The Amelioration and Abolition of Slavery in Trinidad, 1812 - 1834

Book excerpt: As the Preface states, this book is a result of a research project for the History Department of the University of the West Indies. It is a work which sought to examine the way in which the slave policy of the British government was implemented in a new slave colony. Faced with recalcitrance on the part of the older West Indian colonies, the Colonial Office did not accord Trinidad an independent legislature because it felt it could more easily implement its slave policy. Trinidad proved to be no more compliant than the other colonies, and logistically was not easy to supervise. No study has previously been done of the slave process in Trinidad. A statistical analysis of the registration was undertaken by A. Meredith John in 1988. The present study is important because it has focussed on an area that needed to be examined, and one which illustrates that one cannot generalise on the West Indies. It shows how easily a policy can fail, if administrators are not in sync - as those in London were not during this seminal period. The baneful effects of the British experiments extended to persons like the free coloured and black people, who were on the periphery of the system, but who were materially affected by it. This book is significant because it fills a gap in knowledge about an important aspect of the island's history. It also affords an opportunity to look at the attempt to make changes in a society that, for the most part, was not English. As such it stands as a warning of the need to understand the cultures of those for whom systems are devised before they are imposed.