Conspiracy in the archive

James Epstein

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511760204.009

7 - Conspiracy in the archive

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

James Epstein

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James Epstein: Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

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Prelude

Trinidad was a slave colony in the making. In the first instance, a large proportion of slaves were brought to Trinidad from neighboring islands, principally from Grenada and then from Martinique and other islands of the French Antilles. Rapidly developed during the British West Indies' final phase of economic and demographic expansion, Trinidad had a high percentage of African-born slaves. By the time the island was ceded to Britain in 1802, the ratio of slaves to whites stood at nine to one and that of free coloreds to whites at five to two. In contrast to the longer-established regimes of the British Caribbean, the system that newly arrived slaves encountered was relatively open; the slaves mixed with creoles, mainly non-Trinidadian, slaves recently uprooted from Africa, and a large population of free persons of African descent; they joined the Caribbean's most diverse ethnic and cultural milieu.

During the 1790s, Trinidad's security was a major concern of both the Spanish and British administrations. As was the case in port cities throughout the Caribbean, a significant population of slaves lived in Port of Spain, where trading vessels manned by multi-racial crews brought news and rumors from throughout the Americas and Europe. Trinidad also gained the reputation as a sanctuary for runaways from neighboring French islands. The constant arrival of new owners with their slaves, mostly from the Lesser Antilles, meant that slaves, along with whites and free coloreds, were kept informed of events and exposed to the principles of the French and Haitian revolutions. In late 1794 Victor Hugues, the French National Convention's commissioner to the Leeward Islands, broadcast the slogan “Liberty ___ The Law ___ Egality,” holding forth the example of Guadeloupe's successful revolution. From his headquarters in Martinique, Lieutenant-General Sir John Vaughan informed the colonial secretary, Henry Dundas, that Hugues's victory and the events at Guadeloupe “form a most dangerous Example to the Mulattoes and Negroes of the other Colonies. It is a serious Reflection that as the Enemy can spread his System amongst the Negroes . . . he finds Recruits in Numbers, and can support themself [sic], without even Assistance from Europe.” The year before the British captured Trinidad, the Spanish governor, Don José Maria Chacon, reported that “the tricolour cockade” worshiped “as a symbol of liberty was displayed by many slaves.”

Type: Chapter
Information: Scandal of Colonial Rule
Power and Subversion in the British Atlantic during the Age of Revolution
, pp. 222 - 265

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511760204.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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