Trinidad and Tobago Independence

                                                 



Trinidad and Tobago were separate colonies under the British Empire when in 1889 they were joined together as a crown colony. It was not until 1962 that they would achieve full independence within the Commonwealth of England and then became a republic in 1976.  Trinidad and Tobago are part of a two party system and use a bicameral parliamentary system that is based off the Westminster System ( model of the UK system).

           http://www.trinikid.com/2012/11/education-prime-ministers-of-trinidad.html


Eric Williams ( pictured above ) was an historian and scholar before coming into the public arena of politics. He was part of the People's National Movement in Trinidad and Tobago which would take them into independence from Britain. He was the first Prime Minister at the independence of T&T and would remain so until 1981.

Trinidad and Tobago peoples have many a story to tell, from the beginnings with the "discovery" by Christopher Columbus, through being a colony of Spain with French planters, slavery, switching to British hands to become their colony, emancipation, indentured servitude, a change in government, and then independence with a change into a republic. It is a land of multi-ethnicity that keeps changing and adapting as needed. It is a land where everything merges together in a story that is hard to follow with no real beginning and seemingly with no end in sight. Yet through this blog I have come to understand some of not only the Caribbean but also about these tiny islands just to the north of South America. It has been amazing to me that such small places hold so much of the "new worlds" history and that they were so important to the rest of the world when it came to economics. Before this I had little clue as to the amount of power these small islands in the Caribbean had and how much they are overlooked except when it comes to those who go there to sun on the beach with their little umbrella drinks. . . knowing the history of these islands has made think a little more about those places that may seem small and insignificant but by far are anything but. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_and_Tobago

http://gotrinidadandtobago.com/trinidad/carnival/ ( if you would like to know more about Carnival on Trinidad )

                                                  After Slavery on Trinidad

After looking at this weeks post I decided to do things a little different for this blog. Take the time to look at the pictures and take a listen to the links.....it will tell its own story better than I ever could. 

                   http://mauritius.genosy.com/economic/history/indentured-labour/



                                               Lecture By Selwyn R Cudjoe

http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/william-hardin-burnley-caribbean-slavery/


 William Hardin Burnley, the biggest slave owner in Trinidad, did everything in his power to prevent the emancipation of Africans in the colony. When slavery ended, he was convinced that only Africans who had tyrannical masters would benefit from emancipation. The rest, he opined, ‘Were too ignorant to understand the real position in which they were placed ’(1). The link above talks about one man that was a planter on Trinidad during the time of the British government abolishing slavery.

The video that I have posted above I found on YouTube, it is slave narratives from the Southern area of the United States. There were no slave narratives that I could find coming from the Caribbean but when I watched this I had to share it because after hearing the words of these men and women that were slaves, it was almost no different than what would have been found on the islands in the Caribbean (including Trinidad).


Yet Africans were not the only people who were subjected to the work and brutality of the Caribbean plantations. Trinidad was a British colony and as such was one of the islands where Indians from the sub-continent were brought in as a labour force after "slavery". Yet if you listen to the next video that I have decided to post you will learn that the indentured servitude of these Indians were just another form of slavery.

I know that this a little different format then what I normally do, but I believe that I could personally not do this particular subject justice without the words and the voices of others. I hope that you take the time to not only listen but to hear what is being said about how the colonies made their money and who's back the colonies were built on. . .




 1)  http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/william-hardin-burnley-caribbean-slavery/