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362 Pages·2013·3.67 MB·English

"The Children of Africa in the Colonies":
Free People of Colour in Barbados
During the Emancipation Era, 1816-1854.
Melanie Newton
St. Antony's College, University of Oxford
This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, Faculty of Modern History, Hilary Term 2001.
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This thesis is dedicated to my mother, with love.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank my supervisors, Professors Alan Knight and Colin Clarke. I am also grateful to the
Rhodes Trust, which funded me during my time at Oxford, as well as the Modern History Faculty
and St. Antony's College, Oxford, for travel scholarships which allowed me to carry out research
in Barbados.
The librarians at the Barbados Department of Archives and the Bridgetown Public Library, who
went out of their way to make my life easier, also deserve mention here. Several of my
colleagues in the History Department at the University of Toronto, particularly Sean Hawkins,
Jennifer Mori and Barbara Todd, helped me sort out various technological difficulties relating to
my thesis.
I am also deeply endebted to my parents, for a number of things, but particularly for their constant
encouragement and support. I'd especially like to thank my mother, who patiently endured my
excited ramblings each time I thought I'd made an earth-shattering discovery in the archives
during my research trip to Barbados.
My friends encouraged, criticised and generally tolerated me while I was writing this thesis. Katrin
Hansing and Sonja Schwaneberg offered especially important suggestions, support and cups of
tea. I am also grateful to Mark Hickford, Paulo Drinot, and my office mates in the Latin American
Centre (especially Stephanie Mitchell and Rodrigo 'the Talking Dictionary' Cubero-Brealey) for
helpful comments and criticisms. Finally, I'm forever grateful to my fiance Jens Hanssen, for his
support, confidence and inspiration.
Contents
Abbreviations
Abstract
ii
Introduction
1
The Historiography of Free People of Colour in Slave Society 3
Interpreting the Terms "Coloured" and "Black" 7
Free People of Colour after Emancipation 11
Contribution and Structure of the Thesis 14
Primary Source Material and Interpretation 19
Chapter 1
Relations Between Free People of Colour and Slaves
in Barbadian Slave Society, 1620s-1834
22
Non-Agricultural Labour and Landless Slaveownership in Barbados
The "Sugar Revolution": The Shift from Indentureship to Slavery 24
The Expansion of Slavery and the Marginalisation of White Wage Labour 29
Urban Slavery and its Impact on Rural Life 36
The Contradictions of Slavery: The "Hiring Out" System 39
The Growth of the Free Population of Colour 45
Free People of Colour in the Barbadian Social Order
Labour and Social Relations Among Free People of Colour 50
Blurring the Legal Boundaries: Urban Street Culture 55
Free People of Colour and Slave Runaways 57
An Ambivalent Relationship: Free People of Colour and Slavery -
Slaveownership and the Militia 63
Families of Free and Slave Members: The Barrier of the Law 66
The Free Non-White Elite and the Beginning of the Struggle for Civil Rights 70
Conclusion 76
Chapter 2
Race and Institutional Reform: Free People of Colour in the Amelioration Period, 1816-1834
77
The Shifting Boundaries of Freedom:
Imperial and Legislative Amelioration Measures, 1815-1833
Amelioration and Religious Reform 79
Resisting Cultural Engineering: People of Colour, Slaves and
Cultural Reform Measures 83
Modernising Slavery: Imperial Intercession,Legislative Reform
and the Undermining of Legal Boundaries 87
Preserving Racial Segregation under Amelioration:
The Plantocracy's Reassertion of White Moral Authority 93
Politics by Other Means: Amelioration, Philanthropy and Race in Public Space
Becoming 'Respectable': Legal Status, Class and Non-White Philanthropy 95
White Paternalism and Reinforced Segregation 102
The 1816 rebellion
The Outbreak and Suppression of the Rebellion 106
The Ambivalent Role of Free People of Colour in the Revolt 109
Elite Free People of Colour and the Aftermath of the Rebellion 113
Abolitionism, Class Conflict and Political Radicalisation, 1819-1834
The Challenge to the Old Elite: The Counter-address Controversy of 1823-24 119
Class Divisions and Urban Protests Against Racial Segregation 127
Race, Class and the Limits of Reform: The White Elite and the Free Elite of Colour 132
Rebellion,Reform and Race: The Turn to 'Race Consciousness1 136
The Idea of 'Race' in Imperial West Indian Policy 143
Conclusion
146
Chapter 3
Unequal Freedoms: Apprenticeship and Free People of Colour, 1833-1838
147
Becoming Freed People of Colour: Manumission and the Meaning of Freedom During Apprenticeship
The Institutional Framework of Apprenticeship 149
The Marginal Freedom of Ex-slave Children 152
Manumission Under the Apprenticeship System 156
Family Strategies: Mixed Families of Free Non-whites and Apprentices 159
"Intense Longing for Freedom": Runaways and Rural-urban Migration 165
Changing Socioeconomic Relations
Gender, Occupation and the Impact of Emancipation on Free People of Colour 168
Urban Migration and Competition for Non-Agricultural Labour 173
Christianising Slaves: Free Teachers of Colour 179
Making a New Moral Order: Christianity, Respectability and Race Relations
Race, Respectability and Socioeconomic Inequality 182
Condemning "Licentiousness":
The Policing of White Male Behaviour and Interracial Sex 187
Missionaries and Rebels: Elite Free Men of Colour
in the New Discourse of Public Morality 190
Class, Gender and Non-White Attitudes Towards "Christian" Morality 193
Conclusion * 197
Chapter 4
"The Children of Africa in the Colonies":
'Race' Consciousness and the Politics of Emancipation, 1833-1842
198
The Franchise Extension Movement and the Emancipation Question,
1833-C1837
Between Popular Pressure and Imperial Support:
The Non-white Elite vs. the Colonial Legislature, 1833-1834 202
Towards Abolitionism: The Bridgetown Reform Movement and the 1834 Election 208
Political Factionalism and Abolitionist Politics, 1833-1842
Class and the Emergence of Political Factions 214
The Role of the Non-White Press
218
"A Blessed Change For AN": Changing Attitudes
Towards Emancipation and Segregation 221
Elite Men of Colour in Politics
225
Temporary Unity and Class Paternalism in the Franchise Reform Struggle 229
Gender, Labour and Public Life 233
Imagining Africa: Emancipation and the Reinvention of 'Race'
Slavery, Abolitionism and the Idea of Race 236
Abolitionists After The Fact: Free People of Colour and Emancipation 242
Opportunistic Abolitionists? Colonisation Schemes and Political Appointments 244
Two Motherlands: Emancipation and 'Double Consciousness' 248
Demanding Colour-Blind Justice for the "sons of Afric" 253
The Limits of Brotherhood: State Repression and the Internalisation of Racism 257
Conclusion 262
Chapter 5
The Ambivalence of Full Freedom: The Question of Free Labour, 1838-c1854
264
Rural Resistance, Migration and Pre-emancipation Free People of Colour
Barbados and the Post-Emancipation Crisis in Caribbean Agriculture 266
Harsh Labour Legislation and Rural Unrest 271
The Impact of Rural Resistance on Non-Agricultural Workers 275
Slaves, Free People of Colour and Emigration - 279
The Emigration Debate and Post-emancipation Politics
The Fear of "Race War": The Imperial View of the Non-white Electorate 285
The Fragmentation of the Radicals 289
Divide and Rule: The Colonial Government, People of Colour
And the Emigration Debate 292
A Defeat for the "Tinkers, Shoemakers, and Tailors":
The Failure of Franchise Reform 301
Men of Colour in Politics, 1840-c1854 306
Equality in Poverty:
Pre-emancipation Free People of Colour and Ex-slaves, 1840-1854
Captive Labour and the Growth of the Non-Agricultural Sector 309
Government for the Planters: Colonial Policy Towards the Poor 316
The Class Boundary Between the Elite and the Working Poor 319
Fleeing Hardship: Emigration and Colonisation Schemes as Responses to Poverty 322
Conclusion 326
Conclusion
328
Bibliography
335
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ACH
Association of Caribbean Historians
BDA
Barbados Department of Archives
BMBG
Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette
BMHS *
Barbados Museum and Historical Society
BPL
Bridgetown Public Library, Barbados
CO
Colonial Office (records housed in the Public Record
Office, London)
JBMHS Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical
Society
JCH Journal of Caribbean History
JSH Journal of Social History
Moravian Diary Diary of the Negro Congregration at Mount Tabor
Moravian Church, St. John
NCF National Cultural Foundation, Barbados
PP Parliamentary Papers
SPG Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
*
Parts
UWI University of the West Indies
"The Children of Africa in the Colonies":
Free People of Colour in Barbados During the Emancipation Era,
1816-1854
Melanie Newton
Faculty of Modern History, St. Antony's College, Oxford
ABSTRACT
This thesis is a study of free people of colour during the era of emancipation in
Barbados, with a particular focus on their relationships with and attitudes towards
slaves. It examines the period between the 1816 slave rebellion and the 1854
cholera epidemic, encompassing the apprenticeship period of 1834-1838.
The thesis argues that differences of class, political ideology, gender and the
specific nature of their relationships with slaves determined emancipation's impact on
free people of colour. At the same time, the thesis illustrates that pre-emancipation
free people of colour as a group remained economically and politically marginal after
emancipation, much as they had been during slavery.
Reforms to the island's slave laws during the 1820s and early 1830s undermined
the legal distinction between free people of colour and slaves. The abolitionism
debate and increasing racial tension in the island led free non-whites to challenge
openly the principle of racial subordination for the first time. After 1834, elite free
people of colour forged a sense of "race consciousness", and adopted emancipation
as the key to their battle against racial inequality, asserting themselves as the
legitimate protectors of ex-slaves' interests.
However class differences and disagreements over emancipation policy led to
political factionalism among people of colour. The absence of fundamental change in
the distribution of land and wealth after emancipation left most pre-1834 free people
of colour and ex-slaves with little hope of political enfranchisement or socio-economic
betterment. By the early 1850s, many came to see emigration as the solution to their
difficulties.
This thesis is the first study of pre-1834 free people of colour in post-emancipation
Barbados, and one of few to examine both the periods of slavery and post-
emancipation. By focussing on the intricate relations between free people of colour
and slaves/ex-slaves, this thesis shows how emancipation transformed many
aspects of social relations in Barbados particularly with regard to race, class,
labour and gender.
Introduction
This thesis examines the impact of the abolitionism debate and the emancipation
of slaves on people of African descent in Barbados who were free before the end of
slavery in 1834. It argues that the battle over slavery and the transition from slavery
to freedom transformed the social, economic and political situation of free people of
colour. By focussing on the changing relationships between free people of colour and
slaves, and between rural and urban life in Barbados during the years of transition,
the thesis challenges the prevalent historiographical claim that emancipation in
Barbados produced little socioeconomic change. !
As a group, free people of colour remained in an ambivalent, and frequently
difficult, position as people who had reasons both to support and oppose the
emancipation of slaves. Free people of colour shared a common position of political,
and, in most cases, economic, marginality both before and after emancipation. This
marginality was the result of their position as free people of African descent in a
society whose socioeconomic structure was based on'the bondage of the majority of
African-descended people. Barbadian free people of colour were a diverse and often
divided group, whose social relations and experiences of emancipation were
influenced by a variety of factors other than just their skin colour and their legal status
*,
as free non-whites. Economic circumstances, gender and the specific nature of their
personal connections with slaves and whites were factors related to, but separate
from, race. 2 These factors shaped hierarchies among free people of colour and
influenced their responses to emancipation.
The thesis argues that race is a constructed category of political ideology and
1 Trevor Marshall, "Post-emancipation Adjustments in Barbados, 1838-1876," in Alvin 0. Thompson
(ed.), Emancipation I: A Series of Lectures to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation
(Barbados: NCF and the History Department, UWI Cave Hill, 1984), pp. 88-107.
2 Raymond Smith, "Race, Class, and Gender in the Transition to Freedom," in McGlynn and Drescher
(eds.) The Meaning of Freedom: Economic, Politics, and Culture after Slavery (Pittsburgh and London:
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), pp. 257-290.
social relations, which is produced and reproduced in response to the circumstances
of a given place and time. 3 Towards the end of slavery, pre-emancipation free
people of colour in Barbados began to construct a political ideology of 'race
consciousness' as part of their struggle against their legal and political subordination
to whites. In the mid-1830s, free people of colour adopted emancipation as a
justification for their own political battles, assuming a paternal role as the 'protectors'
of the interests of ex-slaves. Consciousness of themselves as simultaneously "the
children of Africa" and British imperial subjects became centrally important to their
struggles for political and civil equality, particularly after full emancipation in 1838.
Although race consciousness movements have been studied as predominantly
twentieth century phenomena in the anglophone Caribbean, this study argues that
the international anti-slavery movement and emancipation were critical contributors
to the rise of a transnational conceptualisation of 'Africanness' as a potent source of
community identity. 4
The thesis focuses on the imperial slave amelioration period from the 1820s to
1833, 5 the apprenticeship period from 1834 to 1838 and most of the first two
decades of adjustment to freedom up to the 1850s. The bulk of the analysis begins in
*
1816, when the island's only slave rebellion occurred, and, concludes in the mid-
1850s, just before the 1854 cholera epidemic which killed roughly 20, 000 people, or
See E. P Thompson's discussion of'class' and 'class consciousness' in The Making of the English
Working Class (London: Penguin Books, 1963), p. 9.
4 For in-depth discussions of early twentieth century Afrocentrism see Sidney Lemelle and Robin Kelley
(eds.), Imagining Home: Class, Culture and Nationalism in the African Diaspora (London: Verso, 1994);
Kevin Yelvington, "The War in Ethiopia and Trinidad, 1935-1936," in Bridget Brereton and Kevin
Yelvington (eds.), The Colonial Caribbean in Transition: Essays on Postemancipation Social and
Cultural History, (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999), pp. 189-246.
5 Amelioration was a loose term for a range of policies for the improvement of the legal code, living
conditions and religious and educational systems of British slave colonies, which began informally with
reforms in estate management. However, between 1823 and 1833, rather than seeing amelioration as a
means of just reforming slavery, the British government adopted a policy of using ameliorative measures
to achieve better imperial regulation of the West Indian colonies and as preparation for emancipation.
See J.R. Ward, British West Indian Slavery, 1750-1834: The Process of Amelioration (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1988).