. As regards tothe Cedula of Population, the success which it was shortly to attain isevidence of its great value. As usual however, this success did not fail toprovide a number of criticisms among those who had first spoken of it withpraise. These people amongst other things, said[xix]that Spain had made the great mistake of turning Trinidad into a foreign colonyon whose loyalty she could not depend. This specious objection does not holdgood when carefully examined. Certainly it would suit the nations to have theircolonies populated by their own nationals. But since this desirable state couldnot be arrived at, they would have the choice of either abandoning them orpopulating them by means of foreigners. At the time, Spain herself wasdepopulated and could not possibly think of depriving herself of herinhabitants in order to send them to Trinidad, and on the other hand, neithercould she resolve to abandon so important a colony. To condemn there-population of colonies by foreigners is also to condemn all conquests,seeing that it is obvious that countries which are conquered are necessarilythen populated by foreigners. Spain, by inviting foreigners to come andcolonise Trinidad, would she not with good reason be bound to emphasise heraptitude to mould together foreign races and to assimilate different classes?Furthermore, would not these foreigners who had chosen to live under Spanishlaws, offer to Spain far more guarantees of loyalty and fidelity than thosewhom she had succeeded in bringing into her power by conquering them? From allthese points of view one is obliged to conclude that, Spain, unable to coloniseTrinidad with her own nationals, had given proof of true colonizing genius inre-populating her by foreigners.
Thus it was that after six years of incessant efforts, the tireless Roume deSaint Laurent finally saw his generous project crowned with success. From thismoment one would have thought that there was nothing left for him to do but toreap the fruits of his devotion; but this did not mean anything, and it was hisvery devotion which became the cause of his ruin. As so often happens to wellmeaning benefactors, he was repaid by the ingratitude of the government whichhe had served. He appealed in vain to the Court of Spain, not for a reward forhis services which he had undertaken quite voluntarily, but for a refund of theexpenses of the voyages which he had undertaken to the different islands,Caracas, and Europe, voyages which had consumed the whole of his fortune. Invain did he appeal to the Intendant, Don José de Abalos, to remind him of hispromises and to ask him to support his appeal. Finally, crippled by debts whichhe had contracted to carry out these voyages, he was forced to leave Madrid andto retire to Paris. There he renewed his soliciting through the intermediary ofthe Spanish Ambassador, but he obtained nothing but vague promises. Because ofhis debts, soon he had nothing to look forward to but prison. It was duringthis period of sad misery, while living in a garret that unexpected help cameto him from the French Government. The Marshal de Castries, minister of Marine,being informed of the presence in Paris of the ex-judge from Grenada, soughthim out and offered him the appointment of the Intendant in the island ofTobago. This appointment was then one of great responsibility, and the Ministerwanted to seize the opportunity of appointing such a highly competent man. ButRoume de Saint Laurent was too scrupulous to accept this offer there and then.Although the parsimony of the Spanish government had brought him to poverty, hestill considered it his duty not to abandon his service to them withoutproperly relinquishing his duties, and he requested the Minister to delay thematter for a short while so that he could find out the result of a finalconference which he had arranged to have with the Spanish Ambassador. At theembassy there was no one but the first secretary to whom Roume de Saint Laurentexplained by the brilliant offer which had been made to him by France. TheSpanish first secretary advised him to accept it. Hardly had he engaged himselfin the service of France than he received from the Court of Spain theappointment of First Commissioner of Population in Trinidad, with a salary of $2,000.00.He could not however, accept this reward from Spain, since it was both too lateand too mean, so he left for Tobago.[xx]
In this way he was rougly separated from Trinidad; the benefactor to whom sheowed so much, the eminent man who had consecrated his noble faculties and hisprosperity to her cause, the devoted servant who, for her had sacrificed thebest years of his life and his fortune, and even the affections of his family.He had established all this in 1781, and it was not to be his fate to seeTrinidad again.[xxi] He wasactively engaged in the great events of the end of that century, and in 1792 wefind him in the eminent post of Chairman of a Commission of three appointed bythe National Assembly of Santo Domingo, for the pacification of that colonywhich was then in revolt. Later, in 1796, he was Chairman of a secondCommission of two, and was sent by the Director to the same colony and with thesame object. On this occasion he became Governor of the Spanish portion of thatisland which had been ceded to France in 1795, and soon after that he was alsoGovernor of the French part of the island[xxii].But in spite of the splendid services which he rendered to our country, thanksto the short memories of those who benefited, even his name is hardly known. Itis for us a great pride and satisfaction that we have been able to bring hissplendid services to the notice of our compatriots.
Two months after the date of the Cedula of Population, on 23^rd June1784, the government of Trinidad passed from the hands of Don Juan FranciscoMachado, into those of Captain Don Antionio Barreto, who was temporarilyappointed while awaiting the arrival of the Governor elect, Don José MariaChacon.[xxiii]It was during the administration of Captain Barreto that the Cabildo, finallygiving way to the force of circumstances, decided to move to Port of Spain,where they held their first meeting on the 20^th August 1784.[xxiv]Some weeks previously, on 7^th June 1784, the Cabildo had appointedone of its Regidors to supervise the portioning out of fish and provisionsarriving by launches from the mainland, and to forestall any monopoly, and tohave them disposed of at the priced fixed by the Tariff.[xxv]It was a case when one can say that it was hunger which made the wolf come outof the forest.

[i] Free Mulatto, Address to EarlBathurst, p. 8

[ii] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.81

[iii] FreeMulatto, Address to Earl Bathurst, p. 4

[iv] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.82

[v] Marquise deCharras, Naturalizacion, ms. 1787. Thenthey came from Dominica, Martinique, St. Vincent and most of all from Grenada.

[vi] FreeMulatto, Address to Earl Bathurst, p.4et seq.

[vii] Id.,ibid

[viii] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.84

[ix] FreeMulatto, Address to Earl Bathurst, p.7.Obviously the author mistook the role of traders with that of colouredplanters. In his way of thinking Roume de Saint Laurent was making nodistinction between the latter and white people. It is reasonable to believethat the distinction, which was introduced in the Cedula of Colonisation, camefrom the governor.

[x] Marquise deCharras, Natualizacion, ms., 1787.

[xi] De Lery, Memoiresur l’ile de la Trinité, 1786, ms.

[xii] BryanEdwards, History of the B.W. Indies,t.IV, p.299, art. Trinidad.

[xiii] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.87

[xiv] Or 32acres, an English measurement.

[xv] The ants,which are seen today in Trinidad, may have been introduced by the colonistsdespite the precautions taken, or perhaps have always been there but goneunnoticed by the colonists.

[xvi] See theCedula of Colonisation.

[xvii] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.91. A coloured illegitimate son of M. de la Forest, having inherited thewealth as well as the humanitarian principles of his father, since he had as adirect inheriter, bequeathed his fortune and name to a young slave of hisworkshop.

[xviii] See inthe Appendix of the English translation of the Code Noir of which the Spanishoriginal was unobtainable.

[xix] E.L. Joseph,History of Trinidad, part II, Chap. VIIIp.165 et. Seq. To this ridiculous objection, the author adds a double calumnywhich will be mentioned later.

[xx] Marquise deCharras, Naturalizacion, ms., 1787.

[xxi] Id.,Ibid.

[xxii] Beard, Lifeof Toussaint Louverture, passim.

[xxiii] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.88

[xxiv] Id.,ibid, p89.

[xxv] Meany, Abstractof the minutes of Cabildo, 1733-1813, ms.,p.88

Architecture

2012-03-06T06:09:00.000-08:00

The city of Port of Spain from an architectural perspectiveattained, albeit in a modest manner, a high point in the 1920s. During thisperiod, the city contained most, if not all the architectural styles built overthe previous 120 years.

There were the wooden, shingled buildings built by theFrench that had survived the fire of 1808. There still remained some buildingswhich had been built in the Spanish colonial style. These were built byVenezuelans for refugees from their country 30 or 40 years after the Britishconquest, e.g. the "Cabildo Building" on Sackville Street.

Most of the buildings on Henry, Charlotte, George, Nelsonand Duncan Streets as well as the streets that crossed them, erected after thefire of 1808, with their massive blue limestone walls, were constructed in astyle very similar to what exists in Fort de France, Martinique, today. Theywere distinguished by their tall doorways, "quoined" corners, brickfilling between dressed stone, dormer windows and stone balustrades as still seen on the roof of the Cathedralof the Immaculate Conception on Independence Square.

Frederick Street was very up to date in the 1920s, some maysay even futuristic. After the fire of 1897 that had burnt out lower FrederickStreet, George Brown, a Scottish architect, designed and supervised thebuilding of "The Stores." Complete with iron banisters, plate glasswindows, mezzanines and lantern roofs they were fashionable, attractive,up-market and more or less survived into the 1980s. Brown's facades werereminiscent of New Orleans because of the intricately cast ironwork.

The French influence was all-pervasive in Port of Spain andwas to remain so until the 1950s. There was also the simple, wooden chattelhouse, standing on pillar trees, usually two-roomed, and neat as a pin. Theidea for those houses was more than likely imported from Barbados, where ordinary people hardly ever owned landbut built chattel houses that could easily be moved if the need arose.

The town's suburbs, Belmont, Newtown and Woodbrook, wereexpanding, driven by a modicum of prosperity as a result of the Cocoa economy,which had peaked in the last decade of the previous century. The little"Gingerbread" houses of those neighbourhoods were equipped withporticoes, jealousied windows, pitched roofs with dormers, and lots of lacywoodwork. Some were quite petite, others large and rambling, some imposing. Youwill find variations of these in Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe. All this hadcome with the French people; it was part of their cultural baggage, along withCarnival, long dresses over many lace petticoats, fine embroidered"foulards" and a gay madras kerchiefs tied so as to tell whether thelady was a widow or "looking".

Right alongside all of this was real poverty, lived out inthe barrack yards. These yards were old stables and slave quarters of aprevious epoch that had been hired out for rent when the original owners hadmoved on to better parts of town. Trinidad's first slum lords would have balkedat such a description, and may have sought excuse by saying that the peppercornrent charged saved many a West Indian immigrant from homelessness.

Most of old Port of Spain's old French buildings that onceclustered round the Catholic Cathedral were destroyed by fire in the 1980s orwillfully left to degenerate into dilapidation. Most towns in the Caribbeanpossessing such architecture do what it takes to preserve those buildings. Wein Trinidad, however, not dependent on the visitor market for hard currency,let our old town vanish. It all began when some one said, "Massa daydone", and when people without a grasp of cultural and aesthetic valuesgot so rich that they were able to buy properties and sacrifice the historicaland architectural gems on them for yet another air-conditioned atrocity. - allunder the excuse of the three "p": popularity, progress and profit.

The face of the city also contained formal or politearchitecture which may be described as architect-designed and builder-built.There are classical buildings, defined as one whose "decorated elementsderived from the architectural vocabulary of the ancient world, the classicalworld" (John Newel Lewis H.B.M., from John Summerson's "The ClassicalLanguage of Architecture"). Newel Lewis goes on to say,

"The sense of authority and dignity, which theclassical order inspires, makes it a suitable language for official buildings.The Red House uses the Corinthian order both in columns and in half columns...The General Hospital employs the Doric and Ionic. The Tuscan is often used, inthe Railway Station for example... It is surprising how many orders are foundin Port of Spain."

The Building and Loan Association building, on the corner ofQueen and Chacon Street, is an excellent example of classical artwork in thecityscape. Around and about one may still see the Georgian style. It exists inthe Police Barracks at St. James and the Salvation Army's Men's Hostel on thecorner of Sackville and Edward Street. One excellent example was the oldDeanery on Abercrombie and Queen Street; that's gone now.

The overall destruction of the buildings of Port of Spainand of our architectural heritage all over Trinidad and Tobago is a disturbingindication of what is taking place in the psyche of the body social and thebody politic. We the people, we the town planners, we the architects, we theproperty owners, ongoingly destroy the buildings that define our history,ourselves. Every old mansion acquired by a developer is torn down replaced by ablock of apartments. So-called city planners award the permissions for that,and in so doing destroy future generations' proud heritage.

Also, whenever there is a fire, there is no thought ofrestoration. The old Town Hall and the Princes' Building were examples forthat. In another country it may have been rebuilt so as to maintain thepersonality of the town, but we, a society whose children don't re-use even aplastic fork, don't seem to have that in us. In Europe, whole cities wererebuilt in the style and manner of there prewar condition. The preserving andrestorations of a nations architectural heritage is about maturity, it is aboutvaluing what we have so as to impart it to another generation. Maybe it takes acouple of wars and total destruction for a society to mature.

June Events

2012-03-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

June seems to have been an important month for the BritishRoyal House, which ruled Trinidad and Tobago from 1797 to 1962, quite a longtime!

King George V of Great Britain, after whom the park in Portof Spain was named, was born onthe 3rd June, 1865, at Marlborough House. His birthday was a public holiday inthe British Empire for a long time. In 1893, he married Princess Victoria Maryof Teck, who was a modern woman and became very much a personality in her ownright in the eyes of the public.

George was coronated at Westminster Abbey on the 21st June,1910, when he succeeded his father, Edward VII. During his reign, the BritishEmpire was the largest it ever had been, but a tendency towards breaking awayfrom the monarchy increasingly manifested itself. There was a Sinn Feinrebellion in 1916, an Irish Free State settlement in 1922, and the first Labourgovernments in 1924 and 1929.

The economic crises of the late 20s and early 30s, and theinvention of a new medium, the radio, led King George to increasinglycommunicate with his subjects; he inaugurated the famous Christmas broadcaststo the nation in 1932.

His son, the Prince of Wales, Edward VIII, was born in onthe 22nd June, 1894. He was the successor to the throne. However, only elevenmonths after his coronation in January '36, Edward abdicated because he got married to a divorcedAmerican lady which was not acceptable for a British king.

His brother, the Duke of York, "took the job" andbecame George VI, who reigned from ascended the throne in 1936. This George isthe father of the present Queen Elizabeth II. Edward and his wife in fact cameto the Caribbean from 1940 to 1945 as Duke and Duchess of Windsor, when Edwardwas posted in the Bahamas as governor.

A century before, on the 28th June, 1838, Queen Victoria wascrowned. Incidentally, it was the year that the former slaves in the Britishempire were given full freedom.

Nobody then would have probably anticipated that she wouldlive to see her Golden Jubilee 50 years later as the ruler of the BritishEmpire. Albeit the fact that the "Victorian" age might seem stuffyand prudish to us today, Victoria had the good fortune to have made a lovemarriage, in that she married her German cousin and sweetheart Albert ofSaxe-Coburg.

A naturally intelligent woman, she ruled over a growingBritish Empire, and in particular her standing as Empress of India brought hermuch fame and respect. With growing age and experience, she became a savvy andpolitically shrewd ruler.

She had a definite partiality for all things German and assuch would have been mortified when her grandson, Wilhelm II of Prussia, theson of her first child Victoria, declared the most terrible war the world hadever seen and fought the country of his grandmother. However, by that timeVictoria was long dead; she died in 1901.

It is probably hard to imagine nowadays how much people inthe colonies, Trinidadians and Tobagonians as well, cherished that queen!

Looking back even further, there is another June event whichwas by extension important for Trinidad and Tobago in colonial times. On June18th, 1815, England's Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army under Baron vonBlücher defeated French EmperorNapoleon at Waterloo.

Officially, this was commemorated by the Britishadministration. But for Trinidadians in those days, most of whom wereFrench-speaking and hailing from the French Antilles (including St. Lucia andGrenada), Napoleon's defeat was probably also a specific Caribbeansatisfaction, since in 1809 he had divorced Joséphine, a French woman fromMartinique - an unthinkable thing for the catholic French, even from anemperor!

Josephine had never had children for him, and when Napoleondied in his prison in St. Helena, his heir from his second wife didn't even grantthe poor widow a pension...

Going back several months of June, another world-famousmilitary man, Lord Horatio Nelson, came to our shores, or almost. He visitedthe Gulf of Paria on the 7th June, 1805 with his flotilla, but shunning theanchorage in Port of Spain, he only turned around and left again.

Unthinkable what would have become of the world had he beenshipwrecked in the treacherous "remous" of the Bocas. After all,Nelson was the one who defeated the French in the naval battle of Trafalgar laterthat year. It was to be his last June - he was mortally wounded and buried inSt. Paul's cathedral in London.

June also seems to have been the month of changing ofgovernors. Sir Ralph Woodford was installed on the 24th June, 1813; Sir GeorgeF. Hill on the 9th June, 1833; J.R. Longden on the 25th June, 1870; Sir A.Havelock on the same day in 1898.

Other events of the month of June were for example:

June 15th, 1914: 1st Company of Girl Guides was started.This year they are celebrating their 85th anniversary, and some of the girlmembers are probably in the fourth generation. On June 17th, 1837, soldiersmutinied in St. Joseph. And if all this wasn't enough, Trinidadians andTobagonians who were in alive in 1911 forever lost 6 minutes of their lives: atmidnight June 30th, 1911, clocks were advanced 6 minutes for reasons ofuniformity of the West Indies and the British Guyana. As such, they had only 23hours and 54 minutes to pay their Cart Licenses and Wheel Taxes, which were dueon the 1st ...

An Indian Prime Minister

2012-02-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

Racialprejudice, institutionalised to a fine point, was directed at the free blacksand people of colour as a class during the Woodford administration 1813 - 1829.The educated, well-off slave- and property-owning free black people respondedwith petitions. Eventually a delegation led by the coloured doctor JeanBaptiste Philippe left for London and met with the Secretary of State to theColonies, the Lord Bathhurst. They did not propose emancipation of the salves.Slavery was an economic necessity that they as well as the Europeans subscribedto.

Thecase as presented was sound in law, inasmuch as the terms of the Cedula ofPopulation, under the Spanish government, guaranteed certain rights for freeblacks. The Articles of Surrender to the British by the Spanish Government inTrinidad in 1797 maintained those rights. With the court’s decision, the freeblacks as a group had won a civil rights case, more than likely the first inthis hemisphere.

Outof this came a political awareness that eventually formulated itself into thereform movements of the 1850s, on through to the turn of the century to thecreation of the Workingman's Association. These reformists were concerned withaltering the nature of Crown Colony status so as to increase greaterparticipation by local people in the colony's political process. This was thehot-bed, the crucible of Creole politics as expressed by people like MzumboLazare, Maresse Smith, Phillip Rostant, Preudomme David, Captain Cipriani,Albert Gomes and eventually C.L.R. James, Dr. Patrick Solomon and Dr. Eric Williams. The genesis of the"politics of race" was a natural reaction of the black intellectualsto the absurdity of colonial prejudice which, more than anything else, insultedthe intelligence of thinking people.

TheEast Indians of Trinidad, arriving from 1845 to 1917, had an entirely differentpolitical genesis. Living on the vast cane estates after the emancipation ofthe slaves, they escaped the emasculation and degradation of slavery and theviolence of the plantations worked by slave labour to some extent. Old roles ofleadership did not apply in the indentureship system. The mere crossing of theocean had been enough to break that spell.

Conditionson the estates were also a great leveler. Leaders emerged from differentquarters as necessitated by the managers' requirements. "Surdars",drivers and foremen and shopkeepers of all and every condition and caste,assumed leadership roles in estate yard and village life.

Theearliest Indian organisation in this island came into existence in 1897, toorganise a campaign to protest an ordinance, No. 12 of 1897, which containedseveral sections which infringed on the rights of the East Indians. This wasthe East Indian National Organisation. This body was to out live its originalpurpose, however its efforts after 1898 served to increase East Indianself-awareness.

Alsoin 1897, a group of East Indians submitted a memorandum to the West IndianCommission in which they requested for the first time direct representation byan East Indian member in the Legislative Council. This was unsuccessful. But asDr. Bridget Brereton observes:

"Therequest highlighted a growing political awareness; it indicated that Indianswere beginning to consider themselves as an identifiable group with its owninterests, different and separate from those of other groups and with demandsto be articulated."

Byand large, East Indian politics was 50 years behind the Reformist Movement ofthe Creoles. Leaders like Sir Henry, Maxwell Philip Q.C., Kenneth Vincent Brown K.C., for example, werealready practiced speakers on the nominated benches of the Legislative Councilin the 1880s and '90s. It was out of the organisation of labour that EastIndians were to assume leadership roles that were larger than the estate yardor village life. This process commenced with lowering of wages and the increaseof task work. Professor KushaHarraksingh states:

"Thiswas a recurring planter strategy which the nature of the task system itselfconveniently accommodated."

Manyfactors contributed to the unionisation of sugar workers that eventuallyoccurred in 1937, not the least of which was the end of indentureship in 1917and the switch over to free, unindentured labour. Professor Harracksingh alsonotes that the "concentration of ownership of the sugar industry was in afew hands ... the growth of a peasant sector of small and middle-sized canefarms without their own processing facilities; the development of partypolitics ... and the identification of sugar workers with a particular ethnicand cultural group."

TheEast Indian National Association in Princes Town was joined by anotherorganisation called the Indian National Congress centered in Couva. The aim ofthese bodies was to encourage Indians to takes an active and intelligent partin both community life and in the broader scheme of things. The TrinidadCitizens League formed be Cola Rienzi (Krishna Deonarine) was a party whichmainly appealed to sugar workers. This was branded as Communists by thecolonial government.

In1942, almost a century after East Indians had settled here, the right of adultfranchise was granted by the colonial authority, hard won and hard fought forby the 19th century reformists and the trade unions, produced from their ranks,in the strikes of the 1920s and 30s and in the killing fields of Apex andFyzabad.

Forthe East Indians, it created a great political impasse. The ordinance demandedthat the voter could cast a vote only if he was qualified in the Englishlanguage. The majority of the East Indians were illiterate and very few of themhad a command of English. As V.M. Vidyarthi wrote in his article "Indianto Trinidadian":

"Thelanguage test therefore would have almost exclusively and adversely affectedthe Indian Community in the exercise of its votes, should it be allowed tofunction."

Itwas perceived as the most notorious element in the political setup and calledfor a united force to fight it. It tended to unite the East Indians, and theirorganisations finally succeeded in removing the test. Thus, equal opportunityfor all races to participate fully in the political process was achieved,albeit within the structure of colonial Trinidad. The small steps taken by theIndian community in contributing to the creation of the nations political lifewas to be conveniently forgotten.

Thefirst election with universal adult suffrage was held in 1946. A large numberof independents and various political groupings contested the election. Men ofIndian descent obtained four out of the nine elected seats. At this point, EastIndians formed 35% of the islands population. It is thus very significant thatthey actually captured 44% of the elected seats.

In1950, the second election was held under a new constitution. The entire colonywas divided into 18 constituencies with an almost equal population. Fifty-onecandidates were put up by five different political groups, and ninetyindependents contested. Five independents and 13 party candidates were elected.Among these seven were East Indians - four Hindus and three Christians. Thisrepresented 39% of the total elected seats. In his article Vidyarthi writes:

"Aconstitutional Reform Committee under the chairmanship of Ashford S. Sinanan, amember of the Legislative Council, was appointed in 1955. This committeerecommended the creation of a British type of cabinet government under anelected Chief Minister. After minor modifications, the recommendations wereimplemented and the introduction of these reforms were hailed as a significantpolitical advance. It gave rise to Party Politics."

In1956, the elections were held under the new constitution, in which 8 partiesput up 89 candidates to contest 24 seats. Among these, the Trinidad LabourParty and Uriah Butler's Party were the oldest. The Trinidad Labour Party wasfounded by Captain A.A. Cipriani and advocated self government.

TheEast Indian leadership at this point was divided into two groups. Leaders likeSarran Teelucksingh, Timothy Roodal and Adrian Kola Rienzi formed anassociation with Cipriani and the T.L.P. and had the support of East Indianorganisations. The other party in the race was the People's Democratic Party,formed by Bhadase Sagan Maraj. For many years he reigned supreme as one of thetop East Indian leaders in Trinidad.

Bhadasewas a man of wide influence and dynamic personality, who advanced the status ofthe entire East Indian community. First elected as an independent to theLegislative Council in 1950, in '53 he founded the Peoples Democratic Party andin the same year became the leader of the Sugar Worker's and Cane Farmer'sUnion.

Theyear 1956 saw the formation of the People's National Movement under theleadership of Dr. Eric Williams. The P.N.M. entered the election campaign witha clear-cut program. It declared that the people of Trinidad had 6 years ofcorruption, mismanagement and party acrobatics in public affairs. It presenteda multiracial slate of candidates and based its appeal on West Indiannationalism. It commanded black professional, black labour and black urban support. It also commenced aneducational program at Woodford Square in an atmosphere that may only bedescribed as messianic.

Underpressure from the P.N.M., the leadership of the P.D.P. tried to modify itspurely East Indian character and promoted multi-racialism and secularism fromits platforms. It lent its support to the Party of Political Progress Groups,headed by Albert Gomes, the most significant person in the political sceneafter Captain A.A. Cipriani. The P.D.P. also supported the Butler Party and theTrinidad Labour Party as well as several independents.

Fromthe results of the 1956 election, in which the P.N.M. secured the majority ofseats and formed the government, it was clear that the time of the independentswas over. The P.N.M. victory was the result of better organisation andleadership. It was also the result of the assertion of Negro self respect andself confidence, all supported by a strong black middle class, with its rootsfirmly placed in the 19th century colonial reform movements buttressed by WestIndian immigration that had struggled against colonial dominance for close to150 years.

OnJuly 18th, 1957, at a special meeting of the representatives of the P.D.P., theF.L.P. and the P.O.P.P.G., a decision was taken to dissolve their parties andform the Democratic Labour Party. On January 8th, 1958, Badhase Sagan Maraj,the former head of the P.D.P. and the president general of the Sanatan DharmaMaha Sabha, the largest Hindu religious body in Trinidad, was elected Leader ofthe parliamentary wing of the D.L.P., which by this time was recognised as theofficial opposition party in the Legislative Council.

Withthis development, the two-party system came into being. Between the P.N.M.,with its "African" support and the D.L.P. with its "Indian"base. The D.L.P. was successful in the Federal Elections. However times werechanging as Vidyarthi notes:

"Butdespite Bhadase's popularity and his influence on the East Indian masses, theyounger generation of educated and enlightened groups found him to be anembarrassing leader. He was uneducated and no match for Dr. EricWilliams."

Theythought his manners crude and his methods suspicious. To match the intellectualglamour of Dr. Williams, a section of the D.L.P. looked for leadershipelsewhere, as the old "chief" had become less effective andincreasingly unwell. The D.L.P. was divided upon itself during this period andA.P.T. James of Tobago took the helm.

Hetoo was no match either for the brilliance or eloquence of Dr. Eric Williams.During this period, there were many defections to the P.N.M., as both Christianand Muslim intellectuals crossed over to the winning side. The D.L.P.leadership passed to Rudarnath Capildeo, a "staunch SanatanistHindu." Dr. Capildeo, like Dr. Williams, was an island scholarship winner.He had earned his Ph.D. from London University. He was now an acknowledgedmathematician and physicist. It was felt that if Dr. Capildeo headed theD.L.P., he would be able together East Indian intellectuals and professionalsand at the same time exert enough influence on the rural masses. He would alsoprovide non-Indians alienated from the P.N.M. with the intellectual capacitythey wanted.

Despitefierce factional fighting between the Bhadase supporters and the youngintellectuals, concern of another P.N.M. victory eventually forced the closingof the ranks behind the new leader. But Dr. Capildeo was no politician. UnlikeDr. Williams, he had not created a political party of his own, but was ratherplaced at the head of a party by a group of shrewd and experienced politicianswho wanted to use him and his academic achievements for getting votes. Dr.Kenneth Lalla comments on the 1961 elections and quotes Dr. Selwyn Ryan:

"Asa forerunner to the 1961 general elections, the P.N.M. government announced itsintention not only to re-draw the electoral boundaries but also to compile anew voters' registration and to introduce voting machines.

TheIndians' reaction to those proposals was that they pointed out that these newvoting arrangements were calculated to curtail the voting strength of theIndians, which had been demonstrated against the P.N.M. in the 1958 Federalelections. They further argued that the replacement of the ballot box by votingmachines was also designed to frustrate illiterate Indians. Did the P.N.M.manipulate the distribution of the voting population on a racial basis so as togive more seats to the P.N.M.? On this issue Dr. Selwyn Ryan commented:

“TheP.N.M. took no chances even in Port of Spain, where the boundaries wereredrafted, to make sure that all potential D.L.P. areas, i.e. the upper classand upper middle-class residential areas, were attached to working class areaswhere the P.N.M. had been consistently strong. The D.L.P. was not given anoutside chance to gain a seat in the capital city as they had done in the 1958and 1959 municipal elections . In the countryside there was strong evidence tosubstantiate the D.L.P. claim that the P.N.M. had herded as many Indian votersas was possible into constituencies which they could not possibly win, and hadextracted from such areas large blocks of Negro voters who were then recombinedinto the other constituencies.” (from “Race and Nationalism” 1961 pp.144-45)"

Dr.Capildeo as Prime Minister! This was the dream of many and perhaps it was hisdream as well, an Indian Prime Minister, just imagine!

Underhis leadership the D.L.P. captured ten out of thirty seats. The highest voterturnout was in St. Augustine, where he was the candidate. The D.L.P. candidateswere returned from the rural areas, mainly the sugar belt. Out of the ten seatsgained, eight were East Indians and two were Negroes.

Theeight East Indians consisted of three Hindu, one Muslim and four Christians. Among these AshfordSinanan, Simboonath Capildeo, Lionel Frank Seukeran and Stephen Maharaj were elected to the LegislativeCouncil. The other six members, new to the political arena, were Dr. Capildeo,political leader, Tajmool Hosein, Vernon Jamada, Balgobin Ramdeen, M. Forresterand Peter Farauhar.

In1962, Trinidad and Tobago achieved full independence. Many of the opposition'sdemands were rejected. Dr. Capildeo had failed at the Marlborough House talksin London, and in many quarters it was felt that their cause had been betrayed.This led to an all around dissension among party members and resulted in theexpulsion of many. Dr. Capildeo himself grew weary and was disgusted withpolitics. He eventually relinquished leadership of the D.L.P. and returned toLondon where he died in 1970.

Mary Seacole

2012-02-28T09:19:00.000-08:00

by Gerard Besson

The little woman, just a trifleplump, alighted from the carriage. Above, the London sky appeared a seamlessfold of gray that descended downward and into an unremitting damp. As thecarriage rolled away, she made her way across the broad pavement towards thegreat iron gates of Buckingham Palace and, to the startled amazement of thesentry pacing the perimeter of the palace, she slipped through the smallpostern gate, set into the huge railings near to the red and white stripedsentry box.

"Stop atonce!" called the sentry.

"Sir, aperson has entered the courtyard and is making her way to the frontentrance."

He reported to thesergeant of the Cold Stream Guards who had been alerted by his cry. Already thelittle woman was out of sight as she followed the wide curving sweep of themassive driveway, decorated with monuments of the Empire's glory. Spotting heras she took the flight of stairs, he blew shrilly on his whistle. This broughtseveral guardsmen on the run. Their bright red tunics and tall, dark bear skinswere starkly elaborate against the all-covering gray. By that time Mary Seacolehad gained the portico and pulled the bell next to the main door.

"Halt,Madam!" shouted the first guardsman to mount the stairs. Already therewere three other tall imposing young men, resplendent in their uniforms.

"Attention!"snapped the sergeant of the Cold Stream Guards. They had been joined by CaptainBaldwin Northcliffe Phipps of the Household Regiment.

"GoodMorning, Mother Seacole. I see you have come to call upon Her Majesty,"tutted the distinguished, somewhat more than middle aged officer. "Perhapsyou might have informed us of your presence in the city and of yourintentions."

"CaptainBaldwin Phipps, you look very well indeed."

"Thank youMa'am."

Mary Seacolelooked kindly at the smart young men still standing at attention and smiledinto the slightly puzzled eyes of the sergeant of the Cold Stream Guards andsaid to him in her good West Indian way:

"My son, theRoyal Family is glad any time to ask me to tea."

Indeed it provedto be true on that occasion. This is the story of one of the most remarkableWest Indian women who ever lived. It is the story of a coloured woman whotraveled round the Caribbean, in fact the world, at a time when most womenstayed at home; the story of a woman who, with gentle persuasion, dealt withthe British War office and made her way to the Crimea at the time of theCrimean War; the story of a woman who was well known to and on family terms withHer Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria, Empress of India, and who was decorated byHer on more than one occasion.

The story of MaryJane Seacole is now all but forgotten. There was a time, however, when her humanitarian and medicalservices to the British Army fighting in the Crimea War from 1854 to 1856"made her a household name in Britain".

She was born inKingston, Jamaica, Mary Jane Grant, in 1805. She was the daughter of a Scottisharmy officer and a coloured woman who ran a boarding house called Blundell Hallin Kingston, largely patronised by army and naval officers and their families Marymarried Edwin Horatio Seacole who was a godson of Viscount Nelson. Her motherwas well known for her skills as a healer and her ability to cure fevers,especially yellow fever, which ravaged Jamaica from time to time. Mary acquiredher mothers gift and knowledge of Creole medical lore. She worked with hermother saving the lives of many service men and their families. Her reputationgrew in such a way that the authorities enlisted her services for theirmilitary hospital.

Among the officersand enlisted men of the regiments she had known were some of the 48th Regimentof Foot, the 1st Battalion of the Northhamptonshires, stationed in Jamaica.While still in her teens she made the first of many trips to England. Learningof the terrible hardships caused by the incompetence of the military in theCrimea in the early 1850s, particularly the suffering of the wounded and thesick, "the inclination to gain my old friends of the 97th, 48th and otherregiments battling with worse foes than yellow fever or cholera, took suchexclusive possession of my mind that I decided to devote my energies to thealleviation of their misery".

She undertook thedifficult task to persuade the military authorities to "permit an unknowncoloured woman to proceed to the Crimea to help nurse the disease prevalentamong troops in this war fought between Russia, England and France".Applying without success to the Secretary of War, the Quartermaster General,the medical department and to the wife of the Secretary of War, Mrs. SydneyHerbert, who co-ordinated the recruitment of nurses, including the famousFlorence Nightingale, she was eventually obliged to set out, at her own expense,for Turkey and the theatre of war.

On the way, shewas recognised at Gibraltar by two officers of the 48th bound for scene ofaction, who warmly greeted her. On arrival in the Crimea, she set to work"serving the expeditionary force, both as unofficial nurse and as a'suttler', that is, one who followed the army and served food and drink."

Within two months,she had opened the British Hotel just north of Balaclava on the road toSebastopol. A London newspaper reported:

"LordRaglan's veto for women rendering assistance at the battle front did notinhibit Mrs. Seacole from riding forward with her small personal mule train ofmedications, food and refreshments."

By the summer of1855, Mary Seacole was regarded by the troops as part heroine and part mascot.If the other battle front had Florence Nightingale, the lady with the lamp,Balaclava could offer the romantic legend of a Creole with a tea mug. Thesoldiers called her "Mother Seacole" and "Auntie Seacole."

Her hotel was onthe main road to the front line and to many it was a place of comfort andhealing. When peace came, Mary had to sell her hotel. Her work had already madethe news. W.M. Russel of the "London Times" wrote:

"I havewitnessed her devotion and courage. I have already born testimony to herservices to all those who needed them. I trust that England will not forget onewho has nursed her sick, who has sought her wounded in order to aid and succorthem and who has performed the last offices for some of her illustriousdead."

Mary returned toJamaica where she helped her sister, Louisa, to run Blundell Hall. She visitedLondon whenever she could. Mary Seacole wrote the story of her life in a bookcalled "Wonderful adventures of Mrs. Seacole in many lands". Countvon Gleichen, a nephew of Queen Victoria, made a little bust of her interracotta which is kept on show at the Institute of Jamaica.

She was widelyknown as a woman of great courage and kindness and as a devoted nurse at a timewhen the professions were closed to women and few ventured abroad. Today thereis a Mary Seacole Hall at U.W.I in Jamaica. Wouldn't you agree that her nameshould be better known to West Indians?

West Indian Immigration

2012-02-24T05:59:00.000-08:00

No other island in the West Indies has experienced such anongoing immigration as Trinidad has. In 1826, just before the emancipation ofthe slaves, the population stood at 23,123 slaves, 8,404 Free Blacks, 2,005Whites and 655 Amerindians.

After emancipation in 1838, West Indians, mostly of pureAfrican descent, began to come to Trinidad from the neighbouring islands.

Encouraged by the planter interest facilitated by theBritish Administration, motivated by the freedom to travel and in pursuit ofbetter opportunities, West Indians came from all the islands in the Caribbean.This immigration was so intense that it was remarked that the Trinidad Creoleswere being overwhelmed by the other West Indians.

According to Prof. Bridget Brereton, the figures forimmigration from the British West Indian islands between 1871 and 1911 were, ata conservative estimate, 65,000, about an average of 1,625 a year. Barbadianslooking for a way to acquire plots of land, which for blacks was difficult,came here. This was facilitated by the 1873 Barbados Act which made provisionsfor assisting immigration.

Planter oppression was greater on that island and wages verylow. As such, in this period, a vast majority of West Indianimmigrants were from Barbados. This movement slowed somewhat between 1846 and1861, but after 1864 many came to Trinidad so as to enjoy the prosperity thatwas happening here. Some 14,000 were living in Trinidad in 1897.

The vast majority of immigrants who came were working-classblack people. This movement was just a part of a wider movement taking placeduring the latter half of the 19th century. Capital was moved out of the olderWest Indian colonies to the newer "unsaturated" territories.

It was necessary for the Secretary of State for the coloniesto solve the overpopulation of some of the islands. Trinidad possessed a largeland mass and a small population. These new arrivals did not necessarily gointo the recently abandoned cane fields. They were escaping exactly such a fatein their own home islands. They did not want to make contracts with theplanters. Instead they got their jobs in the many public works projects takingplace all over the island, such as roads and railways.

It was estimated that 3,000 West Indian immigrants, most ofthem male, had arrived in Trinidad in 1873. Many of these were masons, bricklayers, carpenters and other skilled labourers. The public works department had400 West Indians working on the railways.

Urban institutions grew as a result of the prosperous stateof the economy, driven by sugar cane, cocoa and coffee and supported by agrowing commercial sector. Families, local whites, expatriates and well-offblack people could afford to have a yard boy, a coachman, a cook, a maid ortwo, a nanny or two, a large house on upper Richmond Street or Victoria Squareand could have as many as five domestics working on a regular basis. In somecases, dependents such as former servants, even former slaves, were part of theextended household. Some of these older folks could wield a strong influence,particularly in French Creole households, where in some cases the relationshipsmay have been of long, sentimental or even familial standing.

Many West Indians went into the public institutions inTrinidad. They became wardens and nurses in the hospital, in the jail or in theasylum, work for they were by far the best suited for this work, as they camefrom small communities and were often kinder and just more understanding thanTrinidadians. Many went into the police service which recruited from onegeneration to the next. They hardly ever bought estates and did not becomeagriculturists, although some bought land around Arima and Sangre Grande andgrew cocoa.

There were a few small business proprietors. They settled in"large numbers in the long and almost continuous village" between St.Joseph and Arima where they raised large families and worked as artisans,mechanics, shoemakers and tailors. They were found to be, especially theBarbadians, able, peaceful and hardworking. They wrested most of the smallindustries from the more easy-going Trinidadian Creoles.

Barbadians were thought to be energetic, more so than thelocal Creoles. But like most immigrants they just had to work harder. Comingfrom Protestant islands, Barbados, St. Vincent, Antigua for example, they spokeEnglish as opposed to those who came from Catholic islands like Grenada, St.Lucia, Dominica, who spoke Patios. British administrators in the civil servicefound them easy to deal with. As Dr. Brereton notes:

"This command of English made it easier for them tomove into strategic jobs in the civil service as skilled workers, mechanics,craftsmen, policemen, teachers, minor civil servants and they, after forming apotentially mobile upper working class, became ambitious for their sons to riseto middle class status through the schools. The civil service became their moststeady employer."

As the bureaucracy necessary to operate this prosperousisland grew at a pace, it could afford an increasingly elaboratebureaucracy. People who were now'Trinis' depended on this bureaucracy as a secure life-time employer. The civilservice in Trinidad became, by the 1950s, almost entirely made up of blackpeople. This was not a result of an accident of history, but it was literally apolicy of the colonial administration, and it was carried forward in a mindlessmanner. It served to segment the society and to create a dependency on thestate by a very large segment of the population from one generation to thenext, thus hampering entrepreneurial experiences in families and preventingpersonal growth and development in individuals.

On the other hand, undoubtedly the hard work, sacrifice andambition of parents, grand parents and great-great grand parents had paid offin that remarkable individuals were produced. One thinks of Malcolm Nurse,called George Padmore, one of the founders of the international movement knownas "Negritude" personalities like H.O.B. Wooding, and of HenrySylvester, founder of the Pan African Movement. They were all sons andgrandsons of Barbadian immigrants.

The adjustment to life in Trinidad was difficult for theimmigrant. For those who, through luck, hard work, thrift and education found afooting here, there was the long road to self improvement. For those who fellbetween the cracks, life played out producing among the newcomers"swarms" of criminals, paupers and prostitutes. As one policeinspector noted:

"The 1870s were notorious for crimes of wife beating,child beating, cutting and wounding. These were ascribed to Barbadianinfluence."

Studies also show that West Indian immigrants contributed anabnormally high proportion of convicts and hospital patients. The ColonialHospital records for 1889 show 5,714 admissions, natives from India accounted1,542, Trinidad Creoles 1, 680, Barbadians alone numbered 1,023 and from theother islands 744. Prof. Brereton notes that a

"Select committee of the Legislative Council consideredthe question of pauper and criminal immigration in 1893. It produced figures toshow that while the proportion of natives of Trinidad to West Indians living inthe island was 100:30 in 1891, the proportion in jail during 1888 - 92 was100:109 and the proportion in hospitals and asylums was 100:94. It concludedthat immigration from the West Indies 'embraces a most abnormal proportion ofthe worthless and vicious classes, of which these communities are ridingthemselves off the expense of Trinidad'."

The urban working class of Port of Spain grew at a pace inthe 1880s to the 1900s, as the small islanders poured into the city's outerareas that had been forested just a few years before. The old city, dating backfrom Spanish times, deteriorated into horrendous yards. Areas such as Belmont,Laventille and East Dry River, which had been settled in the years after 1838by coloured middle-class people, ex-slaves and their children, who were in theprocess of developing a low-keyed urbanization, were flooded by the smallislanders, and many religious and cultural tensions arose. Calypsonians sang:

"Small islanders go back where you come from."

Increasingly, Trinidadians lost their 19th century"Creole soul" and acquired a Caribbean reality. The upshot of allthis meant cheap labour for the moneyed interest of the colony and sewed the seedsof political avarice. The situation was investigated by the Surgeon General whorevealed that small barrack rooms were being tenanted by dozens of persons.Some rooms on Prince Street and elsewhere were occupied by up to twenty adults.Such overcrowding brought hellish tensions, violence and antisocial behavior.The real problems were health, the spread of epidemics, death and mass humanmisery. The Surgeon General wrote:

"In epidemic times people become suddenly aware of theunpleasant fact that crowded away in the heart of large cities are hordes ofdestitute and suffering creatures more or less ill-fed, their diseasesunattended to and their abodes the scene of squalor and everyunwholesomeness."

It was unthinkable that it all could become worse but itdid, in the period between the wars in the 1920s and 30s. Poverty was to hit anew low in Trinidad. The strikes and riots of this time came out of thisneglect. With the advent of the second World War and the economy engendered bythe arrival of the American forces, "money in the land" served toalleviate a desperate time. The 1940s and 50s saw a mass emigration ofTrinidadians to London at first, than to New York, Toronto and other parts,very much in the same manner that the colonial administration allowed masses ofpeople into Trinidad to drive down the cost of labour. In the main, the peoplewho left Trinidad for greener pastures were urban middle class people withsecondary and tertiary education. In turn, the politicians who took the countryto independence encouraged immigrants from other islands to come, this time tomaintain voter turnout affected by this Post War brain drain. A second wave ofWest Indian immigration took place, and again our culture altered as opposed tothose who came in were rural, primary school educated and once more settled inthe depressed areas that for runners had known. certainly, avarice drove thepursuit of cheap labour by the British colonial administration plus their needto alleviate overpopulated islands, as such Trinidad was a viable option. Butin terms of local politicians, the question remains if the motive wasn'tpolitical avarice - a common cause of things in the history of the world.

The extent to which Trinidad was an immigrant society duringthe 19th century during the 19th century is seen by the following:

In 1861 the population was 84,438. In 1891 it was 200,028.Almost all as the result of immigration. the majority of immigrants came fromthe West Indian islands mostly British, India and Venezuela. In 1861 natives ofIndia numbered 13, 488 and in 1891 numbered 45,028. From the British WestIndies in 1861 there were 11,716 and in 1891 there were 33,180. From Africa,never knowing slavery, came freed Africans numbering 6,035.

A religious census in 1891 showed Roman Catholics to number73,733. Hindu, Muslim, Confucian, Buddhist to be 64,413. Anglicans to number46,920 and Wesleyans 6,312.

In 1881, there were 31,858 persons living in the city ofPort of Spain with 2,706 living in Laventille. In 1891 "Greater Port ofSpain" had an estimated population of about 50,000, that is about aquarter of the whole island.

No Flint Grey

2012-02-22T06:53:00.000-08:00

In the heat of the mid-morning, Alexander Grey sat in hisgallery looking out at his fields. They stretched from what is now Maraval Roadto the Boundary of Paradise estate, which belonged to the Peschier family.

If he glanced to his right, he would have seen his cane inarrow waving in reflection of the light hot wind that came across from thelittle port town, bringing with it the smell of overheated mangrove, warmmolasses and the fragrance of rum being poured from the large copper ladlesinto massive oaken hogsheads.

The warm wind also carried the voices of his 137 slavesraised in song as in unison they slashed, as some forceful machine almost halfa mile long, the full-bodied Otaheite cane, thick as a man's forearm.

St. Clair estate was named by him for Scotland in memory ofthe Princes of Orkney, in commemoration of Roslyn, his one true love. Thehouse, large, too large, a wooden labyrinth built by slave labour, slavemasons, slave carpenters, wood carvers and plasterers who had been brought fromBarbados. The layout of his garden was in the English style. He had slaves towork his cane, to feel his lash, to be locked in his stocks, to warm his bed,to cook, clean, to serve, to be silent, to fan him in his sleep, to wake himgently, to help him into his shoes, his pantaloons, his coat, to pass his hat,his cane, to hold the door, close the door, to drive his carriage, to curry hishorses, to bow before him, to bow after him, to whisper even in his absence, torise, to wake, to sleep, to die for him. He was master of all that he surveyed.

He could see beneath a spreading Samaan tree, large for itsyoung years, the estate graveyard. It contained the remains of his wife Jane,daughter Mary and six slaves brought to Trinidad from the wars, men alreadymature by the time he acquired them in Bridgetown, Barbados.

The warm wind brushed his clean-shaven cheek but hardlymoved his great gray mane, gathered at the back and tied with a black velvetribbon. Jezebel bent gracefully before him as she placed a silver tray on a lowtable. She did this slowly so as to allow him to admire her charms, tipped adarker hue than she. He was old fashioned and like his house slaves to serve atthe table half-naked.

He dozed the doze of old men in a place where memory anddream meet in a netherland of might have been, should have been and neverreally happened but had become legend soon to be made history and stillremembered by legless men, some blind from fire, some deaf from the thunder ofcannons that still reverberated in the silence of their dreams, dreamt in colddark hovels two thousand miles away on rainy nights when the wind howled on theblasted heathlands, his men.

The dream came, hadn't it, he would have summoned it. In1794, General Grey attacked Martinique with a force of 19 ships and 7,000soldiers. A little island, called Ramier's Island or Pigeon Island, stood inhis way. It was strongly held by the French who had 22 heavy guns on it. Greyknew that he had to silence these guns if his ships were to have successagainst Fort de France.

"Signal to the fleet, Captain Stone, we tack towindward."

"Colonel, inform Major Henderson to prepare the landingparties, tell the 64th that they shall get their feet wet."

"Sir."

"Captain Dalrymple, we shall require artillery. Preparetwenty guns for loading. I will expect you to lead the gentlemen of EastRiding. Tell the 15th I shall expect from them their duty."

"Sir!"

"Harry!"

Alexander Grey looked to his friend, Colonel Harold Ditmus,Colonel of the East Yorkshire Regiment (the Duke of York's own regiment).

"Harry, silence those guns. We must take this islandbefore the week is out."

Leaving the battlements of Fort de France behind him, theBritish squadron sailed along the south east coast and landed its men at threepoints. At the head of the 63rd, General Grey made his way through the bush andacross fields coming to the headland overlooking Pigeon Island. Thunderheadssent sprawling squalls across the horizon; the sun, breaking through in vastsplashes of light, illuminated the aquamarine Caribbean Sea to brilliance. Heand Ditmus stood beneath the snapping regimental colours, the sweating men ofthe 15th dragged and man-handled the heavy cannon into place.

"Prepare to fire in volleys of five! Start at the top,Mr. Henderson."

"Sir!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Reload! Fire atwill."

Flocks of seagulls, very white against the gray, wheeledoverhead, the British guns blazing fire to hot to handle. In the distance, theFrench batteries were tumbling into the sea. But this was just the beginning.There were two forts protecting Fort de France, and they had to fall. He had totake St. Pierre also, much further to the north under the shadow of thevolcano, Mt. Pelée. He sent a force against St. Pierre. They battled their waythrough the island's forested interior, struggling in their heavy uniformsbeneath the blazing heat of the sun. When they came upon a French strong point,they took it by assault, charging with their bayonets. These soldiers had flintlock muskets but General Grey held a prejudice against these.

"Too much damn noise, Mr. Henderson."

"Sir!"

"Shouting and shooting off muskets all well and goodfor the parade grounds, good for fighting in the open but not for scramblingover mountains and storming redoubts, what, what?"

"Sir!"

The General's method was to remove the flints from themuskets of his men. Then their only hope against the enemy was "to get toclose quarters with your bayonets and stick it to them." They called him"No Flint Grey".

Before long, all the forts were taken except one, FortLouis, on a rock that jutted out into the sea like a finger.

"We shall not waste shot and shell against that rock,Mr. Henderson."

"What do you have in mind, Sir?"

"Tell Captain Faulkner to prepare the 'Zebra'."

Later that afternoon, under full sail, he ran the 38-gunfrigate ashore under the guns of the fort. While the ship keeled over, he andhis men scrambled over her sides and swarmed up the sea walls of the fort,making use of every crack in the rocks, every tuft of grass, every tangle ofroots, climbing on the shoulders of their comrades until at last they were overthe top and the fort surrendered.

So Martinique became British in 1794 and British it remaineduntil peace was made in 1802 and it was handed back to France. Alexander Greycame to Trinidad in 1805 and acquired a parcel of land that he called"Sweet Briar Farm". This became the St. Clair estate. A few yearslater, it was owned by the Scott-Bushe family and also by William Gordon. Thegreat house itself became the St. Clair club. Acquired by the Alstons, it wastorn down to make room for the Tatil Building.

Picton and Woodford

2012-02-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

Picton Street and Woodford Street in New Town, Port ofSpain, commemorate two of the islands early British Governors.

Colonel Thomas Picton arrived in Trinidad with the Britishconquering forces in 1797. It was island embroiled in anarchy and on the brinkof civil war and slaveinsurrection, similar to those that had impacted on Haiti, Guadeloupe andGrenada Thomas Picton, under the aegis of marshal law and in the frame work ofmedieval Spanish statutes, imposed law and order by brute force. He wasundoubtedly successful.

In 1813, Sir Ralph Woodford, some 16 years later, when therevolutionary insurgencies and slave revolts of the previous century hadpassed, presided over a different reality. Edward Lanzer Joseph, historian, inhis "History of Trinidad (1838)" remarks:

"The administration of Sir Ralph Woodford, like that ofSir Thomas Picton, was well timed. They were both well fitted to governTrinidad at the epochs of their respective administrations. Had Sir RalphWoodford been placed as governor here at the time of capitulation, he perhapswould have lacked the stern, daring, the almost terrible energies which werenecessary to control the jarring elements of the colony at the time of Picton.He certainly did not possess the determined military talents necessary topreserve the colony when rebellious colonists, intriguing spies, threateningneighbours, discontented slaves and a garrison both feeble and mutinousthreatened on a daily basis the stability of the young colony. Had neighbouringgovernors set a price on Woodford's head, he perhaps would not have coolly sentthem an invitation to come and get it.

On the other hand, Thomas Picton would have been misplacedin Woodford's time. The gruff Welsh professional soldier did not possess thosepolished and dignified manners that in Sir Ralph were so conspicuous and withthe world at peace and through his own example tended so much to bring theislands' society into something like order.”

Professor Phillip Sherlock wrote:

"Picton ran Trinidad as if it were his regiment,Woodford ran it as if it were his country estate. Sir Ralph Woodford traveledwidely through the country, saw everything with his own eyes rather thanthrough the reports that others gave him, and made sure that his decisions werecarried out. He was at his best when dealing with matters like planning, andbuilding roads, and enlarging and beautifying Port of Spain. He alsostraightened the confusion over the ownership of land. This was a mess. The oldSpanish Grandee families claimed more land as belonging to them than the entiresquare acreage of the island."

Woodford brought Spaniards from Venezuela, lawyers who wereversed in the Spanish land laws. Their descendants are still with us asfamilies such as Garcia, Llanos and Gomez.

Picton, on the other hand, had his own way of doing things,for example, as Edward Joseph recounts:

"The manner of Picton addressing a suspected inhabitantof this colony was characteristic. If he heard of anyone of them who behavedbadly, he would send for him and take him to his gallery (he lived on the southeastern corner of Charlotte Street and Marine Square) before which was erectedthe mark of civilisation, a gallows. He would tell the party that he had heardso and so of him, which he hoped for his sake was not true. 'Go,' he would say,'reform from your former life or leave the island, otherwise the wind shallpass between the soles of you feet and the earth.'"

Sir Ralph saw to the planning and building of a road fromMatura to Mayaro and opened up the old Amerindian track between Arima and theManzanilla coast. He put up a customs house in Mayaro, which made it easier andcheaper for people in the eastern parts to ship goods to Tobago. He opened upthese areas in the hope of attracting settlers, disbanded soldiers from theDuke of Wellington's army. He felt that more English people should settle inTrinidad. He created prescriptions against the free black people and sought toprevent marriages between white and black people.

Picton, on the other hand, hung, flogged, beheaded, banishedand jailed everybody, black or white, and openly kept a mistress ofindeterminable racial mixture. Their descendants are still with us.

Woodford never had a mistress, although it is said that hewas in love with Soledad, the daughter of Don Antonio Gomez. Henry NelsonColeridge, the nephew and son-in-law of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, wroteof her:

"Soledad! Thou wilt never read this book; few of thosewho will can ever know thee and I shall never see thee again this side of thegrave; Therefore I write thy name whilst I remember thy face and hear thyvoice, thou sweet ingenious girl!"

Picton was not charmed by the giles of the Creoles who knewwell the art of currying favour. For example, calling once at the store of areformed republican, the Governor complimented the man on his good conduct asof late and told him that those who, like him, behaved well, would prosper withthe rising prosperity of the colony and should never want for his protection.The Frenchman was tasting wine, a glass of which Picton partook of and admired.The storekeeper subsequently sent the governor the cask of the wine as apresent. Picton returned the wine with a brief note, which thanked the man forhis offer but informed him that when his (Picton's) King could not afford togive him wine he would drink water.

Sir Ralph was first in urging from the Secretary of State aplan for attracting families of East Indians to settle and cultivate their ownfarms. He wanted them to come as small settlers, to create homesteads of theirown. Woodford acquired the Peschier estate at St. Anns. It is interesting tonote that he removed the original forest and imported trees, under the guidanceof his botanist, David Lockhart, from other countries so as to create an Englishgarden - which still exists in the form of the Botanical Gardens in St. Anns.

Picton put up a notice on the hangman’s gibbet in MarineSquare, stating that he would hang the first Public Officer who took a bribe.With regard to obeah which was both prevalent and terrifying, an old man, whoallegedly killed people with sheer fright of 'Obi', was caused to be seated onan ass with his face to the tail and all his collection of "rude dolls,dried bones, herbs, teeth, snakes" and other trumpery of his trade hungaround his neck, while all the children of the estate stoned and hooted at theold impostor. This had the desired effect. It turned the obeah man to ridicule,and those who formally stood in awe of his supposed power now treated him withdisdain. Had he been hung, he would have left the reputation of having been agreat enchanter.

Port of Spain was still a small town when Woodford becamegovernor in 1813. But it was growing rapidly and it might easily have lost someof its open spaces if it had not been for him. He saw the shabby lots that hadbeen left empty since the fire of 1808, weeds covering the square which theSpaniards and French had called Place Des Armes and which the English re-namedBrunswick Square. The empty wasteland west of the town, which was part ofAriapita Estate, the thick bush that covered the land, north of Oxford Street,the corbeaux that swarmed along the beach, the shacks and huts that litteredthe foreshore, where the Spaniards had their Calle Marina. He rode through Maravaland St. Anns, he laid out parks and brought pitch from La Brea to kill theweeds in Brunswick square. He bought through the Cabildo lands to the north ofthe town and laid this out as the Grand Savannah, later known as the Queen'sPark Savannah, to be pasture for the cattle of Port of Spain. Close upon 200years later, we still enjoy these green oases that Woodford created.

These men who have left their mark were men of their timesand are remembered by Woodford Square and Picton Quarry as well as the twoone-way streets in New Town.

Michel Jean Cazabon

2012-02-17T07:07:00.001-08:00

1813. It was the year thatTrinidad got her first civil governor, Sir Ralph Woodford. The world was fullof significant men, never mind that they were all still in their diapers:Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Richard Wagner, Abraham Lincoln and NapoleonIII, for example. Fürst Bismarck had yet to be born two years later, to befollowed closely by Tolstoi and Rockefeller. The probably most importantinvention of the year was the bicycle, that is, if we disregard Leonardo daVinci's sketches of it 350 years earlier; those had never been actually built.

In this setting, Michel Jean Cazabonwas born in the Naparimas. His parents were French; coloured, well-off peoplewho had come from the French islands to receive land grants in Trinidad underthe Cedula of Population. Michel grew up with his mother and siblings in SanFernando, since his parents separated one year after he was born. In their household,as in most others in those days in Trinidad, people spoke exclusively Frenchand Patois.

Michel grew up in an independentand outdoorish manner. The habit of rambling around in the country side wassomething which he would keep up throughout his lifetime, and even make aliving off it.

Trinidad had been a Britishcolony for only 16 years, and in order to converse with the officials bits andpieces of English sufficed. Like other parents, the Cazabons were looking aheadand planning a future for their son. And the future in Trinidad looked mightyBritish to them. Hence, they sent off 15-year old Michel Jean to St. Edmund'sCollege in England, to learn English and the ways of a British subject in thecolonies. Typically, they probably wanted Cazabon jnr. to become a doctor or apriest, respectability being the order of the day, especially for colouredpeople. However, already from his years in Hertfordshire, there is evidencethat he had little inclination for the academics and a growing love for thecountryside and for art: his bills for "mending of trousers" and"stationery" were quite high, as Geoffrey MacLean reports in his bookon Cazabon.

After four years in England, Michelreturned to Trinidad at the age of 19. Of the following seven years, only twopaintings remain of him. In 1837, Michel and his mother move to Port of Spain.Later that year, he is sent to Paris for his further education. The Cazabonssnr. manage to send him enough money to live in good"arrondissements" in France's capital.

Becoming a young bohemian inParis, he probably took art classes at the Académie des Beaux Arts (withoutbeing officially enrolled). Other sources say that he studied with Paul de laRoche, who was then a famous painter in Paris. However, as the years went by,his parents might have become more and more reassured that their prodigal sonwas on the right way, or at least they boasted with his proficiency and hisexhibitions in the metropole to cover the "scandal" of havingproduced an artist. He exhibited at the Salon du Louvre and even went to studyin Italy for a year in 1841 - 1842; Italy was then still regarded as the Meccaof artists. His paintings sold for hundreds, even more than 1,000 francs.

What made him so successful? Hisstyle was that of a romantic landscape painter, with a close eye on the detail,on light and shadow, on textures and on the spontaneity of people in the sceneshe depicted. His preferred medium was watercolour, which had become en vogue inthe second half of the 19th century in Europe.

Michel Jean got married in Franceto Louise Rosalie Trolard and had two daughters and one son, who was mentallyhandicapped. When his mother died in 1848, he came back to Trinidad to live inPort of Spain. His wife continued to live in Paris with their first daughterand son, and didn't join him in Port of Spain until 1852, after the birth oftheir second daughter (Michel obviously having returned to Paris in themeantime).

In Port of Spain, Sir JamesLamont and William Burnley, both wealthy planters, commission works by Cazabon.He also produces a collection of lithographs, which he subsequently publishesin Paris in 1851. His second folio, called "Album of Trinidad", waspublished in 1857.

Cazabon established himself inTrinidad by advertising himself, as MacLean records, first as an artist who"paints landscapes and sites", and then as a "drawingmaster". He also offered teaching to private pupils or classes at quite astiff price: $5.00 or $3.00 per month, respectively. In addition to teachingand painting commissioned works, Cazabon also draws for the Illustrated London News.

When looking at Cazabon's works(and if you haven't done so as yet, please go and visit the Cazabon collectionat the Victoria Institute!), one can picture the excursions that he and hisstudents had to go on in order to get to the sites he depicts. No mountaintopto high, no weather to rainy or no sea to rough: even at a mature age Cazabonmust have had many more pairs of trousers that needed to be mended. He isprobably best known for his tranquil, lush and tropical landscapes from allover Trinidad and from down the islands. But he also travels to Grenada,Martinique and Demerara to paint, and in 1862 publishes his "Album ofDemerara".

Michel and Louise lived in grandstyle. They loved and were used to the good life-entertaining, travelling,serving champagne. During their life in Trinidad, which was then mainly aplanter society and generally not very artistically-minded, their resourcesdwindled, however. In 1862, they decided to move to St. Pierre in Martinique,which had by then earned itself as "Petit Paris des Antilles". Maybe thecoloured artist hoped to lead a more gentle life in a French colony than in aBritish. But St. Pierre too proved to be provincial for the now 50-year oldMichel, and he was again and again drawn to Trinidad, where he painted scenesof his favourite spots: Macqueripe, Belmont, Laventille and the north coast.With one of his daughters married to a Martiniquan, he and the rest of hisfamily moved back to Port of Spain in 1870. Michel continued to paint and growold here. In 1885, his wife died. He followed her into the grave three yearslater.

In his home country, hissignificance as a painter was only really appreciated almost a century later.Many of his works were destroyed in the volcano eruption in Martinique in 1902,in which also his daughter perished. Fortunately, he had been so prolific, thatin the first half of the 20th century people had Cazabons hanging in their housesas a matter of course, not attaching any special value to them. They were givenaway as wedding presents, or even thrown away if something more modern was tobe put up.

But many of his works havesurvived, and are now on par with other artistic works of his time, with the addedvalue for us that they depict - us, our lives, and our country, more than acentury ago.

Cola Rienzi

2012-02-16T05:58:00.000-08:00

Boththe Trinidadian Cola Rienzi and the originator of his nom de plume shared thefate of power being placed into their hands and taken out of their handsbecause of their character.

Anupstanding, handsome man, a lawyer by training, he had been born KrishnaDeonarine. That morning, the 28th June 1937 to be exact, as he walked past thepolice sentry standing crisply at attention before the guardhouse at GovernmentHouse in Port of Spain. He had some years before become Cola Rienzi.

Trinidad,not Tobago, was gripped in crisis. The grinding poverty, the outright racism ofboth the British and the "local whites", had alienated the workingclass long ago. The confrontation that now challenged the colonialadministration and the moneyed interest had to do with the destruction of humandignity and self-respect in that overwhelming force was about to be brought tobear.

Ashe walked up the long, curving, dappled driveway, surrounded by rolling lawnsand birdsong, the peaceful atmosphere seemed like another world. Its calmsuspended time and place. Its order inferred confidence and power.

ToRienzi, the tropical adaptation of European elegance seemed like a stage set,designed to unnerve the insecure and to convey the awkwardness of not belongingthere. The government had expected strike action for June 22 in the oil belt.In response, police and volunteers had been moved south on the 18th. As the sunlowered into the placid Gulf of Paria, the police had moved to arrest UriahButler at Fyzabad when he was in the process of addressing a meeting ofworkers. Butler escaped. Inspector Bradburn was killed and so too Carl King, apolice corporal who was burnt to death.

Thegovernor, Sir A.G.M. Fletcher, went south to see for himself. Already therewere two British warships on the scene. There was significant property to beprotected. Within days, the strikes had spread to the sugar areas and Port ofSpain. Government workers had joined in. 350 special constables "of allraces" were enrolled to protect the capital. There was a reward posted nowfor Butler and a massive manhunt was on for the man who had mobilised themasses.

Butlerdid not want, however, to vanish. He did not want to be out of touch with theworkers in these most crucial times. He knew well the power of the imperialforces arranged against him. He needed to be out in the open to control events,and he needed protection from the authorities.

Rienzitook the low and wide flight of steps quickly into the marbled shade of the Victorian mansion.The tall mahogany doors swung open to receive him. The young, clear-eyedBritish officer gestured in an cultured manner towards the door through whichthe governor would arrive shortly and indicated a low seat where Cola was towait upon the governor's pleasure.

HistorianMichael Anthony, writing many years later, felt that this was where Cola Rienziperformed a most outstanding role, not merely because he was Butler's friendand comrade, but on behalf of the entire labour movement. Rienzi, Anthonywrote, asked the government for a safe conduct for Butler. Governor Fletcher,however, held that in the colony's interest it was crucial for the oilfieldstrike to end and that until the strike was called off, there could be no talkswith Butler. Rienzi pressed on, pointing out Butler's legitimate right to callupon his followers in the oil belt to stop work in support of obviously justdemands. But in pursuit of peace, Rienzi promised that he would press Butler tohold off the strike.

GovernorFletcher was adamant that there could be no safe conduct for Butler.

"Thiswas the little interlude when Rienzi, had he been an insincere and self-seekingman, could have walked right in, usurped Butler's position, and taken overwhatever labour movement there was by installing himself as the chief of thelabour movement," writes Anthony. "He had already gained theconfidence of the oilworkers and the authorities ... but Rienzi was anxious tosee Butler come back amongst the oil workers and he felt that the time was now."

A.C.Rienzi was Butler's "accredited emissary" and was regarded by theColonial Office as a communist agitator. The stalemate deepened when Butlerwrote "deeply" regretting that as a result of a"referendum" he was not in a position to call off the strike and thatthe workers were prepared to put up a last ditch fight to secure at least ageneral allround increase in their wages as a prerequisite to going back towork.

Thegovernment sensed that it had won the day. Adrian Cola Rienzi left governmenthouse as the evening shadows lengthened. The blackbirds called plaintively inthe quiet, windless trees.

Thiswas merely one high moment in a significant career in the life of a man whoburned with zeal to improve the standard of living for the working class inTrinidad and Tobago. The 1920s and 30s were the crucible in which significantleaders of labour emerged. Captain Arthur Cipriani was by far and away the mostremarkable of these. Rienzi joined the labour movement and was swift in makinghis presence felt in the nascent trade union movement. Himself, Uriah Butlerand Cipriani made a formidable trio of Indian, African and European ancestry.Rienzi, however, was the one most filled with impatience. He thought of his twocompatriots as men of words and of himself as a man of action.

Rienziformed the Trinidad Citizens League which appealed essentially to the sugarworkers who were of course mainly East Indian. The TCL too was brandedcommunist by the colonial government. Butler, in the meantime, took his messageto the workers in the oil belt, most of whom were of Africa descent. Rienzibecame the legal representative of Butler's party. He worked assiduously duringButler's absence to group together all the workers in the oil industry, asMichael Anthony remarks, "to give them courage and at least a sense ofdirection". In this, he was successful. He was not present at the firstmeeting of the newly formed Oilfield Workers Trade Union on July 25, 1937, buthe was asked nonetheless by them to become their President General. Afterwards,he was elected president of the Trade Union Council. In January of 1940, Rienzilaunched a paper, the "Vanguard". Anthony records his words from aneditorial:

"Duringthe latter part of 1939, the capitalist democracies launched what we now knowis another imperialist war. Then as now people were called upon to give theirlives for King and Country, then as now they were told it was a war to make theworld safe for democracy... Yet these great exponents of democracy have acolonial empire in which millions of their subjects are denied the elementaryprinciples of democracy."

AsAnthony goes on to quote Rienzi:

"Theintensification of the class struggle in south and central Trinidad, in two ofour major industries, namely, sugar and oil, has made it exceedingly necessarythat the workers in these parts should have an organ of their own."

TheVanguard in those days was edited by Donald Moses and was published from 16Coffee Street, San Fernando. Its pages denounced crown colony rule and went onto predict its passing.

Ithurt Rienzi that Butler was not given a safe conduct. In fact, Butler wassentenced to 2 years in prison in September of 1937 and re-arrested when warwas declared. Rienzi worked to maintain the ranks during this period of Butler'sincarceration. He fought a general election in 1938, in which he won the SanFernando seat in the Legislative Council. Rienzi tabled a motion to make June19, the day that Inspector Bradburn and Carl King were killed, a public holidayin place of Empire Day, May 24. Cipriani was appalled and declared: "We donot want a day for the making of false heroes."

KrishnaDeonarine, Arthur Cipriani and Uriah Butler were in their time the standardbearers for the labour movement. Their struggle was one not only for betterwages. It was one that mainly had to do with escaping the yoke of crown colonyrule and the demeaning life of not merely racial prejudice but actually beingconsidered somewhat less than human by the colonialists.

Theirbattle was not only to defeat the imperial power that exploited the worker andthe produce of the land, but also to liberate the workers themselves from theinherited "mental slavery".

Adifficult and thankless undertaking. Adrian Cola Rienzi was a legislator longenough to see the crown colonysystem pass away. He saw the advent of adult franchise. He became Mayor of SanFernando from 1939 to 1942. After his retirement from public life, Rienzi livedin a quiet style until his passing in July 1972, doubtlessly in the certainknowledge that he had fulfilled his personal legend, a tribune or protector ofthe people's interest.

Wherehe got his name from

AdrianCola Rienzi is now, as it is often the fate of many significant individuals whoare possessed by "Zeitgeist", the spirit of their era, all butforgotten. From his youth, he had immersed himself in the reading of historyand from very young had defined for himself his own personal legend, whichfocussed upon an Italian patriot and reformer who had lived some 600 yearsbefore: Cola di Rienzi (c. 1313 - 1354). The Italian patriot had been born inRome of humble parentage. At the age of 30, he went wit a deputation to Avignonto beseech Pope Clement VI to return to Rome. In 1347, Rienzi successfullyincited the citizens to rise against the rule of the nobles. Rome's senatorswere driven out, and Rienzi suddenly held dictatorial power. Rienzi requestedthe Italian states to send representatives to Rome to divise rules for thecommon good of the country. With nobles and finally also the Pope against him,Rienzi's tribunal ended after seven months and he had to flee to Naples. Therehe immersed himself in a religious life for two years. In 1349, he decided toget back into political reforms, only to be taken prisoner by the emperor of Romeand sent to Avignon. The new Pope Innocent VI sent Rienzi back to Rome to crushthe power of the nobles. Rienzi succeeded and aimed at re-establishing hisauthority. In August 1354, he attempted a sort of triumphal entry into Rome,and was murdered on this occasion.

RIENZI,Adrian Cola, B.A., LL.B.,Barrister-at-Law, Second Crown Counsel, Trinidad and Tobago. Born: l9thJanuary, 1905. Only son of Deonarayan Tiwari and Lutchmin Devi. Married.Education: C.M. School, Naparima College, Trinity College, Dublin. MiddleTemple, England.

Elected President of Workingmen'sAssociation at age 19. Met Gandhiduring Round Table Conference in London. Worked with Shapurji Saklatvala onvarious London Committees. One of the Joint Secretaries who convened the thirdlndian Political Conference in London, 1933.

Founderof Oil, Sugar and Transport Workers' Trade Union. President of Trade Union Council 1938-44. Mayorof the Borough of San Fernando for three consecutive years, 1939-42. Member ofLegislative Council, 1938-44. Member of Governor's Executive Council, 1943-44.

Attendedas a Delegate from the W.I. the World Youth Congress at New York, 1938. Servedon almost every important Government Commission and Statutory Board, 1938-44.Prepared and presented Workers' Case before the Oilfield Arbitration Tribunalpresided over by the late Sir James Bailey.

Representedthe Workers before Forster and Moyne Commissions. Served on Planning andHousing Commission, Control Board, Trinidad Transport Board, Joint Sugar Board,Oil Conciliation Board, and the Franchise Commission. His Minority Reportreceived the approval of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and arousedwidespread Indian protest against the Language Qualification as a condition touse the ballot.

Clubs:India Club (President). Address: " Bourgainville, " London Street,San Fernando.

(from:Indian Centenary Review, Kirpalani, Sinanan, Rameshwar, Seukaran, edts., 1945)

Trinidad and the Empire

2012-02-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

TheSeas around us hold our destiny

Fromclimatic conditions over naval decisions to the petrochemical industry: ourfate was always intertwined with the oceans around us.

Whocontrolled the high seas during the colonial era was always of great significanceto us in these islands. When Sir Winston Churchill in 1913 as First Lord of theAdmiralty altered the British ocean-going fleet from coal furnaces to oilburners, the economic future of Trinidad was forever altered.

IfAdmiral Lord Nelson's flotilla had encountered the French battlefleet in anunfortunate manner in the Gulf of Paria in 1805, we may all be French-speakingtoday. Or, for that matter, had Admiral Apodaca attacked Admiral Sir HenryHarvy's squadron as they sailed through the Dragon's Mouth instead of burninghis fleet in Chaguaramas Bay in 1797, Spanish might be spoken here.

Theseas around us hold our destiny. A significant period in the history ofTrinidad and Tobago occurred at a time when we were hardly mentioned on themaps and charts of the world. Spain and Portugal had been given the New World,the entire western hemisphere, by the pope of the day, oblivious to the factthat it was not his to give away in the first place. This was challenged by thenon-Catholic princes of Europe, particularly England. At the source of thecircumstances lay the proverbial root of it all: money.

Hadcircumstances gone in favour of Spain, the direction of history would havechanged. In the wake of the discoverers Columbus, Vespucci and others, came theadventurers Cortes, Pizzaro and de Berrio, to name but a few. These werefollowed by the privateers, bandits and buccaneers, many of whom were Englishseamen like Morgan, Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh.

Spainwas then an underpopulated, comparatively backward European country which hadrecently driven out its intelligentsia, that is, the Jews and the Arabs. Shehad become enormously wealthy by her new colonies in the New World. Out of themines of Peru and Mexico came gold and silver. From the Gulf of Paria camepearls of great worth. Vast areas of the southern continent, as yet withoutnames, yielded emeralds and rubies. The power of the Spanish empire was sofortified by these riches, that King Philip could equip his armies and his navyas no other power had done before.

Thiswas well appreciated in the ruling circles of England. Recently Protestantunder Henry VIII, Spain, a powerful Catholic neighbour, posed a threat to theisland nation. So long as Spain controlled the wealth of the New World, shecould launch and equip battlefleets against England.

Toget a piece of the treasure from Americas, England therefore had to arrest itat its source or capture it from the Spanish ships on the high seas. England'seconomy in those years, the 1580s, was agricultural. She had to strengthen herfinances. The virgin Queen Elizabeth I accordingly sanctioned a quantity ofunofficial expeditions against Spanish interest in the west. This brought SirFrancis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh into the Gulf of Paria. Raleigh burnt downPort of Spain, captured Trinidad's capital, St. Joseph, kidnapped the Spanishgovernor and took him up the Orinoco river in search of El Dorado and the Cityof Gold.

SirHenry Morgan raided out of Jamaica the Spanish-held coastlines of Mexico.British privateers would lie in hiding in Tobago's Pirates Bay, so as to spotSpanish treasure fleets making for the Galleons Passage, the narrows betweenTrinidad and Tobago in order to capture treasure beyond their wildestfantasies.

Avoidingopen war, these raids continued. However, they made no lasting impact on Spain.It was only John Hawkins who rebuilt the British navy and put into place thesound foundation that would make it master of the open sea in the coming 17thcentury.

SirWinston Churchill, writing in his "History of the English-SpeakingPeoples", remarks:

"TheSpaniards had long contemplated an enterprise against England."

Theyknew that England stood in the way of their reconquest of the Netherlands.Spain commenced the building and the assembling of a fleet. These preparationswere delayed for a year by Drake's famous raid on Cadiz in 1587. He wrote thathe had "singed the King of Spain's beard". In May of the followingyear, the armada was ready. 136 ships were assembled, carrying 2,500 guns and morethan 30,000 men; 20,000 of them soldiers. There were 20 galleons, 44 weremerchantmen and 8 were Neapolitan galleys. These were the main ships.

TheSpanish armada set out to sail up the channel with a view to land on the southcoast of England. They were under the command of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia.Hawkins' redesign of Britain's fighting ships was about to be tested. In fact,the best that they could put against the Spaniards was a fleet of 34 ships ofthe line plus another 150 privately owned vessels.

TheBritish stationed small squadrons all along the southern coast. In themeantime, an Atlantic storm that had been broiling for several days swept theSpanish fleet, dismantling two 1,000 ton ships. The storm in passing through the channel, forced the Britishto put out to sea.

Ifthe Spanish Duke had attacked the English vessels to leeward of his ships asthey struggled to clear the land, he would have caught them at a disadvantage,but instead, he followed his orders and sailed up the channel. The English,however, just managed to get their fleet to the windward of the Spaniards andfor nine days hung on to the Armada as it ran before a gusty westerly whilepounding away with their long-range guns at the lumbering galleons.

OnJuly 23, the wind dropped and both fleets lay drifting off Portland Bill. TheSpaniards attempted a counter-attack with the Neapolitan galleys rowed byhundreds of slaves. Sir Francis Drake took advantage of light wind and swept inupon the main body, forcing them to give way "until they flocked togetherlike sheep".

Duringthe following night, the English launched ships full of dynamite to drift inthe direction of the enemy, then set them alight, abandoning them as quickly aspossible. Massive explosions shook the very air. The Spanish captains cut thecables that held their ships at anchor and made for the open sea. There weremany collisions in the dark.

Overthe following several hours, both winds and tide worked against them. Finally,the Spanish turned to face their pursuers. A long and desperate fight raged foreight hours. Ships lashed together as men fought it out hand to hand, sword tosword, musket to musket. Breaking free, their main van sailed northward withone thought in mind: home. This time, the westerly winds helped although theywere wrecks. Then a shift came. They were forced to make for Ireland for freshwater - they had already cast their horses and mules overboard.

TheEnglish had not lost a single ship. A handful of men had given their lives. TheSpaniards had lost half their fleet. The British struck a gold medal upon whichwas inscribed: "God blew and they were scattered". This victory overSpain was the shining achievement of the Elizabethan age. England had emergedas a first class sea power. She had resisted the might of the greatest empiresince Roman times.

This,in fact, was a turning point in the history of the world. There were still manybattles to fight against Spain, France and later against Germany, and manytribes and nations to conquer and overthrow to make the British Empire. But inthe final analysis, it was England that won the wars. That is why she callsherself even now, after her decline, Great Britain.

Tobago from English to French

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Tobagowas once a part of the first, original British Empire, like Jamaica, Barbadosand the American colonies, but distinct from India, South Africa or Trinidad.

Tobagohas several layers of history, which is why you can stand with your face to thewind, overlooking a truly lovely sweep of the blue seas and lush landscape,with the ruins of an early 17th century Dutch windmill just behind you and agreat old rusting cannon, marked for a Georgian king who died in the 1820s, atyour feet.

Youget a feeling for the past and of ancient things, of the creek and"whoosh" of the mill's four wings, its huge 40 ft sails turning inthe very same air in which you now stand. The lines of ox carts bringing thecut cane to be ground, the work songs of slaves going to the fields, living,dying, unmarked and unrecorded lives and deaths by the tens of thousands whotoiled the Tobagonian soil.

Thegreat estate houses have all but vanished. In the 19th and 20th century,buildings were put upon their old ballast block foundations, and if you havethe time and look very carefully, you may find an old piece of iron, maybe somelinks of chain, a huge hook, a broken hinge, a great copper caldron in whichsugar may have been boiled.

Tobagopossesses a profound sense of times already past. In 1769, Port of Spain was a mud and thatch assemblage ofhuts built in a swamp, just as the Caroni swamp is today, with a handful ofSpanish people, forty or fifty of them, a few slaves, all so poor that theirliving conditions were hardly different from each other.

Tobago,on the other hand, was well into its third, possibly fourth establishment. Itspopulation was arranged with 10,800 slaves, 1,050 free blacks and 2,300Europeans. Already the upper regions of its central main ridge were designatedas "woods for the protection of rains". The treaty of Paris of 1763,which marked the end of the Seven Year War, now made Tobago British. By RoyalProclamation in 1764 the island was divided into parishes. In April 1768, aLegislative Council was convened. Trinidad would not see anything like that foralmost 100 years. 54,000 acres of land were sold. This produced £154,000, at aperiod when the entire establishment in Trinidad, the European men could justarrange one suit of proper clothes between them all (just in the event ofvisitors from abroad)! This shows how poor Trinidad was in the pre-Cedula days.

Plantationdevelopment in Tobago commenced in earnest with the sale of 500 acres atCourland Bay. The first export of sugar came from Bushy Park in St. Mary'sParish. The drive for development was on. The 10,800 slaves bore the brunt ofthe actual labour of clearing the forest for the planting of a variety ofcrops, while enduring the appalling conditions of slavery. They cultivatedsugar cane on a large scale.

Itis hardly surprising that there were several slave revolts during the late 18thcentury in Tobago. These were more often than not started by the newly arrivedslaves. The first slave revolt in 1770 spread from Courland Estate to Mt.Irvine and Riseland; in 1771, two insurrections were put down by the militia.In 1774, the slave revolt on Queen's Bay Estate was also suppressed. Theplantation economy, centered as it was on the system of slavery, perceived theslaves as merely a factor in the production of crops, a commodity like axlesfor carts or grinding wheels for windmills, expensive to buy, requiring upkeepand maintenance, not to be unnecessarily misused or destroyed, but basically -albeit expensively - replaceable.

Therewas very little money on the plantations. Food, shelter and clothing wereprovided by the estate. It was self-sufficient in the crafts and skillsnecessary to maintain its work, stock and tools. Transactions between theestates and London were handled by bills of exchange and a system of credit.

Theservices necessary to provide for the shipping and sale of goods and for the management of income wereprovided by the merchant banker, who operated out of London. He provided theships that would transport the products of the estates to England and madearrangements for a constant supply of slaves from the west coast of Africa.These were procured by African merchants, mostly Muslims.

Theproceeds of the goods sold in England were used to settle the planters'financial commitments and arrange for supplies and stock. Any residuals werecredited to the accounts of the planters with the merchant houses. Produceserved as the unit of account and medium of exchange and thus was regarded as aform of money.

In1776, Tobago's economy suffered a serious setback, as hordes of leaf-eatingants destroyed thousands of acres of sugar cane, ravaging plantations in thewindward parishes. This forced a change to the cultivation of cotton, whichproved to be an early and timely attempt at diversification and, during thenext 15 years or so, up to 15,000 acres were changed to cotton cultivation.

In1778, with the American colonies in rebellion, an American squadron attempted araid on Tobago. Their squadron comprised two ships of the line, three brigs anda schooner. They were engaged by the British battleship H.M.S. Yarmouth. Duringthe encounter, the American ship Randolph was blown up with her crew of 315men. The remainder of the squadron withdrew.

Tobagoproduced in 1780 35,122 cwt. of sugar, 1,868 puncheons of rum and 1,518,000 lb.of cotton, 20,600 lb. of indigo and 1,600 lb. of ginger. There were 1,637working cattle and 946 horses. Almost 24,000 acres of land had been cleared.Notwithstanding, Tobago with its length of just 26 miles and width of seven,was not an important possession from an agricultural point of view. However,its value to the British crown lay in its strategic military and navalposition. It lay well to windward, which was important in the age of sailingships. Any force collected there could easily be launched against any of theislands, including even Barbados. A battle fleet coming from Tobago would havea speedy opportunity to fall upon an enemy beating against the prevailing wind.

Tobagowas basically out of the hurricane area and had excellent harbour for the shipsof those days. It has been felt by historians that the defense of the islandwas neglected in this period, and that the fortifications such as Fort Georgein 1777 and the small redoubts listed below came a bit late.

Theisland could boast of a militia of some 350 men. There were two companies ofthe 62nd regiment and later two companies of the 48th regiment. The Frenchinvolvement with the rebellious American colonists eventually led to open warbetween France and England in 1778. In that year, the French Admiral Comte d'Estaing was in the West Indieswith a squadron having 9,000 soldiers on board. He was unable to save St. Luciafrom capture by the British, but was able to take St. Vincent and Grenada fromthe English. The English planters in Tobago saw this as a catastrophe in themaking.

AFrench squadron of nine ships of the line were sighted off the island on 23rdMay, 1781. The British under Lt. Governor George Ferguson surrendered onlyafter a gallant 10-day struggle against overwhelming odds.

Fergusonhad upon sighting the French, immediately mastered all able-bodied men, some427, comprised of planters, militia, sailors and regular troops. The Frenchfirst attempted a landing a Minister Bay, named by the Dutch Luggart's Bay, buthigh seas drove them off. They tried again at Rockly Bay. Once again theweather proved too bad for a landing.

Thefollowing day, they succeeded in putting ashore 3,100 men at Great CourlandBay. Major Hamilton of the militia, who had manned a two-gun battery at BlackRock across the bay, was able to bring the French ships under heavy fire, untilhe was forced to retire.

Lt.Governor Ferguson in the meantime had retreated and regrouped his men atConcordia, on the heights above Scarborough, and not far from Mason Hall,fighting a guerrilla action all the way.

TheFrench general Philbert Blanchelande in hot pursuit demanded their surrender,having set up a battery at French Fort, which was then a cotton plantationoverlooking Concordia. A French attack on the English position failed in thenight, as the French lost their way.

Fergusonand his small band refused to surrender, requesting the French general"not to trouble me again upon this point". From the heights ofConcordia, Ferguson was able to see more French troops landing in Plymouth andwas forced to wait until the dead of the night to fall back to the base of themain ridge, Caledonia Estate. He did this so well that when the French stormedhis position the next day, they found that he had gone.

Fergusonfell back through the forest and steep mountain sides and fortified a mountaintop position so as to make a final stand. By this time, the French landed some400 men at Man-of-War Bay, intent to take Ferguson from the rear. Still, theBritish resisted. It was only when the French started to burn the plantationsthat Ferguson's force, many of them planters in short of ammunition and food,decided that the wisest course of action would be to surrender. the Frenchcongratulated the English on their gallant defense. The conditions and the lawslaid down by the English were left unchanged, although Scarborough was renamedPort Louis.

Redoubtsin Tobago

GreatCourland: two 18-pounders and one 6-pounder

LittleCourland: one 18-pounder and one 9-pounder

LaGuiria Bay: two 6-pounders

Queen'sBay: two 9-pounders

BloodyBay: one 6-pounder

Englishman'sBay: one 6-pounder

CastaraBay: one 6-pounder

SandyPoint: two 18-pounders, two 9-pounders

FortGranby: two 18-pounders, one 9-pounder, four 6-pounders with three5.5"-mortars

The Gaol

2012-02-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

They used tosay "Jail ain't make to ripen fig", meaning that if you went to jaildon't expect to be idle. You had to work. The original cost of the gaol, builtin 1812 on what is now Frederick Street, according to the accounts laid beforethe Council on 16th August 1813, was £29, 853 sterling (one pound sterling was$4.80).

Writing in1866, Daniel Hart, Commissioner of Prisons, observed that crime in the islandwas much less than in other countries in proportion to its population, and thatthe natives of the island formed but a small proportion of the totalcommitments.

By theprofitable employment of the prisoners, the prison department was madeself-supporting. The original building was 208 ft in length an 59 ft in width.This prison was capable of containing 98 prisoners in separate cells, and 294when more than one prisoner sleeps in one cell. There were separate quartersfor females and debtors. There was also an infirmary, a store room, work shopand bakery. The baths were separated for different classes of prisoners, itwould appear that felons did not bathe with debtors. There were three airingyards.

None of thesubordinate officers, except the night watch and matrons, remained in theprison at night, there being no quarters for them. During the administration ofLord Harris (1845 - 1854), some thirty five years after the originalconstruction, the gaol was enlarged to 312 ft in length and 251ft in width,with the height of the walls being 25 ft.

The prisonersearned their keep in those days. The greatest number of prisoners kept inconfinement at any one period was 315 males and 22 females.

Besides theprincipal prison at Port of Spain, there were five liscenced prisons indifferent parts of the island and one penal settlement at Irois. Prisonersconvicted for not more than 35 days were committed to the licensed prisons andwere employed by the wardens in the cleaning, making and repairing of roads.Prisoners convicted of serious crimes and those who had to serve long periodsof time were taken to Irois. These were employed in the felling, squaring andhauling out of timber. They were also employed in the replanting of theforests.

The timbertaken out was cut into boards, planks and beams of various proportions.Prisoners were also employed in the cleaning of the streets in Port of Spainand San Fernando. Education in gaol in 1866 saw 31 prisoners learning writing,42 reading, 31 arithmatic, 31 scripture reading and 45 spelling. Duringthat year, 1410 persons wereconvicted and passed through the gaol. The cosmopolitan nature of the prisonpopulation in that year gives an idea to the extent of the people coming toTrinidad from all over the world. The gaol in the "Experimental Colony"reflects this:

America - 9

Antigua - 17

Anguilla - 7

Africa - 117

Barbados - 79

China - 81

Dominica - 10

Demerara - 7

England - 5

France - 6

Guadelupe - 2

India - 688

Jamiaca - 2

Madeira - 6

Martinique -3

Montserrat -21

Nevis - 27

Ireland - 7

Saba - 3

Tortola - 2

Tobago - 16

Trinidad -201

Scotland - 4

St. Vincent -22

St. Kitts -19

St. Thomas -4

St. Lucia - 6

Cape de Verde- 1

Amongst thevarious charges laid were 23 for selling rum without a license; 5 for settingfire without giving notice; 2 for shooting with intent; 5 for robbery withviolence; 1 for riotous behaviour; 10 for resisting police; 2 for riding on theshaft of a cart; 22 for obstructing the street; 69 for obscene language; 6 formurder; 314 for larceny; 12 for furious riding; 27 for exposure of person; 150for debt; 14 for cutting and wounding; 1 for cruelty to animals; 495 for breachof contract (indentured Indians); 1 for arson; 124 for assault and battery.

Some of theprofessions of those convicted: 19 washers; 3 wheelwrights; 18 tailors; 2tinsmiths; 10 seamstress; 2 schoolmasters; 9 shoemakers; 4 saddlers; 4 sawyers;1 sailmaker; 2 solicitors; 4 professors of music; 1,118 labourers; 1auctioneer; 3 boatmen; 3 butchers; 1 coach painter; 9 coopers; 1 coachsmith; 1cigarmaker; 1 distiller; 3 interpretors.

Theseselected at random show a range of trades and professions, some no longer inexistance. In those days there was one first-class turnkey who received £100per year (a pound was $4.80). £100 was also given to the inspector of prisons,and the superintendent got £350. There was one clerk who got £150, an assistantclerk who got £75 and one overseer getting £120. The teacher was given £50.There were four second-class turnkeys who recieved £80, seven third-class got£70 and nine fouth-class who recieved £50 a year. The matron got £40 per year.

There wereseven executions in 1866. There were 3 convicted for arson; 18 for cutting andwounding; 10 for murder; 7 for killing and slaying; 6 attempts to commitmurder; 6 for assault to commit rape; 6 for rape; 11 for robbery with violence;8 for assault; 6 for assault and battery; 7 for shooting with intent; 1 formalicious injury to person.

The oldinstruments of torture left over from the Spanish times remained in the gaol onFrederick Street for many years. One wonders whether they're still around.

The Big Drum Dance

2012-02-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

Coming from Carriacou, the bigdrum was adopted by people of West African descent as a cultural expressionthat just made sense.

It was in the mid-1970s that Ilast saw André Beddoe. I wentalong with some friends to a shango for a "lime" (term used inTrinidad for hanging out). We drove to Laventille, the hilly eastern end of thecity that had been settled by African peoples since the 1800s. I made sure thatI brought a bottle of brandy and a carton of cigarettes as offerings, oldhabits die hard, I suppose.

We drove up to the top of"the hill" and I realised that we were going to a yard that I knew,next to Rudolph Charles' grandmother's house. Our small crowd of five or sixwas led by the young man who had been invited. I followed with my packages. Theyard was crowded with children, goats, neighbours, well-wishers, practitionersand a dozen or so Guinea fowls woken up by the noise and bright lights.

I found André Beddoe telling"Big Snake" stories to some sisters, and with a nod and a wink thepresents disappeared. A little later I sat quietly just inside the main door ofthe house. There was a candle burning in a corner and the atmosphere waspeaceful and quiet. He didn't see me as he was coming in, shuffling his bigfeet that seldom had shoes. His hair was now completely white and his oncemuscular frame had become soft and bent with age.

He sighed as he walked and sat ina corner just under two boulas and a gran tambour hanging from the wall. Frominside his shirt, he took a small drum and a little bent stick with which hebegan to beat. Offbeat at first, then quickening into a skipping, tripping,happy-sounding song, the words of which he sang at first in a raspy whisperand, as they came to him better, in a sweet low melodious voice of his earlyyouth. He sang:

"Papa Llegba, ouvri barrierpo'moin ago ye Azima Llegba guvri barrier po'moin - ouvri barrier po'moin aogo- ye - e ..."

I sat and watched and listened,and all of a sudden I realised that a strange and wonderful thing was takingplace. André grew young before my eyes! He straightened up, became tall andslim. His face, unlined now, was aglow as he smiled and sang and whispered toAtibo Llegba to remove the barrier that he may pass, so that when he would comeback he would salute the loas and thank the loa Abobo.

His voice evoked the memory ofancestors long dead on other islands; his quick-stepping drum went round anddown to the most ancient ones beyond the gate. I looked on with amazement asAndré assumed with beauty the form of his beloved ancestor.

The big drum dance of Carriacoucontains three main aspects. The first, most important and most sacred, whichopens the ritual, is devoted to the ancestors. The second expresses dances andsongs that were established before emancipation, and the third innovative andmore syncretic stems from the long twilight of the post-emancipation period. Inthose days, the islands of the Grenadines lay almost unknown to the yachtiesand the outside world - which included place like Trinidad and Barbados.

The big drum dance contains songsthat relate to slavery days and are sung in Patois. It would appear that theywere well-evolved by the time emancipation came in 1838. Dance, song anddrumming came aboard the swift windjammers built on Carriacou to Trinidad inthe 1840s. The importation of the big drum was of great significance toTrinidad's black population.

Slavery had been brought toTrinidad with the French who arrived by virtue of the Cedula of Population of1780s. Prior to their immigration, there were a few African people in theSpanish island. With the French and their slaves came an active syncretic movement,joining Catholicism to animism and to an ancestral cult, which was expressed asshango.

With the British capture of theisland in 1797, there was an overall clamp-down on drumming and public Africandancing. By 1799, the French planters had influenced the British authorities tothink that a black insurrection of the type experienced in Haiti was imminent.This led to executions, banishment and beatings of the slaves on a large scale.

African culture in terms ofreligion, dance, song and drumming went underground to a considerable extent. Stifled by regulations, broken up with police action and sociallycondemned by the planters, dark days had started for the drum.

With the passing of the period ofthe military governors from 1797 to 1813, a different and more insidiousrepression commenced under the first civil British governors. Respectabilitybecame the yardstick to acceptance, applied chiefly to free blacks and peopleof colour. Drumming became even less respectable, as the coloured folks wantedto distinguish themselves clearlyfrom their African slaves.

With emancipation in 1838 came acollapse of the economy. The former slaves left the estates, never to return.Seeking labour from the other British West Indian possessions, the planters andthe administration encouraged a first wave of West Indian immigration on alarge scale. Among the thousands who landed at the lighthouse jetty in Port ofSpain were the men and women of the Grenadines. They brought with them the bigdrum dance of Carriacou and the big drum itself.

By its very nature, the big drumdance is accommodating. It celebrates all tribes; Yoruba, Congo, Coromant,Banda, Chamba, Moko Bange, Temné, Ibo are welcome to sing, to dance, to drum,and to express their relationship with a time out of mind. Joy and ecstasy areformed in another world. The dream memory of ancestors evoke powers totranscend this time.

Père Labat wrote in the 1720s:
"They use two drums hollowed to unequal lengths. One of the ends is pen,the other covered with a sheepskin or goatskin without hair, scraped likeparchment. The largest of these two drums which they simply call the big drum ('grandtambour') may measure 3 or 4 feet in length with a diameter of about fifteeninches. The smaller one, which is called the baboula, is about the same lengthwith a diameter of 8 or 9 inches.

Those who beat the drums to workthe beat of the dance put them between their legs or sit on them and strikethem with the flat of the four fingers of each hand. The man who plays thelarge drum strikes it deliberately and rhytmically, but the baboula playerdrums as fast as he can, hardly keeping the rhythm, and as the sound of thebaboula is much quieter than that of the big drum and is very penetrating, itsonly use is to make noise without working the beat of the dance or themovements of the dancers."

For more information and picturesof the present-day big drum dance, you can visithttp://www.grenadines.net/carriacou/carriacouBIGDRUM.htm

Lorna McDaniel is the foundingeditor of the journal "New Directions: Readings in African DiasporaMusic". You can find McDaniel's articles in the journals "The BlackPerspective in Music" and "Black Music Research Journal". Shewas a lecturer at the University of Michigan, the University of Nigeria, andCheyney University.

For more information on LornaMcDaniel's book on the big drum dance, visithttp://www.upf.com/Fall1998/mcdaniel.html.

Lopinot and the Haitian Revolution

2012-02-08T05:51:00.000-08:00

Thereare few occasions in a person's lifetime that possess a sense-alteration to thedegree of conveying the impression of being outside of the events taking place.The cusp of epochs; a common version may be the death of a parent or thecollapse of a career.

Tobetter grasp the scale of the Haitian Revolution, the events can only beperceived via such terms as Holocaust, mass murder, the liberation of a people,the birth of a nation, genocide, and even these, muttered out of context, losetheir importance. Seeing is believing.

Shewas undoubtedly a woman of great strength of character and personal courage,exceptionally brave or perhaps simply possessed by the incipient stupidity thatoverbreeding sometimes brings to the upper classes.

Shewas completely aware of the whole scale destruction and mass murders beingundertaken by the slaves. On the plantation La Resource she was not alone. Thehouse slaves, still faithful to the memory of her parents, hovered breathlesslyon the borders of their serfdom. She herself had but one clear intention, thatwas, to save the life of Charles Joseph Count Loppinot de la Fresillière, whohad come into her pallid life two years before.

Shewas a Creole of this island and had known only the odour of the negroes, thearoma of burnt cane, the smell of molasses, of sawdust and of perfumes importedfrom abroad and as such, had lost their delicacy in the furnace holds of shipsbecalmed in the wide Sargasso Sea.

Sheknew well the fragrance of exotic tropical blooms carried on a warm wind whenone sat dozing in the side gallery, the slave girl in spotless white, fanningher bare feet. She had been unprepared for the fresh crispness of hisappearance, the originality of his clothing, and a sense about him that shecould only compare to freshly baked bread or if you could imagine the smell ofsunshine.

Allher life, she had a highly developed olfactory faculty. They were never lovers. He had arrived on the islandaboard a 78 gun ship of the line in the company of the exalted. After havinglived in Louisiana as an officer in the militia, he was now at St. Dominguewhere he was appointed Lieutenant de Roi par interim at Port au Prince. Hebecame Major Commandante pour Roi at Jerome in 1784 and Commandante particulierat Port au Prince in 1787.

Heoccupied large estates in the colony. He married Catherine Fabre d'Auray bywhom he had four sons. He was her neighbour. From the hilltop upon which hermansion had been built, she could see the burning cane fields. Macaque, herfather's valet, so named in a moment of levity in what now seemed to be athousand years ago, approached her with much gentility, smiled through hischattering teeth and told her in courtly French that the wagon was prepared andthat the Monsieur had consented to enter the hogshead that had been providedfor their escape and that he had requested her to join him. This she declinedin as much as she had already decided to die in the house her father had built,overlooking the deep bay at Moucound.

Sixof her strongest houseboys rolled the heavy oaken barrel in which the Count,wrapped in blankets against the inevitable collisions lay in hiding. This washeaved onto the waiting oxcart. Later they would roll it on to a careened longboatleaning on the waters edge in the bay. This in turn would be hauled aboard theBritish frigate "Arethusa" that would eventually take him and hisfamily, also hidden in rum barrels, to Jamaica and safety. He would, however,return with the British expedition.

Thatevening, with her delicate profile turned slightly windward, she could smellthem coming long before she heard them in the bottom of the garden near to thefountain dedicated to the Three Graces, built by her father in the year thatshe was born.

Fiveyears later, between the execution of Louis XVI on the 21st of January 1793 andthat of Marie Antoinette on the 16th October, at the promting of Loppinothimself, the future Louis XVIII - the Dauphin Louis XVII still being alive -then Compte de Provence, conferred on Loppinot the powers of Governor Generalof St. Domingue and Commissioner of all the Windward and Leeward Islands ofAmerica by a commission signed in Hamm in Westphalia on the 24th August 1793.This was to commence when "... His Majesty would only be able to decidefurther useful directions on the restoration of the monarchy, only then wouldhe send his orders."

Inas much as his lands had been lost in St. Domingue and in return for hisservice with the British expedition, the Secretary of State decided that asuitable grant of land would be made to him in Trinidad.

Col.Thomas Picton was a large, red-faced Welshman who drank more than he should andkept a notoriously common woman of an indeterminable racial background as amistress. He tended to run the colony in much the same manner as he did hisregiment. He was sitting in a warm rummy vapour which emanated from his person,when the Count was announced by the German sentry belonging to the 3rd Hompesch'sregiment of German "Jägers" left behind so as to maintain order inthe freshly captured island.

Pictoncould not stand the idea of meeting and dealing with yet another overly broughtup, dandified ex-courtier of a now extinct kingdom. Frenchies made him sick.With elaborate resignation he listened as the Count Loppinot went throughlengthy formalities, finally arriving at the point: land. Sorry, Picton had notheard a word from the Secretary of State and as such had no authority to make agrant. Undeterred, the Count borrowed money on mortgage. He attempted toutilise his slaves by purchasing a half share in a sugar estate at Tacarigua.But the depressed sugar market at the time, so different from the prosperousrevolutionary days in St. Domingue, resulted in heavy losses for him.

InTrinidad, his rank and military experience earned Loppinot the confidence ofthe military governors of the island who succeeded Col. Picton. BrigadierGeneral Thomas Hislop appointed him a brigadier-general in the militia. It wasduring the latter's governorship that the Count again applied for a grant ofland in a mountain valley above Tacarigua. This time he was successful, and thearea of his cocoa plantation is still bearing his name to date.

UnderHislop's successor, Major-General W. Monroe, during a period when the wars forthe liberation of South America was being conducted by a young mestizorevolutionary called Simon Bolivar, Loppinot was sent with troops to flush outa revolutionary cell that had been built up under the aegis of one GeraldineCarry on Carry's island in the Dragon's Mouth, Chacachacare.

Theinsurgents, comprised mainly of members of the local Masonic Lodge, had alreadyleft for Guiria on the mainland. Taking the town, they were successful in therecommencing of the revolution, which had petered out. They were later known asthe "Immortal 45" and were with Bolivar at the capture of Caracas.

SirRalph Woodford, the island's first civil governor who succeeded Munro in 1813, dismissedthe old Council of Advice of previous administrators and appointed a newCouncil of Three, one of whom was the Count.

In1814, the year after Woodford's arrival, the news of the fall of Napoleon came.The Count lost no time in suggesting means of winning back St. Domingue. Inelaborate terms he addressed the Comte d'Artois. He commenced:

"Monsignor,we have heard the most memorable, the most happy and the most cheering eventfor the spirit of Frenchmen. The monstrous idol, that fantasy of ambition anderror raised up is finally cast down to leave only the bitter memory of themost painful screams..."

Hewas reminding the Comte d'Artois of his position and rank and proposed acommission for himself as Governor General, not in name but in fact. He wrotedozens of letters outlining various schemes and plans to retake St. Domingue,now Haiti. They all came to nothing. The most wealthy, the most splendid, themost fantastic colony France had ever possessed was now on the road to its owndestiny. The last of the house of Bourbon to sit upon the throne of France werereactionary relics of the ancient regime, best remembered by the saying thatthey learned nothing and forgot nothing. In his closing of one of his lastletters to the king a disappointed Loppinot writes:

"Sincethe happy events which restored His Majesty to the throne, I have not receiveda single instruction..."

Loppinotlived out his last years in his mountain retreat as one of the most respectedand prominent inhabitants of the British colony of Trinidad. When he died in1817, he was buried on his estate, as were his wife and a son. Well beloved byhis slaves, there was never a hanging in Loppinot. The family and title existto this day in France.

A tour of Port of Spain in Mahalle's invisible car

2012-02-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

"Mahalle,you change your car?" asked Spit in the Sea; he was looking for a drop toCocorite. Mahalle ignored him as he brought his car's invisible windscreen upto an impossible shine, stepped back and attempted to catch a glimpse ofhimself reflected in the imaginary bonnet.

Thiswas an altogether ludicrous period in Port of Spain's history. Spoiler thecalypsonian had just sung a hit about an accident in the colonial hospital,where by a cat's brain had inadvertently been put into his sister's head andvice versa, resulting in:

"Andthe cat who ha she brain,

hecozy on the bed

bussingkiss on top ah she husband head."

Buttoday Mahalle was not bothering with Spit in the Sea's flattery, he knew that allSpit wanted was to pose off in the back seat and make old style in his car.

"Watchthe door!" snapped Mahalle as the coconut man backed his donkey and cartinto a spot just outside Vasco de Gamma Bar, on the corner of Piccadilly Streetand Old St. Joseph Road, and with the proper hand signals and his car in firstgear, off he went, never noticing that Spit had got in behind.

Theydrew little attention as they made their way traveling west on Marine Square.Passersby saw an elderly Indian man with a lunatic glare in his eye and ared-skinned nut case walking quickly behind him. Spit in the Sea had only one thought in his mind, "Ahwonder if he really going Cocorite."

Thecity of Port of Spain in the 1940s was getting a face lift along the lines ofthe Slum Clearance Bill of 1935; many parts of town had been declared unfit.Mahalle had heard only this morning that all the barracks on Francis Street inCorbeaux Town were being replaced by up-to-date bungalows. The Guardian'sspecial correspondent went on to say:

"Othersections of the city, Prince Street, Charlotte Street, Henry Street, upper St.Vincent Street and in the Besson Street area in particular some ugliness stillremains, but lines of squalid barracks have slowly given way to beautiful modelhouses."

Ashe approached Abercromby Street Mahalle signaled that he was slowing down so asto allow Col. Mavrogordato to cross to the Union Club. Spit, in the back seat,instead of paying attention to the driver, bumped right into Mahalle, almostcausing him to collide with the Commissioner of Police. With that Mahallejumped out of his invisible, opened the back door and threw Spit out.

"Whatthe hell you doing in my blankity-blank car?!! Get out you smelly rodent!"(etc. etc.)

Allthis naturally caught the eye of the commissioner, who stood for a moment tosee the two old vagrants fighting on the sidewalk, feeling vaguely reminded ofa snake charmer and a carpet vendor he had once observed in Cairo, Egypt.Shaking his head, he turned towards the club's elegant staircase in search of amid-morning gin and tonic.

Notonly was the housing in the city changing in this early wartime period,transportation was also on the move as there were now more than 1,000 cars onthe streets of Port of Spain (not counting Mahalle's). Horse-drawn vehicles anddonkey carts still outnumbered motor vehicles. Some old-time calypsoes remindus of them:

"Ahwent dong donkey city to circumsise meh donkey,

ahbounce up two female donkeys carrying with a mule,

andthe mule said to the donkey, 'Sagaboy don't caca behind me, donkey,

whoadon't tear up my junior commando.."

Thecity council still charged fees for the pasturage of animals at the Mucarapopasture, the only one left belonging to the government. There had been pasturesat Woodbrook, Belmont and St. Clair. The Queen's Park Savannah was also usedfor pasturing. In fact the government kept a bull tethered there and, for ashilling paid to the city council, you could bring your heifer to thegovernment's bull.

Inthe meantime, Mahalle had been able to push Spit in the Sea out of his car andhad driven off at full speed, swinging north into Abercromby Street and almost'licking down' Mary Jackass. Mary, an old white woman, always in a big hurryand perpetually tormented by school boys, had one large tooth left and withthis she fired a bite at Mahalle causing a scratch on his upholstery. Withthat, Mahalle tried to bounce her down, but she managed to escape by runninginto the square, a crowd of school boys chasing behind her.

Mahallecrossed Marine Square north and gingerly brought his car to a stop outside theHotel de Paris. In those days, Port of Spain boasted several fine hotels. TheIce House Hotel faced the Hotel de Paris on Abercromby Street, the StandardHotel was at Henry Street, the St. Miranda at the corner of Henry and QueenStreet and the Carlisle at the corner of Queen and St. Vincent Street.

"TaxiSir? Taxi Miss?" called Mahalle with an ingratiating smile, subservientlybowing and scraping to a tall, English-looking gentleman and the pretty lady ina green and white polka dot dress.

"Taxi,take a tour, see the sights!"

DowntownPort of Spain was quite fashionable in those days, kept clean, its sidewalksand canals swept daily, with shiny steel tram lines running down their lengthsof the streets. Elaborate wrought-iron balconies overhung large showcasewindows, displaying the latest arrivals at Miller's, Glendinning's and theBonanza. There was Canning's, Salvatori and Tetrami. In those days, the bicyclewas a popular means of transport. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, when carsparked on the eastern side of the city's streets, bikes lined the left side,and vice versa on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Fedup with the ungrateful tourists, Mahalle was about to enter his car by himselfwhen he spotted Gombot Lili, a greasy-pole climber who used to bathe the dead,just like his father, Gombot Glise, who had been jailed in the previous centuryfor charging the public four cents to look into a large box. The allegation wasthat one of the men in the box had displayed an indecent spectacle.

"EhGombot, you want a drop? Ah goin by the Circular Road, jus 6 cents."

ButGombot was busy. He had a dead to bathe. Mahalle drove north on AbercrombyStreet and turned right onto Knox Street, which had been named for a ChiefJudge of the colony. On the left was the old Garcia building, now the TownHall. It boasted a fine row of columns supporting a gallery which shaded theside walk, paved with large red flagstones.

Thebuilding had been the home of the famous Garcia family. It was a fine oldfashioned Spanish house that had a chapel for the family's use. It was saidthat Don Raymond Garcia, who had come to Trinidad at the start of the 19thcentury from Caracas, was the illegitimate son of a Spanish infanta and herconfessor. Upon discovering her condition, the confessor was executed, theinfanta sent to a nunnery. After she had given birth, her son was dispatched to Venezuela with a teacher,a fortune and a new name. In those days, there were many such stories of howroyalty walked the streets of Port of Spain.

Mahalleturned down Frederick Street, past the Grey Friars' Kirk, where the firstPortuguese, who had come to the island from Madeira, said their prayers. ThesePortuguese, originally Catholic, had been converted to a form of Calvinism andas such had been in mortal danger from their fellow catechists, causing theirbeing rescued by the British and brought from their Atlantic island toTrinidad.

Mahallespotted the city councillor Albert Gomes walking up Frederick Street."Good morning, Mista Gomes."

"MorningMahalle. How is everything today? Haven't had a flat I hope," said Gomes,tipping his hat at the fleet-footed Mahalle, who had already begun signallinghis intention to turn onto Prince Street. Albert Gomes was, in those days, anup-and-coming politician. On one occasion, the Port of Spain City Council wasdebating the use of the city's squares for public meetings. Things had come toa head when an associate of Gomes, one Quintin O'Connor, had been refusedpermission to use Woodford Square for a public meeting. O'Connor was a tradeunionist representing the Shopworkers' and Clerks' Union, which was a rivalunion to Captain Arthur Cipriani's Trinidad Labour Party. Cipriani, the Mayorof Port of Spain, had ruled that it was against the constitution to hold publicmeetings in public places such as the squares.

AlbertGomes was furious. He bellowed that the Mayor was attempting to silence theopposition.

"WoodfordSquare belongs to the people, the man in the street. You are making thiscouncil a fascist platform!"

Insulted,the Mayor ordered Gomes to take his seat. Gomes refused and the Captain orderedtwo policemen to put Gomes out of the Council Chamber. Gomes, on seeing thepolice, lay down flat on the floor, all 280 pounds of him. The rumor that madethe rounds was that it took 16 policemen to move Gomes into the corridor!

AsMahalle approached the corner of Prince and Henry Street, he spotted Spit inthe Sea waiting for a taxi so he could go to Cocorite to spit in the sea.Fortunately for Mahalle, a little drizzle started and he put on his windshieldwipers. As such, he was able to pretend he did not see Spit. Turning left onPark Street, Mahalle could not help but notice a change in the city. There werea lot of sailors and airmen, Red Cross nurses and the Trinidad volunteersabout. He was overtaken by a jeep driving at break-neck speed along ParkStreet: American sailors on a spree. People were glad to see Americans. Theybrought employment with the camps and bases being opened up. They broughtexcitement to the girls and spent money on gambling.

"Drinkingrum and Coca Cola

godong Point Cumana,

seemother and daughter

workingfor the Yankee dollar."

Talkof the devil. "Morning Mr. Boysie!" called Mahalle, slowing down atPembroke Street corner. He had seen the notorious underworld character BoysieSingh. In those early years of Boysie's career, he controlled gambling in Portof Spain and boy did he have a way with the ladies! Boysie's career, written upyears later, would, for a short time, become a bestseller. The gangster waved,"Alright Mahalle." Mahalle smiled. Everybody knew the car. Mahallecouldn't find a park at Green Corner, too many American sailors, so he drovedown to Victoria Square, previously Shine's Pasture, which had been made into apublic park using the rubble from the burnt out Red House (1903). Parkingcarefully on Duke Street, Mahalle went into the square to admire the zandoleesliving there. And you know when he came out he couldn't find the car? You thinkSpit could drive???

The African Prince

2012-02-03T05:31:00.000-08:00

"Sail off the starboard, bowmaster Jackson,"snapped at Captain Peppard. Midshipman Jackson trained his glass along thesteadily rising and falling horizon. The Portuguese barcantine appeared to bemaking directly towards H.M.S. Vigilante.

"Looks like slaver, sir."

"Trifle worse for wear."

"Order number two to fire."

"Fire number two!"

The order shouted from the quarterdeck was immediatelycarried out by a grinning sailor whiteout a tooth to his name. Boom! an indeterminateperiod, and a splash, well to the port of the Portuguese.

"Take her about, Mister Jackson, and see to the maingallants. Fasten the mizzen halyard, no luff today, Mr. Jackson!"

"Ay ay, sir!"

Captain Peppard moved to the rail.

"Stand by to board the Portuguese. Look lively at the divots!"

"Ay ay, sir!"

"Helm's alee, Captain, sir!"

"Fire number four."

"Fire number four!"

Several seconds - Boom! - huge splash just off thebarcantine's starboard gunnel.

"He's put her into irons, sir. Not a breath to hercanvas, she's dead in the water."

"Sergeant, board her."

"Ay ay, sir!"

The Portuguese out of Goa bound for Recife, her bow now inthe wind, heaved and wallowed in the startlingly brilliant mid-Atlantic green.The sky above, true blue. From 30 yards, the Royal Marines in the Vigilante's longboatcould smell the cargo: human beings, chained together in despair.

Britain's blockade of the Portuguese slave trade in the mid19th century, the 1850s, created a different class of African people inTrinidad and Tobago. Freed from slave trading ships, they arrived on theseislands 20-odd years after the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire.They knew nothing of plantation life and its attendant depredations, nor werethey caught up in the variegated cross-currents and miasma of coloured creolesociety that confused the free blacks and people of colour with the slaves,both before and after abolition.

They were distinguished by this lack of experience. All thesame, they were thrown into the crucible of colonial prejudice and racialdiscrimination.

The number of freed Africans was quite substantial in theBritish West Indies: some eight or ten thousand were dispersed in theCaribbean. Among them, one day, was a prince.

The Royal House of Oyo was descendant of the Gods. At a timenow so distant that it could be grasped only in metaphor and expressed purelyin ritual, the great old ones had come and had allowed themselves to stay. Hehad been entrusted to their care of young Olumide so as to benefit from hisknowledge of the earth and of what walked upon it. Because he was his father'seldest son, he was a prince, and as such was one of the sons of the Gods.

The tall, ascetic youth and the boy were walking swiftlyalong the path that made its way through the tall grass. The sun was huge andred and out of shape as a result of the heat of the day. It was close tosetting, causing the village huts to stand out sharply in classic silhouettelike black, hooded shapes.

This was where tragedy struck. Suddenly, strange men wereupon them; hard blows were delivered, a net thrown upon them, and they werehoisted upon long poles and borne away. They had been stolen, and were soon tobe sold to the Muslim trader who in turn sold them along with a party of Ibofrom the north to the man who owned the wharves where the ships came.

Put aboard the Portuguese barcantine, they were herded belowdecks. They now possessed nothing, but they had a secret. No one knew who orwhat the boy was, and for many years after, he kept his secret of being aprince.

Arriving in Trinidad, he took the name Charles Robinson;maybe it was given to him. He and his tutor fell into Trinidad's life of the1850s, and witnessed many wondrous sights. 1851 was the year of jubilee for theRoman Catholics, and he saw a grand procession make its way from the city's Romanesquecathedral to the hill of Calvary, just off Piccadilly Street in Port of Spain.Twenty days later, the cross was struck by lightning.

The first horse races were held that year at the Queen'sPark Savannah. He had never seen a horse or a horse race before he came toTrinidad. His tutor continued his education, worked and looked after the boy.He took the name of Charles Robertson. They both became Catholics. Charles grewinto a hard-working, thrifty young man and traveled down the main to Venezuela,where he bought a parcel of land and went into farming.

Five or six years later, gold was found on the land, and hisparcel, along with others, became the famous El Callao mine from which Charlesmade a fortune. Returning to Trinidad, he married a member of the Blandin familyand had three sons and a daughter. He did not live to enjoy either his wealthor his family, but passed away early. Today, his dozens of descendants livearound us, among them the McShine, the Davis and the Carters. His old tutorbecame brother Vincent of Mt. St. Benedict.

The Red House

2012-02-01T05:35:00.000-08:00

It was a hot night in the dry season of 1808. Mosquitoesseemed to be attacking the little town of Port of Spain by the millions,swarming out from the nearby swamplands. It was one of those nights when thenoise from the streets was especially annoying. Tossing and turning in the bed,sweating; why isn't there the habitual cool breeze?

Suddenly, a piercing scream disrupts the uneasy slumber.Governor Thomas Hislop sits bolt upright in his soldier cot. The blanket slipsto the floor. The scream, and the stinging smell that gets the adrenalinepumping instantly: smoke. Now, he hears the crackling. Yes, fire, and a big oneat that.

The fire that had Governor Hislop startled from his sleepdestroyed a large part of Port of Spain. The small town had grown tremendouslyin the last twenty years, since thousands of French immigrants and theirAfrican slaves flocked to the island to establish plantations and businesseshere.

The prevalent building style of the city was wood andshingles, a bad choice of materials as this night of flames and smoke was toprove. Hislop had to deal with hundreds of homeless people from one day to thenext. Valuable historical records from Spanish times were destroyed. To dealwith the chaos and to prevent such a disaster in the future, Hislop'sadministration passed legislation with regard to building regulations,stipulating that the re-building of the destroyed parts of town and any othernew construction had to be made with brick and stone.

A wise decision, which was put into action by Hislop himselfand his successors Munro, Woodford, Grant, Hill, Gregor and McLeod. The latter,Sir Henry McLeod, laid on February 15, 1844 the foundation stone for a newgovernment building on the west side of Brunswick Square (now Woodford Square).This was to be the first building on the site where the Red House now stands -let us call it the "first Red House", even though it was not thenknown by that name.

The architect of the first Red House was Richard Bridgens,known to us also by his drawing of Trinidadian people, i.e. Amerindians, the"Negro Figuranti" and scenes of Tobago. He was then appointed as theSuperintendent of Public Works, a sector of the public administration that hadbeen very busy since the 1810s and 1820s, when Governor Woodford did some majorstructural changes in the town.

The builders of that first Red House were G. de la Sauvagèreand A. A. Pierre. The final building was somewhat smaller than the second(present-day) Red House. Somewhat artless, it was comprised of two blocks,connected by an archway through which coaches could pass from Abercromby Streetinto Prince Street (now Sackville Street). In those days, it was exclusivelypedestrians, people on horseback, and carts and buggies that populated thestreets, and a detour around the Red House would have been inconvenient forthose muscle-powered means of transport. Also, in case of fire or publicturmoil, the part of town behind the Red House had to be easily accessible forfire fighters or for the police.

The first Red House was opened in 1848 by then Governor LordHarris, an enlightened man who contributed much to the development of theisland, in particular to learning and education, founding a library and thefirst public school system that included Indian and black children in thecountryside. The building was then not quite completed, but the inaugurationceremony in the Trinity Cathedral took place anyway.

Fifty years later, it was still not completed, for reasonsunbeknownst to the author. Olga Mavrogordato in her book "Voices in theStreet" quotes the Port of Spain Gazette of 1892:

"Nothing further had been done to complete thebuildings since their erection some fifty years ago. The only attempt torelieve the monotony of the whole is to be seen in the arching of thecarriageway through the courtyard which is a perfect skeleton and, like theruins of Pompeii, is more suggestive of what the buildings must have been thanof what they were intended to be."

The Director of Public Works in the 1890s, J.E. Tanner,apparently took those comments to heart, and together with the increasing needfor a proper public records office, £15,000 was allotted over the next years tocarry out extensions and alterations. The first Red House started to look alittle more stately.

In 1897, the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria wascelebrated all over the British Empire. Trinidad, too, spruced up, and the firstRed House was painted red. This was when it got its name - not officially, butby Trinidadians, who henceforth referred to it by that name. The name stuck,and so did the red colour, at least up to the year 2001 when this article waswritten.

Five years later, on the 23rd March 1903, the first RedHouse was destroyed. Its windows were smashed by stones, the plaster of thewalls damaged here and there by bullets, and then the whole thing went up inflames: an enraged mob vented its anger on the government's property. Thisincident is known today as the "Water Riots", since it started withthe discussion of the increase of water rates by the Legislative Council, andended with panic, death and destruction on the side of the protesters outside.The governor then was Sir A.C. Maloney. Again, for us interested in history,valuable records were destroyed, making it at times impossible to retrace thefacts of times past.

In 1904, re-building began. It was a time of construction onthe whole. Cocoa had brought a lot of cash into the economy, and theadministration and some private individuals invested in beautiful buildingsthat are today Trinidad's heritage treasure: the Magnificent Seven were alsoerected in 1904.

The second Red House is the one we know today. Designed andbuilt by German architect D.M. Hahn, who was Chief Draughtsman of Public Works,it cost an estimated sum of £47,485. It was much more splendid and elaboratethan the first Red House, with beautiful gesso work in the Legislative CouncilChamber (now the Parliament Chamber) and in the Justice Hall, which is depictedin its old, undecorated form in the first house on the cover of the Digest. Thegessowork and the panels were in fact made in England, shipped to Trinidad inparts, and installed by Italian craftsmen who also worked in the halls of forexample Whitehall.

The carriageway between the two wings of the Red House wasclosed by Hahn for vehicular traffic, but remained open to pedestrians, and hada beautiful fountain in the centre under the rotunda. The square opposite to itwas renamed Woodford Square during World War I, when Germany and its city ofBraunschweig (Brunswick) had become enemies of the British Empire and no majorlandmark was to be named for them. Similarly, Hanover Street (named for the GermanHouse of Hanover, whence Queen Victoria's husband hailed) became the extensionof Abercromby Street.

Inspite of all these name changes, the Red House remainedthe Red House and is now officially referred to under this name.

An Indentured Prince

2012-01-30T05:23:00.000-08:00

This is a tale of two royal princes and how they madetheir way to the Land of the Hummingbird. It is a fictional, dramatised accountof two true adventures, one of an Indian prince who came to Trinidad as anindentured labourer, and one of an African prince who was freed from a slaveship.

The history of Trinidad and Tobago is a story of immigrants.Coming to these islands from three continents, these themselves separated bythousands of miles, distinguished by cultures fundamentally different, theimmigrants shared, however, the island's eclectic and dynamic 19th centuryculture. Sometimes, they had a unique background in common, like royalty.

Ishwarisingh, by the grace of God, was born into the royalhouse of Jaipur. He was the third son of Motilal Singh, uncle and one timeguardian of the Maharaja of Jaipur, Surat Chandra Singh. Ishwarisingh grew up inthe shadow of the great mandir dedicated to Shila Devi, who representsMahishasuramardini, the 'slayer of the buffalo-demon'. He became a musician,poet and devotee, a dedicated priest to that shrine of Her benevolence.

Ishwarisingh was born in the 20th year of the reign of QueenVictoria of England, whose majesty had spread across the known world, even toIndia, where her agents and military had engulfed the Mungal kingdoms andthreatened the independent princely Rajput states. Jaipur stood as an island,independent, as it had done for close upon a thousand years. defended by thewealth and the wisdom of her ruling house and walked in the ruins of longdeserted temples.

Ishwarisingh, in the flower of his youth, decided upon a holyjourney, a pilgrimage, so as to visit shrines and sites of his devotion. He traveledin the style not of a prince of the blood, but as a mendicant, a humblemusician, a storyteller. He followed the dusty roads of India's vast hinterland,through huge forests and across gigantic mountainscapes. He bathed in holyGangama, visiting ancient cities that had been built upon even more ancientones. He thronged with millions of the poor and touched the feet of the holy,and visited in wonderment the great and majestic palaces of long dead kings.

His travels took him eventually to the magnificent city ofCalcutta, built up the breast of the great river Ganges. One evening, the sunsetting with Asiatic splendour, he found himself in a throng of travelerssurging up on the great wharves of the city. In the distance, he could see thetall masts and elaborate rigging of a sailing ship. Soon he could see her vasthull, portholes, gunells, ballast, bails, barrels, boxes, trunks, cargoes. Linesof passengers with expectant, eager, fearful, excited expressions surroundedhim. The gang plank leading to the vessel "Count of Lancaster" nownamed by the merchant Yusuf Haji Mohammed Sadeek of Bombay the "Fath Al Karim", Victory ofAllah the Generous, the Noble.

What karma placed the foot of Prince Ishwarisingh upon thatpath none but he could tell. What destiny drove him to leave his dharti mata,his land of birth, his kingdom, to take this journey that for some would be oneof no return, no one would ever know. It is said that he was told by theimmigration agent that he had been recruited under false grounds. His reply wasthat he had promised to go and so he must go.

The ship slipped away with the very early morning air on thehoogly on the 19th April 1871 with a cargo of 218 Indians. It sailed silentlydown the river for about 100 miles and reached Sangor Island at the mouth ofthe Ganges and would not drop anchor for another 60 days and 500 miles.

The journey to the South Atlantic island of St. Helenacommenced with the Fath Al Karim sailing to the south west towards Africa'sCape of Good Hope, the Kali Pani. The towering waves in a monstrous running seabecame even more terrifying for the passengers as the icy waters of theAntarctic met the warmer of the Atlantic. Raging storms sent the wind howlingthrough the rigging. The ship's decks were awash from stem to stern. Creepingdamp grew to clammy wet to a dripping cold, which affected the food, the mindsand eventually the sanity of the travelers now bound together in the contractsof indentureship.

On a bleak afternoon, the exhausted sea reduced to rollingswells, the ship sailed warily into the great bay beneath the ancient volcanoof an island that had known only one famous visitor some sixty-odd years beforeby the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. In the placid bay of St. Helena, the memoryof the "Pagal Samundor", the mad sea slowly fading, the indenturedwere prepared for the final leg of the journey. This island, held by theBritish since 1673, had previously been used as a holding bay for slaves enroute to the Americas, and from 1810 for the Chinese who were destined forindentureship to the New World. Now it was a stop to drop off the sick or dying,the "troublesome coolies" and the rebellious European seamen.

The "jahagis" longed to be put ashore to touch theearth, to step upon its firmness. but no. Soon, she set sail again, taking thetradewinds north and westward over a rolling water for another 40 days andnights to yet another island, named by the Christian navigator for his triuneGod, Trinidad.

The journey had been gentle, and the jahagis hadrecuperated. The sea was calm and the winds allowed the "Victory of Allahthe Generous, the Noble" to enter the Gulf of Paria through the GrandBoca, to drop anchor before the smiling town of Port of Spain.

Ishwarisingh now knew his fate. To which estate he was sentand what was his experience here is forgotten - there is no record. However,Sir Neville Lubbock, Chairman of the West Indian Committee from 1884 to 1909,in his evidence before the Sanderson Commission of 1910, makes reference tothis strange adventure. The following extract is taken verbatim from theminutes of evidence of the said commission:

"I do not know whether you have had before you a ratherinteresting report by Mr. Mitchell of Trinidad. It appears that there was aPrince went out from India to Trinidad by mistake. He thought he was making areligious pilgrimage, but when he got to Calcutta, he found his mistake. Theemigration agent there told him that he had been recruited under false grounds.Well, he said, he had promised to go and he meant to go. He went to Trinidad,served his five years, remained there the ten years, and when he was returningto India, he told Mr. Mitchell his story: how he was an Indian Prince and howhe was very pleased with the way in which he had been treated in Trinidad andthanked them and returned back to India. I think that is about ten years ago.It is a rather interesting story."

Saving Trinidad's David Copperfields

2012-01-26T05:33:00.000-08:00

130 years of St. Dominic's Children's Home

Port of Spain, particularly east Port of Spain, 130 yearsago, was a crucible for destitute people who came from all over the island tothe city seeking opportunities. Three decades after the abolition of slavery,the children of the ex-slaves had now had children themselves. Unemployment washigh, wages were miserable, and many could not care for their offspring as theyshould have.

Abandonment and homelessness was the fate of many small infantsand youngsters, who were the children of the poorest of the poor. They could beseen everywhere in the streets, begging, loitering, without any education orcare, without love. Many were naked, and the more industrious ones took tostealing. In their abandonment, they shared the fate with thousands of childrenin Europe, children of parents whom the Industrial Revolution had left behind,who suffered from illness, bitter cold, hunger and thirst, and desperation intheir loneliness. In some cases, their parents were imprisoned for debt, orwere simply too sick or destitute to bother with their kids. Charles Dickens'"David Copperfield" is an example of what abandoned children inLondon had to endure, and Port of Spain knew many of those little DavidCopperfields, both boys and girls.

One man, the parish priest of Rosary Church, could not bear seeingthe misery of the street children on a daily basis. His church was literallysurrounded by this misery, and at any point in time, one could find two orthree little ones huddled in the church's portals, holding out their tiny,dirty hands for alms. Father Mariano Forestier decided to found a home forthose children, intent on not only saving their souls, but also their miserablelittle bodies from starvation. Mr. Leroy came to his assistance, and togetherwith other friends, the priest bought a small property on the summit of the"Morne" in Belmont, overlooking Port of Spain.

As soon as the sale was finalised, three children werepicked off the streets and given into the care of Father Forestier's children'shome. Who knows who their parents were, and why they had to roam the streets ofthe city all by themselves? Maybe they were orphans, maybe they weren't. Butthose three out of many had at least found a home now, a home where kind ladiestook care of them, begged for them, clothed, bathed, and fed them on a dailybasis. Soon, they were joined by other children, and by the end of 1871, theirnumber had risen to eleven.

Five years later, Father Forestier got the Dominicansisters, who had established themselves in Cocorite in 1868, to take on thoselittle charges. Christmas of 1876 saw 66 pairs of big eyes glow expectantly -maybe this year Father Christmas would not forget them?

The old building was bursting at its seams with so manychildren. The Dominican Sisters recruited everybody to help with the extensionto the home. In their annals, it is recorded that the boys and girls carriedall the water, stones and cement up to the Morne for the builders to get towork! The little ones had little buckets, and the older ones took a brick or two,and all trundled back and forth to see their new living quarters grow.

"Wood, slates and bricks too had to be carriedup," writes Olga Mavrogordato in her book "Voices in theStreet". "Some had boxes and baskets, others had old pans, old platesand jugs, and they counted the number of their journeys during themorning."

The parish priest of Maraval, Padre Alvarez, also mobilisedhis parishioners. More than 250 people came to help! From 7 o'clock in themorning until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, women, children and men worked on theextension of the children's home. Of course, the work was not completed in oneday, and many of the inhabitants of Belmont, as well as the Societies of St.Anthony and the Holy Trinity, all came and lent a helping hand, levelling,digging, carrying water and materials, or simply cooking food and distributingsome lunches for everybody.

Three years later, the extension as well as the chapel and ahouse for the sisters was equally completed. At the end 1879, Father Forestiergave over the home to the Archbishop of Port of Spain, which was at that timeMost Rev. L.J. Gonin O.P.

Over the years, more building work was done and the woodenbuildings of the children's home gave way to concrete houses. Also, the numberof children increased steadily. A government grant provided the financialbackbone of the home, but it also depends ongoingly on the goodwill ofcharitable people.

One of the distinct features is the home's bakery. There,the older children learnt how to bake their own bread - and how much better ittastes if you make it yourself! It was important for these parentless childrento learn a trade, so that later, when they become old enough to leave the home,they would be able to make a living. Not only baking, but also cabinet makingand shoe making and tailoring was taught in the classes. The children's homealso produced a very attained band, and oftentimes, members of this band areaccepted by the Police and Regiment bands.

Father Mariano Forestier died in 1901. "The littlecottage on the Morne which sheltered those first three little children whomFather Forestier received, became a large home, comprising ten buildings, wherelived more than 400 children."

And for those who have never seen this historical and socialmonument, go and visit the St. Dominic's Home for Children in Belmont!

Most Selfish Generation

2012-01-25T06:43:00.000-08:00

by Jean de Boissière

Some eighty years ago, theleading people of Trinidad the (plantation owners) were hard workingindustrious folk who exploited themasses shamefully in the interest of what they thought was a sound conception ofsociety.

Embodied in this conception was afirm belief in the family unit as the very basis of that society. this made oneof their first principles the establishment and strengthening of large familygroups. Another solid conviction was their faith in religion as a forceessential to the past, the present and the future. It was not an emptyconviction for they propagandised that faith among the thousands of illiteratewho came under their influence.

To these people (the freed Negroslaves and the East Indian indentured labourers who were their workers) theyextended a regard for their material as well as their spiritual welfare. Inpractice, this welfare was administered in a completely despotic but benevolentmanner. A gardener got a dollar a week, and if he forgot himself and his placeso far as to demand fifty cents more as his just wages, he would be chased fromthe estate. But if he asked for a spot of land to build his shack, or fivedollars to christen a child, he was given it and more with a paternalgraciousness that made him feel that he was as much part of that family unit as its oldest son.
The elder Creoles of three generations back were in most instancesconservatively constructive, paternal and kind. That they were unaware of anindustrial revolution that was torturing Europe and which would eventuallydestroy their work and their world, that they accepted the status quo with thesame faith that they did their God was not their fault. In their time and placethey could not possibly have done otherwise.

If one could accuse them ofcrime, it could be only for thatof spawning the generation that followed them. No single excuse could be foundfor these. Their parents graciously cheated the masses in order to create asurplus to send these hopes-of-the-world foran education in a Europe that was perpetually seething with an under-current ofindustrial and political unrest. For all they saw of this they might as wellbeen blindfolded before they left. But what they did see and learn was the unscrupulousselfishness of the bourgeois class, rampant in the jungle they had made out ofEuropean civilization.

When they returned, the adulationand regard with which they were greeted was completely misinterpreted. Theylooked upon it rather in the way a millionaire's son does on the salutes of thesailors from his father's yacht. The first practical application of the lessonsthey had learnt was in their treatment of these workers on their plantations.

No more benevolent despotism. Theattitude was now that of the European bourgeois to their factory workers.Ruthless individualism replaced the former almost feudal arrangement. It wasexpressed in such phrases as these: "The gardener get his wages - and hisstandard of living doesn't justify his getting any more. So why should we givehim free lands for a house, when we can get rents from those lands, everythingmust make a profit. If they don't want to use the estate barracks and want tolive above their means - and they always were a lazy, spend-thrift lot anyway -let them rent the land."

To their industrious parents whohad worked and cleared the estate of all encumbrances, meanwhile building wholevillages for their workers, they would talk in this strain.

"Mother, I don't see why youkeep on giving money to these people to christen their children, when you knowvery well that they are a vicious immoral lot and all of their children arebastards anyway - and the amount of money you waste giving away rosaries and prayer books, they can wellafford to buy themselves. This would make them appreciate them more than whenthey get them for nothing anyway."

In like manner to this, theyundertook to inaugurate and establish the regime of unrestricted capitalism onthe plantations of their fathers. Any resistance to them was met with cruelsuppression. They did not stop at attacking the workers, they carried thebattle for these new principles (or more correctly lack of principles) rightinto their own families. The survival of the fittest , the crowning of cunning, and the law of thejungle had to be established here too. Where their parents had assisted membersof the family in their moments of distress, they used such moments to takeadvantage of them Instead of the financially embarrassed member getting help,he would be forced to sell whatever he had left to the stronger relatives at acolossal sacrifice.

One would have thought that thiswould have brought some qualms of conscience. It did; but gave them littletrouble as they had a bourgeois conscience; the most elastic produced yet. Theyinsisted on a strict honesty that left them masters of the embarrassingsituations created very dubiously for their opponents. The elastic of theirconscience expanded with creating the situation and contracted visibly inhandling it.

In morals they insisted on anultra-puritanical code for their own wives and daughters, while those of theirlabourers were invariably supposed to submit to the advances made prior to anywork or land being given on the estate. While the older generation hadoccasionally lapsed and produce children with women on the estate which theyacknowledged and supported (in some instances even giving them a Europeaneducation), the new one ignored and abandoned the innumerable bastards theybegot as a preliminary to the day's work in the cocoa.

Not satisfied with turning theestate and its workers into a machine from which they could grind money for aself-centered empty life of pleasure, they sought official positions in thegovernment, where their most arduous work was done in jockeying for the highestpaid jobs. The first step was to reduce the work of the department to a minimumand then to arrange for the terrifically underpaid subordinates to carry on thework, while they spent their time on the galleries of their clubs, sippingdrinks and slaying peoples reputation with an impressive dignity.

There is one classic case worthmentioning of a head of a department who, having arranged his official life inlike manner to suit himself (to have told this man that he was a servant of thepublic and owed them a duty would have been to grossly insult him), he wouldturn up at his office everyday at 11 o/clock and leave at midday. For over 15years, he drew about $ 400 per month of the public's money for sitting at adesk for five hours a week. He eventually retired a short while before it wasabsolutely necessary because as he boasted to his friends, his "consciencehurt him".

They attended church every Sundaywith an eye to subtle publicity, for they went always to the biggest ones wherethey would be seen by the most people. But the simple Christina virtues ofunheralded charity, kindness and love were completely absent from their makeup.

In their lifetime, they succeededin deranging the social order created by their forbears so completely, that theformer good relations that existed between the classes disappeared and the samesocial disorder and unrest that haunted Europe permeated the island.

Some of these supremeindividualists still exist and linger in the estate houses, the position ofgovernment and the benches of the larger churches. They are few now and theseladies and gentlemen of the most incredibly selfish generation will pass away,but it will take more than a little time to heal the wounds they made on thebody social that their forefathers brought forth."

Cycles of Revolt

2012-01-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

Trinidad in the 1840s was going through a state of flux. Thetime of African slavery had officially ended. About 25,000 former slaves wereactually on the move. Some left the country districts and walked for milesthrough the bush to get to Port ofSpain. Others travelled from one estate to another to get work in better orsimply different environments. Some stayed where they were, working asdomestics in the houses of Port of Spain.

Fr. Anthony de Verteuil in his chapter "The End ofSlavery" from his publication "Seven Slaves and Slavery" givesand excellent perspective of the period before emancipation and following. Henotes that in 1777, there were only 225 slaves in Trinidad, scattered aroundSt. Joseph, Maraval and Diego Martin and on the islands in the Bocas. Somelived in the Naparimas, cultivating crops of mostly cotton and coffee.

With the French came the Otaheite sugar cane, and only 20years later, in 1797, the slave population stood at 10,007. By 1813, it countedin Port of Spain alone 6,170 slaves. In the second decade of the 19th century,it was 23,227.

Estate life during slavery produced craftsmen such ascarpenters, tanners, coopers, blacksmiths, boat builders, whalers to name afew.

After emancipation, most of the slaves left the estates andnever returned. As such, the economy just about collapsed, and there was alsono work for the skilled craftsmen. The French plantocracy was much affected; estateswere abandoned; many families migrated to the southern United States.
By the 1840s, there were several experiments with the importation of labour.Some Chinese were tried and also Portuguese. The first influx of "smallislanders" took place. The real turn-around came with the arrival of theIndians. José Bodu, social commentator, remarked:

"An event of immense importance in the history of thecolony is the arrival of the first batch of East Indian immigrants on board theship Fatel Razack."

1845 also saw the emergence of the Reform Movements, therepercussions of which are still felt 150 years later. Bodu remarks:

"In 1845, the question of reform began to occupy theminds of the people of Trinidad. Nearly 50 years had elapsed since thecapitulation, and although Spanish institutions which then prevailed and whichit had been covenanted to respect had been Anglicized, no modicum of directrepresentation such as obtained in other parts of the Empire had been affordedthe colony."

Trinidadians had little, in fact no control over their fate,particularly their economic destiny. This lack of local representation was alsothe reason for the high maintenance cost of the colony, and was not approved ofby all Englishmen. Already in 1822, a Mr. Hume moved to appoint a commission ofenquiry to report on the state of Trinidad. Joseph Marryat, Esq., gave thefollowing speech in the House of Commons on July 25th, 1822:

"The amount of the taxes annually raised in Grenada areabout £30,000 currency. The amount of law expenses and fees of the Courts ofJustice are estimated at £20,000. The annual expense of the Registry of Slavesis £ 200. The expenses attending the apprehension and restitution of a runawaynegro seldom or ever exceed £4, and frequently do not amount to half that sum.In Trinidad, 44 runaway negroes were apprehended together about two years ago,[...] which amounted to no less a sum than £5,272; or nearly £120 each, whichin many cases exceeded the value of the negroes.

"Large sums are also raised in Trinidad for objects ofembellishment, utterly inconsistent with the means of the inhabitants. TheGovernor [Woodford] ordered the streets to be new paved, and assessed theproprietors of houses £4 6s. 8d. per foot on their frontage to defray theexpense of the alteration. [...] Some of them have been actually obliged tomortgage, and others to sell their houses, to liquidate their assessments tothe pavement.

"The inequality of the burdens imposed on theinhabitants of Grenada and Trinidad is easily accounted for; Grenada enjoys aBritish constitution - her laws are framed by representatives chosen from amongthe people, and who can impose no taxes to which they do not themselvescontribute, in common with their fellow subjects. But Trinidad is under anarbitrary government, and her laws are made by a single individual, who has nocommon interest with those over whom he rules."

1846 saw the arrival of Lord Harris, an extremely able andmost progressive administrator under whose aegis the difficult question ofeducating the population was first tackled. The first Portuguese shop wasopened in that year by a Señor Esperanza. This marked the commencement of aninstitution that would continue for generations. Two deaths occurred in 1849 ofmen who, apart from leaving their mark, also left many descendants who arestill with us. In April of that year, the venerable and much respected Mr. PaulGiuseppi passed away, aged 78 years, at his residence "Valsayn" (thenan estate house, not a suburb). It was in that same house that the articles of capitulationhad been signed almost 50 years ago. A native of the island of Corsica, Mr.Giuseppi held the office of Teniente Justica, Mayor of St. Joseph, during thegovernorships of both Sir Thomas Hislop and of Sir Ralph Woodford. Passing awaythat year was also the Hon. Francisco Llanos at the age of 71. Dr. Llanos was anative of Caracas and had come to this island in 1810. A lawyer by profession,he enjoyed a large practice at the bar. He held the office of Defender of theAbsent and at various times filled the positions of Assessor to the Court,Intendent and Judge Criminal.

The year 1849 was remarkable for what is known as the 1st Octoberriots. The cause of this lamentable occurrence was an Ordinance to compel civilprisoners in the Royal Gaol to have their heads shaved in the same manner asthe criminals. It was sought to pass this Ordinance through the Legislative Council.The public feeling of all classes revolted at the proposed indignity, whichwould have mainly affected people of some respectability which had neverthelessincurred too many debts. On Saturday, 19th September, placards were visible allover the town, announcing the convening of a public meeting for the morning ofMonday, the 1st October. The place selected was a house on Almond Walk (nowBroadway), Port of Spain, which was soon found to be too small a location toaccommodate the vast number of people who congregated on the occasion.

An adjournment was therefore made to the Eastern Market,where the butchers had struck work in sympathy with the objects of the meeting.

As an outcome of the meeting, a deputation composed ofMessrs. Dessources, Radix, Scott, Jean Louis, Edward, Phillip Rostant and Hoboswere appointed to wait on the Governor, which they did at the Governor's officein the building that was later known as the Red House.

They were followed by a large crowd that grew increasinglynoisy. The Governor agreed to withdraw that part of the Ordinance which hadreference to the shaving of the heads of prisoners for debt. Notwithstandingthese assurances, the crowd, now numbering some three thousand and comprised ofthe lower orders, rioted, destroying property and threatening to overrun theGovernor's office. Some young men even got into the Council Chamber. One wasarrested. When the rioters outside discovered this, they hurled a shower ofstones in the buildings. At this point, the military was sent for, comprisingthe 88th regiment and the 2nd West Indian Regiment. The riot act was read bythe Attorney General Charles Warner under a hail of stones, and the order tofire was given. Several people fell. This did not stay the fury of the mob.They continued to attack the soldiers and the police with large stones torn upfrom the streets. Four six-pounder cannons were landed from H.M.S. Scorpion,and preparations were made to open fire on the unrelenting rioters.

In the meantime, several of the crowd lay dead or dying inthe streets and in the square opposite to the government Buildings. It was sometime before order could be restored and the ringleaders arrested. They werelater brought to trial.

With this incident, the colony had experienced its first civilriot. This was to be followed some 30 years later by the Cannes Brulées riots,which in turn were followed by the Water Riots 24 years later, in 1903. Thesewere followed by the general strike in 1937 and by the Black Power uprising in1970 and by the Muslimeen insurgents in 1990.

For close to 150 years, six generations of people have takentheir lives into their hands to revolt violently against authority inAbercromby Street, Woodford Square, both outside of and in the Red House:Trinidad's cycles of Revolt.

Shouter Baptists

2012-01-20T05:56:00.000-08:00

On March 30th, Trinidad and Tobago celebrates ShouterBaptist Day, and we look at the history of this religious group, drawing oninformation of Rt. Rev. Eudora Thomas book "A History of the ShouterBaptists in Trinidad and Tobago", published by Calaloux Productions,Ithaca, New York, 1987.

The Spiritual Baptists, called "Shouters" inTrinidad and Tobago, had been suppressed by both the colonial and theindependent governments for many decades. Nevertheless, the group prevailed and,in spite of being a relatively small minority, has inspired a national holidaysince the 1990s.

Like Santeria in Cuba and Brazil, Voudoun in Haiti, andShango in the British Isles: the Spiritual Baptists are a syncretic African-Christianfaith that goes back at least two centuries, to the days of slavery. Being aphilosophical belief system, it did not come into being at a specific moment,but evolved over a long period of time. Due to this, and due to the fact thatit evolved often "undercover" in the undocumented slave population makes the exact rootsof the Spiritual Baptist shrouded in the mists of history.

The Africans who settled in the Americas and in theCaribbean came from various parts of West and Central Africa, as the map shows.Up to today, we do not describe their origins with their"nationalities" (the present-day borders were drawn by the Europeancolonisers at random, disregarding traditional tribal borders), but with theirtribal ethnicity: Yoruba, Ibo, Dahomey, Mandingo, Congo, Rada, to name but afew.

The Yoruba were the largest group to come to the WestIndies. It is to them that, according to Thomas, the forms of worship of theSpiritual Baptists are mostly attributed. In the slave society, where theYoruba mixed with people of other tribal origins, Christian concepts of thedominant European culture were mixed with pan-African customs to create thesyncretic forms of religious expression. Thus, the bell-ringing was borrowedfrom the Europeans, and the chanting from the Africans. Anointing can be foundin both the Catholic and African religions.

"Handclapping and chanting, which are manifestations ofthe Shouters, are a substitute for the drums and shac-shacs of Africancustom," writes Thomas.

In the West Indies, the Spiritual Baptists were soon oustedby the Europeans. They aren't called Shouters for nothing: were simply tooloud! All this chanting, shouting, bell-ringing and hand-clapping infringed onthe more delicate European sense of propriety. It definitely smacked of somebarbaric African cults. Laws were passed against those disturbances. TheCatholic and Protestant churches too were worried about that their efforts toChristianise the African population would be undermined by the Shouters. Wayinto the 20th century, it was often the leaders of the established churches whoopposed the revocation of the ordinances that forbid the Spiritual Baptists inthe British West Indies, and not the colonial government.

In Trinidad and Tobago, the "Ordinance to Render Illegal,Indulgence in the Practice of the Body known as the Shouters", was passedon 27 November, 1917. The Anglican church was then between leaders, Bishop JohnFrancis Welch served up to 1916, and Bishop Dr. Arthur Henry Anstey wasconsecrated in 1918. The Roman Catholic church was headed by Archbishop JohnPius Dowling. The governor was Lieut. Col. Sir John Chancellor, after whosewife Lady Chancellor a street was named.

The bill was introduced by the attorney general, Sir Henry Gollam.He acted in accordance with the government's practices in St. Vincent, wherethe "Shakers" had been banned from worshipping in 1913.

"According to his statement, the Shouters' form ofworship, which was introduced to the island from the neighbouring island of St.Vincent, was an 'unmitigated nuisance'," writes Thomas. "A Shouter meetingwould make the neighbourhood where it took place unfit for residentialoccupation." She continues to give names of several leaders of theShouters who had to suffer for their faith after 1917: Teacher Patrick ofSangre Grande served a three month prison term for conducting baptisms in ariver; Leader Roach earned himself the name "Braveboy" for preachingat street corners in spite of rotten eggs being pelted at him; Leader HaroldLackeye was put into prison for six months for preaching but put on bond;Leader Smith of Roxborough was beaten and arrested for conducting a baptism;and Pastor Guiton of Tunapuna was raided several times and had to pay highfines.

On March 30th, 1951, the Ordinance that banned the Shouterswas repealed. Pastors Griffith and Balfour were depicted on the front page ofthe local newspapers. Two months later, on May 22, the ban was also lifted inSt. Vincent by the colonial administration. The spokesman in the LegislativeCouncil for them there was Vincentian George McIntosh, whom Thomas quotes:

"In view of the fact that the poorer classes of thisColony are in deplorable, poverty-stricken condition because Government isunable to remedy conditions and ... religion being the only means whereby thesedepressed people can find comfort in their misery and as the Superintendent ofPolice and His Honour the Administrator have colluded to deprave these peopleof their right to religious freedom in the Colony."

During the years of slavery in the Caribbean, African slaveshad a need to maintain their spiritual health in order to cope with theterrible conditions they lived in. In the new environment, Europeans tried to Christianisethem; many of the Africans also brought their own, powerful belief structureinto the equation.

"The religious propagation, with the stunning magicalpower of the African medicine man, so strongly influenced the Africaninhabitants that they started to borrow from their own myths and religiouspractices until they had established a variant form of the faith," writesThomas.

If the importation of those myths and practices was verystrong, they superseded the Christian forms, i.e. in Voudoun or Shango. But thesame syncretic borrowing took place in the religious practice that eventuallybecame the Shouters, or Shakers as they were called in St. Vincent, or TieHeads as they were called in Barbados.

But why did the slaves not accept Christianity? Was itmerely a manifestation of their inner opposition against the slave master, inspite of the outward adaptation to the system?

Thomas writes that Christianity was never really fullyadopted by certain African tribes because of its monotheism (which, as anthropologistswould tell you, was also the problem in ancient and middle-age Europe, hencethe translation of various pre-Christian religious concepts and personalitiesinto God's son, Mother of God, patron saints etc.). To those tribes, bothChristianity and Islam would have forbidden a part of their world view in that wasbased on nature and ancestor worship. What happened in the case of theSpiritual Baptists was that they adopted the concept of baptism and the HolyGhost from the Christian missionaries. Thomas adds: "mourning, talking intongues, healing preaching, and teaching of the gospel according to the diversegifts manifested by the Holy Ghost."

From their African ancestors, the Shouters inherited otherpractices, e.g. the incantation of traditional Christian hymns in a patternthat leads to shouting, or the hand-clapping and "shaking", whichimply African participatory patterns. In comparison, physical manifestations duringworship are very reduced in European Christian churches. The Vincentian Shakerswere banned after an incident where the shaking and vibrations of a group hadfrightened the governor's horse so much that he fell off!

In Trinidad, the first recorded leaders of a syncreticAfrican-Christian religious cult was Papa Nanee, who has been described earlierin the Digest as the founder of the Rada community in Belmont. He was also ahealer, a role which is part and parcel of Black syncretic movements in the NewWorld. The Shouters give their spiritual leaders the title "Teacher"or "Elder". Teacher Farnum was a leader in the late 19th century, whospread the Shouter Baptist faith from her little shack off the Tunapuna road.Other significant leaders were, according to Thomas, Pastor Bowman in Arouca,Pastor William Cox, his wife Irma and his son Douglas, who established amission in 1904 in Tunapuna, and Pastor Theophilus Ottley, who was believed tohave started a church in Laventille.

In 1987, Rev. Thomas wrote:

"The Shouter Baptists celebrate their Day of Emancipationfor religious observances, and efforts should be made to commemorate this dayduring their lifetime."

This year, it will be the 50th anniversary of their Day ofEmancipation, and Eudora Thomas' wish has been granted on a national basis.

Today, in world where car engines and blaring televisionsets seem to be the soundtrack of our lives, it seems strange that the ShouterBaptists had been banned for 34 years on grounds of the noise level they createduring worship. When we put up our feet on Friday coming, let us think a minuteabout the reasons for their coming into existence as a church with distinctreligious practices, and let us give acquiescence to the fact that theirmovement is, in fact, one that finds parallels everywhere in the New World.

Frank Messervy

2012-01-19T05:46:00.000-08:00

The unrelenting hail of shot, shell and fire stopped withthe dawn. The rain that had been falling for the previous six weeks continued coursing,a weird syncopation of dropping sounds, a drip-splash-drop-drop-drip symphonythat managed oriental quarter-tones, a lunatic cacophony through which thedrifting mist made not merely the landscape, but the immediate surroundingstake on the quality of Chinese mist paintings of the type seen on screens inrestaurants.

It was typical of the Japanese to fill the night with terrorand death, only to fall silent with the dawn leaving the enemy exhausted,shell-shocked and desperate with the certain knowledge that the ring had growntighter. The fourth army corpse lay entrapped in the maze of mountain gorges,precipices, spectacular but unseen waterfalls in probably the world's thickestprimeval tropical jungle, where only dynamite may be brought in to blast awaygigantic trees so as to clear the way for lieutenant General Frank Messervy toremove his entrapped army from the heartland of Burma during the devastatingdays of the last war. he did. And with the 7th Indian Division and thereconstructed 4th Army Corps, he drove the Japanese Army through the Burmesemountains to take Rangoon.

That itself is a tale worth telling. For the last threehours, the Japanese Imperial Commander for Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Borneo andthe Dutch East Indies, General Seishiro Itagaki, had been standing at attentionwith his ceremonial sword held out at arm's length, with his entire officercorps lined up behind him. His army of 100,000 men were drawn up without armsin parade in the open field adjacent to the city of Rangoon, now reduced toashes. General Frank Messervy entered the open field accompanied by the pipesand drums of the Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's), andthe entire 4th Army Corps for the purpose of taking the surrender. Detachmentafter detachment formed up and with the entire corps at present arms, GeneralItagaki handed his sword to Frank Messervy. It was just over 550 years old andhad been made by Kanemoto, the most famous sword smith of his day.

Years later, I went to visit Sir Frank Messervy in histhatch-covered, large cottage not too far from London. Tall and gangly, and anolder man by now, Frank recalled:

"In all my life, I have never seen a man so overwhelmedby emotion as was Itagaki when he handed his sword to me. He went ashen gray,just like a corpse, and the pupils of his eyes dwindled until there were nopupils at all. I know, because I looked straight and hard into his eyes as hesurrendered his sword. It was as though he was surrendering his soul to me, andI though he would drop dead at my feet."

The said sword had killed many people in its time. When theheir of the house came of age, he would go into the family village where the tenantswere kneeling on either side of the path. To prove his manhood, he would take aright-hand swipe and a left and so on, severing heads on his way.

Why this story? General Sir Frank Messervy, K.C.S.I.,K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O, was the son of Myra de Boissière who married an Englishmanby the name of Walter Messervy, who had come out to Trinidad to work in theColonial Bank, later Barclays Bank, eventually becoming its manager. Myra wasthe daughter of Poleska de Boissière, who then lived with her husband, Dr. deBoissière, in Champs Elysées, which is now the Country Club. Frank in factmight have been born at Bagshot House, which went to the Bank when his originalowner, Valleton de Boissière, got into financial difficulties.

After Myra and Walter had had several other children, andWalter was posted to Jamaica to work in the bank, Frank had the good fortune ofbeing "adopted" by wealthy, childless relatives of his father. Theyeducated him at Eaton and made him their heir. From them, Frank inherited theTwining tea estates in Sri Lanka. He had an exceptionally brilliant militarycareer. Graduating from Sandhurst in 1913, from where he was posted as a 2ndLieutenant in the Indian Army, joining the 9th Hodsonshorse in 1914. During theFirst World War he served in France, Palestine, Syria and Kurdistan. Hisexperience in this war was, as for most of the soldiers, a horrible one. Afterthe Treaty of Versailles, Frank came back to his home country for prolonged visits,staying with his beloved grandmother in Champs Elysées. His uncle Arneaud wasLieut.-Col., the most seniorofficer serving on the western front in the war, spent much time with him aswell.

Back to England, where Frank passed the staff college courseat Chamberley in 1926, going on to become a brevet major in 1929 and a brevetlieutenant-colonel in 1933. During the Second World War, he first served inEritrea and then in North Africa. Captured by the Germans, he escaped. He roserapidly in rank, ending the war as Lieutenant General. Appointed G.O.C. in C. and Governor of Malaysia. Helater became C. in C. of the army of independent Pakistan, and served there atthe time when India achieved her independence.

Messervy was deputy chief scout to Lord Rowallan.

In his military career, Messervy was known as the"spearhead general". He went into battle with his men, and did notstay behind to direct battle strategies over a map. In most pictures, he isdirty, unshaven, and probably missed his lunch. A deeply religious man, in thelast years of his life, he went regularly to Lourdes, where he acted as stretcher-bearerfor sick pilgrims. He died in 1974 - a Trinidadian at heart and in genes, decoratedwith the highest military honours of the British Empire, celebrated in manyinternational publications, a brave hero who our soldiers can be proud of.

Electric City Part 3

2012-01-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

As the end of the 19th century neared, the social fabric ofTrinidad began to show a move towards modernity. This was demonstrated inseveral ways, for example, a notice was published in the newspapers on the 25thJanuary, 1895, that "all transvestite dressing was prohibited". Thiswas, of course, directed at masqueraders, but it also reflected what the"better-thinking people" had taken up arms about.

The city's streets had also been given a thorough face lift.Asphalt was used for the very first time in 1890. Mr. Tanner, the townsuperintendent, put a paving on Clarence Street (upper Frederick Street) andOxford Street. He carefully made them convex for the rainwater to run off.This, however, upset a lot of people, especially people with horse-drawn buggies and caps. It would appearthat the paving caused horses to slip and fall, and buggies to tip over? Soundsfamiliar for those who try to drive up Cascade main road after the recentpaving exercise without sacrificing their car axles in foot-deep crevices onthe either side of the road?

Be that as it may, Tobago had recently (1889) been joined toTrinidad in a somewhat arbitrary manner. In so doing, the colony of Trinidadand Tobago had come into being. Already, there was the telephone which wasregarded as plain miraculous. The island's economy was sound - at least forthose with access to it. The middle classes were buttressed to a degree, withan access to funds derived from small and medium cocoa estates. Repeatabilitywas the order of the day, and in looking at old photographs, what strikes onfirst is that everybody is wearing a hat! All men wore suits and ladies'dresses were at ankle length. It was still a charcoal-burning society.Everybody cooked on coal pots, and although there was pipe-borne water formany, very few possessed indoor toilets called W.C., water closets.

Into this scene, the marvel of electricity was introduced bythe young American entrepreneur, Edgar Tripp. In 1892, Tripp leased a parcel ofland from the Port of Spain Borough Council. What he had in mind was thesetting up of an electricity plant. The land he leased was the southernmost endof the old Ariapita Estate. The area was known as Shine's Pasture and alreadyproduced a type of energy and generated fuel: grass. As a grass market, itsupplied fodder to the city's hundreds of horses. For $100 a year, paid to theCouncil, Edgar Tripp set about setting up his plant. The Council was in supportof his plan to light the town, as an ordinance had been put into place since 1887to facilitate this event. There was, however, one problem. It had to do withthe removal of the city's rubbish dump. In typical style, which has not changedmuch over the years, there was much wrangling and elaborate bureaucracy. Trippwas made of other stuff and commenced planting poles in Port of Spain and stringingup wires over the existing telephone lines. The limited liability company heformed was called "The Electric Light and Power Company". He registeredit at the Red House, which was not red yet, on 5th July, 1894. His board ofdirectors were William Gordon Gordon, chairman, W.S. Robertson, Eugene Ciprianiand Lucien Ambard. Tripp was the company's secretary.

The contract with the Borough Council was signed by GeorgeGrant, who was not a member of the board, but who was soon to go into businesswith William Gordon Gordon and form the firm Gordon Grant & Co. Ltd. Thecontract stipulated that by the end of August 1894, the town was to be lit upby electric power.

The officials of the telephone company began to be alarmedby the work being done by Tripp's workmen. They took objection to the electricwires being strung above their own. They felt that if the wires were to comeinto contact, a fire would be started which could damage their telephoneexchange.

Council member Mzumbo Lazare felt that electric wires shouldbe run underground, but his suggestion, a good one, had come too late in theday. The electric engines arrived at the docks, accompanied by Mr. Kuhn, anengineer. There also were dynamos. No one had ever seen a dynamo; it was a verymodern term. Part of the installations was also a huge boiler with a tall smokestack. To facilitate the stringing of the wires, the city's trees had to betrimmed. T

here were questions asked in the Legislative Council:"Is the government satisfied that all precautions have been taken againstthe risk of accident to life in the erection of overhead wires in the streetsof Port of Spain?" This was raised by Conrad Stollmeyer, chairman of theCommercial Telephone Company. Walsh Wrtightson, the newly arrived director ofPublic Works, put everyone at ease by saying that overhead wires were not atall a problem, inasmuch as they existed all over the world.

Edgar Tripp had done his work remarkably well, and was, infact, ahead of schedule by a week. Great excitement swept the town on Tuesday25 February, 1895. As the sun set, instead of the dim kerosene lamps that hadpreviously lit the town, the much brighter electric light appeared. "Therewas a great deal of enthusiasm shown by the crowds on the streets when thelights shone forth and great crowds collected under each lamp and discussed thecharacteristics of this new agency by which night is to be made more likeday."

Edgar Tripp had turned night into day. The wife of thegovernor, Lady Napier Broome, took a cricket team visiting from England on atour of the town, especially kept alight on her bequest. Tripp rode through thetown on his buggy, inspecting the new facilities wherever he went. He wasreceived with much applause.

Government House was, of course, electrified and so too theQueen's Park hotel in which Edgar Tripp had a major interest. Times had reallychanged.

Well, next time you put on your computer to surf theinternet, fully aware that you are part of the future, spare a thought for theyoung American who first put power into place to take you there.

Lessons in history

2012-01-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

Without really understanding what it implies, people withsage expressions arranged on their faces say something like: "How can youknown where you're going if you don't know where you've come from?" Thelistener, aware that he is being straightened out with the warm iron of goodintention, also arranges his physiognomy in a manner compatible to theconversation, and awaits his turn to be profound.

Lessons in history should be, in truth, much more thanplatitudes. We make everything in our own image. What is different is oftenhard to understand and might even be dangerous. Only as we grow in maturity andunderstanding do we discover that differences can be used creatively and thatthey are exciting and enriching.

This is why Trinidad and Tobago, in fact the Caribbean onthe whole, is so full of challenge, and so full of creative energy. There is achance here and now to create a new kind of society. These islands can be tothe world of today what the Aegean was to the world of Homer, Echnaton or St.Paul: a place where many ideas and cultures are fused together, a place wherephilosophy, science and the arts grow and flower, a world which knows thatunity is not the same thing as uniformity.

West Indian history shows what happens to a society thatpromotes division and hatred, that puts a premium on prejudice anddiscrimination. Turn for a moment to the history of the French islands, andconsider the manner in which history arranged itself with regard to the"mulattoes", people of colour with both European and Africanancestors, of Martinique, Grenada and Haiti for example.

In these islands, there was at first no prejudice againstEuropean men living with Carib or African women. Indeed, this was a generalpractice. In theory, the children of those unions were free, but in fact theboys did not become free until they were 20, and the girls until they were 15.Many of the people of colour married French men and women. The crafts andtrades were open to them, with the exception of the trade of goldsmith, and bythe time of the French Revolution in 1789 thery were in that trade also. Theycould own property - as in Spanish Trinidad -, though in Martinique there wererestrictions. Over the decades, free people of colour increased in number andgrew prosperous.

The French government was alarmed at this. It feared thatthe growth of the free coloureds would endanger white supremacy.Institutionalised segregation was organised for the setting-up of divisionsbetween Europeans, mixed people, and Africans on the basis of skin colour. Partof an official report read:

"These people are beginning to fill the colony and itis a scandal to see them increasing in number, mixing with the whites,overtaking them in opulence and riches, they give refuge to vagabonds andfugitives."

The work of division went from generation to generation.Some restrictions read like those which the Nazis imposed on the Jews in the1930s. The colour of a man's grandmother became important. African blood keptsome out of the judiciary, out of the militia, out of public service. A whiteman who had a coloured wife would be kept out of those professions.

In Haiti, d'Auberteuil, the Governor, rejected the princilethat either the sons or the grandsons of emancipated slaves should beconsidered worthy of being free men. Special laws were passed to prevent thecoloured mistresses of Europeans from inheriting property willed to them. Therewere regulations on clothes that might appear too luxurious, against usingwheeled transport, and on holding dances.

In Haiti in 1792, the world exploded. Coloureds and theslaves rose against the French in a storm of violence. But the lessons of Haitiwere not learnt in the British islands, because the same society that existedin French slave islands existed in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad: one where humanrights were denied to a vast percentage of the population.

In Trinidad, a significant individual, a man of colour, Dr.Jean Baptiste Philippe, made a herculean effort to maintain the rights andprivileges of his people. In Grenada, Fedon staged a bloody revolution.Toussaint L'Ouverture, the hero of the Haitian revolution, died in a Frenchjail and the coloured creole Simon Bolivar liberated the South and CentralAmericas. We have travelled far since then, but in these days, when we face thechallenge of maintaining our independence, we need to remember that these oldprejudices die hard - they in fact tend to reverse themselves.

On Saturday night before Carnival, I found myself sittingopposite to a black woman at a dinner party, whose anti-white-Creole,anti-Indian views were the very same as expressed by white people I knew when Iwas a boy growing up. I was intrigued. Not knowing history very well, she wasafraid of the future in much the same way as the whites were 200 years ago!

We can give a positive meaning to being independent as apeople, if we can commit ourselves to the idea that all human beings arecreated equal. Already, as a nation, we have exploded the myth of racialsuperiority. Already, we are progressing to a higher level of humanrelationships that many countries do not know - in spite of some counterproductiveleaders such as certain calypsonians or politicians. For many, the terms toleranceand acceptance don't even apply, as they imply that something or somebody needsto be tolerated or aceepted.

We have to understand that we are each a part of the whole,of each other. In the same way as two centuries ago, prejudices often arise outof economic insecurities. In this time of opportunity and challenge in ournational life, let us learn the lessons of history, in that economic stabilitycomes about when, and only when, the majority of us are neither afraid of thepast, nor of the future. We have come too far not to have it our own way!

100 Years of Salvation Army in Trinidad and Tobago

2012-01-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

Poverty is hell. Indifference to it is a crime againsthumanity. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, understood this. Bornin Nottingham in 1829, Booth knew as well the Dickensian squalor of Britain'sinner cities.

Triggered by the rapid growth of industrialisation, tens ofthousands flocked to the factories, the mines and the tenements, overloadingthe already centuries old support systems that were hardly existent in anyevent. The rigid class system served only to condemn the poor even moreirrevocably to their station where they lived in humiliation and degradation.

William Booth became a Christian in his youth and spent whatlittle time he had from his job at a pawn shop helping the poor, the sick, thehopeless. He encouraged the destitute to look to God for solace in thechurches. He was indeed convincing. The poor, however, soon rediscovered whatthey have always known: there was no real place for them amongst thesweet-smelling, elegantly dressed Sunday church goers. William founded the EastLondon Christian Mission. It worked, but hardly. William, his son Bromwell andtheir friend George Railton, dedicated to their cause, were eventually inspiredby the concept of "The Christian Mission is a Volunteer Army".

At the time, Victorian England, Imperial England, wasdefined by its armies that had carved out for her a huge and far-flung empire.This army was largely comprised of volunteers. This inspired William Booth andhis small circle of helpers. It also drew some mockery - being called a "VolunteerArmy" to help the poor! In a moment of inspiration, Booth crossed out theword "Volunteer" and wrote "Salvation" instead. Thus, theSalvation Army was born.

The rapid development of the first Salvationists was intruth aided by the adoption of a quasi-military structure. An army in theservice of God, dedicated to help those in need, had declared war againstpoverty and hopelessness. Booth's work drew opposition and sometimes evenbrutal persecution. Those with vested interest in living off the misery of thepoor - the barkeepers and the brothel masters for example - were angered whentheir former customers were converted to William Booth's army. A Methodist, hewas eventually ordained a minister, with a difference: his was a open airchurch; he took his ministry to the streets of London and to the country roads.Space does not permit as to describe the now forgotten story of the hell seenby Booth, his wife and family, and their small circle of supporters. To say theleast, it was bloody and terrifying. "The Army" produced in thosedays several martyrs. Notwithstanding, the idea of an army fighting sin caughton and spread across the Empire, in fact the world.

General William Booth dispatched Brigadier Thomas Gale tothe colony of Trinidad and Tobago, where crime and poverty held a large sectionof the population in an awful grip. A veteran of the Jamaican wars againstignorance and indigence, Gale arrived in Trinidad in July 1901, ready to openfire. Realising that this would be an uphill battle, he called for reserves,these arriving under the command of Captain Luther Atkins. "By Septemberof that year, the newly invaded island had several promising converts"writes Doreen Hobbs in her little Book "Jewels of the Caribbean".There was real resistance to the work.

One young volunteer, Lieutenant Lilian Bailey, was knocked downand had to be hospitalised!

The Port of Spain Central Corps became to be known as"Number 1". A member, Brother Whistle, was over 100 years old in1917, and could remember the days of slavery. The first person to wear theSalvation Army's uniform was the wife of Corps Treasurer Abraham Busby. In1903, the sailors' home on Queen Street was opened, and seamen, shore labourersand sailors enjoyed its hospitality. "In one year alone, 7,581 meals weresupplied and 10,807 men slept at the home," writes Hobbs. In 1913,Trinidad's Governor, Sir George Le Hunte, visited the sailors' home, and musthave been duly impressed: in a successive session of the Legislative Council,£520 were granted to the Salvation Army towards a new home for soldiers andsailors.

In the legendary escape from Devil's Island in French Guianain 1930, 200 men were taken into the care of the Salvation Army and nursed backto strength. But it was not the end of their journey: they were just placed ingroups on safer vessels, and with 10 days' rations on board were tugged backout into international waters and left to their own devices to find refugesomewhere else! One of the fugitives was René Belbenoît, who in hismuch-acclaimed books about Devil's Island "Dry Guillotine" and"Hell on Trial" wrote about his Salvation Army experience inTrinidad.

In 1908, a central hall was opened in Port of Spain by thethen Governor, the Hon. Adam Smith. Number 3 in Belmont also got accommodations.Number 2 Corps was located in Tragarete Road. Colour Sergeant Goringdistinguished himself as an enthusiastic leader of the open-air brigade inthose early years. Other significant names of the first decade of the 20thcentury at Tragarete Road were Corps Secretary H.O. Thomas and Corps TreasurerHenry Lewis. It was only half a century later, in 1955, that Tragarete Roadreceived a new hall and quarters.

Another long-standing local officer of "Number 1"was Corps Sergeant-Major Ralph Hoyte, who had come from Barbados. He gotmarried to Martha Gibbs and raised five children in the Salvation Army ethos.

In 1907, the Tunapuna Corps was launched. General FrederickCoutts cut the ribbon personally 59 years later, in 1966, and Brigadier EdnaBurgess opened the Army hall in Tunapuna.

The early years of the Salvation Army in Tobago were firstrecorded in 1909, but it is possible that a Corps was established there beforethat year. But it was not until 30 years later, in 1939, that the Tobagorepresentative on the Legislative Council, the Hon. George de Nobriga, opened abrand new hall for the Corps in Scarborough. "Now, as the steamer fromTrinidad drops anchor in Scarborough Bay, one of the first sights that meetsthe eye is a pleasing two-store y building right on the sea-front bearingthe Salvation Army sign." (The War Cry, June 1939, as quoted by Hobbs).Serving in the Salvation Army in Tobago in the formative years were Brigadier EdwardJ. Bax, Lieut.-Colonel Gordon Simpson, Captain Shepherd, Captain Skeete andLieutenant Davis, to name but a few.

The Caribs fear the Horses

2012-01-11T05:33:00.000-08:00

In the year of our Lord 1533, the Spanish establishment on theisland, named for the Trinity, discovered by the Grand Admiral forty-fiveyears ago, was comprised of just one pueblo at a place described by thenaturals as Mucurapo.

It was a fortified camp and consisted of thirty-one houseswith kitchens, stables, smithy and storehouses.

Before the attack in September of that year, it wasprotected by a singly stockade, but now a double wall was constructed of heavy balksof timber, filled between with earth. This wall was 180 paces each way, piercedwith loop holes and flanked by bastions mounted with cannons from the ships.The strength of the last Indian attack had clearly left and indelibleimpression upon the Spaniards. Antonio de Herrera in his 'Historia General deLas Indias 1730' cited a report by Antonio Sedeño to His Most CatholicMajesty's Audencia at Madrid:

"Thus we waited on watch until four o'clock in the earlymorning of September 13th, 1533, as dawn was breaking upon the pueblo andbefore the guards were relieved or the rounds made, a great number of Indians,all clothed, swept down upon us, with loud cries contrary to their usual modeof attack.

They at once surrounded the pueblo on all sides and launchedthe attack with great courage and persistence as though they had been Turks,and in half-an-hour about 15—20 of our men had been wounded.

So many were the arrows that they covered the ground. As thehorses were stabled in the middle of the pueblo, the Indians were not able toget at them through the defenses, but by shooting arrows high up they managedto wound five out of the eight before steps were taken to cover them. Thesehorses were the principal reserve and would be urgently required later, as wefelt certain that without them we should all be killed. We all agreed that ifthese horses were lost, that day or soon after, it would be necessary toabandon the Island with the loss of everything.

We then sent out the horses to resist and break up thisfurious attack. As soon as the first horseman was seen, the Indians began toshout loudly, 'Horses, Horses, Horses,' and to turn and fly. As the otherhorsemen followed and wounded and killed the Indians, they broke completely andfled to the hills, leaving on the battlefield many bows, arrows, shields andwar clubs. We killed about 30Indians and captured three alive, from whom we learnt that many tribes hadunited to make this assault. They had agreed to take arms to kill the Spaniardsand drive them out of the Island. If this attempt were not successful they hadagreed to return again in eight days in still greater numbers to make theIsland free of us.

This was sure to happen sooner or later and our men weredepressed at this news, for the punishment inflicted by the horsemen was notsufficiently great. We searched the battlefield and collected our wounded,about 20 or more. Amongst these was the Teniente of Paria who had been one ofthe horsemen; his horse had been killed by two arrows tipped with poison, so thatit died raving mad."

The tribal people generally referred to as Caribs wereterrified of horses. The Spaniards with iron helmets and breast plates wererecognisable as men, but horses, it would appear, touched some nerve, someprimal fear. The second battle of Mucurapo lasted about an hour and half, involved some 3,000 Caribs. Itcommenced in the pre-dawn hours. The warriors had moved silently across theSavannah and through the high forest of giant silk cotton trees. This attackwas in response to one launched upon an Indian village by the Spaniards somemonths before when at the one in the morning they had fallen upon a sleepingvillage. The Indians had engaged in a desperate defense and refused to yield.The Spaniards set fire to the huts so as to bring out the men, the women andthe children, and by the fierce light of their blazing homes, this bitter andunequal fight continued to the end.

Event he women and children submitted voluntarily to theflames rather than surrender. Many warriors died, a handful fled into thenorthern mountains. Of the Spaniards, ten had died "raving in madness'from the wounds of poisoned arrows. The Caribs took the fort by surprise andpenetrated the stockade of the Spanish camp and were engaged in hand to handfighting (K.S. Wise). It was only the timely action by the horsemen which savedthe day for Spain.

It was now evident that the Carib people had gathered instrength and were not afraid to die for their Iere. Antonio Sedeño knew thatthe margin by which he and his men had survived was very narrow. FourteenSpaniards had been killed, and only 30 men remained. All the horses had beenwounded. There was great dissent in the camp at Mucurapo. Antonio de Herreradeclared that this conquest of Trinidad was doomed to failure and that heintended to leave for the main land.

That night, the rations almost done, they received food fromthe cacique Maruana, leader of the south of the island. the Caribs, as wellreceived fresh reinforcements and a large quantity of poisonous arrows. Fromthe fort, their encampments could be seen dotting the forested areas of what isnow Woodbrook and St. James. The campfires in the fort were piled high withlogs and blazed brightly as the sun settled into the Dragon's Mouth, turninggold to red with the intensity of primeval volcanoes. Starving sentinels scannedthe forest for a sign that could signal attack from the Caribs. The night grewinordinately still.

Sedeño had received news that no assistance nor suppliescould be expected in Trinidad. Many men had deserted, preferring to risk thecrossing to the main in rotting and unsafe pirogues than to face the poisonedarrows of the Caribs. Dissatisfaction and discouragement enhanced by theabsence of adequate supplies of food had grown since March 1534 the rest of hismen mutinied against Sedeño and demanded to be led away from Trinidad whereonly death and destruction awaited them. That night, he was arrested by his ownmen and removed to the mainland. The second battle of Mucurapo had been won bythe Caribs.

(from "Chronicles of the Carib Wars", K.S. Wise)

The Witch of Rose Hall

2012-01-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

Sparrow and I were in Jamaica doing a recording at ByronLee's studio in Kingston, when I first heard about Anne Palmer, the famous"white witch of Rose Hall".

It must have been after 2 in the morning, when in thecompany of Herman Hadeed and two Jamaican musicians we sat down under the starsoutside of the studio to unwind from the day's and the night's work with thebest that Jah Kingdom has to offer.

One of the musicians, a bass player, whose name I cannotbring to mind, felt compelled to tell a story - the story of Rose Hall Estate.He said it was about ten or twelve miles east of Montego Bay. As you drovealong the north coast road, you would pass through miles of sugar cane untilyou come to a point when the road branches off to the right and passes somepoor people's houses and a Chinese shop. You could follow a dirt road to alittle hilltop and there find the ruined halls of the most terrible hauntedhouse in Jamaica, if not the Caribbean.

"If only those walls coulda talk, man," he said,his lion-like mane darkly silhouetted against a starlit night sky, "theywould tell you that to this day people 'round there fear this place."

Here is the gist of his story.

Rose Hall began as a happy house to which in the 1750s asugar planter, George Fanning, brought his pretty, vivacious bride Rose. Rosehad had four previous husbands - now don't hold that against her, mortality washigh in the colonies back then! They lived a good life, and when she died, herhusband John had a medallion with her profile carved and set into the wall ofthe nearby parish church.

For several years, the great house was shut up. Tall weedsgrew right up to the massive doors, while the huge iron gates hung rusting ontheir hinges.

In 1820, Fanning's grand nephew, John Palmer, inherited theestate and brought his young bride Anne to live at Rose Hall. Sugar had by thattime started to decline. The slave trade had been abolished in 1807; there wastalk of emancipation.

In oral history, there are many tales about Annie'sbackground. Was she an Englishwoman, who was instructed in Voudoun black magicby a Haitian priestess? Did she only remember the sadistic elements of herteaching and forgot about the healing properties of that cult? Whatever it was,the young and pretty Annie managed to engulf her surroundings and those whoshared her home in terror.

Around the great house at Rose Hall there grew an atmospherenot of joyous anticipation, but increasingly one of fear. It was said amongstthe slaves - amongst those of them who knew of such things - that Anne was awitch. Her beauty drew men to her. Her powers of witchcraft kept her slavessubdued despite of the dreadful punishments she inflicted on them. In beatings,she herself wielded the whip. She put with her own thin hands the spiked ironcollar around their necks. She had their feet burnt until their toebonesdropped out.

John Palmer died in 1826 a haggard man. His widow Anne nowruled the mansion and was in control of the wealth. At nights, the house wasbrilliantly lit. Seen reflected in the huge silver tureens and mahogany floorspolished to a shine were terrible sequences of events. In their golden frames,the long-dead Palmers gazed down on scenes that would have turned theirProtestant bowels to liquid. The house-slaves knew of the men, overseers,book-keepers and the like, who, entrapped by her, died there in that house,their bodies no one knew where.

Legend has it that there were bloodstains on the floor ofone of the bedrooms upstairs that could not wash away, where a man had died ofa dagger wound, the blood pouring across the highly polished floor. In one stain was the print of a heel,in the other the mark of the ball of a woman's foot. It was said that it was inthese upper rooms that Anne Palmer killed lover after lover, including slaves.Sometimes they were strangled by her slaves as she watched on.

There was a young man who lived at Rose Hall, a relative ofher late husband John. His name was Andrew Phillips. His account was saved byone Rose Stopford who wrote of a young Englishman coming to Rose Hall:

"Just at that moment came a stranger's voice calling myname - 'Is Andrew Phillips here?' I turned and saw a tall, handsome youth. Hedid not look older than myself, but gay and ... and talked with ease. He told me he was my employer'sson, Ned Palmer, and that he had come aboard to welcome me and to take me backwith him to the estate. I gave Ned Palmer all the news from home, then pouredout my questions - an endless stream. Good-humouredly, he answered all I asked.Then our eyes met - we knew we should be friends. A sudden shadow passed acrosshis face, his eyes left mine, and gazing out to sea he muttered: 'Why did youcome? Go back. there is still time. The boat is here until Saturday. It's ahard life and you are very young.'"

Young Andrew stayed on an took up the job of overseer atRose Hall. One day, he had occasion to rescue a lovely young slave girl from acruel beating and went up to the great house to protest. It was getting on totwilight. A splendid sunset lit up the sky, the many windows of that statelyhouse glowed red as blood, the mansion seemed on fire, through the double doorshe entered a long room. A silvery voice said: "Here he is at last. I hopedthat I should meet our overseer."

A slender woman rose in welcome. Here eyes were bright andtender. She smiled the sweetest smile that he had ever seen. He stammered outan answer awkwardly. Then he remembered why he had come.

"This is no friendly call. I come to say I found aslave receiving punishment. They told me you had ordered her the lash."

For a second, a shadow crossed her face and then she smiled.

"Come, sit down. I see I must explain. That wretchedgirl had spoiled a whole day's work. The sugar boiled today must be drawn off -ruined because of one rat-eaten cane."

"But I think the punishment extreme. We should exemptwomen from the lash."

She dropped her eyes. He, following her downward gaze, sawthe beauty with which she was made, framed in burgundy velvet. The new overseerfell under Anne Palmer's spell, until one terrible afternoon when he came faceto face with her wickedness in one of the dry ravines behind the estate.

He had been dozing in the upstairs verandah of his cottagewhen he heard a voice:

"Take him to the gully, take him to the gully, bringback the frock and board, carry him along." He knew the ravine well; itwas where they threw the dead slaves for the birds of prey, thus saving themoney for the undertaker.

"Take him to the gully," she shouted.

"Oh massa, me no deadee yet."

He could not bear the house, but got his horse and canteredup a lonely mountain track, going anywhere to be alone. At length, the pathwayslowly widened out, the mare stood still. He could not urge her on.

Great mossy rocks were scattered on the grass and gray withlichen were the twisted trees. Dismounting, he walked forward to explore.Something was creaking in the gentle wind. A sickly odour was wafting in thebreeze. the flapping of big black wings startled him, the flock flew skyward. Therebefore him an iron frame was hanging from a tree, and in the frame a woman'sbody hung. He knew at once it was the girl. Even so, with this horror in hismind, Anne Palmer's spell on him was strong. He made up his mind to leave, butfelt compelled to go to the great house to bid her good-bye - this in spite ofthe pleading of the slaves. One old woman who had grown to love him for thecare he took in all that came under his charge fell on her knees before him.

"Oh massa, do not do dey," she pleaded. "MassaMcNeil, he go and not come back. Ask Miss Palmer where McNeil is now."

It was then he learnt the real truth.

"When the mistress tire of the man she love, she makethem two black slaves go throttle them, den drag dem dong dat passage to thesea and throw them to the sharks - them tell no tales."

Little wonder is then that Anne Palmer was hated by herslaves and yet they dared not touch her, because they believed her to bepossessed by magic powers. However, in the slave uprising of 1831, they setfire to the sugar cane, and then the time came when one of her lovers, sensingthat he was falling out of favour, strangled her before she could have himmurdered. This might have been in 1833. There is also a version of the storythat a group of slaves came to kill her in her bed, surprising her in herslumber.

None of her own slaves would bury her body. Planters broughttheir coachmen from neighbouring estates and buried Anne Palmer in the centreof the garden by the east wing of the great house, setting a pile of largestones to mark the spot where the white witch of Rose Hall lay to rot.

(from De Lisser "White Witch of Rose Hall", Dr.Phillip Sherlock's papers and the bass player in Byron Lee's Band in 1975)

Alfredo Antonio Codallo

2012-01-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

Folklore Artist (1913 - 1971)

After a text by artist Holly Gayadeen, friend and ferventsupporter of the work of Alfred Codallo, published by the author in 1983.

Holly Gayadeen's first vocation was to become a teacher, andunderwent training for this profession in Trinidad and in England. But his truecalling was to be an artist. Throughout his long career, Gayadeen alwayscombined the two, expressing himself in various media such as painting andceramics, and at the same time teaching visual arts, crafts and design. Hisspecial interest in art education as well as local folklore manifests itselfstrongly in his book "Alfredo Codallo - Artist and Folklorist", whichGayadeen published in 1983.

Codallo's folklore drawings are special in several ways.Firstly, they were done for the world of communications in an era whenadvertising agencies didn't even exist yet. Hand Arnold and FernandesDistillers were the two companies who commissioned Codallo's pictures for theiradvertising campaigns in local newspapers. Illustrating the usage of flour andrum, Codallo managed to capture life in the streets, back yards, shops andhomes of Trinidad.

"Honesty, acceptance and a penetrating vision of onewho lived a full life with the people and for the people" - this is how Gayadeencharacterises Codallo's work. Much like somebody with a benevolent camera,Codallo managed to capture everyday life of the 'simple people', their chores,their surroundings, even their hopes and their fears.

His work is contemporaneous with other artists, who, asGayadeen puts it, "struggled relentlessly in their artistic pursuits torecord for posterity the people, places, folklore and festivals of Trinidad andTobago": M.P. Alladin, Sybil Atteck, Leo Basso, Dominic Isaac and, in theperforming arts, Beryl McBurnie and Thora Dumbell to name but a few. "Evenat that period, there was no particular trend or school of painting. Eachartist developed his own personalised style and pursued a particular direction.Despite this, as it is even so today, the Caribbean idiom and images are easilyrecognisable in the art productions of our artists whose works have foundthemselves in collections locally and abroad," writes Gayadeen.

In 1962, Alfred Codallo wrote about himself: "Throughart, I wish to speak in a language that all should understand. A language ofbeauty - unspoilt by confounding 'isms', yet rich with common understanding andnative pride. In my self-imposed job of preserving the folklore way of life,dances, land, river and sea scapes of my country, I am trying to establish alink with our past in the most comprehensive way I know."

Codallo grew up in a generation that felt oppressed by whatwould be the last decades of colonial government. After the First World War,the mentality of Trinidadians changed: having shared the common experience ofthe trenches with "white" soldiers, the stereotypes of race and classstarted to soften up. However, the economy didn't flourish, and poverty amongstblack people was as dire as ever in the 1930s, when Codallo would have been inhis prime.

"He was a simple man who always seemed to havepreferred the informality and unpretentious atmosphere of genuine camaraderie.It was easy to converse with him and his views were generally pointed, seriousand sometimes colourfully expressed," writes Gayadeen. Like Gayadeenhimself, Codallo was an art teacher, who never had any qualms about impartinghis knowledge and skills to those who came to him.

Self-educated, Codallo had little interest in the artistic approachesof impressionism, Fauvism, Dadaism or expressionism. "Codallo's worksreflect that quality of superb realism," writes Gayadeen. "He gavevisible forms to his concepts of the several folkloric themes, traditionalcultural patterns and the environment."

Codallo's subjects were drawn from the Afro-Creole segmentof Trinidad's society. His own ethnic background was not from this matrix perse: his father was from Venezuela, his mother was of East Indian descent.Having been born in Arima and grown up in Port of Spain, Codallo grew up as agood 'mixer' full of joie-de-vivre, as Gayadeen describes him.

"Codallo was keenly aware of the fact that West Indianfolklore has a rich heritage and that legends surrounding the mythicalcharacters of La Diablesse - the female devil, Soucouyants, Douens etc., neverfail to stir the imagination. It was Alf himself who gave the name of Paul CarrLandeau (Poluycar) as a man who delighted in telling stories in the open air ofTamarind Square in Port of Spain, wherever he happened to be away from hisoccupation of a shipwright."

The Trinidad Publishing Company noticed Codallo's talentsand employed him as commercial artist, photographer, photo-engraver andlithographic artist. Codallo drew for advertising: the "Spirit ofTrinidad" festival and folklore series was created for Fernandes Vat 19 andthe village life series to advertise flour.

In many cases, Cadallo's drawings of these two series arethe only visual representations of what many Trinidadians feel to be the 'goodold days'. Especially the older generation seems to have known characters wholooked 'just like that' - the Portuguese shopkeeper, the impoverished FrenchCreole man who uses the back door, the ancient cello player in a parang band.Codallo managed to capture the essence of the role in the character, which has,many decades later, become a blueprint for our communal memory.

"He had been an introspective artist of visionaryideas," writes Gayadeen. "His creations have a metaphysical and mythologicalconcept, each one showing a genuine power of characterisation."

Alfred Codallo passed away at the young age of 58 years, leavingus with many images of life long ago, and the memory of himself as an artist ofdistinction.

T. Geddes Grant

2012-01-06T06:28:00.000-08:00

Written for the Centenary Anniversary of T.Geddes Grant Limited - From Grandfather to Grandson after a text by Sir K. LindsayGrant

"A family heirloom" -this is how members of the Grant family view the firm of T. Geddes GrantLimited. In this article, we look at the historical role of the firm in thechronicles of Trinidad and Tobago, and in particular at the founder, ThomasGeddes Grant.

A family firm can only besuccessful if there is family unity and devotion to a common goal by the familymembers who contribute to the enterprise. To maintain a family firm for acentury is an outstanding feat in a relatively young society as ours. The 100thanniversary of T. Geddes Grant is not only a company jubilee, but, in truth andin fact, a celebration of a family tradition. Now a member of the Neal &Massy Group of companies, T. Geddes Grant is still very much an institution inthe business life of Trinidad and Tobago.

130 years ago, a Canadianmissionary, Reverend K.J. Grant, sailed into Trinidad with his four-year oldson, Thomas Geddes Grant, little realising the lasting impact this boy wouldhave made in later years in the commercial life of Trinidad and Tobago. Theimmigration of Indian indenturedlabourers was at its height, and Reverend Grant was one of the clerics who, inthe tradition of the Presbyterian Canadian Mission to the Indians, helped tobring education and welfare to the offspring of the indentured men and women inSouth Trinidad.

Young Thomas was born inMerigomish, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, on May 19, 1866. But it would be theisland of Trinidad that he would always know as his home. As a youngster, heworked as a clerk with Tennants Estates Limited in San Fernando. After 17 yearswith Tennants, the young man decided to enter into the intriguing world of businesson his own, and started his own Commission Agency at the age of 34. He waspossessed with a spirit of adventure, unlimited drive and considerable businessacumen, and his 17 years' experience with Tennants as a protégé of AlexanderRiddell served him in good stead.

As a Canadian, it followed thatyoung Thomas would concentrate in the main thrust of his business on Canadianmanufacturing contacts, since it was absolutely necessary to gain a foothold asagent in that market. Trinidad and Tobago and in fact the British Caribbean asa whole depended largely on numerous Canadian manufacturers. Thomas amassed aconsiderable number of agencies, and as such contributed to Trinidad's growingreputation as a commercial centre in the Eastern Caribbean. So effective had been his association with theCanadian trade, that in April 1922 he was appointed the Dominion's first andonly Honorary Trade Commissioner to the West Indies.

Thomas established his firm at avery opportune time. Oil had been discovered at Guayaguayare and the colony wasjust about beginning to enjoy the advantages of what, in that day, was thesophistication of progress. the telephone, a relatively new invention of theday, was becoming more and more popular. Electric street lights took the placeof gas lamps, and buggies and carriages were making way for motorcars.

The first office address was 19,Henry Street. The firm had about six employees. The modest Henry Street officesoon proved inadequate to conduct the company's growing business, and newoffices were found. In 1908, T. Geddes Grant had about a dozen employees, andthe firm moved to 9, Broadway.

As the country prospered, so didT. Geddes Grant. With the increasing business volume, Thomas also realised thefirst step towards a Caribbean commercial empire: in 1916, the British Guiana(now Guyana) branch of the company was opened.

The First World War was literallyin is dying stages when, in 1917, T. Geddes Grant was converted into a limitedliability company with the founder as Governing Director and his eldest son,Frederick Geddes Grant, the Managing Director. An office was opened in Halifax,Nova Scotia, to expedite the export of goods to Trinidad. This office wasmaintained until 1931. Another branch was established in Bridgetown, Barbados,and three years later, in 1920, the company expanded to Jamaica.

The company had now grown so muchthat a house magazine started to be published: "The G.G. Advisor".The objective of the magazine was to give buyers first-hand information on theorganisation and the latest developments on market conditions. It was one ofthe first company magazines in Trinidad and Tobago, and continued to bepublished for many decades on a monthly basis under the name "The T.G.G.Review". In 1923, there was another move, which was to be the last one foryears to come: 1a Chacon Street.

But it was not all easy sailingfor the company. When the Wall Street markets crashed and the world was plungedinto an economic quagmire in the early 1930s, only a few survived. Owing to thefirm, guiding hand of Thomas, the firm managed to wade through successfully.But the crisis took a toll on him: in 1934, Thomas Geddes Grant died.

His son, Fred Grant, O.B.E., tookover with equal fervour, dedication and commitment as his late father. Apartfrom his dedication to duty, Fred always found time to carry out civicresponsibilities: he was an appointee of the Legislative Council, a positionwhich he held until his death, served on numerous government committees andalso distinguished himself in cricket, yachting and football.

Fred was faced with thechallenges of World War II. The Barbados office was destroyed by fire in 1938and had to be rebuilt two years later; German U-Boats threatened and destroyedmerchant fleets in the Caribbean and in the Atlantic, and in 1945, it was theGuyana office that burnt down. Just one year after the war ended, in 1946, Freddied as well, leaving the helmsmanship of the family firm to his brother,Kenneth Lindsay Grant.

It was now the 1950s, and thecompany had about 200 employees. Expansion was the order of the day. Businesswas thriving. Willard Geddes Grant, another son of the founder, joined hisbrother in running the business. The Guyana office was rebuilt, and newwarehouses were opened at Laventille and in Jamaica. Towards the end of thedecade, the number of employees had more than doubled to 464.

In 1963, one year after Trinidadand Tobago had been granted its independence from the British Crown, LindsayGrant was knighted by her Majesty the Queen. Later that year, T. Geddes GrantLtd. became a public company.

Thomas Geddes Grant's significantcontribution to maintenance and development of the lifestyles of all theirworkers during the difficult years of recession and virtual economic collapsecan never be underestimated.

STOP! You imperfect speaker!

2012-01-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

As we all know, Carnival is a barometer, the mirror of thesociety. The tempo, the feel of the mass, reflects the society. Art imitatinglife imitating art: evolving through the centuries, Carnival has at timesprovided the means for various styles of self-expression and a ready vehiclefor confrontation, which could be played out between the competing revellersthemselves or against the authorities.

Carnival bands were by their origins aggressive, led bychantwells who encouraged the stickmen, who were, in turn, enervated by themusic, which, together with the heat and the rum, also drove the crowds, bothmembers and onlookers, into a frenzy.

Carnival for the outsider is often unnerving in its disorderand abandon. To the European of the 1880s, the dancing was nothing but the mostdisgusting obscenity, "being an imitation more or less vigorous andlustful by the male and female performer of the motions of the respective sexesin the act of coition".

The contemporary writer goes on to add that together withthe rum and the excitement, "performers and spectators then disperse withtheir passions excited to go and put into immediate practice the immorallessons they have been greedily imbibing." Ent.

Undoubtedly, there was a grain of truth in this observation.But there was more to it than that. The portrayals expressed the grandeur ofthe imagination of a subject people, yearning for the "other". Let'sgo and look at mas in 1937.

Dressed in several textures of black, his shoes replicas ofcoffins, his very wide-brimmed hat a castle of crossed destinies, armed withcutlasses, knives and pistols, his face painted white like a skull, his whistlerings loud above the surrounding noise, his prey embarrassed in theiruncostumed role of spectator grin sheepishly, trying to edge away, but alreadya small crowd has gathered and they now find themselves as a part of streettheater, protagonist, antagonist and audience -

"STOP! You imperfect speaker! Stop!

Drop your keys and bend you knees,

and call me the Prince of Darkness, Criminal Master.

I have no compassion. In this time of execution,

Master of Masters, King of Kings,

man who can compel men and women to die,

I following the star of the unconquered will,

which makes me inexorable and unbeaten still,

as a burning diadem upon my breast,

invulnerable and calm and self-possessed.

Now my fabulous verses will befuddle your dunce head.

I will have fun and I will give you rocks for bread.

So stand and deliver all the "King's Head"(pennies)

that jangle in your pocket or I will blast your tail like arocket!"

The crowd, much larger now, applauds. The undisguisedshuffle and pay up. They seek to escape, for another robber is on the way,dressed from head to foot in red with tiny silver mirrors sparkling in thebrilliant light of noon. From the distance, loud cracks like gunshots. Thecrowd shout and scatters.

"Jab Jab!" shouts a boy. "Look they comingfrom Erthig Road!"

In the clearing crowd appear three tall, strapping mendressed in red and yellow tights. Golden hearts cover their chests, and theywear jester's hats like horns, tipped with bells. Their trousers' ends are alsosequined with bells, and bells surround their waists. They wield 15 foot longbull whips that crack the sky. Their eyes are wild. Men, women and childrenflee before their impertinence!

Now what's that smell? Oh Lord no! I thought they would stayin Jouvay. They must have slept out last night - it's a Pissenlit band. thesedreadful people have soaked nighties in urine for days or weeks and are wearingthem. Run, they coming to rub up on you! Run, quick!

"Look, look what is that?"

It's bats - a bat band on roller skates, all dressed in grayand brown fur, huge wings catching the breeze. Look, one little boy bat! He isjumping, trying to fly. How fantastic! Their masks so real, like bats.

Moko Jumbies always have a dwarf with them to make them lookeven taller, stalking on stilts 15 or 20 feet above the crowd, dressed instriped pants, a wide skirt and a colourful shirt. They wear torshon for a hatand carry a small umbrella. They collect money from the people in the upstairswindows, but have to be careful about electric wires.

Oh, how cute! Look a baby doll band, all dressed in pink andblue with lots of fru-fru and baby powder! How sweet - what that he's drinkingfrom his bottle? Rum! And look that one, it look like curry running down hislegs out of his diapers. What's that he wants to show you? A shilling to seeCain and Abel - well, there it is in a little black box, a piece of cane and abell.

Carnival is something else again, yes. Oh, look a truckdisguised as a radio full of pretty girls! They all work at Rediffusion, RadioTrinidad, you know.

Come let's go and see what Mr. Strasser playing this year. Ihear he's coming out from Victoria Square. Last year he played a penny, a hugething about 12 foot high. No one could see him until he stepped out from wherehe had formed a part of Britannia.

Look, there is something coming - it's Strasser. Everybodysay it's Strasser. What is that - a stamp? Strasser playing six-pence stamp, ahuge red stamp depicting Raleigh at the Pitch Lake! How real - look the detail,perfect! It's made of painted cloth with black and gold appliqués. Where isStrasser? He must be there - oh look, he's climbing up onto the float and he'sgone, he has disappeared the moment he walked past it, he just stopped stilland vanished - how fantastic! I want to see the Seven Ages of Man, they comingout from by Norville's drugstore. That so far, come go.

We go take a drink by Crown Lion Bar. Ah hear they havestick fight tonight! Look,Mahalle. Eh, Mahalle, give us a drop! - "Not in this car, it not forhiring, it's a private vehicle," he said, slipping into first and drivingoff his invisible car just missing the orange man.

Patrick Jones and them fellers playing Beelzebub and theForty Thieves. That is devil mas! They have a Satan with a face, almost as bigas you. Eleven devils chained together in the everlasting darkness. GilbertScamaroni is plying the beast from the apocalypse, chained to female impsdressed in red with shimmering wings. They have a dance - very sexy. Lookskullboxman, bookman, keyman and bellman, and Lucifer the Demon straight fromhell. Shiffer Fabien father is play that. They does meet in Lapeyrouse topractice that mas every night for nine nights before Carnival! They collectdead dogs and boil them till they get the bones. Look he have a dog's skullround his neck and look that one have a cowfoot. Take care, they will throw thewater they boil the dead dogs in on you. If that hit you, you blight for life!

Look the Belmont tram coming. Let we go by Crown Lion, ahcould take a beer.

And several years later:

"Invaders beating sweet - ah ha

Coming down Park Street,

Tokyo coming up, beating very slow

and when the two bands clash

if you see cutlass

never me again to jump up in a steelband in Port ofSpain!"

Born in Dominica - The Foundation of St. Anns

2012-01-05T05:22:00.000-08:00

"La Fantaisie Road," she murmured, lookingover her shoulder. The MG picked up speed. "Who lives there?"

"The Prime Minister."

"La Fantaisie, what a lovely word."

She smelled vaguely of the type of cologne wealthywomen wear. Her eyebrows, unshaped, were quite thick. They gave her an outdoor,sporting sort of look.

"Who gave La Fantaisie Road its name?"

"I believe it was named by Celeste Rose Peschier.It was really the driveway to a lovely house nestled between gigantic trees,long ago demolished. This is a very old part of Trinidad, in the sense that itsdevelopment dates from the 1790s or even before."

"Do you know about it?"

"Well, yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

I was taking my charming guest to Maracas Bay. "Itall began with the wars between France and England for the control of theCaribbean's sugar-producing islands... It's quite a tale, I am afraid that I'lltake a few liberties in the telling - but Maracas is a long drive."

"Artist's license?"

"Well, you be the judge!"

She had been born in Saint Domingue, Haiti, and therewas no date of birth for her. For people like her you were either born beforeor after the revolution. Her circumstances were thus: her father, a Frenchmanfrom Nice, butcher by profession, was sentenced to five years deportation forthe attempted murder of a cooper over a matter of honour. It would appear thathe had attempted to drown him in a barrel of his own manufacture. For fiveyears he had laboured in the cane fields along side the seventeen slaves andthree Canary islanders who, like himself, were indentured to Clotilde Voisin.Freed from indentureship, his life forever altered, he practiced his professionat the Grand Market in Port-au-Prince. As soon as he had enough money put by,he presented himself at the slave market and for the sum of one hundred andeighty pilars - silver Mexican-Spanish dollars - bought a tall, flat-chested,aggressive Ibo woman to be his house keeper, companion and mistress. His choicehad been inspired by the fact that the available white women on the island ofhis class were absolutely worn out by their previous profession of prostitutionand poverty in France, followed by five years of working under the tropicalsun.

Much in this manner in those days, there came intobeing three classes, the white, the mulatto and the black, which at that timeimplied no particular evil, except the obvious one of slavery. Their domestic lifetogether was organised along the lines of never ending attack, defense,capitulation, occupation, revolt, over throw, accommodation and the perpetualdestruction of most of their worldly goods. It was during one of their moreferocious engagements that Ameline Louisa “Cocutes” Paseu was conceived, and itwas at the time when the eye of the most devastating hurricane ever to surgeout of the Atlantic ocean was steering down upon the most hideous collection ofshacks that huddled in and around an enormous rubbish pile in the quarter of LaPac, that she was born. As a consequence there were no more offspring to thestate of war that passed for their relationship. After a while he forgot thathe owned her and she, despising both her keeper and her child, became a wealthymarchande and something of a power broker in the Grand Market at Port-au-Prince.

She grew to possess her mothersheight but not her temperament, her fathers commitment to survival but not hislack of ambition. She belonged to a category of persons who were woven into thevery fabric of the islands society. She belonged to all classes and to none.The entire system, the very structure of society of life, even death, on theisland was based on the colour of your skin. It had nothing to do with class,money or worldly achievement. The coloured man could own 10,000 acres of landand be the master of 1,000 slaves and still be nothing in the eyes of theauthorities. He could not carry a side arm, a sword or a sabre. He had to sitin public places where he was told. His life was circumscribed by theirrational fear of the European, who had engendered him and by his aversion tothe race that had bore him. For the mulatto woman there was one way in which toconquer: it is said that they, in their youth, combined a natural naiveté, atouching gracefulness and a lascivious languor that could enflame the mostplacid, the most disdainful or the most sanctimonious of men. By the time ofher sixteenth birthday she knew everything. The place was too crowded, therewas too much competition. She needed a smaller island. She found passage on a windjammerby charging her favourite currency and within a week arrived on the beautifulisland of Martinique. She became the plaything of an elderly Count who owned aplantation on nearby Trois Islets. He was attempting to paint, in watercolour,an idyllic scene from a classical fantasy on her smooth and slightlypalpitating stomach when the calamity of revolution overwhelmed them.

Their escape was described byhis later biographers as providential. For propriety's sake, she was writtenout of the story. Fleeing from the revolution, it took them south along theCaribbean chain to the Spanish isle of Trinidad, where before death closed hiseyes he provided for her by introducing her to, and recommending her, as ahousekeeper, companion and mistress to a young protégé of his by the name ofJean Charles Baron de Montalambert. He himself had recently escaped theguillotine by immigrating to Trinidad where he had joined another youngaristocrat by the name of de Mallevault in an agricultural enterprise in theCascade valley at a site where two rivers met, that they named, for sentimentalreasons, Coblentz.

In the days of great peace,their love produced a boy of exceptional beauty, tall for his age. He was hisfather's constant companion. The plantation had come into existence as a resultof a heroic escape from the bay of Ste. Anne in Martinique during a period of aparticularly bloody war of retribution conducted with legendary savagery by allconcerned. Amongst the several hundred, black and white, slaves and free, thathad crowded the careening decks of the frigate "Marshall de Castries"was a dwarfish creature too ugly to be recognised as either man nor woman, whohad secretly come aboard. Huddled in a chest that belonged to no one, it hadwith it just one possession: a vial of the most virulent poison to ever leavethe Guinea Coast. He, for it was a man, was to become the estate’s cutler,sharpening all knives, plows, shares and scissors.

During the period of slavery,poison was the most preoccupying consideration for the proprietors of plantations.Either the estate had a poisoner or it did not. The most commonly used poisonwas of course arsenic. It was used in the fields as an insecticide. But therewere other sinister poisons such as the venom of snakes, centipedes, scorpions,the pulpy white starch that oozed from the manchineel plant, the dirt fromgraves and cesspits were easy to obtain as well as many roots and herbs. Therewere also the more obvious killers such as ground glass.

Poison and the poisoner onestates was a viable alternative to life as a slave and was sought after togain release. Poison, applied when profound injustice with no hope ofretribution was dished out between the enslaved, and for vengeance, was soughtat a price. Poison was when a master, too cruel to accommodate had to be gotrid of. Poison was used by an old man gone mad with an old man’s sense ofobsolesce in a place so far from his ancestral gods that it might just as wellbeen hell. Poison was used at Coblentz Estate in the year 1803. Amongst the 70people who died was the masters son. Amongst those who lived was an incrediblyugly, short old man and a beautiful mulatto woman whose descendants might befound amongst the Bonaparte, Lambert, Danglarde and Foncette families and St.Anns and La Pastora."

We had arrived at Maracas.

"And what happened, howcome 'La Fantaisie'?"

"Gyal, I'll tell you aboutthat after a shark and bake!"

(continued next month)

Amerindian Names

2012-01-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

Place names are points of memory in the fabric of West Indian lifestyle. Let us look at some of the names that come from the period long before the arrival of Columbus in the Caribbean Sea, from the years when Trinidad was settled only by the Amerindian people. The world being ‘brand new’ in those days, things received their names for the first time - some of them have survived.
The tribal people gave names to the rivers and plains, the mountains and capes. Some of these names are to be found in Venezuela as well, such as Tacarigua, which has a parallel in the Lago Tacarigua, or Cumana, which is found in two places on Trinidad’s North coast and also on the mainland. There is a Caroni river on this island and a mighty Caroni running through the jungles on the neighbouring continent. Other pre-Columbian names are Arouca and Caura, where the Capuchins had missions in the 17th century.
People spoke Spanish exclusively in these hamlets until quite recently. Siparia was the site of another mission, where tobacco was cultivated. Arima and Naparima, Toco and Tunapuna, Chaguanas and Chaguaramas, Piarco and Oropouche - all these are Amerindian names which survived. Port of Spain was once called Conquerabia, a name which disappeared early.
Corosal, Maraval and many other names ending in -al are very interesting, because in most cases the -al is the Spanish collective suffix, sometimes stuck onto an old Amerindian root. For example, a place rich in the palmtree called “corozo” by the Amerindians became “Corozal”. In Cocal, the name refers to an abundance of coconut trees. The story is that a ship was wrecked on this part of the east coast of Trinidad. Its cargo of nuts were washed ashore and took root. Maraval is described as a large track of land below Anapo. It was covered with maro trees.
This marriage of Spanish and Amerindian also happened in the other islands. Pouisal in Montserrat got its name from the abundance of poui trees, as did Morichal in the same island and in Trinidad as well, which refers to the moriche palms that grew there.
The Spanish settlers who came in the wake of Christopher Columbus named their estates after the distant places now left behind: El Socorro, Barataria, Aranjuez, El Dorado. When they marveled at the beauty of their new homes, they called the Vistabella and Buenos Ayres.
There is magic and beauty in these place names. They contain, like time capsules, messages from another age, when our country was still roamed by its original inhabitants.
They contain, like time capsules, messages from another age, when our country was young.

From the African languages, other words have survived like "zami" ﬁ (meaning "friends"), and "susu", which we use when we become "partners", each contributing so much a week to a savings club. When gardeners went into their fields, they owuld take with them a calabash full of water, known long ago as a "paki", unsing te Ashanti work "apakyi". In parts of West Africa, it is the custom to name a child by the day of the week on which it was born, for example "cudjoe" is the the Ashanti word for Monday, "quashie" for Sunday, "quaco" for Wednesday, "cuffie" for Friday and so on.

In our search for African words that have survived, we have to turn to our floklore. Here we find fascinating evidence of African survivals: anansi, the central charater of many folk tales, is in fact the spider god of the Akan-Ashanti people. In Accra, Lagos and the northern regions of Nigeria, where the land falls away into a vast ocean of tawny-coloured sand, people know all about this Anasi, the spiderman who is weak but who overcomes the strong by guile in a way that the Greek hero Odysseus overcame the cyclop.
Nansi stories brough delight, but as a boy gowing up in belmont in the 1940s and 1950s, these were jumbies living in the "big canal", in Olton Road and at the corner of Reform Lane and Hermitage Road - a dangerous place after 9 o'clock!
Throughout the Caribbean, out the Caribbean region, chance word used in conversation, a game played at evening time, a song chanted to still a restless child, the names given to food and plants, link us with distant times and with men and women long dead. Cudjoe, Quashie, Paki, Zami, Senseh: words like these whisper of the past, revealing our history to us - but only to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

African cultural influences

2011-12-23T05:41:00.000-08:00

Trinidad started late as acolony, which was partly the reason that it experienced several waves ofimmigration lasting from the 1780s to the 1950s.

The various groups of people whocame contributed to the development of our overall culture and music andfolklore in various ways: some to story-telling and singing, others to music,to dance, to cooking. Out of all this has come our unique way of expressingourselves. As it is with all true folk arts, they provide an excellent methodby which to gather an overview of social development. In the 1800s, these werein Trinidad a mixture of creole (that is, born in the Caribbean) slaves andAfrican slaves. To what extent there was contact and sharing of culture canonly be guessed at. We know that in a census taken in 1813, there were 13,980people from six or seven areas of West and Central Africa and Mozambique, and11,629 creole slaves, the majority of them French-speaking. It is estimatedthat just over 5,000 slaves were brought into Trinidad between 1798 and 1802.After emancipation, between the years 1841 and 1867, the African population -that is, the people who had never known slavery as the result of being takenoff slave ships and freed in Trinidad - amounted to 3,383 who came from SierraLeone, 3,510 from the Kru coast and 3,396 from St. Helena.

Between 1838 and 1931,approximately 100,000 British West Indian migrants settled in Trinidad. Theycame from both Protestant and Catholic islands. This was culturally importantas each denomination possessed a different cycle of festivals. All these peoplewere absorbed into colonial life, and as a result of extensive intermarriagevirtually lost their identity almost immediately. However, there remained avast assortment of words and ways of doing things, spiritually and culturally,that remained unique. This expressed itself in song, dance and lifestyle. L.O.Inniss in his "reminiscences of Old Trinidad" recalls"Bloke", a game played with a hole being made in the ground or in awall. You played this game with dry gru gru beff seeds, hard and round like bigblack marbles. Bloke was highly competitive and often led to fights in schoolyards. It was, in fact, the precursor of pitching marbles.

Professor Phillip Sherlock tellsus that bloke has a West African origin, similar to another one, called"Warri". Warri is the name of a tribe in the Niger delta. It is alsoa board game, not dissimilar to Backgammon. Long ago, at the end of the day,men would sit with a board between them and with small stones enjoy this gameof skill.

From the African languages, otherwords have survived like "zami" (meaning "friends"), and"susu", which we use when we become "partners", eachcontributing so much a week to a savings club. When gardeners went into theirfields, they would take with them a calabash full of water, known long ago as a"paki", unsing the Ashanti work "apakyi". In parts of WestAfrica, it is the custom to name a child by the day of the week on which it wasborn, for example "cudjoe" is the the Ashanti word for Monday,"quashie" for Sunday, "quaco" for Wednesday,"cuffie" for Friday and so on.

In our search for African wordsthat have survived, we have to turn to our folklore. Here we find fascinatingevidence of African survivals: anansi, the central charater of many folk tales,is in fact the spider god of the Akan-Ashanti people. In Accra, Lagos and thenorthern regions of Nigeria, where the land falls away into a vast ocean oftawny-coloured sand, people know all about this Anasi, the spiderman who isweak but who overcomes the strong by guile in a way that the Greek heroOdysseus overcame the cyclop.

Nansi stories brought delight,but as a boy gowing up in belmont in the 1940s and 1950s, these were jumbiesliving in the "big canal", in Olton Road by Papit's Shop, and at thecorner of Reform Lane and Hermitage Road - a dangerous place after 9 o'clock!

Throughout the Caribbean region, achance word used in conversation, a game played at evening time, a song chantedto still a restless child, the names given to food and plants, link us withdistant times and with men and women long dead. Cudjoe, Quashie, Paki, Zami,Senseh: words like these whisper of the past, revealing our history to us - butonly to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Bhadase Sagan Maraj

2011-12-23T05:37:00.000-08:00

The buffalo emerged from a lake of mud. Huge, it seemedthat a part of the earth itself had become detached. It rose majesticallyagainst the dark gray sky with a white egret perched precariously upon its hindquarter facing in the direction from which it had come. The boy sitting underthe oldest mango tree on the estate, hugged his knees and stared past the beastto the line of blue gray mountains to the North. They had recently shot hisfather as he lay, reading from the Bhagavad Gita in his hammock under his housein Central Caroni. Matthew Sagan Maraj, his father, had been a big, verystrong, powerful man, he dominated the neighbouring villages and was known toinvade them. Mitto Sampson said “He made laws and no man in Caroni brokethem...” He was feared. “Expert stickmen crumbled under his ferocious blows.”

Michael Anthony wrote of his son, “Bhadase Sagan Marajwas born into an environment full of drama and bravado, lived in the self-samestyle of life, while contribution enormously to this country’s good.”

The hitmen promised to return for him. The boy had toflee. In the distance, the smoke, a harsher hew than the thunderous sky, rosefrom his father’s funeral pyre. The boy stepped from the cane piece just intime to stop the bus. He was 13; it was 1932. The bus was bound for Tunapuna,where a close relative would look after the boy. His earliest education hadbeen gleaned from the Canadian Mission to the Indians in his home county ofCaroni. Later, he had traveled to Port of Spain to Pamphylian High School. Now,however, with his beloved father dead, it seemed that his childhood had come toa close, as he was faced with the responsibility of looking after at least thematerial needs of his brothers and sisters.

The tall, gangly youth turned his hand to whatever cameto it. Bottle collecting, running errands, he loaded cane trucks at the nearbyestate, put on some size, he bought and sold scrap iron, he acquired a boat andtook sand from the Caroni river so as to sell it in the building boom that camewith the war days. He had inherited his father’s handsome features, size andmanly manner. He was a man of his times, knowing that the future could be ofhis own making. He was good at business and knew how to make a profit. He was young,and felt compelled to return to his village, wanting to confront the realitythat had forced him away. But the tensions were gone, and he moved on with hislife. He became a wrestler, challenging all comers - it brought in a littleextra money. He remembered one in particular; his name was Gotch. A naturalleader of men, the American employers at the Naval Base at Chaguaramas wereglad to see him. He went into trucking.

Made aware of the various shortages brought on by thewar, like nails for example, Bhadase bought up as much old boards as possible,took the nails out, hammered them straight and sold them, making a profit. Heworked hard and honestly for the Americans. This paid off handsomely. As thebases closed, he was allowed to purchase surplus goods at prices that allowedhim to turn a remarkable profit. The foundation for his first fortune was laid.

In 1948, three years after the war, India was grantedindependence. This coincided with his own. He was wealthy now and could affordto finance a lavish celebration to mark India’s Republic Day.

In the context of the Indian community, he was regardedas a man of stature, a man to respect. His generosity to all was a hallmark ofhis life. He entered politics, and in the general election of 1950 “wonhandsomely” and became the member for Tunapuna in the island’s LegislativeCouncil.

The boy who, tortured by his father’s death, had gazedhelplessly into a bleak future, was now very popular, very powerful, and verywealthy. As a Hindu, his religion meant a lot to him. In 1952, he formed theSanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, a religious organization which had as its goal thepreservation and dissemination of the Hindu philosophy, and which possessed apolitical wing, the People’s Democratic Party. A great wellspring of supportrose about him. He was, however, not without detractors, who accused him ofusing his “Indianness” for political ends. It touched him, and he declared thathe was a Hindu and could do nothing else but.

As a man of little education and knowing how littlethere was available, he rallied the Hindu community to organize a schoolbuilding program. Forty schools were built between 1952 and 1960. In the realpolitic, the changes taking place in the overall society were to set the tonefor the next four decades. The Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha acted as a catalyst inbringing the Hindu community together. Bhadase became a leader of the DemocraticLabour Party (DLP) in 1953 and prepared to fight the general elections due in1955. For various reasons, these elections were postponed to the followingyear. Disappointed and furious, he resigned his seat in the LegislativeCouncil, only to reconsider fighting the by-election and regain his seat. TheDLP contested 14 seats in 1956 and won 6. The People’s National Movement (PNM)under the brilliant Dr. Eric William's won 13 seats.

In the federal elections of 1958, Bhadase’s success wasoutstanding, leading the DLP of the West Indies, winning 6 of the 10 Trinidadseats for the Federal parliament. Politically, he moved from strength tostrength. In 1959, he was able to win control of 5 out of 11 county councils inthe municipal and county council elections of that year. He refused to be takenin by those who accused him of being a racist, insisting that he was aTrinidadian, a Hindu and a citizen of the world. People said his popularity wasbased on the schools he had built in cowsheds. His response was that it wasbetter to be educated in a cowshed than not to be educated at all.

To the tens of thousands who passed through Bhadase’scowsheds, there was no doubt in their minds. In a sense, he outgrew the DLP hehad created, left the party and in the words of historian Michael Anthony, whowrote a short biography of Bhadase, he “fought on, like a lone gladiator”. Hecarried his battle to both the PNM and to the DLP. In parliament, he was afierce critic and a true independent.

In 1960, the reins of leadership of the DLP passed toDr. Rudranath Capildeo, a remarkable man possessed of genius. As age andillness crept upon Bhadase, he started to diversify his considerable interest.A substantial landowner, he sold to Canning & Co. as well as to thegovernment some 310 acres of Streatham Lodge. The Maha Sabha benefited from hisgenerosity with the site of a new headquarters at St. Augustine. In 1966, helost at the polls to Dr. John Bharath of the DLP, and in 1968 he was on thehuskings again, winning the Chaguanas seat in a by-election.

In 1969, he led a bread-away faction of four members ofthe DLP. In 1971, he suffered a total defeat at the polls, and died at theearly age of 52 on Thursday, 21st October of that same year.

The glow of the Street Lanterns

2011-12-22T06:38:00.000-08:00

For the generation born after emancipation, life inPort of Spain was possessed of great contrast. The economic collapse brought onby the demise of free labour drove many French Creoles from the countryside to the easternextremities of the city streets. Later to be known as the “French Shores”,these streets had names that recalled the provincial towns of France whence theirancestors hailed, like Besson Street, and had French names that persisted wayinto English times: Rue des Trois Chandelles (Duncan Street, named after thethree candles burning outside the Mason's Lodge), Rue d'Eglise (Nelson Street),Rue de la Place (George Street), Rue de Sainte Anne (Charlotte Street), RueNeuve (Henry Street), and Rue des Anglais (Frederick Street).

The wooden mansions they built when they moved to eastPort-of-Spain are now all gone. Old-timers, however, recall that the town hadabout it an air not dissimilar to Fort-de-France or Pointe-à-Pitre in theFrench Antilles. The land over the dry river known as Piccadilly was then called“Grand Jardin” (Big Garden), and further north was Mango Rose and Lacou Harp.The large central area, stretching from Argyle Street to St. Paul Street, wascalled Sorzanoville, with large parts covered with sugar cane. The entire areto the north and east was bounded with high woods, ancient forest that hadnever been cut.

Former slaves who had escaped in previous times and thenewly emancipated encamped in the forest, to be later joined by an increasingpopulation of former slaves from the other West Indian islands. As aconsequence, many African customs and usage's were maintained in eastPort-of-Spain form many decades. Several yards, divided along tribal lines,were established, along with gangsor bands which originated in the secret societies of West Africa. There were“malongues”, special groupings of people how had shared the experience of theslave ship or the barrack room.

Smart town houses, lived in by the now somewhatimpoverished French gentry, existed side by side with amazingly squalid yards,peopled by the city’s poor, who were mostly black, but also contained in theirnumber many destitute Europeans, some Spanish, some French, some ofindeterminable origin. There were wakes, dances and religious ceremonies. Thesheer volume of noise emitted by these astounded the visitor of Port-of-Spain.C.W. Day, English traveler, describes such a dance with astonishment (note hisignorance of how drums are made):
“One night, hearing a horrible drumming, I followed the sounds and in thesuburbs of the town came to a Negro ladies’ ball. A narrow entry led to aspacious shed, rudely thatched with palm branches. Standing in the four cornersof this dingy salon de dance were well-muscled young men holding aloft woodencandelabras with tallow candles casting a fearful glare over the place. Therewere five huge Negroes thumping might and main on casks, the tops of which werecovered with parchment. Ranged along the side were twenty negresses roaring achorus. These dingy damsels, of whose features nothing but their rollingeyeballs and brilliant teeth were visible, raised their voices to a pitch thatwould have satisfied the King of Ahanti.”

Another man, C.H. Eckstein, had the following to sayabout this period:

“At this period of history of our experimental island,the town society could not yet boast of sufficient stock of elegance to assumea ‘bon ton’ and the ‘haut ton’, to which it has since so rapidly aspired, wasscarcely suspected. The seductive soirees at Mademoiselle Annie’s - thefascinating Ninon of Trinidad, collected at this time, the male beau-monderound her sofa or the harpsichord satiated with the ordinary indulgences ofhuman appetite, relish of higher society became so exquisite nothing less willnow soothe the modern ear than Parisian-tuned harps. None must touch the bosomof the finished school miss except the pedal lyre.”

Against this contrast the city fathers struggled toestablish a semblance of modernity. One such was the introduction of streetlighting. The Port of Spain Gazette reported in 1878 (as reported in theGuardian Centenary Issue):

First Lighting On The Streets

The inauguration of the lighting of the lamps placed bythe Municipality in Marine square and from the square northwards to the gaol,took place, as announced on Christmas Eve. The lamp was lit by His Excellencythe Governor; and among those present we notice the Hon. the Attorney General,The Hon. T.A. Finlayson, The Hon. L. Guiseppi, John Agostini Esq., L. MathieuEsq., Oliver Warner Esq., R.D. Mayne Esq., John Fanning Esq., J.F. Rat Esq.,(Town Clerk). We also noticed that, His Worship the Mayor’s published programnotwithstanding the Borough Councilors were conspicuous by their absence. Wewere ourselves unable to be present at the display of fireworks offered to thepopulation, (at the cost of the population), by His Worship the Mayor. (28thDec., 1878)”

These lamps like most elsewhere were imported fromEngland. Made of cast iron, they were shaded by glass and burned whale oil.They were placed on street corners and were lit at dusk by the lamp lighter whomade his way in a ceremonious style, accompanied by a boy carrying a ladder andanother ringing a bell signaling the close of day as dusk settled on the littletown.

In the distance the bells of the towns two cathedralstolled the hour. It would be another generation that would see the marvels ofthe introduction of electricity.

Interviewwith the last lamplighter

“Memudda, she da make me de year de cholera be so bad. Dat be so long time andlook how I get, I must be well old.”

Hemay have been born in 1855, he may have had no idea really, black people seldomknew how old they were or when they were born.

“Yes,I be dey de day de govener light the first street light.”

Hecould also remember the small pox epidemic, when no precaution was taken toisolate cases to prevent infection. People said that if you were brave, and youvisited all your friends that had it you were safe but if you tried to run awayyou’d inevitably catch it or it would catch you. In order to combat the“disease in the air” they burnt pitch on the street corners under the newlyinstalled oil burning lights.

Mosquitoescarried the fever and to drive them out of the house a Wood-ants nest was burntin a coal pot. The smell of smoke pervaded the town. The streets were swept andthe drains flushed once a week by a gang of short time prisoners and the corbeauxsaw after them in the interval. Carnival, well, no descent person would attemptto go about the streets on Carnival days as the masqueraders had a free handand the opportunity to settle old scores. The confrontations between Baker andhis bobbies (policemen) and the stickmen reached a high point in 1881. TheCannes Brulées broke every lampshade in the city. He remembered that the lampsremained unlit for a long time until new glass shades could be imported fromEngland. Creole patois was prevalent he said, and it was the habit that when“you had a dead” you hired a Patois speaking person, preferably a woman in aMartiniquan dress: chemise, jupe, foulard, a pair of "zano cylendre"in her ears, a string of "grain d'or" round her neck and a stiff"canlanday" head kerchief tied turban wise. It was important that shehad a good voice for she would pause at every street corner under the new lamppost and proclaim “Ladies and gentlemen Pierre Jean Modeste has died. Hisfuneral will leave the house at the back of the grass market this afternoon at4 o’clock for the cathedral. His wife Marie Louis the seamstress, his mother isMrs. Murphy who sells chutney by the cab stand, his aunt is Mrs. Chantall wholives at the back of the Black Lion Bar on Park Street, his uncle is the bakerfrom Venezuela, who in jail for stabbing “Doudouts“ the carterman.

The Maroons of the Blue Mountains

2011-12-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

The Blue Mountains of Jamaica are spectacular. Almosttwice as high as our own Cierro Aripo, they appear to have heaved themselvesupwards at some distant and prehistoric moment when Atlas shrugged, easing hisshoulder bone from the worlds weight.

The Blue Mountains of Jamaica are really blue,sometimes bluer than the sky and sometimes when their bases are lost in theheat haze their summits appear enskyed, distant, remote, removed. It was totheir vastness, to their hidden secret valleys and remote plateaus that men andwomen, in pursuit of freedom, fled to be marooned.

In the earliest days of Spanish settlement thoseAfricans who preferred to take a chance of freedom in the mountains rather thanbear the burden of slavery on the ranches and estates ran away into the wildparts, to the mountains like those that rise up from behind Port Antonio. Therun away slaves were called Maroons from the Spanish word ‘cimmarron’ meaning“wild” or “untamed.” As the number of African slaves brought to Jamaicaincreased so to did the number of Maroons. Some held the wild lands known asthe ‘Cockpit Country’ or the ‘Land of Look Behind,’ with their chief base at Accompong. Another band was based on Nanny Town. These keptPort Antonio in a state of terror early in the 18th century. A third band heldthe eastern Blue Mountains under the leadership of men like Quaco. Experts inguerrilla warfare, they would win battle after battle against the British. Themaroons would sweep down in the silence of the pre dawn shifting in and out of the circling mist. Theplantation dogs, curiously silent at their approach, appearance sudden, theirdeparture swift, taking with them supplies of food, women and young people.Legends about them grew that they had the ability to appear and disappear, tostand so still in the evergreen that a party of soldiers could pass them bysight unseen. They could ambush and wipe out columns sent against them.

Caribs brought in from the Mosquito Coast of CentralAmerica to track them down were wiped out. Two British regiments were broughtfrom England but the soldiers took to rum so enthusiastically that they neverhad a chance against the elusive maroons in a fortress of the Blue Mountains.An expedition under the command of Captain Stoddart fought their way into themountains above Nanny Town and succeeded in dragging two cannons into theheights over looking the villages and blew them to pieces. Those who survivedwent further into the mountains. They showed the British by their subsequentcounter attacks that they had not been destroyed. The British war against themaroons was costly in terms of men and materials.

Peace came only when a treaty was made with them in1739. The remarkable document recognized them as a free people and handed overto them 1,500 acres of land. It further allowed them to administer their ownlaws. The maroons agreed to ally themselves with the government of Jamaicaagainst any invader, such as the French from nearby Haiti or the Spaniards fromCuba as well as to hand over any runaway slaves. Sir Phillip Sherlock remarksin his paper on the maroons, “The Maroon has been absorbed into Jamaica thoughanyone who knows West Africa would find signs of Africa clearer in the Maroonvillages than anywhere else in the West Indies.” The novelist Peter Abrahamsfound this when he went some years ago to Accompong to speak with the Colonel,as the leader of the Maroons from generation to generation over the centuriesis described. He had recently returned from the Gold Coast and found thesimilarities in physical appearance and lifestyle striking. Impressed by thedignity of the Colonel, he described him as “a tall, slender man, very darkwith a lined but tranquil face...”

Sir Phillip Sherlock in his closing remarks catcheswell the spirit of the Blue Mountains in saying:

“The Maroon is not representative of a nationalmovement. He is tribal rather than national. He sometimes fights as an ally ofthe oppressor of Africans. But he is a symbol of man’s love for freedom, atoken and agent of active protest against slavery. If you were to go to theMaroon village at Moore Town in the Blue Mountains you would find that therewas no difference between the Maroon and the other men who gather towards theevening in the rum shop to talk and take their tot of white rum, or Cowneck asit is sometimes called since only a cows throat can tolerate the hair raisingstuff; or who still go pig hunting in the shadow of Stoddart’s peak or SugarLoaf or Candlefly, hacking their way through the thickets of sharp bladedbamboo grass or hog grass; or who sell leathery highly peppered jerk pork inthe streets of Port Antonio, or tell tales at night of the giant wild hog thattheir fathers hunted, a great red boar that killed six dogs and a man. Of thegiant boar: it is a backra duppy, a bad man duppy, says one. Or they speak ofthe common bushman’s belief that if you are so unlucky as to have to camp nearNanny town for the night, white birds will come and perch in tiers in thesurrounding trees. You can let off all your shot in vain. It goes through them.They are all ghost of the Nanny Town dead..."

There is an enormous significance in this coloneltalking over a glass of rum in an old house set in the forested mountain sideabove Accompong, for he has behind him a long history of protest and therejection of slavery - more than 250 years of freedom!

French Immigrants

2011-12-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

Grenada had become a Frenchpossession in 1674. For some 20 years the Caribs had held out, boldly meetingtheir foe, matching weapons of wood and stone against cold steel and gunpowder.They had fought the French on the beaches and in the steep inland valleysamongst the towering trees of the islands interior. The ancient volcanobelching fire and sulfuric flames, forming a hideous backdrop to this theirdoomsday scenario, which finally came with a mass suicide when the lastremnants, hounded by the invader, leaped to their deaths in a mad forecast ofthe things to come some three hundred years earlier.

The island was cultivated and anAfrican slave society was introduced. The plantocracy comprised in the main ofthe French provincial gentry with money to sustain their endeavor until profitscould be realized. The other French islands in the Caribbean, apart from Haiti,comprised of Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.Professor Gordon Rohlehr observes "The island of Grenada was captured bythe British in 1759 and ceded to Britain in 1763. The British sought toaccommodate the French residents whom they included in the limited assembly ofthe time." The British were aware of the necessity to maintain a unitedEuropean front against the free blacks who outnumbered them. These arrangementsin the main did not last as the French were more than a little sympathetic withthe rebellious American colonists who were seeking to over throw British ruleon the North American continent.

The French government did all inits power to undermine the British imperial expansion. In response Britainattempted a few years later to capture Haiti from both the French and the BlackJacobins who had risen in revolt. As the winds of the European wars surged backand forth in the Western oceans, Grenada was captured by the French in 1779 atthe height of the American War of Independence. However it was returned to theBritish under the Treaty of Versailles. It was against this background of beingfearful of British recrimination, for the discrimination which the French hadperpetrated against the British over the previous four years, made the plantersglad to take advantage of what was being offered to them under the Cedula ofpopulation of 1783. This accommodation by the Spanish crown to fellow Catholicsin the Caribbean, that was increasingly torn apart by war, was in fact adefining element in the history of Trinidad. The inability to recognise the bicentennial of this event in1983 by the government of the day in Trinidad was a testimony of our social andpolitical immaturity. Significant anniversaries are important landmarks which give us the opportunity tore-examine these special events. The French entry into Trinidad was verysignificant. French researcher F. P. Renault wrote:

"The French inhabitants ofthe islands considered themselves as brothers, jointly responsible to eachother and hardly coming to care for a nationality which they would probablynever employ for long. Also, they were more attached to the islands where theyhad established themselves, to the islands in which they were united inmemories and interest, than to a mother country which they had left with nothought of returning. It was because of this that the all powerful tradition ofkinship developed and became central to the French Creole character.

The original colonists were knownas the new colonists to distinguish them from the old Spanish settlers ... Manyhad left the land of their fathers several generations before, and had helpedto colonise French possessions in other parts of the New World. Some familiesbegan their colonial experience in Acadia, in what is now Canada, in the 17thcentury, others in Louisiana and New Orleans.

In their migrations, subject asthey were to changes political, economic and climatic, they found themselves attimes completely uprooted; their circumstances substantially altered, oftenhaving to start afresh; and because of the fortunes of war, families would findthemselves distributed among several islands whose ownership would change handsfrom one year to the next, while in reality they would continue to shareidentical interests and a way of life that had evolved as a result of living inthe tropics, on cocoa and sugar plantations operated by slave labour for, insome cases several generations. All the while they maintained the language andtraditions of the land of their origins. All these factors contributed to thefostering of a West Indian spirit, a West Indian French Creole way of life, aswell as to produce a community of opinion between the colonists of variousislands, in spite of the strict application of the various colonial laws."

Other French elements made theirway to Trinidad, as Professor Bridget Brereton wrote in 'Book of Trinidad':

"Right from the start of theFrench Revolution, in 1789, privileged Frenchmen, and especially members of thenoblesse, fled from their native land to the comparative safety of exile. Thisexodus stepped up during the first half of the 1790s, when the revolutionaryregime was at its most extreme.Although the emigrés included thousands of clergymen and members of the ThirdEstate (commoners), it was the noble exiles who gave the emigrés as a grouptheir main characteristics: royalist, fiercely Catholic, and bitterly opposedto the revolution and all its works.

Since many of the noble emigréshad been military officers (the army being one of the few acceptable careersfor young noblemen), it was natural that they would want to serve the greatcounter-revolutionary military alliance spearheaded by Britain, Austria andPrussia. And of these, large numbers did enlist in the armed forces of thesethree powers as officers, to such an extent that special French units wereorganised in each army. The British military authorities allowed many emigrésto raise regiments for regular service with the army, such as the 'ChasseursBrittaniques', only one of many. Royalist emigrés often bought commissions inregular British companies or regiments.

Many of these emigrés serving asofficers with the British armed forces fought in the Caribbean campaigns of the1790s. As early as 1792, before Britain was at war with revolutionary France,plans were being hatched among emigrés in Britain with property in Ste.Domingue (Haiti) to ship an army of emigrés to the Caribbean, presumably tocrush the revolution in the French colonies. This came to nothing, but manyFrench emigrés from the Antilles received commissions in the 9th, 10th, 11thand 12th West India Regiments, which were raised in Guadeloupe and Martiniqueand were taken into the British Establishment (i.e. as regular British troops)in 1798. White French Creole officers serving with British-raised black troopsin Ste. Domingue during the British occupation (1794-1798) often remained inthe British service after the occupation was over. Many emigrés withoutCaribbean connections, who had received commissions in regular British troops,took part in the West Indian campaigns of 1793-1797, in one of which Trinidadwas conquered. Several of them stayed on in Trinidad."

Apart from the military men,there were other French royalists from Haiti who offered their services to theBritish forces during their ultimately abortive campaign to undermine theHaitian revolution and wrest Haiti from both the blacks and the Frenchrepublicans. Rejected by the British in Jamaica because the assembly therefeared that their Haitian slaves might have absorbed the dangerous doctrine ofrepublicanism, Haitian planters and their slaves were re-settled in Trinidad.The impact of the Haitians, both planters and slaves, was felt in Trinidad. TheHaitians tended to settle in the south of the island, and, whether true orfalse, the planters found themselves stigmatized as being licentious andaccused by the other French colons of indulging in outrageous orgies. Theirslaves introduced the syncretic African religion, 'voudoun', and with it thepathological fear of poisoning and the creation of the 'zombi', or the livingdead, a cult that was unknown in the French islands of the Lesser Antilles.Mistrust, financial insecurity, an atmosphere bordering on hysteria, all thishelped to determine the spirit of the first years of British rule in Trinidad.The British did not trust the loyalty of the French, whether freshly arrivedroyalists or seasoned Creoles in their second or third generation. They trustedthe free coloureds and free black people even less, fully aware that theGrenadian revolution of 1795 was led by Fedon and other free colouredrepublicans. This revolution had cost the lives of some 7,000 persons on thatisland. Dr. James Millette in "Genesis of Crown Colony Government"tells us of the great care that was taken by the region's military governmentswith regard to slaves from Haiti. In the case of Trinidad, taking all but 39 of300 Haitian negroes refused at Martinique, there were plots or rumours of plotsto wipe out the entire European population. This was dealt with by GovernorThomas Picton very harshly. Notwithstanding poisoning did take place on severalestates. One case, a serious one, occurred at Coblentz in St. Anns.

The year 1803 proved to be veryfatal for the Coblentz estate, as the owner, Baron de Montalambert, lost 70 outof 150 slaves in a period of nine months. Governor Colonel Hislop commissionedSt. Hilaire Begorrat, a member of the Council of Government, and Louis FrançoisSergeant, a French notary from Martinique, to inquire into the circumstances ofthis tragedy. Eventually the principal driver, the hospital orderly and threeslaves of the estate were convicted of poisoning and executed. During theinquiry, it became known that amongst the slaves on the estate were some whohad been brought by Monsieur de Mallevault, the previous owner of Coblentz,from his estates in Martinique, where in 1793 a similar excessive mortality hadoccurred, where as well the use of poison had been suspected. Was one of theAfricans he brought Trinidad's first (and thank God so far only) mass murderer,hitting his victims both in Martinique and here?

As the report of theCommissioners states:

"Every experienced planterknows that the negro doctors, obeahmen, are nothing but poisoners who profit bythe ignorance and credulity of their comrades. They sell them someinsignificant powders to which they attribute miraculous virtues, and aftercarrying on with this trade for some time to acquire reputation, always finishby selling poisons extracted from plants with which they are well acquaintedand can always find. The police can never be too vigilant of these sort ofdoctors, as they are dangerous from their principles and from the consequencesthey produce."

The Baron de Montalambert wasnear total ruin by the loss of almost half of his slaves. In 1806, he sold histown house property on Frederick Street between Woodford Square and ParkStreet, and in 1808 he put up large sections of his St. Anns estate for sale.That same year, the planter died as well.