The Reaction of Ethnic Minorities to Black Power in Trinidad and Tobago, 1970

This abstract is based on conversations with five Trinidadians of European descent, three were men and two were women, all of whom were over 30 in 1970. Two of the men were company directors, the women were housewives. Three were Syrians, comprising two women, one was a housewife, the other worked in her husband’s business and one man who was a teenager in 1970 and worked in his father’s business. A Chinese woman who was in her twenties in 1970 who worked in a bank and whose father owned a shop, An Indian man, a national of India, who worked in Trinidad as a retailer in the period. And a Portuguese housewife whose husband worked in rum shop owned by a Portuguese family. Three other informants were interviewed, there were coloured, mixed race Trinidadians and two Black Trinidadians who do not consider themselves Afrocentric. Indo Trinidadians were not included.

The views of the ethnic minorities in T&T with regard to the Black Power disturbances of 1970 are varied depending on what was experienced by those individuals.

These were the Chinese, the Portuguese and the Syrian/Lebanese communities, the Indians (from India), the French Creoles, that is European-appearing persons with French, Irish, Italian or German names, and the English Creoles. Some of these were evolved, more or less, in trade or other forms of family-owned and operated businesses. Light-complexioned people in general, persons of mixed-race backgrounds who may have identified themselves as French Creole, Chinese, Spanish or other and Afro Trinidadians who did not identify with the Black Power movement, that involved demonstrations of thousands of people.

The most common emotion felt by most of the above was fear, and a sense of surprise that was mixed with a feeling of disappointment. The sense of fear was founded on the experience of the random violence that was known to take place during the steelband clashes of the recent past, forms of labour unrest, and the collective historical fear of Black people assembled en masse and organised as a riotous mob.

The sense of surprise and disappointment was founded mostly on the belief that with Independence in 1962, a new status quo had been achieved in which the intellectual and the professional Blacks would run the government, but the society and business would continue as before. There was as well the feeling that Trinidad, “Sweet, sweet, Trinidad” was gone forever.

Independence had come following the elections of 1961, in which an intense racial outburst by Dr Eric Williams, in his “Massa day done” speeches (1960-61) shocked the minorities in the population. In these discourses he deconstructed the European mythology of their racial superiority and attacked the European-descended population at large and the French Creoles in particular, wherein they were characterised as having inherited the guilt of 18^th century slave masters.

In these discourses, the East Indians on the whole were portrayed by Dr. Williams as being at the beck and call (the shoe shine boys) of the European-descended members of the DLP and (nincompoops) marginal to the PNM’s revolution. Williams had in effect broken the taboo that had surrounded open and public discourse on race, in which derogatory views would be aired with regard to Europeans. In so doing, he had inaugurated “the Williams narrative.”

Taken aback by the impetus of the election campaign, the originality and the pertinence of some of the presentations and the extent to which the European leaders of the non-Black vote, i.e. Albert Gomes, Gerald Wight et al, had apparently been disgraced and put to flight, all the minorities appeared cowed and went along with the Williams interpretation of history and how it was applied to politics. Trust was invested and power achieved by this mostly Black party, the PNM, 

In effect, it was understood that all segments in the population would have to be subordinate to the “National culture” of the “true inheritors”— Williams’ words, that is, of the Afro-Trinidadians. As such, it was generally believed that with the PNM in power, there was no need for a Black Power movement at all. Hence, the Black Power disturbances came as a surprise to many.

Perhaps mostly so to Black and coloured Trinidadians who could not involve themselves with the Black Power movement for a variety of reasons: amongst these because they felt it did not involve them at all, that it was a low-class movement for people who were thought of by them as “the niggers”, that it was of little or no concern to them in terms of advancement of their own personal Black awareness, that it may spoil relationships between them and Whites, that it was a youth movement involving the undisciplined and lawless elements, that is was against the Law, that it was disruptive of social and racial harmony, that it was against Christian religious principles, that it was against the PNM and Dr. Williams personally, or that it was just foolish and misguided and imported from America, that it would not achieve anything for Black people that education, self-sacrifice and hard work could not achieve, that the pursuit of ambitions and taking the opportunity to live abroad was an obvious and better choice.  Many Blacks felt that that it was Black people fooling other Black people in their pursuit of power and self-aggrandizement, which was in itself dangerous, in that the Government may be overthrown and the communists would take over—bearing in mind that it was the middle of the Cold War, and communist regimes had taken control in other former colonies.

Moderate Blacks and coloureds were often intimidated, some felt fear, and that they were betraying their brothers and sisters. Many did not have it in them to participate, but realised that in not doing so, they were placed in a particular category and were described as Uncle Toms, stooges of the White people, the honkeys, and were called names like house niggers, cowards, fools, and as backward colonials, Afro Saxons.

There was outrage and a growing dissonance between Black youth on the whole and some of the Black middle class, as well as other Blacks who had pursued European mores, speech, dress, hair styles and cultural values, who had notions of respectability, that could not identify with the type of behaviour associated with youth movements expressed as Black Power. This behaviour had to do with overt racialism against Europeans in general and local Whites in particular, anger against White and foreign-owned businesses, radical attitudes to sexual conduct, dress, Afro hair styles, use of marijuana, adulation of revolutionary heroes like Ché Guevara, Stokeley Carmichael, Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Fidel Castro, etc.

There was also an awkward dissonance being created between mainstream Blacks and the Whites, off-Whites and French Creoles. They were committed to the Afro/French Creole, British colonial way of life, which included Catholicism and Christianity on the whole, language (patois), the lifestyle of agriculture and stock-rearing, boating and fishing, work in various professions, and the retained memory of the previous century with its cultural mores that were mostly French-Antillean dominated. Despite their support for the PNM and Dr. Williams and the nationalist independence movement, they were hesitant to repudiate these cultural mores in exchange for Black Power, whose values threatened theirs so absolutely.

In the Chinese community, which twelve years earlier had numbered about eight thousand and included mixed-race people who identified themselves as Chinese and not as Black, many were restaurant, steam laundry, shop and parlor proprietors and other owner-operated concerns, some of whom dealt with the Black public “over the counter.” Several were professionals or worked in the banks, private enterprise or for other Chinese. They experienced Black Power in terms of fear, harassment, violent threats, intimidation and in a few cases physical violence.  This community suffered financial losses during the period as business slowed and in some cases closed permanently. Several business places that were owned by Chinese families remained abandoned for years; others were reopened part time. Chinese families moved away from predominantly Black neighbourhoods where they had lived at times for more than one generation. After 1970 there ensued a steady emigration of Trinidad Chinese to Canada and other places.

With regards to the Portuguese, those who were still in the retail trade, shops, groceries and rum shops, also experienced financial loss, thuggery and verbal abuse, violent behaviour and threats that were similar to those levelled at the Chinese. Both these segments of the population had been in the retail trade running shops and rum shops for generations, trading in mostly in poor Black depressed areas, and were in the front line so to speak, of Black Power intimidation.

There had also been a large degree of miscegenation between the Chinese and Portuguese and their Black neighbours/customers. To what extent this played a role in the attacks against them is well worth exploring. It may be said that Black Power, 1970, reduced the involvement of both these sectors in the sale of food and alcohol, in the traditional sense, as there are few if any still engaged in trade. Indians seemed to have filled the gap.

Both these groups felt unjustly attacked as they were, in a manner, not unlike Blacks: excluded from White dominance of the society. When asked about the charge of exploitation by them of Blacks in terms of property loss because of extending credit, or sexual favours exchanged for money or kind, the feeling was that these were arrangements made freely and without force, and served the purpose at the time. There was a distinct move away from Black neighborhoods after Black Power. The Portuguese became increasingly socially White.

The Syrian/Lebanese community was severely affected financially by the disturbances. Their businesses were mostly located in the urban centres, downtown Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, in that there was a high degree of damage to property, intimidation of customers and staff and an almost complete collapse of sales during the months of January to May 1970 and afterwards. 

Several of the downtown establishments owned by this community had benefited by the steady growth and development of the middle class of all sectors and had made substantial investments in clothing shops and manufacturing plants and modern merchandising and advertisement for their stores. This had involved large outlays of cash and loans from the banks, whose repayments required a steady cash flow. When this cash flow was disrupted, pressure was applied to the owners and layoffs were experienced by the employees.

There was a degree of harassment, intimidation and extortion experienced by the Syrians. Several properties were burnt in the urban areas; arson was a threat and often a reality. This segment continued in business notwithstanding the large-scale street protest and the ongoing damage to property, and in some cases was able to form accommodations with elements of the Black Power. There was a feeling of resentment against the Black population because of the perceived kindnesses and acts of generosity given to poor and needy Blacks. When asked about exploitation, low wages, racial discrimination, sexual harassment and exploitation, they agreed that these existed, but maintained that these were human failures and any race could be found guilty of these placed in the right circumstances and that this was not peculiar to them.  There was not any marked emigration in this community, but there was a distinct hardening of racial animosity towards Blacks that it is claimed was not there before Black Power. Charity given to poor Blacks and others was maintained, in fact increased, by the Syrian-Lebanese Women’s Association.

The Indians from India who formed a small merchant community in the business district were adversely affected financially in much the same way as the above. Both communities, being in the dry goods trade, experienced a collapse in business in the several months of disturbances. There was fear of violence, business failure and of sexual assault.

The European-descended, mainly English and Scottish merchants who owned and operated the big firms, i.e. Geo F. Huggins, Alstons, T. Geddes Grant, Gordon Grant and a dozen others, including the large department stores Stephens, Fogarty’s, Millers, Glendinning’s, Woolworth, were like the Syrians immediately affected financially by a collapse of sales. In the case of the retailers the effect was immediate, in the case of the wholesalers this was accumulative. As wholesale suppliers to small outlets, they were increasingly unable to deliver/supply their customers.

The fear of violence directed against them and their families had begun in the anti-White diatribes of the “Massa day done” politics of Dr. Williams, when it was remembered that he had “given them (his supporters) permission to cut their throats” and when he had said that “history used as the murderous weapon it can be”. Connected to Britain’s international markets, this segment was acutely aware of what was taking place in other parts of the Commonwealth with regard to racial/political upheavals and the threat of communist takeover, the Cold War being on everybody’s mind.  There was a sense of guilt for past wrongs, and an admittance of racism, but it was explained that it was the times and that times were changing worldwide.

There was a feeling of confidence in the White Acting Police Commissioner, Peter May, and a police force that was perceived as loyal to the Government. With a justice system that was known to work, things would work out.

There was also the feeling that because of the oil fields, the Americans or British Governments would not let things go from bad to worse. There was a surprising amount of confidence in Dr. Williams who was thought of as not communist, but as a supporter of business interest, and also as a very clever and resourceful man. A large number of the White business community as well as French Creole families were supporters of the PNM. Party Group 13 was situated in Goodwood Park, an upscale, predominantly White area.

Several of the directors/owners of these businesses took the precaution of sending their wives children and relatives to Barbados or to the offshore islands during the disturbances.

The French Creole families, which numbered some 1500 persons, several of whom worked in the banks, in Government officers, in private firms, the cane estates and in the oil companies, or as professionals and as managers in the large companies, experienced fear and believed that their time in Trinidad may be over this time for good. As with the British merchants, they saw the Black Power uprising as an extension of the postcolonial experience of Nationalism that had replaced the legitimacy of Crown Colony Rule in the British Empire, which had safeguarded them as a remnant community in the colonies, a leftover from another time.

It was felt that between the Williams independence movement, the PNM, and now the Black Power movement, a profound breakdown of the Afro/French Creole culture had occurred, and that they were caught in the middle of the loss of this century and a half old culture. The start of a new Nationalist movement that would not include them, which was destroying all that was good and what they knew and trusted as real, had taken root and would grow menacingly.

The eight years between Independence in 1962 and the Black Power uprising in 1970 was a relatively short period in which a chasm, producing a deep dissonance, was created between themselves and what they had considered to be “their people”: the Black and coloured Trinidadians who operated/functioned in stereotyped roles in their daily lives and with whom there existed complicated relationships of kinship, dependence, paternalism, friendship, sport, camaraderie, exploitation and a myriad of relationships.

There was by no means a total breakdown between these groups, the Black and coloured and the French Creoles and other Whites, during and after the disturbances. Some say that it was only after a generational change that this was brought about, and very gradually in fact. There was, however, a certain amount of damage done, which was experienced in a collapse of trust and confidence on both sides during this period and after. Black Power to many marked the end of the Creole era in Trinidad, and the beginning of Trinidad and Tobago acquiring a more Caribbean reality.

The French Creole group as well as the English Creoles tended to start making plans to move away from Trinidad and Tobago. A great many of the owners of the big firms moved out of the country, several of them who had owned homes in which they lived when visiting, sold out, and in some cases never returned. The French Creoles with less resources per se made plans to start to send their children abroad and pay more attention to their education, preparing them to live abroad in various ways, trips visits to relatives, etc.

Black Power generated resentments with new nuances towards Blacks in general that were felt and displayed by all the minority groups. All felt that it was unnecessary, an unwelcome display of anger, intolerance, racism, societal discord and violence that achieved little or nothing that would not have come about over time.

Summary

The ethnic minorities of Trinidad felt that Black Power was about jealousy, and getting jobs in banks and in the trading houses and in other places. The minorities felt that it was largely imported from abroad, the USA, and was a dangerous juvenile fad that had caught on in Trinidad. Many felt that it would be relatively easy for them to go away and be successful where ever they went, and only those left behind would suffer as in Guyana and in other former colonies that had lost its entrepreneurial/business class.

Some minorities told stories of anger and defiance to intimidation, taking great pride in “putting people in their places” and facing down would-be attackers. Others remember only the great curfew parties. Some felt that some Black people benefited from the Black Power uprising personally, and that it was really an extension of the Independence movement that was good for the country on the whole.  Some remarked that it was good for the marginal people, the pass-for-Whites/coloureds who could now say with pride that had Black ancestors.

Some believed that Black pride had been defined for a generation of Blacks at the expense of national harmony. Some supposed that what was gained by Black Power was lost in the oil booms that followed. Most felt that that Black youth had not benefited in the long run, because it was the start of law-breaking with a sense of righteousness, a sense of entitlement unearned or undeserved, and an even greater collapse of the work ethic. Justice was not served as so many of the perpetrators of arson and violence walked free of what was seen as treason.  All groups mentioned that there had been an increase of drug use and the start of serious police corruption in the wake of Black Power.  It was also mentioned that in the aftermath of Black Power, the Police Welfare Association of the Second Division was able to negotiate a forty-hour work-week, and that this changed how the Police functioned in terms of duty, professionalism and being seen as corruption-free.

Migration is Changing Trinidad’s Identity

Interview with Gerard Besson

Cultural researcher, historian, blogger, writer, and founder/director of Paria Publishing Company Ltd

by Trinidad Guardian Reporter Shereen Ali, September 1, 2016

Intro:

In this land of many peoples and people of many ancestries, how do people see their ethnic heritage? How do they practice it, ignore it, or celebrate it?

On the occasion of our 54th year of independence from Britain, Guardian feature writer Shereen Ali spoke to T&T citizens of different backgrounds to ask how they see issues such as ethnicity, race and in some cases, their own uniquely diverse heritages. People, in their own words, helped paint a picture of an ever-changing, complex twin-island nation of many different ancestral influences.

Last week we heard from people of First Peoples ancestry. Yesterday and today, we hear from people who have European ancestry as part of their heritage. Today's contributions are from historian Gerard Besson, who describes himself as a mix of French Creole and African.

When you have to fill in a form asking you your race, what do you put?

I put “mixed”.

How do you see your ethnic roots & heritage? Is it important to how you define yourself, or is it irrelevant, an accident of birth?
I see myself as Afro-French Creole. It is important because it gives me a sense of identity. I see myself as being a part of the French/African-Creole, patois-speaking Catholic people of long ago.

But I think heritage goes beyond ethnicity. It goes to identifying yourself in terms of being a Trinidadian. And not only a Trinidadian, but for me, someone who was born and grew up in Port-of-Spain.

Do you celebrate your ethnic heritage, ignore it as irrelevant, or have mixed feelings about it?
I acknowledge and embrace my heritages. For example, in 1970 I empathised with Geddes Granger; I was only in my 20s at the time, but I understood deeply what the Black Power movement was about, and I empathised with it. It expressed itself in my work at the time. I didn’t ignore it.

And then on the other hand, at another time in my life, I went to France to see the village that my family had come from in the first place. It was a nice feeling to do that as well. So I think that I have celebrated both aspects of my heritages at some point in my life.

I also celebrate my ethnic heritages in the work I do as a historian. For instance, when I took an interest in the African part of my heritage I spent a few years researching the Rada people and Shango in Trinidad. I went to Haiti and to Brazil. I found great similarities.

Do you know about the beliefs and lifestyles of T&T people of different ethnic heritages from your own?

Yes. I’ve spent much time reading, researching and writing about people here. Dr Bridget Brereton and I, for instance, published a book in 1989 called “The Book of Trinidad”, really an anthology of different people’s writings and observations about T&T over the years. That book will give you a fairly good historical perspective.

And then, in a different kind of way, I recently published a historical novel on Trinidad called “Roume de Saint Laurent … a Memoir”. Roume is interesting because he was the person who was responsible to a considerable degree for the creation of a document called Cedula for Population. He was especially visionary for his time.

The significant thing about the Cedula for Population is that it enshrined the rights and the privileges of free black and coloured people in Trinidad. So that, yes, about 1,200 French European people came to Trinidad as a result of the Cedula, but 11,000 free black and coloured people also came! They were all French-speaking.

That document has been described by Professor Carl Campbell as the first Constitution of Trinidad. Because it spelt out the terms and conditions, in law, for people coming to living here. And it acted as precedent for many of the laws that came into existence subsequently. So much so that there is a distinguished jurist right now in Trinidad, retired, who is studying this particular document with a view to seeing how it has affected the evolution of jurisprudence in Trinidad.

I tell the story of Roume de Saint Laurent and his affairs and his adventures, but what I also do is publish the entire Cedula of Population, so people can get an understanding of the foundation of Trinidad. You see, people do not understand these foundational elements of our society.

Do you think race is important in T&T?

Race touches everything that we do.

T&T is a segmented society with a lot of overlaps, because of miscegenation over time — well, not a very long time when compared to Jamaica or Barbados, because both these islands are much older than Trinidad in terms of their colonial settlement. Tobago has a different history, its colonial experience is as old as Barbados.

Trinidad’s society came into existence suddenly. Before 1783 and the Cedula for Population, if can you imagine, the population was about 126 Europeans, a few hundred people of African descent, who were not really slaves because there was no industry, and a handful of Amerindians — tribal people.

From then on, with the advent of the Cedula and plantation slavery the population expanded.

Free blacks and coloured people as well as white French people brought slaves together with their own societal landscapes and political and religious views to Trinidad; as compared to Barbados and the older islands where the society developed over a long period, even though it was a period of slavery, their societies matured more slowly.

In Trinidad everything seems to have happened almost overnight. It went from a few dozen people in 1780s, to 50 years later, more than 50,000 people. So Trinidad began in a strange, unique way in itself.

Race in Trinidad is a very loaded topic. It morphs into politics very easily. And this is so, because of the movement for Independence, how that came about and who did it, and under which group it happened.

Because for a very long time, for some 200 and something years, Europeans controlled the economic landscape of Trinidad, and these white people were both local and foreign.

The local ones were in agriculture, mostly cocoa, and government service, and the foreign ones were in sugar, business and government. That is how it was. It was a society that was not as segregated as say Barbados, but still segregated in terms of class as well as race.

The black population, as it advanced, went into teaching, the Civil Service, law and medicine, and later gradually into other professions.

So those two groups, the local white group and the coloured, Afro group, controlled Trinidad completely.

They posessed a Creole identity. The Indians, who had arrived in 1845 to 1917 were largely confined to the countryside. For most of the 19^th century, they often needed a pass to leave the estates – even if their indentureship was over.

All this changed after the world wars. After Independence, the children of the dominant groups began to go away to make a better life and a great many never came back. This was the French Creole people, mixed-race people, and people of African descent.

Trinidad has experienced in the last 50 or 60 years a demographic upheaval that no other island in the Caribbean has had, in that in the non-Indian population — this is in the Afro, mixed and other groups — say 500,000 or 600,000 people, over a third of that segment have gone away. And at the same time, about that same number of people have come from the other islands. That has been a blow to the identity that was formed from the 1780s to Independence.

No other island in the Caribbean has had the experience of hundreds of thousands of people going to it at the same time that so many people have left. The result of that is this:

The creole population, the product of the late 18^th century and 19^th century society, has had a huge dislocation caused by emigration and immigration.

This has produced a great disturbance within the cohesion of that group. A lessening of a Trinidadian identity. Now that is a serious issue. I notice that recently some social scientists are beginning to comment on it.

Now, insofar as the Indian side of the population is concerned, it has been argued that there were some events that made Indian people feel more intensely “Indian”, and less intensely “Trinidadian”, such as the black power movement of the 70s, being in political opposition, after Independence, for such a long time, what thirty years; the work of the various Indian religious orders whether it is in the context of Hinduism or Islam. The  appearance of Bollywood as well as the increase in business and wealth. There were many things that happened in the last 40—50 years in the Indian community that have made Indians feel more Indian, in a sense; while, in a contrary sort of a way, also more Trinidadian.

With the dislocation in the creole society taking place and with a deepening in the Indian society of an identity, the division has become more sharp and more obvious.

So there has been a dislocation in the society instead of the predominant races finding common ground with the sharing of identity. And this is what we see played out in politics. Because you don't see it played out in daily life, you don't see it played out in love affairs, you don't see it played out in business and work, it is played out in politics, where political parties go after their imagined constituencies.

So with Independence and the movement of people, the loss of a significant part of the Creole population, has meant that Trinidad has lost a lot of its Creole soul, and acquired, on the other hand, an increased Caribbean reality.

And you see it in the disappearance of certain cultural forms. Carnival is not as it was. The music — calypso — hardly exists anymore. You have to go in search of it in the tents. It has been replaced by other musical forms. Patois is no longer heard — and you have to bear in mind that up until the 1940s and 50s, a large amount of people in both Indian Trinidad and certainly Creole Trinidad — spoke this language.

Another important factor that has also impacted on identity was the end of the agricultural sector.

People see the agricultural sector from the perspective of today. And they only see Indian people – the world of the cane farmer.

In truth, the agricultural sector in the past was enormous. It included a lot of black and French Creole and mixed people. It existed for some 200 years.

But the ending of the agricultural sector was one of the things that undermined notions of identity which were built through the 19^th century and into the first half of the 20^th century.

One of the effects of the loss of the agricultural sector is a more compassionless society. Because when you have hundreds of thousands of people, whether they are Indian people, white people, mixed people or African people, who are devoted to the bringing up of livestock, who are devoted to gardening, market gardening, vegetable planting, to cocoa and coffee and so on, you have people who have a lot of love — for their animals and for their plants. You have to love your donkey!

So when you move hundreds of thousands of people out of that world of compassion, you create an increasingly compassionless society.

I think the agricultural sector died from the 1950s. The model that was introduced by Sir Arthur Lewis, the famous Nobel Prize-winning economist, in Trinidad, and through Dr Williams, saw a nation that would be modern and industrialised. It was a form of social engineering. A lot of these little islands in the Caribbean moved away from agriculture and went into tourism. It was considered modern, it was thought the thing to do. I do not believe it was the right thing.

So the combination of the end of the agricultural economy, the end of the railways (in itself a vast societal network of people who operated them), and then the displacement of so many people, in the emigration and immigration phenomena, created a dissonance and a collapse, a loss of identity.

You see, it was not only a brain drain; it was also a deep cultural drain. A lot of the identity of the 19^th century to the first half of the 20^th century began to fall away.

And what that culture has been replaced with is something imported through television, through cinema, and through the importation of black American culture. And you see it expressed in dance music and gangland activity and so on.

So what has happened is that the society on the whole, as a result of the Independence movement, has suffered more than it has gained.

The Indian segment of the society, however, because of the isolation, of being 30-40 years in opposition, and being apart from the Creole society, because of their extended family support, the pursuit of independence though economic means, the pursuit of education (there are more Indians with tertiary education, a startling number of them young women, than anybody else), has produced a society within the society that owns an economy that is very, very large. Whereas the other side of the society does not possess an economy; there is no big Afro business there – it depends on the State.

So these are the differences in the society that create the movements and the tensions and the feel of the place.

Prof Selwyn Ryan wrote in one of his articles some time ago that for 150 years, the elements of the white society and elements of the black and coloured society dominated Trinidad, possessed a hegemony over Trinidad, and this hegemony is now decreasing at a rate. He startled a lot of people with that, but what he said was true. Immigration and emigration have changed the landscape of Trinidad. All this has had a deleterious effect on the identity-forming mechanisms of the society.

Notions of identity as a Trinidadian or a Trinbagonian are increasingly becoming something more important than just merely how you vote at election time.

I think that there's a generation of people who are growing up, not necessarily young young people, but people in their 30s or 40s, who are increasingly beginning to come to an understanding about their own identity in the concept of a Trinidad & Tobago.

Do you think different ethnicities have different values?

I think different people have different values. This is not a matter of ethnicity. I think the human race is possessed of the same yardstick where it comes to morals, ethics, values. I think they all possess the same thing. So it’s not ethnic.

People express these values differently depending on how they have been socialised.

How long have you/your family had roots here (best estimate)?
Both my mother and father’s antecedents have lived here for more than 200 years. They named Besson Street in east Port-of-Spain after my family – my father’s ancestor came to Trinidad in 1787. Boissiere Village is named for my mother’s people.

What do you like and dislike about T&T culture?

I like most things about our cultures, except the recent introduction of extremely loud music.

Also, in order to analyse important issues such as the impact of immigration and emigration, you have to have information available. And the Central Statistical Office in Trinidad is one of the places from where you do not get statistics (laughs).

I am 74 years old. And what I have seen in my adult life is an enormous change in Trinidad. I mean, when you take something like the Red House – 30, 40, 50 years ago or more, leaving a significant building like the Red House in a dilapidated state would have been a big uproar. Same thing with President’s House. Now, increasingly, there are fewer and fewer people who care about those iconic sites, because they don’t mean much to them.

The Royal Cedula of 1783 translated into English by Governor Chacon

Translated into English by Governor Don José Maria Chacón, the last Spanish Governor of Trinidad, under whom the Cedula was promulgated throughout the Caribbean as a result of the endeavour of Roume de St. Laurent

Source: Prof. Carl C. Campbell, Cedulants and Capitulants, published by Paria Publishing Co. Ltd. in 1992. P.P. House of Commons, 1826-1827 (428) =II, Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the subject of Titles to Lands in the Island of Trinidad, pp. 191-194.
 

Whereas by our royal instructions given the 3rd of September 1776 to captain of foot, Don Manuel Falquez, at that time governor of our island of Trinity to windward, and by our commission afterwards granted to Don Joseph de Abalos, when we conferred on him the general superintendency of the province of Caracas, we thought proper to form rules and grant various privileges for the population and trade of the island aforesaid; we have now resolved, in consequence of the representation our said intendant, as well as at the desire of some inhabitants already established there, and others who are anxious to become inhabitants thereof, to form a system of colonization and trade, by the following articles:-

Art. I. All foreigners, natives of nations and states, in friendship with us, who would wish to establish themselves, or are already settled in our said island of Trinity, must make it appear, by the means prescribed by our government of the island aforesaid, that they profess the Roman Catholic religion; for without this indispensable condition, they cannot be admitted to settle there. But this justification shall not be required from the subjects of our own dominions, as no doubt can be harboured with respect to them on this head. 

Art. II. Of foreigners who are admitted agreeable to the foregoing article the governor will receive the oaths of allegiance and fidelity by which they will bind themselves to observe and abide by those laws and ordinances of the Indies to which the Spaniards are subject: in virtue of which oaths, we will in our royal name grant unto them gratis and in perpetuity, the lands they many be entitled to claim by virtue of the following regulations.

Art. III. To each white person, either sex, shall be granted four fanegas and two sevenths of land (equal to ten quarrees French measure, or thirty-two acres English measure) and half the above quantity for every negro or mulatto slave that such white person or persons shall import with them, making such a division of the land, that each shall partake of the good, bad and indifferent. And these distributions shall be recorded in a vellum book of population, specifying the name of each inhabitant, the date of his admission, the number of individuals of his family, his quality and rank; and every such inhabitant shall have an authentic copy from said book for the parcel of land alloted to him, which shall serve as a title to his property in the same.

Art. IV. The free negroes and mulattoes who shall come to settle in the said island, in quality of inhabitants and chief of families, shall have half the quantity of land granted to the whites, and if they bring with them slaves, being their own property, the quantity of land granted to them shall be increased in proportion to the number of said slaves, and to the land granted to said negroes and mulattoes, this is, one half of the quantity granted to the slaves of whites; and their titles shall be equally legal and granted in the same manner as to whites.

Art. V. After the first five years establishment of foreign settlers in the said island, they shall, by obliging themselves to continue therein perpetually have all the rights and privileges of naturalization granted to them, and to the children they may have brought with them, as well as those that may have been born in the island, in order to be admitted in consequence to the honorary employ- ments of the public, and of the militia, agreeable to the quality and talents of each.

Art. VI. No capitation or personal tribute shall at any time be laid on the white inhabitants; they shall only be liable to pay one piece of eight yearly for each of their slaves, of whatever cast, and that only to commence ten years after their establishment in the island, and this tax shall never be increased.

Art. VII. During the first five years the Spanish and foreign inhabitants shall be at liberty to return to their native country or former place of abode; in which case they will be permitted to carry with them such property as they brought to the island free from any duty of exportation, but on the increase during such time they will be liable to the payment of ten per centum: and it is to be understood that the lands which have been granted to such inhabitants as voluntarily quit the island shall devolve to out royal patrimony, to be disposed of for the benefit of others, or as shall be found most convenient.

Art. VIII. We grant to the old and new inhabitants that shall die on the island, without having apparent heirs there, the power of bequeathing their fortunes to their relations or friends, wherever they may be; and if their successors should choose to settle in the island they shall enjoy the privileges granted to their constituents: but should they prefer carrying away the inheritance, they may do so by paying upon the whole amount fifteen per centum duties of exportation, where the testator has been five years established, but if he died before that period, only ten per centum, as provided in the foregoing article, and as to those who die intestate, their parents, brothers, or relations shall inherit, even should they reside in foreign nations, provided they are Roman Catholics and settle in the island; but in case they cannot or will not become inhabitants, they shall be permitted to dispose of their inheritance by sale or gift, agreeable to the rules prescribed in the two foregoing articles.

Art. IX. We also grant to all the inhabitants of landed property in the said island power, agreeable to the Spanish laws, of bequeathing or otherwise disposing of their said landed property, without making any division thereof, to one or more of their children, provided that no injustice is done to the rights of the other children, or to the widow of the testator.

Art. X. Any inhabitant who, on account of a law-suit or any other pressing or just motive, may have occasion to go to Spain, or any province of our Indies, or to foreign countries, shall ask leave of the governor, and he will be entitled thereto, provided he is not going to an enemy's country or carrying away his property.

Art. XI. The Spanish as well as the foreign inhabitants shall be exempt for the space of ten years from the pay- ment of tithes upon the products of their lands; after which period, which is to be reckoned from the first day of January 1785, they will only pay five per centum, which is half tithes.

Art. XII. They will be also exempt for the first ten years from the royal duties of alcabala upon the sale of their products and merchandizes and afterwards they will only pay an equivalent of. five per centum; but when they ship in Spanish bottoms for our kingdoms of Spain they will be always exempt from any duties of exportation.

Art. XIII. Whereas all the inhabitants ought to be armed, even in times of peace, to keep their slaves in

awe, and oppose any invasion or depredation of pirates,we hereby declare, that this obligation does not comprehend them in the class of a regular militia, and thatthey will acquit themselves of this duty by presenting their arms every two months at a review, to be taken by the governor, or by the officer he may appoint for that purpose; but in time of war or disturbance of slaves they ought to assist in defence of the island, agreeable to the disposition that may be taken by the commander-in- chief.

  

Art. XIV. The ships and vessels belonging to the old and new subjects, of whatever tonnage or build, must be brought to the island and registered there, with a proof of the property, and they will be made Spanish as well as those obtained from foreign nations, by purchase or any other lawful title, till the end of the year 1786, and they will be all exempt from the alien and qualifying duties; and those who may choose to construct vessels in the said island, government will permit them to cut the timbers necessary for that purpose, excepting only such timbers as may be necessary for the use of the royal navy.

Art. XV. The trade and importation of negroes into the island will be entirely free of duties for the space of ten years from the beginning of 1785, after which time the inhabitants and dealers in slaves will only pay five per centum on their current value on importation; but it shall not be lawful for them to transport said negroes from said island to any part of our dominions in the Indies without our royal permission, and a considera- tion of six per centum when thus imported into any ofthem.

Art. XVI. The inhabitants themselves can go (having the governors leave) with their own vessels, or freighted ones, being Spanish, to the islands in friendship with us, or to the neutral ones, to look for slaves, and take with them produce, effects, or any other property sufficient to pay for them, it being registered in the custom-house, and paying five per centum for exportation, which duty shall likewise be paid by the traders who with our permission shall bring slaves to the island, besides that which they will pay on importation of said slaves, from which we exempt the inhabitants, in order to encourage

their cultivation and commerce.

Art. XVII. The course of trade between Spain and the inhabitants of Trinity, and that which they may carry on with such of their produce as is admissible in our islands and American dominions, will be totally free of all duties from the 1st January 1785, for the space of ten years and even at the expiration  of said time they will be likewise exempt of all duties of importation into our kingdom of Spain, agreeable to the rules laid down in our last regulation of free trade; so that they can never be encumbered with any taxes other than such as will be fixed on the products of our other West Indian dominions.

Art. XVIII. In like manner Spanish and foreign goods and merchandize and also the fruits and liquors of this our kingdom, which shall be entered in our custom- house and transported to said island shall go free of all duties for the said term of ten years, and shall be in like manner introduced and expended therein; nor can they be reshipped for any other part of my dominions in the Indies; but in case it should be permitted on any urgent or just occasion, it shall be only such articles as are real Spanish, and on paying such duties as are provided by the regulation of free trade.

Art. XIX. In order to facilitate by every means the trade and population of the island, I permit for the said space of ten years, from the commencement of 1785, that the vessels belonging to the inhabitants of the said island, and likewise to my subjects of Spain, may make voyage to the said island, sailing directly with their cargoes from the ports of France, where my consuls reside, and returning directly to them again with the fruits and productions of the island, excepting cash, which I absolutely prohibit the exportation of through that channel; but with the indispensable obligation that my consul shall take an exact inventory of every thing that is shipped, which he shall deliver signed and sealed to the captain or master of the vessel, to be by him delivered at the custom-house in Trinity, and also with the condition of paying five per centum on the entry of the goods and merchandize, and the like quota on the exportation of the produce they shall ship in return to France, or to any other foreign port; but they must not touch at any Spanish port qualified to trade to the Indies.

Art. XX. Upon any urgent necessity, which may appear to the governor of the island, we grant to all its inhabitants, permission similar to that contained in the fore- going article, to enable them to have recourse to the French islands in the West Indies, under the indispen- sable obligation, that the captains or masters of vessels take exact invoices of their cargoes and deliver them to

the officers of the royal administration, in order to compare them individually with the effects they bring, and exact the same contribution of five per centum on their current value in Trinity.

Art. XXI. In order to furnish my old and new inhabitants amply with what may be necessary for subsistence, industry, and agriculture, we have given effectual orders to the commanders of the province of Caracas, for the purpose of conveying to the island such quan- tities of horned cattle, mules and horses, as may be deemed necessary, at the charge of my royal revenues; and they shall be given to the inhabitants at the first cost and charges, till they can form a breed of them sufficient for their purposes.

Art. XXII. We have made the like provision for a sufficient quantity of flour for the space of ten years, and if through any accident there should happen to be a scarcity of this article on the island, the governor will permit the inhabitants to go to the foreign islands with their own vessel or vessels belonging to my subjects, to purchase as much as may be wanted, carrying for that purpose produce equivalent, and paying five per centum on the exportation thereof, and the same on the importation of the flour.

Art. XXIII. We have likewise ordered to be sent to said island from the manufactories of Biscay, and other parts of Spain, for the said space of ten years, all the instruments and utensils necessary for cultivation, that they may be given to the old and new inhabitants at the first cost; but after the expiration of said ten years, it will be their business to supply themselves; and if during said time, through any cause, there should happen to be a scarcity of said articles and expressing want of them, they shall be permitted to be sent for to the foreign islands in friendship with us, subject to the same regulations provided for flour.

Art. XXIV. We have also directed that two secular andregular priests, of approved learning and exemplary virtue, and well acquainted and versed in the foreign languages, shall go to Trinity to serve as pastors to the new inhabitants that may be there, and we will appoint a competent living for them, to the end that they may support themselves with the decency due to their character, and be no incumbrance to their parishioners.

Art. XXV. We permit the old and new inhabitants to lay before us, through the hands of the governor of the island, the regulations they may think most convenient and proper for the management of their slaves, and to prevent their running away; in the meantime, we have instructed our said governor as to the regulations he is to observe on that head, as well as with respect to a reciprocal restitution of runaway slaves from the foreign islands.

Art. XXVI. We have likewise instructed our said gover- nor to use the utmost diligence that the plague of ants be not introduced into the island; to prevent which all the goods and effects coming from such of the Antilles as have been infested with this vermin, must be  individually inspected; and whereas the inhabitants are the most interested in this point, they shall propose to government two persons of the greatest confidence and activity to examine the vessels, etc., and carefully attend to the performance of this point.

Art. XXVII. When the sugar crops shall become con- siderable or abundant in Trinity, we will grant to the inhabitants the liberty of erecting refining houses in Spain, with all the privileges and exemption of duties which we may have granted to any of our natural born subjects or foreigners who have erected such; and we will likewise permit, at a proper time, the erection of a council board in said island for the advancement and protection of its agriculture, navigation and commerce; with immediate direction to the governor in his particular instructions, and to the other judges, to use humanity, good treatment, and impartial and speedy administration of justice to all the Spanish and foreign inhabitants, and not to trouble or injure them in anyway whatever, which would be very much to my royaldispleasure.

Art. XXVIII. Lastly we grant to the old and new inhabitants of said island when they have motives deserving our royal consideration, liberty to send us their remonstrances through the means of the governor and minister for the universal dispatch of India affairs; and in case the business should be of such a nature as to require a person to solicit it, they shall ask our leave for it, and we will grant it, if their demand is just. And in order that all the articles contained in this regulation-should have their full force, we dispense with all the laws and customs which may be contradictory to them; and we command our council of the Indies, the chancellors and courts of justice thereof, vice-kings, captains and commanders-in-chief, governors and intendants, common justices, the officers of our royal revenues, and our consuls in the ports of France, to keep, comply with, and execute, and cause to be kept, complied with, and executed the regulation inserted in this our royal Schedule.

Done at St. Lorenzo, November 24th 1783, Sealed with our private seal, and subscribed by our under-

written Secretary of State, and also Secretary for the

universal dispatch of India affairs.

We the King. Joseph de Galvez.

More on the French Creoles

While making arrangements for financial support for the re-publication of the Historical Digest, a would-be sponsor said to me, "I hope you're not putting in a lot about French creoles."

I was not especially surprised about at this remark. The people of French descent, mostly of European extraction, have been held in opprobrium in Trinidad and Tobago since the 1950s. This occurred during the politicising of the country by Dr. Eric Williams, who declared "Massa day done" and went on to explain in a series of public lectures that the French creoles were responsible for the lack of progress in the fields of education, upward mobility and financial and social progress experienced by the black masses in Trinidad.

As a politician he conveniently overlooked the fact that most of his constituents came from other islands. Having no revolutionary goals, there was the necessity to find an enemy within Trinidad. Racism, which had been endemic under colonialism, was re-invented with the independence movement. This time, instead of it being directed from white people, both foreign and locally assembled, to everybody who did not look like them, it was directed from the newly independent blacks to both foreigners and to the local white community.

Like most things that came into existence in Trinidad and Tobago during the 1950s and 60s, what was said by Williams appeared to be cast in stone. Anti-French creole sentiment became institutionalised to the degree that it was not seen as racism, and, if it was, it was viewed as justified!

My response to my sponsor when he made that remark about French creoles was simply, "How could they be written out of history?" I went on to say that it would be like, in as much as we presently have a government made up of mostly Trinidadians of East Indian descent, that we started to deny the contribution of the African presence to national life over the last 200 years.

The extent to which the independence experience served to further segment the society of Trinidad and Tobago has yet to be dealt with by academics, politicians, calypsonians, trade unionists, the religious orders and of course us ourselves.

Notwithstanding and with the sincere hope of continued sponsorship, we are going to feature the French creoles of Trinidad. Of the very many different racial groups who have come to this island of ours over the last 200 years, the French stand out in an interesting manner. Their arrival in Trinidad was most consequential with regard to our economic, cultural and social development, and as such, we will strive to alleviate their being written out of history.

The Question of Nobility

As a group, they were comprised mostly of families of the French nobility. This has been denied by various people over the years, including members of the French creole community (the same sort of people who claim that no Brahmins came here with the East Indian immigration). It has been said that this was sheer romance and unsubstantiated legend. So before we go further, let us define the term "noble".

"During the "ancient regime" in France, a noble was one who had the sole right to describe himself as "ecuyer" or "chevalier", to wear a sword and to bear arms," writes Michael Pocock in his paper "Outline of duties and privileges of ancient noblesse". He continues, "He had precedence over all commoners and was alone qualified to use the titles of ecuyer, chevalier, vicomte, count and marquis."

As a class, the nobles benefited from a variety of exemptions, e.g. certain taxes, compulsory military service, and they did not come under the jurisdiction of the local provost. A nobleman was not compelled to contribute to local or community economies and could claim to be tried by the "grand chambre du parlement" (viz), which was comprised of his peers or equals and not by civil courts.

On the other hand, a French noble might not without demeaning himself—that is, lose his status—engage himself in commerce, except marine commerce, nor practice a profession, except that of a soldier, as a member of a foreign royal court, a lawyer, a notary in Paris, a glass maker or a sword maker. He was obliged to serve the King when called upon in any capacity. Noble family in Europe on the whole fell into several categories. Noblesse immemorial (those which had always been known to be noble and accepted as such without being able to trace any King awarding nobility to them) was from the feudal nobility and be known as such from approximately the year 900 AD. The well-known Trinidadian family Maingot de Surgères were vicomtes of noblesse immemorial, at least since as early as the 10th century.

During the first decades of the 14th century, the 1310s, many families received ennoblement to confirm their station. Some were previously noble, some were newly ennobled. Others became "noblesse d'extraction" or "lettres patents" or by "chargés" or function. Many of these come from common origins, but because of brains, good luck, good looks or courage were elevated to the nobility. A King of France ennobled his barber—it might have been as insurance to having his throat cut.

These titles of ecuyer or chevalier would be inherited. The particular "de", "du", "de la", and "des" never implied nobility necessarily, but serve to designate the land possessed or the village from which a noble family  comes. The noble family of Jacques de Jacque, for example, comes from a fortified hill town known as a bastide. Their illustrious ancestor was knighted on a battlefield in the Holy Land by the King in 1214. Hence, we know Jacques de la Bastide in Trinidad.

A person of ordinary background could buy land and be a "seigneur" de la whatever and still be common. Gentleman was not a title, but an attribute of either noble or common birth, hence the saying that a king can create a noble but not a gentleman.

The nobility might be described as being "grande" or "petite". The great dukes, some of them being of the royal blood, fell into a special category. Then, there were the "peers of the realm" (equals amongst themselves), some bearing titles such as marquis or comte, but others, because of the recorded age of their families, which may already have existed and achieved significance while France was little more than a small vicinity around the city of Paris 500-800 AD, would also fall under the category of "grande noblesse". In Trinidad, the Pantin de la Guerre and the de Montrichards fall under this order. So too do the de Gannes de la Chancelleries, who were descended from a cadet (junior) branch of the independent dukes of Britanny.

Broadly speaking, the other French creole families in Trinidad come from the "petite noblesse" of the provinces. Entitled to describe themselves as ecuyer (from the Latin word "equis", horse) they were horsemen or knights. This knightly class provided the personal aids, servants, attendants and soldiers for the kings, the princes of the blood and the great ducal households.

In olden days, the nobility was basically illiterate. Education was in the hands of the church men and women, clerics. The knightly class was also very destructive because of the hierarchical nature of the feudal system. A knight served his baron, who served his count, who served a marquis or duke, who served the king. As a result, petty wars and general brigandry devastated the countryside on a regular basis. As such, the church tended to avoid them. It was not until the 12th century that knighthood was given a religious overtone with the introduction of the military orders, such as the Knights Templar, the Knights of St. John and the Teutonic Knights.

Most of the nobles who found their way to the west came from fairly modest "chateaux", small castles that were hardly more than fortified farms. But whether great and illustrious or poor and uneducated, they basically all belonged to the same class and subscribed to a belief system that instilled in them the absolute conviction that they were of superior make. This view, founded in prehitory, came to be supported by the church and imposed upon the peasants. They had a right to dominate all.

This idea of caste or class of superior people was not purely a European concept. It existed in China, Africa, amongst tribal people living in the jungle, India, Japan and Arabia. It seems to be a part of the human condition.

The French come to Trinidad

From the early 1600s, French people, led by nobles, set out for the New World. They made their homes in the northern hemisphere in a place they called Arcadia, later to be called Canada. Almost 200 years later, with the fall of Quebec to the English, many of the Arcadians left to join their fellows in the southern United States in Louisiana, which was still a French colony. By that time, Saint Domingue (Haiti) had become a thriving slave colony, driving a massive economy based on the production of sugar.

The French also had established themselves on several islands in the Lesser Antilles and from the early 17th century, the 1600s, on through to the 1790s to the present, a strong French influence was to pervade islands such as Guadeloupe, Martinique (still "departements" of France), St. Lucia, St Vincent, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti of course, French Guiana, and for a short while the French held Tobago at the end of the protracted war between England and France at the beginning of the 19th century.

The western hemisphere, in so far as the French influence is concerned, is as we see it today. The 1790s were, however, the crucial time for the French. In the Old World, the revolution had destroyed the monarchical system in France and had removed the nobles from power. Then, to their dismay, the Revolution was transported to the New World. From Haiti to Grenada, down the chain of islands, the French establishment, owned and operated by the "ancient regime", was destroyed by the revolution organised and directed by Victor Hugues. Tens of thousands, perhaps more than 100,000 royalists, many of the aristocrats, were slaughtered. Trinidad became a safe haven because of Roume de St. Laurent's inspired move of ten years before, when under a Spanish government a Cedula of Population (1783) made it easy for French-speaking Free Black people, French colonists and others, to come to this island, the main stipulation being that they be Catholic. And come they did.

From far away as New Orleans and Haiti on through all the French-held islands of the Caribbean they came, but mostly from Grenada. Some of these French were just out of France, young adventurers from good families and a little money, seeking to cash in on the sugar plantation business. Some were serving in the British army. Many, perhaps the majority, were established colonists of three or four generations in the Caribbean, long accustomed to running large plantations with slave labour. Owning slaves meant getting more land, so too, arriving as a family, the more members, the more land. With a strong sense of being pioneers, with an even stronger sense of being the master of all he surveyed, but with a degree of trepidation, the French of the Caribbean came to this island. In the short span of 15 years, they were to create and economy and establish the basis of a society, both of which has continued to exist.

It has been speculated that the majority of slaves brought to Trinidad in the 1780s were "well seasoned", that is, they were not newly out of Africa (those would come in the next few years). They had been born on plantations in the islands and were, like their "owners", Caribbean of more than two generations. They spoke French, which made communication easy, were to some extent immune from tropical disease, knew how to work to establish an estate, were Catholic and in some instances had had long and familiar relationships with their masters, mistresses and the children on whom they were completely dependent.

Plantation society during the period of slavery was complex. It was, however, not unfamiliar to the French in the sense that as an aristocracy they were accustomed to command. Soldiering was part of their inheritance. Believing that they were superior came naturally. Discipline was fundamental and was instituted through fear, intimidation and violence. Again, none of the above was strange to the French slave owners in that perhaps in a slightly different or modified from this was exactly  what was dished out to the European peasantry that toiled on their fathers' farms somewhere in the Bourbonnais in central France.

The French creoles during and after slavery

Gustave Borde, the historian of Trinidad in the 19th century, says that the planter lived much like the seigneur of France, combining rough justice with generosity. There was much rough justice, floggings, branding, being locked up in stocks, balls chained to the feet of slaves, iron collards, iron masks, all sorts of cruelties. Most cruel was the absolute ownership and total control of master over slave in every personal detail.

In Trinidad, there were laws that governed the punishment of slaves, called the "Code Noir" (black code), which was enforced to a degree. Trinidad was not a slave colony for centuries as say, Jamaica, Barbados or Grenada. Slavery existed on a large scale in Trinidad from the 1780s to 1834, just 50 years. The violence of slavery on the scale of other islands was not our experience. Slaves were also very valuable in monetary terms, costing, in some instnaces, a couple hundred dollars a head, and slaves were not easily killed or made infirm any more than a farmer would destroy a tractor just because it won't start on a morning.

After Emancipation came immigration from other islands with longer memories of slavery, which have become our memories [the memories of the French creoles] as well.

With Emancipation, the plantation society folded. Some have speculated that the freeing of the slaves had to do with the destroying of the West Indian planter interest, many of whom were French in the newly captured islands, in favour of new sugar interest in India and West Africa, where the land mass was greater and the labour present.

The ruined French planters of Trinidad had in any event nowhere to go. The France they knew didn't exist any more, and that country was no longer home. Their relatives had been decapitated by the million. Property had been confiscated. They had not choice but to become Trinidadians and make the best of it with their traditional enemy England now the owner of the island.

The retention of French culture in Trinidad

The challenge was to remain French, retain the cultural identity, religion and a sense of who they once were in terms of class. The retention of French as a language was not too difficult in that although the island was English after 1797, everything else was French, and was to remain so for almost 100 years. The  vast majority of the people, black, white and mixed, spoke French, the newspapers were in French, and the courts of law, all spoke French. Patois or creole was the common tongue as English is today.

French was the style of cuisine, the style of dress, French culture in music, song and dance impressed itself upon the society of Trinidad indelibly up until this time.

Carnival and its product calypso are French children. The Afro-French culture of this island, despite it being an English colony, was enormous and was to remain that way for some 170 years.

French culture, emanating from no more than perhaps 1,300 people, at any point in time defined this island, making it different from Barbados or Tobago. This French creole culture withstood the arrival of thousands of immigrants from English/Protestant islands, absorbing them and creolising them.

The quality of life as lived by the French planters coming, as they did, from the old aristocracy of Europe, was remarked upon by visitors to Trinidad. L. M. Fraser wrote:

"Families belonging to the old noblesse formed the nucleus of that refined society for which the island has always been celebrated and which constitutes one of its most distinctive features."

Throughout the 19th and 20th century, Trinidad possessed a high upper class of white people that was not matched with ease either in the United States, the islands of the Caribbean or South America. High class, that is, in that so long as European mores were used as a yardstick to define stations in life and accepting the concept of an aristocracy at the top. High class in the sense of more than just good manners, but courtly behaviour, gentlemanly and ladylike attitudes in terms of the virtues, a generosity of spirit beyond mere hospitality. The French noble families imported to all a sense of "noblesse oblige" [- not for nothing is that sentence usually used in its original French pronunciation!], which made this island remarkable. They gave it style. They also gave it an economy, first sugar, built upon slavery, until emancipation in 1834, then cocoa, from the 1870s on through to its ruin in the 1960s.

Economics of the French creole families

The cocoa economy generated wealth on all levels of society and served to re-establish the fallen fortunes of the earlier French colonists. It revived aristocratic dreams and pretensions, and breathed new life into illusions of grandeur that were on the point of becoming lost.

Cocoa made money for the French families and allowed for education. The white people of French descent could not hope to get the topmost jobs in British colonial Trinidad, which were for the British expatriates, but they manned the upper levels of the civil service. They were administrators, wardens, justices of the peace. They were top doctors, lawyers and surveyors. They owned the export-import businesses to some considerable extent, and sat on the nominated benches of the Legislative Council. In some families, they supported reform of colonial rule, such as the Rostants and Ciprianis. Most of all, they were cocoa estate proprietors.

Some of these families were civil servants virtually from one generation to the next, as well as cocoa planters. There was a time when you could find a de Verteuil in every government department, from the top to the mail room. The de Verteuils were also priests and nuns, teachers and medical doctors (they still are). Of all the French creoles, one could say that although they were not of the "grande noblesse" of France, this family came to be regarded as the epitome of the community in Trinidad. Their illustrious ancestor came  as a soldier with the British army in 1797. They first appear in recorded history in 1080.

Others, like the Ganteaume de Monteau family, ennobled in the 14th century, were washed ashore on the east coast of Trinidad by a ferocious storm. Their founder married twice, producing some 23 children. As such, just about every French creole family is related to them. They were to some considerable extent responsible for the proliferation of coconuts in Mayaro. The nuts, too, had been washed shore in a previous century.

The Valleton de Boissière were Protestant and, although of the nobility, supported the more humane elements of the revolution. They were also moneylenders and by the 1820s were the owners of Champs Elysées estate in Maraval. They produced legislators, writers, social commentators and politicians. They first appeared in records in 1036 and were ennobled in 1336.

Others, like the Rostant, Leotaud, Quesnel, Pasea, Vessigny, Lefer, Lange, Besson, Sellier, Pollonais, Pampelonne, de la Bastide, de la Peyrouse, d'Abadie, La Cardre, Aché, André, Giraud, Blanc, Gransaull, Anduze, de Verteuil, La Barnet, de Boissière, Cornillac, de Meillac, de Crenu, de Deshayes, de Loudré, Roger, de Belloquet, together with the Corsican Agostini, Giuseppi, Cipriani, Gianetti, and the Spanish Sorzano, Basanta, Gomez, Llanos and Garcia and many others, some whose names have died out in Trinidad, are all essentially of the "petite noblesse" of the ecuyer or chevalier class. There were other French people who came to Trinidad, tradesmen, republicans, sailors, artisans, various. They would be regarded as peasants and, like the Portuguese, were not "socially white" or of the upper classes. Notwithstanding, they were amongst the French families, such as the Tardier, Begorrat, Didier, Ambard, Jaffon, Conpariolle, Rigaud and others who were of the middle classes. Over time, these married into the French creole matrix. In fact, French creoles could marry Irish, German, English and Corsican, as long as they were to "the manor" born, had money, owned land, were white and Catholic. This is why there are so many people in Trinidad who are called French creoles and have names that denote other European nationalities. One could become a French creole by assimilation. A French creole could be called Devenish, O'Connor, Kenny, O'Brian, Cipriani, Agostini or Gianetti, Boos, Urich, Wupperman, Herrera, Garcia or Gomez.
The French creoles were mostly royalists—a handful are to the present—although there were a few who subscribed to the views of the enlightenment and supported certain aspects of the revolution. The majority were loyal to the House of Bourbon for several generations, even after it had ceased to exist in France.

Victims of tribalism

The basic criteria for membership to the community were, first of all, ethnicity. The possession of African ancestors, no matter how remote, would mean disbarment. Marriage to a coloured person meant expulsion. Kinship also played a role, that is, to be known to belong to certain extended families by marriage or by birth. People had to know who you are, not just in the Caribbean but back in France. It was easy to assume the poses of gentility, however, out here in the bush, it was very rare to possess courtly manners. thus, it was not difficult to spot the bounders. The result of all this meant that only a limited number of families could fit the bill. As a result , familial incest became increasingly common, even seen as a virtue. The extent of intermarriage between the fifteen or twenty families made all French creoles, born after the 1880s, related to each other.

It is important to bear in mind that the French creole community in Trinidad are not Europeans living in the tropics anymore than the "Syrians" in Trinidad are Syriatics living out here, or that the "Africans" in Trinidad are surgeoning on this island, or are somehow more Trinidadian than the "Indians". We are all Trinidadians. Racial segmentation is a curse, it is, in fact, where the process that took us into independence failed us totally.

The term "tribalism" is a negative, insidious remark, used by some for their own personal gain. French creoles may have the physical characteristics of the "white race", but in sociological terms they are marginal, not to their own Trinidad society, but to European society. The same applies to Trinidadians and Tobagonians of African, Indian or other descent. It is high time that French creoles of European descent come "out of the cold", which they must do for themselves.

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