In times
gone by, it was almost exclusively men who were allowed to do have careers and
influence the course of history. What did the other half of the population do?
A look at women in the history of Trinidad and Tobago
Much has been
said about the men who shaped the society in our country for the past 500
years. Arrival Day commemorates the moment when people from all corners of the
world set foot on our shores, sometimes by their free will, sometimes by force,
their eyes full of hope and their pockets in various states of emptiness. They
disembarked, found a place to stay, settled and eventually prospered in
Trinidad and Tobago.
Like all recorded
history, this picture of Arrival Day too is really only the male version of the
process of immigration and settlement. For the Trinidadian and Tobagonian women
of all cultures and ethnic backgrounds, the same process should rather be
celebrated by something called ‘Endurance Day’: they endured the process of
settlement in the harsh conditions of the climate and of the society and raised
families.
Most women who
came to Trinidad came in the wake of men: as wives, slaves, workers, sisters,
aunts, cousins etc. Hardly ever would they have been the propagators of
migration and settlement in this unknown colony in the Caribbean. Even less
likely was that they owned any substantial amount of money or property (which
included in some unfortunate times also other human beings, i.e. slaves).
There are no
records of women in Spanish times before 1783, and it can be safely assumed
that the outpost of Trinidad was mainly ‘manned’ by men, soldiers and
administrators. The Amerindian women who still lived here were part of a tribal
system of male hunters-warriors and female housewives (or should we rather say
‘ajoupawives’). The catholic missionaries who with great determination
propagated Rome’s dogmas were male as well, of course.
The Dutch and
the Courlanders who attempted to settle in Tobago might have had some brave
wives who made the long voyage from the seashores of the North Sea and the
Baltic Sea to the small island. One can imagine the hard work, clearing the
forest, wrenching fields and vegetable gardens from the jungle, and all this in
totally unsuitable clothes for the tropics! Women in the 17th and 18th century
were clad in several layers of long skirts, blouses, laced bodices, stockings,
not to mention the long unspeakables (panties).
In 1783, when
the Cedula of Population brought thousands of Catholic settlers and their
slaves to Trinidad from the other Caribbean islands, Port of Spain saw a
hitherto unknown amount of women step ashore. French and patois-speaking, often
already used to the climate and the frugality of plantation life from Grenada,
St. Lucia, the French Antilles and Haiti, these women - black and white -
followed their men or their masters to Trinidad. Hardly any of the European or
free coloured women would have
come by herself, bringing her own slaves and claiming her own plot of
Trinidadian soil. The African women who came as slaves were, naturally,
deprived of expression of their free will and or making decisions for
themselves. For all of these women it is not the arrival in Trinidad and Tobago
that is noteworthy, but it is the endurance with which they ploughed on,
supporting their men and sons in establishing plantations in Trinidad’s wild
countryside.
When England
captured the island in 1797, many Englishmen came here as administrators and
planters. They, too, brought wives and slaves to Trinidad and Tobago. Like many
a diplomat’s or engineer’s wife today, many of these British women must have
hated coming here! No social life in comfortable circles, clothes that were a
handicap, no modern amenities in the houses and cities, and a population that
they didn’t understand! It was difficult to get from A to B in a country that
had only dirt tracks, and the isolation between women from different Europan
countries and of different religions must have been almost total.
In plantation
life, European women had the matrimonial duty of producing children, raising
them, overseeing the running of the household and garden, and dealing with the
house servants and house slaves. They had no say in business decisions, no
access to education, and hardly any leisure or diversion. What a life!
The slave
women too produced children, sometimes with other slaves, sometimes with
overseers and European masters. The catholic church saw to it that they were married,
but whereas marriage in the context of Europe was an economical contract, it
was more a spiritual moralistic affair for the slaves.
The main thing
that women dealt with in the isolation of plantation life was death. The fear
of poison was always there, but that was only one side of the grim reaper. There
was no medical service, no transportation to the main cities, no advanced
medicines, and only rudimentary hygiene. Women died during childbirth, children
died frequently from infections, cholera could wipe out the family and the
plantation at a rate of several persons a day. Mosquitoes, snakes and scorpions
brought sickness and death. Slaves died from infected injuries and from
despair. Looking back, it is no wonder that Trinidad and Tobago’s women radically
turned to religion and became fervent believers - all this death had to be
dealt with somehow!
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