We have accepted, in this study, the concept of a dominant culture, coexisting with a ‘sub-culture’, a despised and partly submerged culture formed by, and belonging to, the Creole masses. The dominant culture was essentially British and Christian. The law, the orthodox churches, the schools, the English language, the government, British values and traditions, made up the dominant culture. Very few working-class Creoles could escape entirely the influence of these institutions; only, perhaps, those living in the deep forest. The black masses combined, in their cultural world and life-style, elements of the superstructure with their own values.

Many elements combined to form the cultural world of the black masses. The nuclear group consisted of the Creole ex-slaves and their descendants. They had lived in Trinidad during the longest period, and had developed a more or less common set of cultural characteristics, which combined to form the mainstream of the culture pattern of Trinidad. They were the majority group in the black folk. They were joined by immigrants from the eastern Caribbean, themselves ex-slaves, and their descendants, and by liberated Africans from many different West African tribes. The peons from Venezuela brought Spanish elements to reinforce those contributed by the original Spanish settlers and their descendants, and by the Hispanised Amerindians. French influence had been important ever since the beginning of French immigration in the 1780s.