-FOUN 1101: CARIBBEAN CIVILISATION

UNIT 1: THE CONCEPT OF CIVILISATION

Dr. Debbie Mc Collin Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine,
Trinidad and Tobago.

Unit Objectives

1) Describe the role of historical enquiry in the recording of past civilisations

2) Explain the myth of ‘pre-history’ and discuss why no one civilisation is superior to another

3) Explain the meaning of culture in the context of civilisation

4) Assess the factors that account for varying civilisations

Unit Sessions

1. The Myth of Pre-History

2. Defining Civilisation and Culture

3. Varying Civilisations

SESSION 1

The Myth of Pre-History

Defining History

• from Greek ‘historia’, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation“

• The study of the past

• The study of eras, people, civilisations that have not been experienced, cannot truly be experienced by the
scholar or student

Valuing a Sense of the Past

Historical writings provide:

• info about the way of life of people that has been lost or inaccessible

• a critique of our sources open to alternate viewpoints and methodologies for appreciating the past

• insight into understanding present day identities and situations

Why is a Sense of History important to Caribbean People?

1. Central to our understanding of identity

2. Familiarity with the past

3. Validate our actions and understandings

4. Guidance

5. Escape Route

The Disconnect

• The past is separate/distant from our present experiences and knowledge

• The past is like a foreign country- those who wish to learn about the past must have a bridge/passport to do so

Bridges/Passports to the Past

• To learn about the past we must have a passport

Ways of learning about the past:

• Books- written accounts

• Artifacts- relics of the past

• Oral accounts- others relating their stories/experiences

The Role of the Historian

• The Historian recovers the past

Creates Passport to the past:

•Books- Writes historical texts

•Artifacts- Discovers the artifacts

•Oral Accounts- Records the oral accounts

Creates Methods of interpreting these histories

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Two basic categories:

1) Primary Source-

•A source generated at the time of the focus of study

2) Secondary Source-

• A source written/presented by the historian on the basis of the primary document

• (removed from the primary source/era- written about the primary source)

• An interpretation of primary source

• Subject to bias

Types of Sources

1) Written: stone, parchment, papyrus, paper or computer readable files

2) Non-written:
• Human remains

• Buildings, ruins, artifacts

• Art, film, photos, textiles

• Oral traditions

• Folklores, Music

• Folk traditions

Methodology of the Historian

• Methodological approaches - methods of studying history

EXTERNAL CRITICISM

• authenticating a document/object

• examine language used, handwritings, chemical compositions of ink, bones- radiocarbon dating

• use a number of scientific techniques at times

INTERNAL CRITICISM

• After authentication

• Find meaning of the source

• How does it provide insight into the historical period/civilization?

• E.g. A diary of a white West Indian planter in 18th century

- Is the account biased?

- Does he refer to Africans in derogatory terms?
- Does this support our conclusion that white planters were racist?

Definitions of History Recorded vs Unrecorded History

• all that has ever occurred – before human presence and human activity

• RECORDED PAST

• From introduction of human writing

• The bulk of history is the recorded history

• Usually write the most important things- laws, important stories/events

• Usually neglect everyday life and events

‘Pre-History’ or ‘Pre-Literate’?

• UNRECORDED- period before human writing

• Depend on archaeological evidence to be able to reconstruct this past

• Era sometimes referred to as “pre-history” or “prehistoric”

• Implication that it is not history

• ‘Pre-history’ misnomer, a bit derogatory

• More accurate to say pre-literate

Why was Writing Important?

Organize, Recording/Preserve, Research practices

• codify their cultural practices for generational transfer

• Record important events and aspects of life relating to the people’s customs and cultures

• Important storehouses of information for researchers interested in the recovery and understanding of these
past civilizations

DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING

• Hieroglyphics (PICTOGRAMS)

• Earliest drawings found on the walls of caves

For them to be classified as writings:

• Conventionalized (standardized, drawn in the same way every time)

• Must refer to concrete objects people and animals, man-made or natural objects such as pottery, trees, rivers,
etc. and abstract concepts such as emotions

• Had to be voiced- specific sounds related to them

Development of Writing

An Alphabet is written…

• Egyptians c.3000 B.C.

• developed a writing system

• 24 hieroglyphic signs with 24 consonantal sounds

• Later Phoenicians and Greeks refine the alphabet

Inscriptions on Stone

Stele of Minnakht, Chief of the Scribes, during the reign of Ay, c. 1321 BC

Papyrus

• Plant based • Lightweight • Durable

Fragment from the Tebtunis Temple Library in the Papyrus Carlsberg Collection

Parchment

• Dried animal skin • Sheep or goat

The Lakota, Native American Tribe

Parchment repair

Paper develops…

• Chinese – silk and the pulp of the mulberry tree

• 750 Arabic civilisation – cotton

• Spanish- flax

• 1250- linen paper

Instruments of Writing

INK- mixture of water with vegetable gum and soot; later added animals and vegetable dyes

PENS -Reeds

• Quills- goose feathers

• 19th century Steel

Emergence of Written History

What were early people writing?

• provision and materials lists (civil and military purposes)

• tax collection or tribute payments

• lists of tangible assets

• rise and fall of river and ocean tides

• achievements

• intangible aspects - myths and stories of origin

• medical discoveries- cures, recipes, etc

What have we learnt in this session?

• Defined History

What is recorded and unrecorded history?

Why there is no “pre-historic” but “pre-literate” era

• Sources of History:

Primary and Secondary

Written and Non-Written

• The Role of the Historian

• Writing:

Why was it important

How did it develop?

Early written history

SESSION 2

Defining Civilization and Culture

Session Objectives

•Trace the emergence of ‘civilisation’

•Define culture within the context of civilisations

Emergence of Man

6 billion years ago Formation of Earth

3-5 million years ago First human-like creatures (Africa)

1-2 million years ago Erect +Tool-using humans (Africa, Europe, Asia)

200 000 years ago Homo sapiens

90 000 years ago Earliest remains of modern humans

Neolithic Revolution Gatherers to Producers

Palaeolithic/ Paleolithic era:

• Earliest humans- Nomadic - follow food

• Hunting, gathering, fishing

Neolithic era:

• 2500BCE- Settlement

• animal husbandry and plant cultivation established

Neolithic Revolution cont’d

• Population growth

• Increase harvest through irrigation = increase in pop

• Growth of towns, cities etc = infrastructure, industry, commerce

• Specialised occupations and Social division

• Development of expressions of communal identity- writing, religion, music, art

Defining Culture
The way of life of a people

• Practices, life-styles and views that vary between and among different groups of people all over the world

• A body of beliefs and practices in terms of which a group of people understands themselves and the world and
organizes their individual and collective lives (Parekh 2000)

• A sub-set of a civilization

• Expressed in the entire society- or groups within the society

Cultural Elements

• The organization of production methods within the group

• The structure of the family

• The structure of institutions that express or govern social relationships

• Forms of communication

• Culture is a human construct- differentiates us from animal kingdom

• Transferred from generation to generation- learnt and passed on

Culture- Unifying and Divisive Force

• By nature both

• Unifying- those who share similar culture

• Divisive- those who are ‘other’, those who are different

• Can be a barrier to integration

• Can also lead to some cultures being considered ‘inferior’

How is Culture used by civilizations?

• Chronological Descriptive Marker e.g. Stone Age

• Sociological Category, which provides the means of documenting particular ways of life of people, groups or
periods in time.

• As an ideal- a marker by which other acts of human activity and achievement are assessed e.g. writing/literacy-
so that those civilizations without seen as inferior

Summary of Session 2

• Rise of Man, Neolithic Revolution and the development of civilization

• Defined Culture and elements of culture

• Examined its nature as both a unifying and divisive force

• How it is used by civilizations

• Subjectivity of ‘Culture’ as an indicator of superiority

SESSION 3

Varying Civilizations

Objectives After studying this session you should be able to:

• Identify and describe palaeolithic, Neolithic, Nile Valley and Indus Valley civilizations

• Relate the development of early civilizations to contemporary society

• Evaluate the view that classifications of various civilizations are culturally determined.

Neolithic Revolution

• Palaeolithic- nomadic (Hunting and gathering, fishing)

• Neolithic- settled people 2500BCE- animal husbandry and plant cultivation established

• Further population growth, settlement and development of civilisations

Nile Valley Civilisatiion

• Africa- early explorers called it the “dark continent”

• Why?

• Skin colour of native people darker than Europeans

• Believed to exist in “cultural darkness”- had no real culture or civilisation

• Perpetuation of this today even as historical evidence proves otherwise

The Nile Valley Civilisation

• located on the banks of The Nile River in northern Africa (Egypt)

• The Nile River c. 6,500 kilometers long

• originates in South Central Burundi, and flows all the way to the Mediterranean Sea, where it has formed a vast
delta.

Organized Agricultural System

• Akhet- Flooding (June and September) rich river silt deposited which facilitated agriculture

• Peret- Season of Planting (October- February)

• Shemu- Harvest (March- May)

The Nile River

• water for drinking and domestic use

• food- rich resources of fish and waterfowl

• basis for building materials as well as clay for pottery

• facilitated trade and transport throughout the entire area

• facilitated the massive building projects because of this far-reaching trade (stones brought from distant
quarries)

• Allowed for highly developed societies to grow

(Indus Valley) Harappan Civilisaton

• c. 3000BC

• Over 100 ancient cities and villages

• Main cities Mohenjodaro and Harappa

• Ruins discovered in 1920s

The Indus River Valley Civilisations

• Indus River flows between the Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountains and from here empties into the Arabian
Sea.

• Soil fertility high- due to rich silts washed down from mountains by snow melts

Farmers

• Extensive farming and irrigation schemes

• Cultivated a variety of crops

• Domesticated animals

Traders

• Food, jewellery, cloth, razors, mirrors, toys, and fish hooks

• Trade- distant areas in the Persian Gulf

Industry

• Produced metals- copper, bronze, lead and tin

Indus Cities

Town planning-

• Organised and well planned

• Streets in grid pattern

• Covered drains

• Public buildings- Great Bath, Mohenjodaro

Innovations

• Carts with wooden wheels

• Single-mastered ships
• Organised political systems

Attire and appearance:

• Men - trimmed beards and shaven upper lips

• Women - ornate and finely crafted jewellery

• Well-made clothes and well-arranged hair

• Religion- polytheistic

• Produced some of the seminal texts of Hinduism- Vedas, Puranas and Upanishhads

By 1500BC civilisation was wiped out- reason unclear

An artist's reconstruction of the gateway and drain at the city of Harappa

Markers of ‘Progress’ and ‘Civilisation’

There are many markers of ‘progress’

Two frequently used ones:

RELIGION

• insights into the codes of conduct and world views that guided many civilisations

In general, religious practices often location specific

• Middle East - Islamic

• ‘West’- Christian

• India - Hinduism

• China – Buddhism

Tend to consider certain religions and those outside of mainstream to be inferior- but largely established by
geography and societal trends

LITERACY

• Cultures without a system of writing often seen as not being fully ‘developed’

• However they engage in alternative forms of record keeping

• Historians use Oral Traditions and Oral History to understand these civilisations

Oral History vs Oral Tradition

ORAL HISTORY

• History by word of mouth by one who witnessed the event

• Informant- information occurring during lifespan so collect info while alive

ORAL TRADITION

• Can be given by someone who was not a witness

• History/traditions/cultural norms need not have occurred in the lifespan of the individual
• Historians tend to use these and written history to understand civilisation

• So notions created about the inferiority of these groups based on so-called Markers of progress of a civilisation
are fallacious.

Summary of Session 3

• Neolithic Revolution

• The complexity of The Nile and Indus civilisations

• Use of Markers of Progress to assess civilisations- Religion and Literacy

• Use of Oral History and Oral Tradition as sources of history for non-literate civilisations
UNIT 2 Defining a Caribbean Civilisation: The Indigenous Settlers
Dr. Debbie McCollin, The University of The West Indies, St. Augustine

Unit Objectives

After completing this unit you should be able to:

1. Identify the Caribbean region in the context of the world

2. Explain the organisation and distribution of early Neo-Indian civilisation in the Caribbean

3. Discuss characteristics of Neo-Indian lifestyles.

Defining a Caribbean Civilisation: The Indigenous Settlers

Session 1: Defining the Caribbean

Session 2: Interpreting Neo-Indian lifestyles

Session 3: Demography of the early NeoIndian peoples

SESSION 1

Defining the Caribbean

Session 1 Objectives

•Identify the Caribbean region within the context of the world

• Identify and describe the indigenous settlers in the region

• Discuss the migrating paths and time periods of the main waves of Neo-Indian movements into the region.

THE CARIBBEAN

- A crescent shaped chain of islands

- From The Bahamas and Cuba (located just off the southern tip of Florida) southwards to Trinidad (located just
off Venezuela).

The Caribbean: Further Divisions

The Greater Antilles

The Lesser Antilles

Q? Can you name the islands that make up the Greater Antilles?

The Greater Antilles: Cuba, Haiti/Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica
Q? Can you name the two subdivisions of the Lesser Antilles?

The Lesser Antilles

THE LEEWARD ISLANDS the northernmost chain of islands Virgin Islands to Guadeloupe

THE WINDWARD ISLANDS Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines and Grenada.

Q? But are there countries also considered part of the Caribbean in Central and South America?

South and Central American Caribbean Territories

Guyana and Belize- historically involved in the regional movements of population and in intra-Caribbean trade
(both full members of CARICOM)

Suriname and French Guiana

The Indigenous Settlers First People of the Caribbean

FACT OR FICTION?

Q? How many indigenous groups inhabited the Caribbean?

MYTH 1:

Only two main groups in the Caribbean ‘Arawaks’ and ‘Caribs’

TRUTH: - Numerous groups of indigenous people inhabited these islands - originated from North, Central and
South America

PALEO-INDIANS

- 5,000 B.C. - South and Central America - Established small seaside communities - No real knowledge of pottery -
Diet: wild berries, fish and small game (hunted) - basic tools made from stones and shells

MESO-INDIANS

- 500 B.C. - better developed pottery and tools - settlement patterns were not confined to the seashore - origins-
South America - main settlements in Trinidad, Cuba and Hispaniola (now Haiti and Dominican Republic) -
numbers were never large - completely disappeared at the time of the arrival of the Spanish

NEO-INDIANS

Diet- varied and gathered

Also developed agricultural methods to cultivate their own crops.

- known collectively as the Saladoid people - styles of pottery that were characteristic of these people

- divided into two main groups

Saladoid Pottery, St. Vincent

Q? What are the well known names of the two Neo-Indian groups Columbus met in the West Indies?

MYTH 2: NAMES
The two Saladoid groups the Spanish met were called Arawaks and Caribs.

TRUTH: They did not call themselves Arawaks or Caribs. The Spaniards gave them this name. Today known by the
names they gave to themselves:

TAINOS

KALINA OR KALINAGO

SALADOID-TAINOS

arrived c.300 B.C.

• spoke a language called Arawakan

• found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles and The Bahamas (Lucayos)

• principally on the islands of the Greater Antilles

• mistakenly identified as Arawaks (word invented by Europeans)

• referred to themselves as Tainos

SALADOID-KALINAGO/KALINA

• spoke a language called Cariban

• largely in the Lesser Antilles

• at the time of the Spanish arrival, in aggressive, expansionist phase

• engaged in conflict with the Tainos

• mistakenly identified as ‘Caribs’ (word invented by Europeans)

• called themselves Kalinas or Kalinago

Myth 3: Carib Cannibalism

◦ Arawaks were ‘peaceful and non-cannibalistic’

◦ The Caribs were ‘warlike and cannibalistic’ (flesh eating savages with no culture)

TRUTH: No evidence to support Cannibalistic assertions

No evidence to support this idea found in middens (areas of garbage and waste disposal-archaeological sites)

Histories about the Kalinago were based on biased stereotypes of the first European explorers

Motivation for Myth:

Allowed Spanish explorers to justify their inhumane slaughter of the Kalinago inhabitants.

Summary-Session 1

- Defined the Caribbean

- Outlined the movement of populations of the earliest settlers from South and Central America throughout the
region.
- Debunked myths about Diversity of Indigenous Groups Names associated with Neo-Indian groups ‘Carib’
Cannibalism

Session 2: Interpreting Neo-Indian lifestyles

• Describe the lifestyles of the Neo-Indians.

Sources of information about indigenous people

- have not originated from the Neo-Indians

- have come from Spaniards

Why is this problematic?

- feared and hated Spanish

- Spanish considered them and their culture as peripheral and meaningless

Spanish Opinion of Indigenous

ETHNOCENTRIC

Judge other societies thorough the value systems of one’s own culture and way of seeing the world

Judged the Neo-Indian through the perspective of European culture

Neo Indian Dress 15th century

Q? What did the Spanish think of Neo-Indian dress?

ANDROCENTRIC- a viewpoint grounded in a male perspective

E.g. Spaniards declared often that Neo-Indian women were highly sexualized - how they dressed, ‘lack of
covering’ = promiscuous

VILLAGE LIFE

- sites with easy access to reliable fresh water

- area of flat fertile ground for cassava (manioc) cultivation

- laid out around a central village square

- individual houses with thatched roofs and timber walls

- villages housed between three and five hundred people.

Reconstruction of TainoVillage

DIVISION OF LABOUR

Men

- cleared the fields - hunting, fishing

- defense of the village

- house construction - canoe making

Women

-crop cultivation

- spinning and weaving of cotton

- making handicrafts (baskets, hammocks)

- child rearing

- preparation of food

Patriarchal Societies

Head – Village Chief or Cacique in charge of political, religious and judicial functions

Females held subordinate positions to men

- traded and taken in raids

- polygamy was practiced amongst the noble classes E.g. cacique had many wives.

But a few women held positions of power We know of one female cacique- Queen Anacaona

BEAUTY PRACTICES

Flattened their foreheads (from newborn)

Ornaments: bracelets on arms and legs made of beads, shells and gold pieces; gold rings in their ears and noses

RECREATION-Tainoball game

SPIRITUAL BELIEFS - concept of an after-life and a supreme being existed

Polytheism:

- a trinity of gods which had a male figure associated with cassava and volcanoes

- a female fertility god

- a dog-like deity to look after the recently dead.

- miniature representations called Zemis

Agriculture and Diet Farming

- Conucos - small agricultural plots

- cultivated for 3 to 5 years the left fallow

- potato, cassava and maize

- tobacco, recreational and religious purposes

Fishing- seafood, shellfish

Hunting- birds and small animals like the agouti and the iguana

Q? Do you know where the name barbeque originated?

TRADE AND COMMERCE

Traded with South and North America

- huge canoes from tree trunks c. 25 metres with the capacity for 50 people.

- textile goods and ceramics

- well crafted stone tools – knives, scrapers, axes

Q? How accurate is it to describe the earliest inhabitants of the Caribbean as primitive?

Summary-Session 2

Ethnocentric and Androcentric Views of Spanish

Civilisation of the Indigenous

Village Life

Division of Labour

Concepts of Beauty

Religion

Diet

Economy

SESSION 3

Demography of the Early Amerindian peoples

Objective

After studying this session you should be able to:

Account for the decline of the early Neo-Indian population.

Population at Span Contact 1492

At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492 possibly six million Neo-Indians.

Genocide of Neo-Indians
THE ENCOMIENDA SYSTEM

Indigenous were enslaved and forced to work for Spanish

- mine for gold

- work provision grounds

- had no time to work their own plots

- so malnourishment and starvation

The Hunger Games of The Neo-Indians

- Spaniards hunted them as sport - hunted with dogs and maimed, tortured and killed

DISEASES

- Spanish brought diseases and pathogens to which the Neo-Indians were not immune.

- diseases that had not existed in the region E.g. Types of Influenza, smallpox, measles

ORIGIN OF SYPHILIS

Sexually transmitted disease

Arguments that the Neo-Indians ‘gave’ the Spaniards syphilis

In fact, dangerous forms of syphilis existed in Europe long before contact with the Neo-Indians

MISCEGENATION (mixing of the races)

- The deliberate Spanish policy

- Encouraging male Spanish settlers and soldiers to mate with Neo-Indian women (especially the daughters of
caciques)

-Span raped and forced women into unions

Goal - separate the offspring of these unions from the culture of the Neo-Indian villages and to bring them up as
Spaniards.

By 1514, about 40 percent of Spanish men in Hispaniola had officially recognized Taino wives.

DEATH SENTENCE

Rapid Demise:

Tainos were largely exterminated between 1493 and 1540

Kalinagos survived longer until about the beginning of the eighteenth century.

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE = A LOSS OF SIX MILLION PEOPLE

Summary-Session 3
- Noted the size of the Neo-Indian populations

- Reasons for decimation of Neo-Indians in Caribbean war, disease, dislocation, overwork, starvation and
miscegenation.
UNIT 3 The Diversified Caribbean in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries
Debbie McCollin, PhD Faculty of Humanities and Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

SESSIONS

Session 1: Maritime Exploration and The Interlopers

Session 2: Agricultural Change and the Emergence of „King‟ Sugar

Session 3: Labour Diversity and Demographic Change in Caribbean „frontier‟ society

UNIT OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit you should be able to:

1. Identify the factors that led to fifteenth and sixteenth century voyages of exploration by Europeans

2. Account for the various agricultural activities in the Caribbean prior to the establishment of sugar cane

3. Discuss the reasons why sugar cane became the dominant plantation crop in the Caribbean by the seventeenth
century

4. Trace some of the factors that contributed to the complexity of Caribbean societies: its diversity, its
multinational beginnings and its earliest introduction to globalization by being integrated into a world economy.

SESSION 1

MARITIME EXPLORATION AND THE INTERLOPERS

Objectives

On completing this session students should be able to:

discuss the reasons why Europeans embarked on voyages of discovery in the fifteenth century

evaluate the extent to which fifteenth century voyages of discovery resulted in local territorial wars and the
establishment of diversified economies in the Caribbean.

THE AGE OF EXPLORATION:

The Reasons for Maritime Exploration in the 15th Century

Ideological Influences: BULLIONISM

 Bullion- gold and silver

 the wealth of a nation depended on the stores of bullion that it physically held.

 A fixed amount of bullion in the world

 Each state must secure as much bullion as possible

 race to find bullion before another nation

Result: VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION

 to find new lands

 untapped reserves of bullion

 before other competing nations

MERCANTILISM

 Extension of bullionism

 wealth not only physical stores of bullion

 the wealth of a nation depended on its control of trade and markets

Goals of Mercantilism:

 Develop trade systems and routes find and conquer new lands and exploit their resources for trade

 Protect new routes/systems from others excluded other nations from engaging in trade with newly conquered
lands (create a monopoly)

COLONIALISM

 formal political control of another‟s country

 wage military, intellectual and psychological warfare in order to procure (and hold) the new territory

 Mercantilism concepts justified colonialism  need for more trade led to the conquering and developing of new
lands and territories

In the 16th and 17th centuries in the Caribbean

 military control by European nations

 forced to trade directly only with the dominant metropolitan power

Religion:

 Newly conquered lands = new flocks of converts

 Aim of voyages of exploration was the conversion of indigenous peoples to Christianity

 Religious fervour high amongst the adventurers

Technology Advances:

 Patrons of innovation and exploration emerged e.g. Prince Henry, the Navigator, son of the King of Portugal
 School for seamen and mapmaking

 advances in nautical technology

 improvements in ship design and navigation = larger ships travelling further, faster and safer

 the invention of nautical devices- the quadrant (from about 1456)  more accurate maps

1492

 Spain had just completed a long war with the Moors- so more resources for other ventures

 Columbus engaged in his voyages of exploration

 Brought New World to the attention of Europeans

 Destruction of the native people

 Increasingly a source of wealth for Spain

Q? Perspectives: What do you think the rest of Europe thought about Spain’s newly found lands?

European Nations Perspective

 The rest of Europe saw the Caribbean as opportunity to increase wealth and trade

 So region became the focus for other powerful (and aspiring) European civilisations

Q? Spanish perspective: What did Spain think about the attention of the rest of Europe on her Caribbean
territories?

Spanish Perspective- Interlopers

 Spain saw these other nations as uninvited guests or „interlopers‟ in „her‟ lands

Treaty de Tordesillas-Spain and Portugal

 1494 Pope Alexander VI to alleviate rivalry

 World divided into two

 between Spain and Portugal

“Cockpit of Europe”

 Caribbean became known as “Cockpit of Europe”

 “Cockpit” related to a popular blood sport involving the use of male fighting birds called “gamecocks”. Two
birds are placed together into a small enclosed arena where, upon seeing each other they instinctively begin
fighting to the death.

 Wars over trade and territory in the “cockpit” i.e. Caribbean

European Methods of Attack MOTIVATION: ECONOMIC

Privateering or Buccaneering

 Rather than set up own colony  Could raid and capture Spanish vessels laden with wealth bound for Spain

 Organised their own expeditions into the „New World‟  seafaring in the Caribbean became dangerous
business

Illegal Trading

 Spain unable to send regular ships to her colonies

 so Dutch, British and French began to trade illegally with them

 provided goods and services to the needy Spanish colonists

 disregarded mercantilist policies

Q?

 Spanish used the wealth of the Caribbean to sponsor wars in Europe

 If you were Britain, France or The Netherlands, what would be the best way to stop this?

Eliminate source of wealth

MOTIVATION: POLITICAL

 Disrupt Spanish Caribbean trade (destroy Spanish ships)

 disrupt Spanish wars in Europe

15th and 16th Century Interlopers Impact

 French, British and the Dutch (The Netherlands)

 Rivalry- clashed with Spain and each other

 Many wars and conflicts

 Colonisation by different nations

 Diversified the Caribbean

 Spain‟s mercantilist policies broken

Summary- Section 1

 Reasons for involvement of European nations in Caribbean-

- ideologies of the period- bullionism, mercantilism, colonialism

- religion, technological advances

 First explorers and colonists- Spanish  Interlopers- French, British, Dutch

 Motivations for and methods of disrupting power of Spanish control of Caribbean

SESSION 2

Agricultural Change and the Emergence of ‘King’ Sugar

Objectives

On completing this session students should be able to:

 discuss the role of European settlers in the establishment of various agricultural activities in the region;

 discuss the reasons why sugar cane emerged as the dominant crop in the Caribbean by the end of the
seventeenth century.

Q? What did the Europeans come looking for in the Caribbean?

Q? What did they find in abundance in the Caribbean that could be used to make money?

Why agriculture?

 the region failed to provide the quantities of bullion required by the Europeans

 Thus the Europeans were forced to use what they had- LAND- to generate wealth

A Laboratory for Agricultural Experiments

 Initially –subsistence (little to export)

 Span tested crops to see if they would be profitable

 small holdings, many small farmers  mainly producing cotton and tobacco, indigo, cocoa and ginger 
livestock for meat (animal pens) Indigo dye

Cotton:

 plantations were small

 not enough produced to compete

 not a significant export market

Tobacco:

 Markets were available- successful

 Barbados and St. Kitts (British- first successful)

 Clearing large tracts of land

 Indentured labour (usually white European) to cultivate the crop

Decline of Tobacco: Competition from the Americas

 tobacco grown in the Caribbean was of an inferior quality to that produced in the Americas.
 Could not compete with the huge high quality exports coming out of the Americas

Cocoa- Spanish in Trinidad

 From mid 17th century- Spanish settlers

 significant cocoa industry developed and thrived in Trinidad

 high quality cocoa

Decline of Cocoa:

 1725

 a disastrous series of deadly diseases that destroyed the crops  cocoa was no longer a viable export crop for
the island

Rise of ‘King’ Sugar

 Seen as viable alternative

 early Spanish and Portuguese industry in the region

 Hispaniola

 Cuba

 Jamaica

Brazilian Influence

 Successful sugar industry in Brazil

 Portuguese, supported by Dutch

 generated large amounts of revenue

 large plantation system

 lots of capital, equipment, labour (permanent)

Caribbean- An Alternative Site…

 the Dutch were expelled from Brazil

 chose to move production to Barbados in 1654

 the Caribbean area chosen to take over from Brazil in lucrative sugar production

First major sugar producers: Barbados and Jamaica

 Barbados- transformed into largest sugar producer 1640-1660

 Jamaica

 1655- British captured prize island

 more fertile land

 by 1700 sugar became island’s main economy and took over position from Barbados

Caribbean Sugar

 a hugely successful agricultural crop

 a ready market in Europe

 fetched premium prices on the worldwide market.

 No further effort to diversify Caribbean economy

Problem:

 highly labour intensive

 traditional labour sources in Caribbean insufficient

Summary- Session 2

 The development of plantation agriculture

 Variety of crops that were grown before sugar became ‘King’

SESSION 3

Labour Diversity and Demographic Change in Caribbean ‘Frontier’ Society

Objectives

On completing this session students should be able to:

 discuss the various types of labour schemes used to pursue agricultural activity in the region

 identify and distinguish various levels of coercion used within the different labour schemes and the reasons why
they existed

 account for the transition to enslaved West African labour.

Neo-Indians as Labour Encomienda System

 first large scale labour system

 Spanish settler granted a parcel of land (encomandero)

 the right to exact tribute from the Neo-Indians living on the land (labour/crops/ both)

 in return expected to christianise the neo-Indians and protect them

 Given provisions

 Spanish more interested in extracting as much labour as possible

Audiencia

 Poor treatment = investigation by Spanish crown

 mid-sixteenth century

 Audiencia (special court) was established to

- oversee the system

- stop genocide of the native people

 Ineffective as encomandoros took over Audiencia

Q? Frontier Society

 What do you think of when you hear the term ‘frontier society’?

 What is meant by the word ‘frontier’?

Frontier Society

 From a European perspective

 initial phase of colonisation

 the towns very rudimentary

 lacked many of the European amenities

 the threat of attack and conflict with the neo-Indians

White Indentured Labour

 Initial labour- young, white, poor, male bonded servants from England, Scotland and Ireland

 came under contract four to five years

 Initially few females; increased as settlements grew

White Indenture Conditions

 underfed and overworked

Punishment: were allowed to

 be whipped

 sentenced to death

 Result- high mortality rates

 Source of labour unsustainable and unprofitable for sugar production

First Enslaved Africans

 First came from Spain in 1518

 called ladino

 spoke the Castillian language

 Small numbers

 Initially worked alongside white indentured labourers

Enslaved Trade of West Africans

 With rise of sugar needed large amounts of labour

 Racist ideas about West Africans

 labour was deemed best suited

- low cost

- believed to be lacking souls

 Note: not new idea- to prevent genocide of Neo-Indians in 1540s, the Dominican Friar Bartholomew de las
Casas had suggested this form of labour for the ‘Indies’

THE TRADE BEGINS…

 1549

 legalisation of the trade for imported enslaved Africans to labour on plantations in the Caribbean

Triangular Trade develops

 primarily between Europe, Africa and North American colonies and the sugar colonies of the Caribbean.

Summary- Session 3

 examined the various attempts to find appropriate sources of labour for the agricultural activities

 attempted to account for the failure of some of these efforts

 examined issues of white indentured labour

 and the introduction of West African slave labour

PLENARY #4 BEYOND THE RIVERS OF BABYLON
1 OCTOBER 2018 DR. RODNEY WORRELL

ONE COURSE ONE UNIVERSITY ONE CARIBBEAN

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this unit, students should be able to:

• discuss slavery as an economic mode of production in Africa and the Caribbean

• assess the impact of the slave trade on African civilization

• analyze some of the gender issues in plantation life

• discuss the physical and mental abuse inflicted on the enslaved

• evaluate the collaborative relationship between enslaved people working in the great house and the white
plantocracy

• discuss manumission in Caribbean chattel slavery

• assess the self-liberation ethos of the enslaved and their resistance on the plantations

TOPICS

• comparing West African slavery and Caribbean chattel slavery

• Enslavement on Caribbean sugar estates

• Freedom lost, freedom regained on Caribbean sugar estates

SLAVERY

• Slavery existed in most parts of the world in ancient and medieval times: Africa, Middle East, Greece, Rome,
china and India

• Slavery is a condition in which one person becomes the personal property of another

• Slavery involved the procurement of captive labour working without wages and usually under compulsion

• The actual institution of the system varied and in some places, the labour would be more restricted than in
other places

• The location of the enslaved, whether in the town/urban area or in the countryside/plantation determined the
type of work done and laboriousness

SLAVERY IN WEST AFRICA

• “…slavery was rooted in deep-seated legal and institutional structures of African societies, and it functioned
quite differently from the way if functioned in European societies.”’ John Thornton

• “there clearly were persons in those societies who had been bought or captured and subsequently
incorporated on a basis different from those born them. Many of them seemed to live and work just as their so-
called masters did, and Europeans, and often other Africans could not tell them apart. Many were not even
considered saleable – and were therefore not chattels. In fact, sometimes free people were sold and slaves were
not, or both could be sold. Some slaves became rich, powerful, and even bought people for themselves. Others
were put to economic use – sometimes working on their masters estates – but they did not form a distinct or
class apart.” Suzane Miers & Igor Kopytoff

ENSLAVEMENT IN WEST AFRICA

• differed from Atlantic slavery in that there was no dominant race factor to it

• being born into slavery provided the enslaved with rights and protections

• Inability to pay debt might result in enslavement- pawning – slave until the debt was repaid

• Criminals became slaves as a punishment for their crimes or witchcraft

• Warfare was the main activity for obtaining slaves

NATURE OF ENSLAVEMENT IN WEST AFRICA

• The enslaved people were not just traded commodities to be worked to death, but were also skilled producers
in agriculture, crafts, mineral processing, domestic activities and animal rearing

• enslaved were valued as social beings as well as economic factors

• The enslaved enjoyed privileges and rights – could marry, own property, and give birth to children who were
not considered as slaves

• An enslaved person with special skills could rise to a responsible position and become an important person in
the master’s household

• Islamic law decreed that children of slave mothers were to be freed

• The system of slavery changed with evolution and development of the transatlantic slave trade – tradition
became secondary to profit making

ENSLAVEMENT ON CARIBBEAN SUGAR ESTATES

PROFITABILITY OF WEST AFRICAN SLAVERY

• West Africa provided a labour force that was tractable, relatively immune to new world diseases, had a low
transportation cost and a low purchase price

• Because of the low purchase price on the West African coast Caribbean slavery was very profitable for the
European traders and planters who took part in this trade

• Demand for African labor led to the de-population of people from the West African coast

• Disproportionate number of males taken

ROLE OF THE AFRICAN CHIEFS

• African chiefs bartered African people for goods- pots, pans, pipes, tobacco, knives, guns, gunpowder, iron
ware, textiles

• Nature of slavery not clear to them

• They were accustomed to domestic slavery

• This type of slavery not degrading –

• Economic and political advancement their main aim

Slave raiding

• Slave raiders would ambushed and kidnapped Africans

• Villages were set on fire and fleeing people were captured

• Captives were linked with sticks or chains on the neck to prevent them from escaping

Slave coffle

Fort Elmina

Cape coast castle

METHODS OF PACKING SLAVE SHIPS

• tight pack – the captives were packed to maximize the use of available space

• according to john newton “ on the shelves below deck, that had four feet room between them, the slaves lay
chained two by two, in two rows under each side of the ships. they were pushed in so tightly as books in a book
case … every morning we found one living chained together with a dead”

• loose packing- took less people and did not exceed their carrying capacity to reduce the incidence of accidents,
diseases or deaths in the holds

MIDDLE PASSAGE

• A great many expired during the voyage

• Extreme overcrowding

• Deplorable conditions present aboard the vessel.

• Many suffocated or succumbed to dysentery

• Many died along the voyage due to epidemics of disease

• On board the slavers there were numerous outbreaks of the dreaded smallpox

• A few of the Africans were driven insane by the claustrophobic misery

• Anyone showing even the slightest sign of either of these diseases was thrown overboard alive.

• this was done by the captain to prevent at all costs an epidemic aboard the ship e.g. of slave ship Zong)

Speculum Oris

SALE IN THE WEST INDIES

• Advertisements were made upon landing identifying the credentials of the slaves

CARIBBEAN CHATTEL SLAVERY

• Chattel slavery – has often been the term used to describe the type of enslavement practiced in the Caribbean

• The enslaved were viewed as property that could be bought or sold with impunity
• had no rights before the law and could be murdered or raped without any form of redress

• His children inherited his status

• The enslaved as a group form a class apart, at the bottom of the social ladder

• Destruction of the enslaved both mentally and physically

TREATMENT OF THE ENSLAVED

• The enslaved were brutally punished

• flogged for minor offences

• Women who resisted the advances of white men were whipped

• Pregnant women were stripped naked and placed face down on the ground with a hole dug to accommodate
their bellies and flogged

• Thistlewood wrote about administering of 50-300 lashes to enslaved men and women

• Limbs could be severed for constantly running away

ENSLAVEMENT ON THE SUGAR ESTATES

• Sugar plantation comprised of three major categories of enslaved workers, skilled, domestic and field

• the skilled labourers were mainly males – carpenters, millwrights, copper smiths, coopers, sawyers, distillers
and mid-wives- the boiler man was one of the most important enslaved persons on the plantation

• The domestics/house enslaved persons were mainly females – cooks, washerwomen and nurse-maids

• A large number of them were coloured women

• had less personal freedom personal freedom than field slaves

• ate and dress better than the field slaves and had a greater chance of being manumitted

• Domestics could be very loyal to their masters- betrayed many rebellions

• The majority of the enslaved were field slaves who did the manual task on the plantation the majority were
females

• Field labour was divided into three work gangs

• the first gang was the most important work gang on the estate and consisted of the most able-bodied
individuals who did the most laborious tasks – cutting the canes and preparing the ground for planting

• The second gang included weaker and pregnant slaves who performed more minor tasks

• Third gang made up mostly of children did less demanding tasks such as weeding, tending to the animals

ENSLAVEMENT ON SUGAR PLANTATION

THE ROLE OF ENSLAVED WOMEN

• Slave women were workers’, mothers and sexual partners.

• They were producers and reproducers.

• Slave women were either especially oppressed or comparatively privileged.

• Daily work debilitating, family life unstable, contact with planter class miserable and depressing.

• Children doomed to slavery.

• To rebel they ran away or tried to abort their children/ infanticide– long lactation periods.

• More intimate with owners than men.

• House slaves were more privileged (qualify)

• Jamaican planters indifferent to the needs of pregnant women – flogging normal.

• Sexual molestation – constant.

URBAN ENSLAVED

• Females operated taverns, eating houses and lodges

• Females worked as laundresses, domestic labourers and prostitutes

• Males worked in the building trades, ship-building

• Skilled slaves had a great

Rachel Polygreen

FREEDOM LOST, FREEDOM REGAINED ON CARIBBEAN SUGAR ESTATES

- the act of freeing enslaved persons through a legal document, which made them free for the rest of their lives

• Manumission rates were relatively high in the Spanish colonies throughout the period of slavery and much
lower in the British colonies with the French, Dutch and Danish falling between these extremes

• Very few slaves were manumitted in the British colonies during the 18th century, but large numbers were
manumitted in Cuba

• in the early 19th century manumissions occurred in the British Caribbean at rates less than 2 per 1000 yearly

• Manumission became more frequently between 1807 and 1834

• Manumission was more common in towns than in rural areas

• In the British colonies, the majority of the manumitted slaves tended to female creole, young and colored

• In the Spanish and French colonies, in the early 18th century they more often have been male and African born

• Offspring of white men and slave mothers always had better chances of manumission

• The state manumitted some enslaved persons who revealed potential rebellions

SLAVE RESISTANCE

• The enslaved constantly resisted their enslavement

• Slave rebellions

• Grand marronage – set up alternative free communities in the forest and mountains

• Petite marronage

• Industrial sabotage
• malingering

• Abortion

• Suicide

• Infanticide

Toussaint L’overture

Queen Nanny

• Arson

• Retention of:

African languages

Beliefs

Music

Customs

Crafts

END OF ENSLAVEMENT

• Eric William and a number of scholars are of the view that slavery ended because the system was no longer
profitable

• It was also argued that British humanitarian intervention - William Wilberforce and others - in the British
parliament led to the country abolishing the institution

• Richard Hart, Hilary Beckles and other historians believed that the enslaved by constantly fighting against the
system contributed to its ultimate demise
Plenary 5: The Continued Exploitation of Labour & the shaping of the
Modern Caribbean
Dave Gosse

Brief Outline

1. The Economics of Apprenticeship

2. The Economics of Abolition

3. The Question of Labour & Management

4. Indian Indentureship

5. The Shaping of the Modern Caribbean

Thesis

Both Apprenticeship and the Abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean were highly designed to favour the
planters. As such, the post emancipation period resulted in the planters continued exploitation of labour and the
shaping of the Modern Caribbean

The Economics of Apprenticeship

It was a legislative middle ground between enslavement and freedom”.

This middle ground was designed to provide the planters, with an addition period of servile labour.

The planters argued that the freedmen needed more time, to adjust to wage earnings & to become thrifty &
responsible persons.

Rubbish. The former enslaved people had distinguished themselves, as highly responsible and most industrious.

Conditions of Apprenticeship

• All enslaved under 6 yrs, were to be immediately freed.

• A compulsory 40 hrs per week, without wages, until 1st August 1840.

• Work done over the 40 hrs was to be paid.

• Persons working in homes should be full-time, with an earlier release date of August 1838.

• Person willing to purchase their freedom were to be allowed.

The Duties of Stipendiary Magistrates

• To inspect jails and work houses

• To ensure that both owners & apprentices secured their respective rights under the law

• To administer justice and assist in preventing social and economic disturbances

• To ensure they had exclusive jurisdiction over offences committed by apprentices & employers
• To ensure that apprentices received proper medical attention

• To determine the price to be paid by apprentices who wanted to buy their freedom

Some Abuses During Apprenticeship

• The planters continued to unduly interfere in the Magistrates decision making

• At times, they sought to bribe the magistrates.

Some of the Specific Abuses:

1. Work hours were extended beyond the forty & a half stipulated in the Act to 45 & even 50 hours per week.

2. The work day was extended at times to 9 and even to 11 hours

3. Food, clothing & other requirements specified in the Act, were sometimes withheld

Triple Victimization

1. Full use of each enslaved Africans in slavery – cannot be calculated

2. Getting 40 & ½ hours per week free for each praedial slave per week for 4 years = 8424 hrs of work

2b. Getting 40 & ½ hours per week free for each non-praedial per week for 4 years = 8424 hrs of work

3. Earning an average compensation claim per slave at Abolition in 1838, to be used in pay their debts in the U. K.
and to make investments in other economic ventures such as railroads and insurance companies and banking.

Securing Labour

In Guyana by 1844, only 30 % of African labour available in 1834, was available

In the Leeward islands, where the wages were lower, the freedmen emigrated to territories like Trinidad &
Guyana for higher wages.

The colonial governments even prevented the purchase of public lands - (320 acres in Trinidad, 640 acres in
British Guiana).

This was to ensure the Africans would not become to independent

Maintaining Competitive Sugar Prices

Other problems further exacerbated the industry:

• exhausted soils,

• poor production methods,

• absenteeism

• lack of capital investment.

• Problem of labour – Poor management

Thus, many economists in Britain argued that Caribbean sugar should no longer warrant protectionism.

Labour Schemes in the Nineteenth Century

Indentured Labourers in the Caribbean.

• 429,623 Indians 1838-1917

• 40,971 Portuguese 1835-1881

• 39,332 Freed Africans 1834-1867

• 17,904 Chinese 1853-1884

• 4,582 Europeans 1834-1845

• 3,898 Others (mainly black Americans) 1835-1867

Chinese Immigrants

As early as 1806, Chinese labourers were imported. Many left the plantations to become shopkeepers &
gardeners.

In 1850s, Chinese workers were again imported. In T&T between 1853 & 1866, there were about 2,500 Chinese
immigrants .

It was costly as the Chinese government insisted on free return passage.

Push/Pull Factors of Indentureship

The Indians who came to T& T were mainly from Northern area: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar regions

Many factors led them to the Caribbean:

• British colonial policies in India impacting increasing poverty levels in India – British colonialism

• Avoiding famine caused by drought - natural

• 'Running away' from problematic social situations at home

• Earning better revenue - economic

• Hope of a better life when they returned - ecmomic

• Being forced or tricked into coming – British scouts

Exploitation of Indian Labour

Under the Immigration Ordinance of 1854, the Indians could be prosecuted, on criminal charges, for civil
breaches.

Being found off the estate without a pass or “Ticket of Leave” led to imprisonment for vagrancy.

“Unlawful” absence from the estate resulted in a maximum sentence of seven days in jail.

Absence for three or more days was termed “desertion” and could earn the immigrant a maximum of two
months in prison
The Shaping of the Modern Caribbean

Positively

• a rich amalgamation of cultures, such as food, clothing, music, festivals, religions and cultures.

• A rich amalgamation of ideas, sayings and practices which is indigenous to the region.

• We have a common history of migration and exploitation, and as such, we have began the hard task of forging a
common friendship and a Caribbean identity.

Negatively

• Economically: The forging of a Caribbean peasantry in which landlessness, squatting and a dependency
syndrome are features

• Socio-Culturally: The problems of race, class, religious and economic conflict and competition among the races
and ethnicities.

• Politically: Continuation of labour conflict and the emergence of the 1930s labour Rebellions
CARIBBEAN IDENTITY
DEFINING A CARIBBEAN SELF

Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Provide for discussion four issues concerned with the formation of a Caribbean

• Analyse how four issues surrounding the formation of the Caribbean may relate to yourself.

• Explain the importance of Haiti with respect to Caribbean identity formation by virtue of it being the first
Caribbean Republic.

• Discuss at least three ways in which Caribbean Identity is still being shaped by Twentieth century US
Imperialism.

Unit Sessions

This Unit is divided into three sessions as follows:

• Session 6.1: Defining a 20th Century Caribbean identity.

•Session 6.2: Understanding Caribbean Diasporic Double Consciousness.

• Session 6.3: The further shaping of Caribbean Double Consciousness: The example of Twentieth century United
States Imperialism

Session 6.1 Defining a 20th Century Caribbean identity

Defining Identity

Definition 1:

• The individual characteristics, style or manner that is fundamental to a person (or thing) and by which that
person is recognized.

Limitations of Definition 1:

• It is static and does not recognise the fact that human beings change over time.

• Ali Rattansi: We live in a world where individuals can create and reinvent identities and mixtures of identities -
androgynous Michael Jackson’s attempted transformation from ‘black’ to ‘white’ being only an extreme
example...”

Definition 2:

I. Woodard and F. Grace (2006):-

• Identity is a multi-layered concept that is a combination of social identity, personal identity and ego identity.

• Social identity is the groups we may belong to; these may be primary such as family, secondary such as friends,
clubs, church and tertiary such as school and workplace
• Personal identity is the way we portray or project ourselves to the outside world and oftentimes to ourselves
when we look in the mirror.

• Ego identity is our own subjective sense of knowing who we are.

Definition 3:

Abrahim Khan:-

• Identity is elusive

• Identity is broken down into: ‘fact of identity’ and ‘sense of identity’.

• The fact of identity refers to a group situation which focuses on shared characteristics and behaviours, called
objective attributes (race, ethnicity and gender)

• A sense of identity, includes subjective matters relating to how one perceives the world or how one experiences
selfhood.

Summary

• Identity is a dualist entity:

• There is the personal aspect.

• There is the collective/public dimension.

• Both the personal and collective aspects of identity are important in

the construction of a national identity.

Construction of Caribbean Identity

Definition 1:

• National identity is the depiction of a country as a whole encompassing its culture, traditions, language and
politics.

Definition 2:

Benedict Anderson:

• A nation is an imagined political community...imagined because most members of even the smallest nation will
never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the
image of their communion.

• This communion is based on shared interests, ideologies, beliefs and other commonalities that come from
primary, secondary and tertiary groups, including schools and churches.

Factors that may shape identity

Education

Religion

Race

Politics
History

Gender

Sexual Orientation

Geography

Linguistics

Economic activity

Class

Construction of Caribbean Identity - Nationhood

• Rex Nettleford: The projection of a Jamaican identity satisfies a “need for roots and the attendant quest for
identity [that] are said to be natural to peoples everywhere.” The need for a sense of belonging and integration is
particularly great in the case of newly emerging nations.

• Thus, O. Nigel Bolland points out that the promotion of the image of a cultural synthesis is “linked to the
process of decolonisation and nation-building.”

• He adds that the concept has proved attractive because of its “potential role in national integration in societies
that have recently become independent.”

• The idea of a Caribbean cultural identity draws on the concepts of a creole society and creolisation.

• According to Bolland, creole, in common Caribbean usage, “refers to a local product which is the result of a
mixture or blending of various ingredients that originated in the Old World.”

• In a similar manner, the term creole has been used to refer to Caribbean societies.

Construction of Caribbean Identity: Social Theories – Creole Society Thesis

• Edward K. Brathwaite gave greater meaning to the concept of a creole society in his pioneering work, The
Development of Creole Society in Jamaica, 1770-1820.

• Kamau Brathwaite contended that people from West Africa and Europe came to the Caribbean, in particular
Jamaica, and overtime, due to the encounter between the two races a unique society developed that consisted of
a combination of the two cultures through a process called Creolisation.

• This culture was neither purely British nor West African and is called ‘creole’ because of European settlement
and exploitation of a new environment. The basic divisions in this society are whites, people of colour, and blacks
and later immigrants.

• Braithwaite argues that the slave system began as a coercive one, but developed into a system of consensus.

Construction of Caribbean Identity: Social Theories – Criticisms of Creole Society model

The degree of homogeneity is exaggerated

It is not a simple blending process

It does not take into account the ethnic groups like the Chinese and Indians in the Caribbean society
Construction of Caribbean Identity: Social Theories – Updated Creole Society Model

• Orlando Patterson asserts that two types of creolisation occurred: segmentary and synthetic.

• He uses segmentary creolisation to refer to a process “in which each group, in the new setting, creates its own
peculiar version of a local culture.”

• Patterson sees the formation of two segmentary creole cultures: a Euro-West Indian segmentary creole and an
Afro-West Indian segmentary creole.

• This he differentiates from synthetic creolisation, “in which the group attempts to forge a local culture which
combines elements from all the available cultural resources.”

• The synthetic phase of creolisation began in the middle of the twentieth century with the growing influence of
the middle classes and their increased tendency to think in national terms. Patterson claims that “the culture they
evolved became more consciously synthetic.”

Plural Society Thesis (M. G. Smith)

• They mix but do not combine

• Thesis was based on earlier work done by Furnival.

• Caribbean society was not Creole but rather that it was divided.

• The multiracial and multicultural nature of society led to the different groups having their own customs,
traditions and organisations.

• There are several co-existing ethnic groups each of which has a nearly complete set of social institutions.

• Smith argued that plural societies are only units in the political sense because they are governed under one
administration.

• The defining feature of a plural society is seen as this process of the domination of all ethnic groups by the
colonial power. New problems arise when the colonial power withdraws.

Plantation Society Model

• Plantation Society is a plural society as different racial and cultural groups were brought together only in realm
of economic activity. Political power was exercised on behalf of planter class, in spite of, for example, black
political parties.

• Features of the plantation model:

• Dependency syndrome

• Inequality and discrimination

• Skin bleaching

• Preference for metropolitan values

From Ayti to Haiti: The First Caribbean Republic

• The Haitian Revolution was successful striving for and achieving individual, independent identity.

• Called San Domingue by the French, Ayti by the Tainos

• The wealth generated by San Domingue rivalled that of all the British sugar islands.
• Between 1680 and 1777 about 800,000 Africans were transferred from the West African coast.

• By the 1780s, the income for Haiti averaged about £7.2 million annually.

This wealth was due to:

• The fertility of the soil

• The labour of the enslaved people

• This led to high mortality and an increasing demand for enslaved Africans, creating an influx of them in the
colony.

The Haitian Revolution

• The Haitian Revolution occurred through 1791 to 1803.

Many factors contributed to the rebellion:

• Political fermentation and discord

• French Revolution with its emphasis on liberty, equality and fraternity

Carolyn Fick:

• The only united group were the Africans.

• “The aim was to overthrow the white regime, whereby the blacks would become the new masters of Saint
Domingue. It was the first attempt in the long history of slave resistance at disciplined, organized revolt aiming
not only at the destruction of the white masters and of slavery, but at the political notion of independence...”

• The revolutionaries, under the leadership of Toussaint L’Overture, overthrew the French planters between
1791 and 1795 and declared black liberty.

• In 1804 General Dessalines declared a republic.

• According to Verene Shepherd:

• It was not given for twenty years official recognition by the French or other imperial government, but the first
black state seemed a permanent feature of the Caribbean world.

The Haitian Revolution: Success

According to Thornton,

• ...A great many of the slaves had served in African armies prior to their enslavement and arrival in Haiti. Indeed,
African military service had been the route by which many, if not most, of the recently arrive Africans became
slaves in the first place, since so many people had been enslaved because of war.

• Thus, the enslaved people had clearly defined goals and the experience with which to carry them out.

The Legacy of the Haitian Revolution

• Haiti displayed the self-determining ethos of the Caribbean people.

• The Haitian Revolution provided black people across the Caribbean with pride in themselves and the belief that
a successful large-scale rebellion was possible.

• Haiti also suffered several setbacks including the 150 million francs indemnity she had to pay France.
• A fledgling economy based on peasant production, corrupt leaders and poor infrastructure and social
development all marked Haiti's development since 1820.

Session 6.2 Understanding Caribbean Diasporic Double Consciousness (W.E.B. Dubois)

Diasporic Double-Consciousness

• Diaspora comes from a Greek word meaning disperse.

• Diaspora literally means the dispersion of something that was initially localised e.g. people, language and
culture.

• Also refers to the spread of groups of people from their native land to regions outside their original locales.

What is Diasporic Double-Consciousness?

 Double-consciousness reflects the feelings experienced by the uprooted person, who in the new homeland is
torn between two sets of identities:

1. On one hand there is the view that one must settle in the new setting

2. There is the belief that the original homeland (Africa, China, Europe and India) is always home, even if
generations have passed and no memory of the homeland remains.

 Double-Consciousness leads therefore to the creation of dual identity.

Session 6.3 The further shaping of Caribbean Double Consciousness: The example of Twentieth century United
States Imperialism

The Shaping of Caribbean Identity: Twentieth Century United States’ Imperialism

By the 1880s, the United States started to abandon this policy of isolationism due to:

• the fact that her borders were secure

• her industrial and agricultural output had risen to the point where the internal market could no longer consume
the entire output.

Manifest Destiny

• America developed the idea of manifest destiny in the 1890s.

• Put forward by Captain Alfred Mahan, manifest destiny promoted the doctrines of “racial superiority” and the
“national mission”.

• Captain Mahan argued that for the U.S. to become powerful, it needed to look beyond its borders, particularly
control of the Panamanian isthmus and the Caribbean.

Reasons for U.S. Interference in the Caribbean

• Racism
• Humanitarian Aid

• Economic development

• Defense/Military/Strategic purposes

American Policies

Monroe Doctrine

Roosevelt Corollary

Dollar Diplomacy

Good Neighbour Policy

The Monroe Doctrine

• In December 1823, US President, Monroe issued a warning to European: The American continents by the free
and independent conditions which they have assumed and maintained are henceforth not to be considered
subjects for future colonisation by European powers. He went on to say that the attempt of European countries
to meddle in the affairs of the western hemisphere would be taken as the manifestation of an unfriendly
disposition to the United States.

The Roosevelt Corollary

• President Theodore Roosevelt (1904): Latin Americans managed their affairs so badly that they provided
European powers with an excuse for interfering. The US would act as the police of the Caribbean and Latin
America and see that they behaved and acted with decency. If not, and they displayed ‘brutal wrongdoing’ or
weakness ‘which results in the general loosening of the ties with a civilised society’, then they should expect
intervention by a ‘civilised nation’ such as the US.

Dollar Diplomacy

• Howard Taft, who became president in 1908 provided subsidies to shipping, public works and mining and
construction companies wishing to invest in the Caribbean or Latin America. American owned plantations were
aided by placing high customs duties on sugar, bananas, coffee and other crops which did not come from areas
where Americans had investments in agriculture. This policy was named Dollar Diplomacy. By aiding the
economic development of her less fortunate neighbours, the US could gain influence in these territories.

Good Neighbour Policy

• Herbert Hoover was the first to use the phrase ‘good neighbour’ to describe the relationship that the US was to
have with Latin America and the Caribbean.

• The US withdrew from Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1934 and 1924 respectively.

• The good neighbour policy benefited the US by strengthening her economic interests in Latin American and the
Caribbean.

• By the 1930s American businesses played a central part in the economic life of many Latin American and
Caribbean nations.
Conclusion

• While the U.S. involvement in the Caribbean was economically advantageous, it did much to set back
nationalism and the search for national identity in the Caribbean.

• Today, though many Caribbean nations have claimed sovereignty, they are still very much subjected to U.S.
policies directly and indirectly. U.S. movies, music, clothes, styles, and slang pervade our psyche, having an
impact on the evolution of the Caribbean identity.

• As we know identity is not static, it is ever changing and tomorrow, who knows what Caribbean identity will
mean?
Between 1845 and 1917 a total of 143,939 Indians migrated to Trinidad under the system of Indian

indenture. Most of these indentured labourers were drawn from the agricultural and laboring classes of

the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar regions of north India, with a comparatively smaller number being recruited

from Bengal and various areas in south India. Approximately 85% of the immigrants were Hindus, and

14% Muslims. Despite the trying conditions experienced under the indenture system, about 90% of the

Indian immigrants chose, at the end of their contracted periods of indenture, to make Trinidad their

permanent home. The predominant age group of the immigrants was 20-30 years and, while most came

as unmarried individuals, there were those who came as small family units. The debate surrounding the

nature and workings of the system of Indian indenture in India is multifaceted and relatively open-ended.

A lot of ambiguity has marked the system, especially during it first three decades of operation. These

include the recruitment process in India, British role in the impoverishment of 19th century India- a main

push factor of Indian indenture, whether or not the Indians were fully cognizant of the real nature and

details of what they were embarking on, and their level of awareness of the fact that they were leaving

Indian soil. Initially, the journey from India to Trinidad averaged at about three months, but became

substantially shorter and less turbulent with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Conditions on board

the ships were cramped and depressing and there were frequent outbreaks of such diseases as cholera,

typhoid, dysentery and measles which led to high mortality rates on some of the journeys. 

The first two decades of the system were highly experimental in nature, lacking in settled rules and

conditions. However, there were two central and constant features of the system: immigrants were

contracted for long periods with a single employer, and, there were penal sanctions for breaches of the

contract. From the Immigration Ordinance of 1854 until 1917, the system remained relatively consistent

with a few notable changes, a most significant of which, for Trinidad, was the granting of Crown land in

lieu of the free return passage between 1869 and 1880. On arrival in Trinidad the indentured immigrants

were quarantined on Nelson Island and then assigned to the various estates for the contracted three year

period; this was followed by a two year period which completed the “industrial residence” of five years.

At the end of this five year period, the Indian immigrant would be granted his Certificate of Industrial

Residence, a sort of “freedom paper” certifying that the individual was no longer under indenture.
However, in order to qualify for the free return passage back to India, the Indian had to re-indenture

himself for a further five years, but was free to choose both employer and occupation. The only

alternative for returning to India without completing the full ten years of labour in the colony was at

one’s own expense. 

For the indentured immigrants, life on the estates was bound by the terms and conditions of the contract

which they had signed; though most were illiterate in all of the three languages in which the contract was

formulated. In effect, the Indians were not free during their periods of indenture. They could not demand

higher wages, leave the estate without permission, live off the estates, or refuse the work assigned to

them. The basic minimum wage as stipulated in the contract was 25 cents per day or task for adult males

and 16 cents for adult females. Although this amount could not be reduced legally, the plantation often

lengthened the task. Wages also varied according to type of work, season and the area. The contract

stipulated a 45 hour work week but during crop time it could be six 9-hour days. Sunday was a holiday. 

A most troublesome feature of the system for the indentured labourers was the fact that they could be and

were prosecuted as criminals for what were really civil offences; the slightest breach of contract and

immigration laws. Indians leaving the boundaries of their respective estates were required to carry a pass

stating that they had been granted permission to do so. Being found off the estate without such a pass or

“Ticket of Leave” saw many Indians being imprisoned for vagrancy or being found “at large”. Such

“unlawful” absence from the estate could result in a maximum sentence of seven days in jail. Absence

from the estate for three or more days was termed “desertion” and could earn the immigrant a maximum

of two months in prison. Official investigations revealed that the common occurrences of both

absenteeism and desertion were deeply connected to the question of management on the estates, the harsh

treatment of the immigrants, and unscrupulous employers actually conniving for desertion by unfit or

unwanted persons. In an effort at dealing with the issues of absenteeism and desertion, Indians who had

completed their periods of indenture were still required to carry on their persons their Certificates of

Industrial Residence for both the purposes of proving that they were not deserters and when seeking

employment; their word did not suffice. Other offences carrying sentences included willful disobedience,

threatening or verbally insulting the employer and deception in performing work. The courts were
heavily weighted against the Indians and excessive sentences were often unfairly imposed upon them.

Very few Indians actually understood the Immigration Ordinances, could defend themselves or pay for

legal aid. By the 1870s, Immigration Laws were becoming increasingly arbitrary and confusing for the

immigrants. Also, each revision of the law saw penalties becoming more stringent and comprehensive.

While, in theory, there were a number of apparatus put in place for the well-being and protection of the

immigrants, these were more often than not very ineffectual. The Immigration Department headed by the

Protector of Immigrants/Agent General which was supposed to be seeking the interests of the Indians via

its regulations and regular estate inspections, and even acting as a court of last appeal was extremely

vulnerable to pressure from the planters. The various authorities often failed to discharge their duties of

protecting the immigrants and inspection of the estates was too infrequent. Too few immigrants lodged

complaints for fear of victimization and a general suspicion of the impartiality of the magistrate’s court,

which was often inclined to accept the evidence of the estate authorities over that of the Indians. These,

together with an all pervading influence of the planters, overarching administrative weaknesses and

general complacency in the operation of reformed laws led to excessive exploitation being an integral

aspect of the system of Indian indenture. However, the ultimate sanction against the maltreatment of the

immigrants was the power of the Governor to remove even an entire gang from an estate. Two such

instances occurring in Trinidad were on the Patna Estate for unhealthy conditions and on the La Gloria

Estate where the Indians were not being treated properly. 

By the 1870s, Indians had proven themselves as the virtual backbone of the sugar industry in Trinidad.

However, during the 1880s, competition from beet sugar and the full implementation of the 1946 Sugar

Duties Act saw depression looming over the British West Indian sugar industry. Planters began shifting

the burden of the resulting economic adjustment on the sugar workers. Though not as frequent as in

British Guiana, this generated a notable level of strikes and disturbances on some of the estates in

Trinidad, including the Cedar Hill Plantation and the Jordan Hill Plantation. Most of these were on

account of the withholding or non-payment of wages, extending of tasks and harsh and unfair treatment

on the estates. The 1884 “Muharram Massacre” provided a most palpable example of the gravely tense

anti-Indian colonial mindset of the 1880s. For the Indian, estate life had become irrevocably unattractive.
Indians now began moving off the estates in large numbers to become independent farmers, settling on

and cultivating lands granted to them through the land commutation scheme or that they had purchased

from the State. By 1902, more than half of the sugar cane in Trinidad was being produced by independent

cane farmers; the majority of which were Indians. A significant number of Indians also went into cocoa

and wet rice cultivation.

The arrival of the Indian indentured labourers into Trinidad seemed to provide the solution to the existent

economic and labor related crisis of the time. It also saw the introduction of a new dimension to the social

and cultural fabric of Trinidad society. The dynamism of the experience of Indian indenture is evident in

the multifarious debates that it has spawned; debates that continuously reaffirm the global presence and

contribution of the Indian indenture diaspora.

The Importance of History
1. Firstly, the past is central to our sense of identity. Who we are today comes from an understanding of

our origins and how we have developed over time.

2. A sense of history also provides us with familiarity with the past. This is an important attribute of

history because when objects/situations are familiar they become comfortable to us. By becoming

familiar with the history of the Caribbean region we become comfortable not only with the varying

nationalities, ethnic groups and traditions that comprise the region but we also become comfortable with

who we are, especially in the context of other world civilisations and peoples.

3. A sense of history allows us to legally validate our current actions and understandings. In a very real

and practical way one sees this attribute at work, for example, in the law courts of the Caribbean region

on a daily basis. In this sense, the past validates present attitudes and actions by affirming their

resemblance to former ones.

4. The past is often called upon as a means of guidance. In this context, the lessons of the past are often

used to direct current and future actions oftentimes based on verbal or tradition. To this end, the belief

that one can ‘learn from the past’ is often championed.

5. The past is often used as an escape route from the pressures and hassles of the present. Often, many

people harken back to the ‘good old days’ and reminisce on a period in time when the cost of living,

crime and taxes may have been lower. Additionally, some just remember past events or periods in their

lives when they believe life was simply ‘better’ or ‘more enjoyable’. This nostalgic look back is a part of

the human condition and we all, at some point, often briefly use this quality of the past, whether it be for

a few moments or for extended periods of time.

Introduction

Historians and archaeologists interested in recovering the region’s past and, in particular, the past of the

people who lived here, often rely on the waste pits of these people for insights into their lives. These

waste pits or rubbish heaps are termed middens and, by carefully excavating these sites, important

insights into the diet and other aspects of these native people can be found. The idea of one civilisation

being able to talk on behalf of another and the possible inaccuracies that may result is well explained by

the cultural critic Edward Said (1979) in his book Orientalism. For our purposes, however, we should

note that what historians have constructed about the lives of these native people come to us through

sources that were tainted by racism and misguided notions of ‘better’ and ‘worse’ cultures and not voiced

by the subjects themselves. Ironically, we know much about the Neo-•‐ Indians through the eyes of the

people who they most feared and hated and who, in turn, considered them and their culture as peripheral

and meaningless.

From the outset one notes that the Spanish records and interpretation of the native culture was both

ethnocentric1 as well as androcentric2. Therefore, in turn, we who rely on these Spanish sources have

often come to appreciate these cultures as inferior to those of Europe and as denigrating in terms of

gender relations for the women. From the moment of contact the Spaniards took their world view not

only as superior to those of the Neo-•‐Indians but also as a justification for the atrocious actions they then

committed.
1 An ethnocentric interpretation is one that is grounded on the value systems of one’s own culture and

way of seeing the world. To this end, for example, factors such as race and the cultural values that are

associated with it can therefore perjure one’s interpretation of other people’s cultures and practices. 2

This word forms the basis for patriarchal society and, stated simply, means a viewpoint grounded in a

male perspective.

Neo-•‐Indian villages were logically established on sites with easy access to reliable fresh water, and with

the availability of flat fertile ground for cassava (manioc) cultivation. Additionally, and especially in the

case of the military struggles taking place in the region, military defensive considerations were part of the

consideration in the setting up of these villages. Once set up they were generally laid out around a central

village square and consisted of individual houses with thatched roofs and timber walls. These villages

housed between three and five hundred people. They had fully functional societies with trade, religion,

politics and systems of communication etc. As the following vignette shows they even had the region’s

first female leaders!

Anacaona of Hispaniola

Queen Anacaona was a notable female Neo Indian leader. She was well placed to assume a leadership

role as she was a widow and sister of Neo Indian caciques. To this end one notes that she succeeded her

brother as cacique of the large and important Neo Indian centre of Xaragnà which was in South West

Hispaniola (today Haiti) in the late 1490s. She was a powerful and wealthy ruler and her caciquedom of

Xaragnà was considered by the Spanish to be the richest and most sophisticated of all Hispaniola

Caciquedoms. It received tribute from many other lesser villages. Anacaona wielded authority over many

lesser Caciques and because of this power the Spanish called her la Reina (Spanish word meaning

‘Queen’). Under her authority Xaragnà survived as an independent polity for 10 years after Christopher

Columbus’s arrival. Although she treated the Spanish well her state and wealth were seen as a threat. As

a result when the Spanish administrator Nicholas de Ovando decided to destroy all the Neo Indian

chiefdoms between 1502 1503 he attacked Xaragnà and deposed Anacaona. The Spaniards cruelly burnt

her chiefs alive and hung Anacoana in 1503.

Paleo-•‐Indians

The peopling of the Caribbean region has been diverse and historians today recognise two main

settlement patterns that originated, at different times, from both ends of the island chain. The first

settlement pattern consists of an early civilisation of people arriving into the region about 5,000 B.C.

They came across the sea from South and Central America. They established small seaside communities

that had no real knowledge of pottery and subsisted on a diet of wild berries, fishing and hunting. These

earliest inhabitants of the region are categorised as paleo-•‐Indians and had a civilisation that relied

heavily on basic implements/tools made from stones and shells.

Meso-•‐Indians The Paleo-•‐Indians were followed, around 500 B.C., by another group

collectively referred to as Meso-•‐Indians whose civilisation was better developed in terms of pottery and

tools, and whose settlement patterns were not confined to the seashore. This group came from South

America. The meso-•‐Indians’ settlement patterns followed a trend that saw them first settling the island

of Trinidad and then heading northwards and up into the islands of the Greater Antilles. In time, their

main settlements became established in Trinidad, Cuba and Hispaniola (also known as Española). In

general, however, their numbers were never large and they only occupied a peripheral demographic niche

up until the time of the arrival of the Spanish at which point they completely disappeared.

Neo-•‐Indians The third group of Amerindian people recognised in the region was the Neo-•‐

Indians. Unlike the earlier mentioned groups, they had a more varied diet. Their varied diet was largely

due to the fact that they not only hunted and gathered their food but they had also developed agricultural

methods through which they could cultivate their own crops. From archaeological and linguistic evidence

historians have concluded that this group of Neo- • ‐Indians was further divided into two,

closely related, main groups/cultures known collectively as the Salodoid or Salodoid-•‐Barroncoid

people. This title was derived from two styles of pottery that were characteristic of these people. Their

development influenced the Caribbean as their settlement patterns became dominant. Additionally their

culture including religious festivals, sports and even musical instruments defined Caribbean cultural

development in the centuries before the arrival of Columbus.

Varied History of Settlement - the First Peoples Following on from our initial exploration of the earliest

peoples we note that the Caribbean has thus had a varied history resulting from the many different races

of people and varying cultures and ideologies that mixed in the region. At the time of, and following the

arrival of Columbus not much has been written about these earlier people.

We immediately realize therefore that the story of civilisations often neglects the least powerful groups in

history. Even further, advances and discoveries/progress made by these indigeneous groups were often

ignored. Indeed, when studying the earliest groups in the Caribbean we always have to be keen to look

beyond many of the established sources and ourselves find out what really happened.

This conclusion emerges based on the lack of hard factual evidence to support the idea of a totally

different ethnic group of people called Caribs (‘Carib’ is a word invented by the Europeans and as the

historian German Arciniegas explains it means ‘wild Indian’3). The indigenous people actually called

themselves Kalinas or Kalinago. The Kalinas were Neo-•‐Indian peoples who spoke Cariban and who,

during their expansionist phase were engaged in conflict with the resident Arawakan speakers on islands

like Puerto Rico.

Tobacco and Cotton in the English colonies of St. Kitts and Barbados

Following the break in the Spanish monopoly in the region, and with the winning of some territories by

the English, it was necessary for these newly won territories to establish independent economies. This

was necessary as these colonies were only conquered with the hope that they would make a tangible

contribution to the respective metropole. The early English colonists established therefore economies that

closely resembled the ones they had been familiar with in their traditional English society. These

economies were characterized by small holdings which utilized numerous small farmers who tilled the

land producing cotton and tobacco. These plantations were all relatively small and, as a result, the cotton
produced in islands such as Barbados was never enough to justify a significant export market. (Campbell,

2012)

Experiments with tobacco plantations in Barbados and St. Kitts were quite successful initially and

reached their peak in the period 1627 to 1640. However by the mid-seventeenth century this initial

promising context was rapidly disappearing. This change came about as the tobacco grown in the

Caribbean was of an inferior quality to that produced in the Americas. (Campbell 2012) Additionally, the

quantities produced in the Caribbean, though adequate in the short run, were never enough to viably

compete with the huge high quality exports coming out of the Americas. As a result the Caribbean

tobacco industry soon went into decline and it was eventually replaced by sugar as the primary

agricultural plantation export of the Caribbean. (Carrington, 2003)

The Spanish and Cocoa in Trinidad

While cocoa farming was never widely practised throughout the Caribbean, a significant cocoa industry

developed and thrived in Trinidad from around the middle of the seventeenth century. (Bekele 2004) This

was facilitated in large part by the fertile soils and cool wet valleys of the Northern and North Eastern

sections of the island. In these favourable conditions the cocoa that was grown in Trinidad was renowned

for its high quality. With no surprise then this industry proved quite profitable for the Spanish settlers and

they eagerly cultivated it as their main cash crop. However, the days of prosperity for Cocoa in Trinidad

were numbered and, within one hundred years or so of its establishment, this promising industry failed

because of a disastrous series of deadly diseases that destroyed the crops (Bekele, 2004). As a result, by

1725 cocoa was no longer a viable export crop for the island and here, as elsewhere, ‘King’ sugar would

emerge to save the island’s (and the Caribbean’s), economy.

THE EMERGENCE OF ‘KING’ SUGAR

Following the earlier failed attempts at plantation agriculture in the region, sugar cane was seen as a

possible viable alternative on many Caribbean territories. To this end, the English colonists turned their

attention from growing cotton and tobacco to the propagation of sugar cane between 1640 to 1660.

(Campbell 2012). To also appease the growing demand for sugar in Europe, the Spanish established

sugar works in Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica.

However this early spread of the crop in the Spanish Caribbean, attributed to the Spanish and Portuguese,

was overshadowed by its quick rise in Brazil from around the mid-seventeenth century. In fact, the sugar

industry that was eventually established by the English in the Caribbean, owes more to the fall of the

aforementioned Brazilian industry than it does to the early Spanish and Portuguese industry in the region

(Galloway, 1989, p. 48)

By the mid-seventeenth century, further development of the Caribbean Sugar industry was to come.

Indeed, with the Dutch expulsion from the Brazilian sugar enclave of Pernambuco toBarbados in 1654,

the Caribbean area was now selected (because of the influx of the expelled Dutch), to become the new

focal point for this most profitable industry and to take over the lucrative position, formerly held by

Brazil.

Barbados’s meteoric rise to prominence as a sugar producing island cannot be downplayed although, in

the end, her dominance was quickly challenged by another Caribbean island’s sugar industry: Jamaica’s.

Jamaica, having more fertile sugar acreage than Barbados or any other Caribbean territory, became,

ultimately, the most promising British colony for sugar production. Ultimately then, as this example of

the sugar industry shows, regional diversity in the peopling of the Caribbean was intimately connected to

the crops grown in the region.

Caribbean ‘Chattel’ Slavery

The sugar planters of Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward Islands were the first English people to

practice slavery on a large scale. They had no real antecedents or laws to go by to direct the institution of

slavery in the Caribbean. The practice that subsequently resulted and the laws that were created to guide

the sugar planters only emerged out of necessity. Since the planters themselves were central to the laws

that were made, and since the enslaved person had no rights whatsoever in the spirit and letter of the law,

what emerged was a system that did not even recognise the enslaved West African as a person. The term

‘chattel’ slavery has often been used to describe the type of enslavement practiced in the Caribbean.

Within this system the enslaved West Africans were ‘chattel’, i.e. property that could be bought and sold

with impunity. As property, they had no rights before the law and could be murdered or raped without
any form of redress. The most that was done on the death or mutilation of an enslaved person was that

some form of compensation was given to owners for the destruction of their property in case of death or

injury to the West African by another white person. As a result, the reality of enslavement on a Caribbean

sugar estate was, in fact, the destruction of the person both mentally and physically.

On arrival in the Caribbean, and after being displayed and subjected to inspection by potential buyers, the

enslaved people were sold and taken to the sugar plantations, in many cases never to leave alive. On the

plantation a necessary process of social depersonification continued, which was engendered to keep the

enslaved people tractable and amenable to the dictates of management. Daily floggings, brutal and

unregulated till the nineteenth century, and the possibility of mutilations and death, meant that enslaved

life was always an unpleasant and risky affair. Indeed, even when laws were brought to regulate the

treatment of enslaved people, these were implemented to protect and preserve ‘property’ in the colonies

rather than for genuinely humane reasons. Whatever the intent of the sugar planters however it is clear

that the large scale importation of millions of Africans added to the demographic diversity of the region

as this race of people have continued to diversify the region to this very day.

The System of Enslavement in West Africa

Slavery existed in West Africa long before it was brought to the Caribbean. However, surviving evidence

shows that in many cases the nature and tone of traditional West African slavery differed remarkably

from the type of enslavement instituted by the sugar planters in the Caribbean. As pointed out by John

Thornton (1992), “... slavery was rooted in deep-seated legal and institutional structures of African

societies, and it functioned quite differently from the way it functioned in European societies” (p.74).

Thornton’s point concerned the extensive and influential role of the enslaved person as steward of the

master’s business and recognition of kinship ties and autonomy that respected the right of personhood,

even within the context of worker/master subordination.

1 Although ordinances were passed as early as 1823 (which included the abolition of the whip), the

implementation of these laws in sugar colonies like Jamaica was impossible because of the strenuous

objections of the resident planter class. Williams (1961, p. 197).

Thornton’s assertion was based on first person accounts of the West African system of African slavery

and is a good comparative view for us, especially in the context of what would emerge later in the

Caribbean as ‘chattel’ slavery. These accounts are in the form of records left by contemporary observers

of the West African practice like Giacinto Brugiotti da Vetralla and Valentin Fernandes who recorded

African slave customs in Central Africa and Senegambia around the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Their observations led them to believe that African slaves were “slaves in name only” (p 88).

To be noted here is that traditional West African slavery, in all periods, differed from Atlantic/Caribbean

“chattel” slavery in that there was no dominant race factor to it. Since master and slave shared the same

skin colour, the basis for enslaved status was more determined by other social, political and economic

criteria. One way that a person obtained enslaved status was by birth. In this regard, and unlike Caribbean

systems of enslavement, “being born into slavery provided the slave with some added rights and

protections in comparison to those enslaved after birth …” Manning (1990) p.88. Slaves were sometimes

the result of debt payment by masters or by the enslaved themselves. In this sense a form of voluntary

enslavement was common. Slaves were also the result of the transfer of people, as slaves, from one

lineage group to another through pawning (short term loans) or bride price (permanent) (Manning 1990).

Enslaved people were also criminals who became “slaves” as a punishment for their crimes or witchcraft.

Above all, warfare was the chief means by which enslaved people were obtained. Enslaved people were

also obtained through kidnapping on an individual level; witchcraft accusations in which persons were

enslaved for carrying on illicit supernatural activities; exaction of tribute, in which tributaries were

required to render up some of their own to a higher authority; and self-enslavement or sale of one’s kin in

the wake of famine or epidemic. (Manning, 1990)

The very nature of enslavement in West Africa meant also that enslaved people were not just traded

commodities to be worked to death, but were also skilled producers in agriculture, crafts, mineral

processing, domestic activities and animal rearing. Although the mode of production was similar, the

social relationships that underpinned the productive mode differed between West African and Caribbean

practices. This is not to say that in West African slavery there were no abuses to the system. Rather, the
point is that, in general, unlike Caribbean slavery, enslaved people in West African society were also

valued as social beings as well as economic factors.

In West Africa, therefore, the value of the enslaved person was understood beyond capital terms. African

slave masters knew that enslaved people were the basis of their wealth and, in a society where land did

not have the private value that it commanded in Europe, emphasis was transferred to the value and person

of the enslaved within the economy. West African laws and customs allowed a more relaxed appreciation

of the enslaved person within the society. Islamic law, for example, decreed that the children of slave

mothers were to be freed and historical evidence showed that even caliphs (traditional rulers) were born

of slave mothers/concubines (Lovejoy 1986).

With the increasing demand for enslaved people to fuel the labour demand of Caribbean sugar estates, the

system of traditional West African slavery was disrupted. ‘Disruption’, in this sense, meant that a greater

emphasis was placed on securing particular types of enslaved people and disruption also occurred in the

attempt within the Caribbean to strip these enslaved persons of their cultural, religious and social legacies

(Campbell, 2012) Thankfully however and, as our study of Caribbean Civilisation shows, this total

stripping away of their humanity ultimately…. never fully succeeded. As a result their legacy can be

found in every

island of the West Indies where their descendants not only practiced their traditional cultural artifacts

like, dancing, cooking, music, funeral and birth observances etc, but today their descendants take

prominent roles in all spheres of our Caribbean societies. For example, many West African people exist

in our contemporary society as successful businessmen, lawyers; teachers, doctors, priests, politicians,

nurses, soldiers etc. Indeed even socio economic systems that foreshadowed many of our common day

institutions like Credit Unions and Banks were legacies brought by the West Africans. Many even exist

to the present day in their original forms as “su-su/lend hand” and death and funeral societies.

Additionally many religious based movements and lodges/secret societies are also reflective of this early

West African influence.

West African Contributions to the Caribbean after Enslavement – to the Present Day

The freedom enjoyed by the enslaved people, in an economic sense, came (for example) from the fact

that they were able to participate in a money and barter economy which, technically was the kind of

activity the Europeans only attributed to “civilized people”. This is an important point to note because

under the system of chattel slavery the enslaved were not supposed to be recognised as people but as

property. (Campbell 2012)

Additionally, by being given provision plots on the estate, they (the enslaved) had rights of ownership,

which became so entrenched in custom that after the end of enslavement, problems were created when

the plantation owners attempted to take these plots away from them. Not only did the enslaved gardens

afford them the rights of people in terms of economics but in a real way, it also afforded the possibility,

though rare, of the enslaved being able to save enough to buy complete freedom.

Enslaved “Provision grounds” or “Slave gardens” offered the enslaved person the opportunity to produce

goods to sell at market. These opportunities, to meet other enslaved people at slave markets and also

during the preparation of the slave gardens, were crucial for resistance planning as well as social

adjustment. This socialising could sometimes lead to procurement of a mate; however, it always allowed

the enslaved people the opportunity to talk shop and to plan revolt. Additionally, and perhaps most

importantly, through enslaved gardens and the associated tasks of market, the enslaved people had time

away from the plantation and the ‘cracking’ tempo of sugar production. (Beckles, 869-77) Indeed the

activities associated with traditional West African markets such as “huckstering” and “vending” are today

commonplace in many of our Caribbean islands.

The End of Enslavement

There has been much debate over the reasons why the horrendous system of Caribbean enslavement

eventually came to an end in 1838. The leading historian in this debate, the late Dr. Eric Williams, argued

convincingly that the ending of the system of enslavement came about largely because the system was no

longer profitable for the English market. (Williams, 1994). This was as a result of cheaper sources and

types of sugar entering the English market than that offered by the Caribbean sugar planter. He also
pointed out that the ending of the system was in no small way the result of the constant opposition of the

enslaved people themselves to bring down the system throughout the entire time of its operation.

The Labor Shortage that Fueled the Need for Immigrants

Following the British emancipation of the enslaved labour force in the Caribbean, the planters had

anticipated a widespread removal of labour from the estates. In order to combat this anticipated

withdrawal, they immediately sought to institute measures that would force the newly freed people to

remain on the estates and work. One strategy employed by the planters was to create a situation of

indebtedness in which the newly freed people would have to labour on the estates in order to cover their

debts (Laurence, 1984). To attract debts the planters instituted high rents and charges on items that the

newly freed had enjoyed, without direct payment, during enslavement. For example the housing of the

enslaved now attracted a high rent. Additionally, the important provision grounds, which had been

cultivated by the enslaved, were now rented out by the planters. (See Look Lai required reading for this

Unit).

The move to implement rents in order to indebt the newly freed and thus secure their labour commitment

to the estates, in large part failed to secure the type and quantity of labour that the plantations needed.

This was as a result of two main issues that quickly emerged with the rent scheme. On the one hand, the

enslaved people who could not meet the payments or who refused to pay were evicted from the estates.

But this was a hollow victory for the plantation owners as they had, by evicting the freedmen, ultimately

lost their labour commitment to the estate. The other issue that emerged as a consequence of the rent

scheme was that it actually empowered the freedmen to move off the estates. They reasoned that if they

were now paying rents for the customary amenities on the plantation then they were now free, in turn, to

allocate their labour wherever they wished to and not necessarily on the plantation on which they were

renting.

As a result of a shrunken labour force and the lessened control over the available labour, coupled with the

growing cost of maintaining the large estates, many white planters were forced to sell off some of the

cane land to the workers. This in turn further exacerbated their labour problems as the freedmen now had

land of their own on which they preferred to devote their time and energies. If left unchecked, the
planters felt that the cost of labour would now spiral out of control. In order to cope with this

development, the government made the suggestion to the planters that they should immediately consider

bringing down the cost of their labour in order to remain competitive. To do this the importation of

foreign Labour into the Caribbean was suggested.

The Effect of the Sugar Duties Act of 1846

The passing of the Sugar Duties Act, in 1846, ended the protected market for West Indian sugar. As such

the subsidies that had kept the price of Caribbean sugar competitive, were fully repealed under this Act a

few years later.

This, and increased competition from sugar produced from sugar beet, resulted in the decreased price of

sugar on the London market. As sugar prices went down the profits of the Caribbean sugar planters also

went down and they found it increasingly difficult to raise necessary credit on the market to

finance their sugar estates. This reduction in price came at the worst possible time as other problems

existed in the industry such as exhausted soils in many of the territories, poor production methods that

did not maximise the productive inputs and the overall declining conditions of the estates caused by

absenteeism and lack of capital investment. All these issues made the labour “problem” even worse.

Labour Schemes in the Nineteenth Century

To alleviate the perceived labour shortages facing the colonies, the British Government encouraged

schemes that would allow for the importation of immigrant labour. Look Lai (1993), points out that

between the 1830s and 1917, a total of 536,310 persons had immigrated to the West Indies. This flow of

labour had various consequences in the Caribbean largely because of the diversity of culture and

practices that accompanied their importation. Look Lai points out that migrants came into the Caribbean

from ‚everywhere, virtually‛ although some fared better than others when faced with the Caribbean

conditions. Apart from freed slaves living on other islands within the Caribbean, Look Lai (n.d.)

identifies immigrant labourers coming from Africa, the United States, Europe, China and India
Labour Schemes: 3 examples:

Example 1: Chinese Immigrants

From as early as 1806, efforts were made in Trinidad to bring in Chinese labourers. This scheme did not

work because many of the immigrants themselves quickly left the plantations, preferring to take up

occupations as shopkeepers and gardeners. It was not until the 1850s, however, that efforts were again

made to bring in Chinese workers to fill the labour gap. To this end, in places like Trinidad, Chinese

immigrants were brought in and between 1853 till 1866 (when the scheme ended); about 2,500

immigrants were brought in. However this scheme proved too expensive especially as the Chinese

government insisted on free return passage.

Augier et al. (1960), identify other reasons for the failure of Chinese emigration, which include firstly,

the preference by the Chinese to go to California or South East Asia, which were nearer to their home.

Secondly, Augier et al. note that it was more profitable for shippers to transport cargo, rather than people,

to the West Indies.

Example : Free African Immigrants

Early in the nineteenth century, the British Government provided funding for labour schemes that utilised

freed Africans who had been captured from other nations that still practised the slave trade „illegally‟. In

1835, the British moved about 1,000 liberated Africans from Cuba to Trinidad and planters had plans to

bring in more liberated Africans from places like Sierra Leone. However the Colonial Office objected

eventually to the idea of depopulating Sierra Leone and feared that the importation of these people might

encourage the revival of slavery. Moreover, the number of immigrants wishing to emigrate from Sierre

Leone was never enough to justify the continuation of the scheme.

The Africans who came to the region were mainly utilised on the sugar and cocoa plantations. By the

mid-nineteenth century, according to Look Lai (1993) the African population in countries such as

Trinidad and Tobago was quite high.

Look Lai (1993) identifies other sources of black immigrant labour as coming from the United States.

This source comprised free blacks who were living in mid-Atlantic states such as Maryland, New Jersey

and New York. Most of these migrants went to Trinidad, however Look Lai states that generally,

migrations were not popular with the AfricanAmericans since they did not like agricultural work.

Although special efforts were made in the form of legislation, to encourage the African-Americans into

the country, most were not attracted by the scheme.

Example : Recruitment of indentured labourers

Potential recruits were actively sought out by ‘travelling agents’. These agents were Crown officers

responsible for the selection of the recruits and for ensuring that the recruits properly filled out the

necessary forms and understood the agreement that they were making. Because of widespread charges of

coercion and misrepresentation the Governor General of India also appointed a ‘Protector of Emigrants’

who ensured that properly outfitted and seaworthy ships were selected to transport the emigrants and that

the emigrants themselves were embarking on a voluntary basis.

Initially, a bounty of 10 rupees was advanced to potential emigrants but problems of its disbursement

resulted in this incentive being withdrawn around 1855. Further safeguards were instituted at the Indian

ports for the safety of the emigrants and to ensure that they were leaving on a voluntary basis. To this

end, a local magistrate, had, in all cases, to personally examine all recruits to ensure that they fully

understood the nature of the contract and that they were signing on without any form of coercion. Once

this requirement was satisfactorily achieved the magistrate would then insert the recruits’ particulars on

the indentureship certificate including their father’s name, their age, village, depot to which they were to

be sent, and the terms of indenture. A medical inspector then examined the recruits and if they passed this

test they were admitted to the depot to await transportation to the Caribbean. This depot was really a

holding centre and it served as a transshipment point for all emigrants coming to the Caribbean. Here

they were fed, clothed and housed until enough recruits had been gathered to constitute a viable shipment

out to the Caribbean (Weller, 1968).

An identity may be defined as the individual characteristics, style or manner that are fundamental to a

person (or thing) and by which that person is recognised. This definition can be problematic, however,

because it presents an identity as something static or permanently fixed. Even further, this definition hints

to the individual having the power of choosing an identity solely determined by the individual. Instead it

may be argued that identity is not fixed, but fluid, and those identities are influenced not only by personal

choice but also by society through existing social and cultural situations.

Abrahim Khan (1996), suggested that an understanding of the term identity is elusive. Khan linked the

term to the idea of consciousness or self-awareness. His view is that a distinction can be made between

‘the fact of identity’ and ‘a sense of identity’.

The fact of identify: – The fact of identity refers to a group situation where the characteristics focused

on are objective attributes which are shared, and which concern the behaviour of individuals. Objective

attributes which are shared might include race and ethnicity, or gender.

A sense of identity: – involves subjective matters relating to how one sees the world or how one

experiences selfhood. Khan’s analysis pointed to the fact that individual identity comprises two

dimensions. Firstly, there is a collective dimension, which is impacted on by ‘others’, history and society,

and secondly there is a personal dimension of ‘self-hood’. Both dimensions of the concept come into play

when ideas of a national/international and Caribbean identity are considered.

Identity Formation in the Caribbean

In previous units we explored the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Caribbean brought about by the

various experiments with labour in the quest for economic viability. The resultant ethnic and cultural

diversity in the region are major factors which impact on identity formation in the Caribbean.

The idea of identity formation in the Caribbean is further compounded when we realise that, as social

animals, Caribbean people organise themselves around various institutions and activities. These

institutions and activities demand individual identities and also create group identities based on the

sameness of purpose of the individuals concerned. Theorists like Benedict Anderson (1999), have argued

that identities have often been constructed, and continue to be constructed based on points of knowledge
that various interest groups have deemed important. Anderson sees a collective sense of identity as

contributing to the creation of a nation. He defined the nation as “an imagined political community …

imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow

members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each, lives the image of their

communion” (1999, p. 6). The image of a national community is developed on the basis of shared

interests, ideologies and other commonalities. Indeed religion is one such commonality and many of the

socialising factors and institutions offer sites from which identities and nations can be formed.

Early Caribbean Identity Formation: From “Ayti” to “Haiti”: the First Caribbean Republic

The Haitian Revolution in 1791 was the Caribbean region’s first successful thrust for individual,

independent identity. The creation of the first regional nation state in 1804 was the result of historical

circumstance and, above all, the innate human desire to be free. By understanding the

reasons/circumstances within which Haiti (formerly St. Domingue) became free, the student of Caribbean

civilisation will gain insights into the benefits and pitfalls of Caribbean identity creation.

The entire process occurred during the period 1791 to 1803 and was a result of the social antagonisms

taking place in the country, as well as the political ferment facing France at the time. Above all, many

historians have pointed out that the success of the Haitian revolution was due to the tenacity, intelligence

and military brilliance of the enslaved people themselves and their leaders.

The Legacy of the Haitian Revolution

Haiti, since its independence, has remained prominent in the minds of the Caribbean psyche. One notes

that since its independence, the fact that Haiti had to remain part of the world economy meant that many

of the immediate freedoms of the revolution were in fact given up. Some historians have argued that the

Haitian revolution had freed the enslaved people but did not transform the society. This occurred because

the new nation was crippled by its former colonial “master” as they now demanded that Haiti pay to

maintain its freedom. This “payment” was forced on Haiti as France was able to institute a naval

blockade on the new nation preventing it from interacting with its external trade partners.
In that context, one can now understand the contemporary response of former President of the Haitian

Republic. Jean Bertrand Aristide had directed his government to prepare a $21.7 billion claim against

France, a repayment of the 90-million-franc ransom that Paris demanded of its breakaway colony in

exchange for the previously alluded diplomatic recognition, trade relations and a promise not to reinvade.

The sum, which the fledgling nation borrowed from French banks at exorbitant interest rates, crippled its

development for decades.

So while the idea of independence was a good one, the reality was that for economic survival Haiti had to

remain part of the world economy through continued commerce with the outside world. This ultimately

meant continued political, military and strategic allegiances with the world powers.

The Issue of Diasporic Double-Consciousness

While it is clear that, at an individual level, individuals may be torn, or drawn to different centres for the

creation of their particular identity, one also has to note that there is a larger identification conflict that

occurs with Caribbean people by virtue of their membership within larger diasporas. What this means is

that there is always a conflict of identity that operates within the diasporic person that questions whether

or not there is a homeland or ‘motherland’ that the person, and his or her larger ethnic group, must pay

primary allegiance to. To understand this conflict and to suggest ways in which the Caribbean person

deals with this issue, one has to carefully understand the implications of the term ‘diaspora’ and how this

leads to a notion of diasporic double-consciousness.

Defining Diaspora

The term ‘diaspora’ is derived from the Greek word diaspeirein, meaning ‘disperse’, and it refers,

literally, to the act of dispersion. The etymology of the word has a meaning that refers to a genetic, ethnic

or race oriented spread or dispersal of seed, and in this sense the term diaspora is used to refer to the

spread of particular groups of people from their land or place of birth into other regions outside of this

point of origin.
A diaspora not only refers to the movement of the people but also refers to the conditions under which

this movement occurred. This means that the focus group could have either left for voluntary reasons or

could have been forced to move. Thus the term diaspora also takes into account either the forced or

voluntary movement of people from their place of origin.

Social theorists have noted that with most diasporic communities there is usually a sense of

‘uncomfortable-ness’ experienced, at least in the short run, in their new surroundings. This means that the

newly arrived group usually has a feeling of being strangers in the new land in which they have now

settled. This feeling can either be replaced by a sense of belonging or can persist from generation to

generation such that there is never an acceptance of the new land as home. This phenomenon of diasporic

feeling of adoption, or not, of their new homeland has been theorised by the thinker William Du Bois

(cited in Harris, 1993) under the heading of “double-consciousness”.

Double-Consciousness

Double-consciousness is a term that reflects the feelings experienced by the diasporic person or

community who, in the new homeland, is torn between two sets of identities. On the one hand, there is

the idea that life has begun anew in a new place that must now represent home. Especially so as

generations may pass in the new area and so the descendants have no personal knowledge of the original

‘homeland’. In this sense then ‘home’ becomes the place of one’s birth and the things around which one

makes meaningful associations. In opposition to this view is the belief that the original homeland is

always home and that time and distance does not change this fact. There is, in this case, always the

yearning to return to the homeland. This yearning often does not diminish with successive generations

and the popularity of movements like Marcus Garvey’s ‘Back to Africa’ movement demonstrate the still

powerful attraction of this idea to diasporic communities.

The Caribbean person is therefore faced with these options. On the one hand there is the attraction of the

settled known life in the Caribbean to which most have adjusted and taken up local identities within. On

the other hand there is always the pull back to ‘Mother’ India, Africa, Europe, China, etc. For many

Caribbean people this idea of double-consciousness may not be a visible issue, however, it periodically
emerges whenever ideas of race consciousness emerge or when issues confront the ‘motherland’ and her

‘children’ are therefore sought out.

Ultimately then double-consciousness refers to the creation of a sense of dual identity which has

historically been faced by diasporic communities as they decide whether they should adjust and accept

their exile and make the most of their current situation or whether they should instead gear their energies

towards a return to the homeland. Even if diasporic communities decide to stay in their new homeland it

is true to say that the pull of the motherland always remains an integral part of the psyche of diasporic

communities. Many Caribbean people have today concluded that the look back to the motherland is often

an illusory one as the passage of time has resulted in different histories being created right here in the

Caribbean. Indeed, the diasporic people who yearn to go back to the motherland may find themselves in a

peculiar situation in which they are attempting to leave one particular history and enter into another one.

To this end Caribbean theorists have tried, and succeeded, in pointing to the uniqueness of the Caribbean

and its own peculiar history, which has made it the ‘motherland’ for a number of peoples. So unique is its

own peculiar heritage and the impact it has on its people that it is no strange thing now to speak about a

‘Caribbean diaspora’ in Europe or the United States and to chart the achievements and peculiarities of

this diaspora as an end in itself!

The Background to United States Involvement in the Caribbean

Following the end of the American Civil War, the United States went into a period of isolationism (for

an explanation of this term see: http://www.ushistory.org/us/50a.asp), within which it was decided that

the country would not be involved in the affairs of other states and, further, would only focus its attention

on its own internal development. However, by the 1880s, certain developments had led to this policy of

isolationism being reconsidered. Firstly, in its internal development, the United States frontier, had by

this time, been effectively conquered and there was, therefore, nowhere else to expand to within the

United States. Secondly, American industrial and agricultural output had grown to the extent that the

internal market could now no longer consume the volume of production and new external markets were

needed to absorb excess production.

The Caribbean region lying just off the southern shores of the US was therefore an ideal ‘territory’ for a

new imperialist thrust, especially as the United States had already been effectively shut out from the large

markets in Africa and Asia. Control of this region would effectively provide the United States with a

ready consumer market and buffer zone for her new imperialist thrust.

As a result the United States developed ideologies that would support its imperialist thrust into the

Caribbean region and which, ultimately, affected Caribbean nation building and identity creation. To this

end, in the 1890s the United States revived the idea of manifest destiny, which advocated the spread of

United States’ influence overseas.

In particular the imperialist ideas put forward in 1890 by Captain Alfred Mahan, which advocated

doctrines of “racial superiority, the national mission” and a “new manifest destiny” were well received by

the American public. Mahan argued (see https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/mahan), that for

America to become a powerful nation it needed to look outwards and across the sea. In particular,

Mahan’s plan revolved around the United States having control of the isthmus and, of course, the wider

Caribbean. Mahan was not the only source calling for imperialist expansion into the Caribbean. In fact

there were many other interests advocating the necessity for the creation of an American empire in the

Caribbean. The results of this imperial desire has been the widespread adoption of not only US cultural

norms and policies, but also the acceptance of US political and economic ideologies within the region

and its identity.