Country: Trinidad and Tobago

Ethnic Group: Afro-Trinidadian

Date Finalized: October 30th

Team: Zeenat Hammond (lead), Alexa Hager, Colleen Clauss

Content Warning: none

Approximate Time Period: 1498-1838


            There is ample evidence that Afro-Trinidadians experienced forced labor. Today, African people make up about 36.3% of the population of Trinidad and Tobago. The Spanish first colonized the island of Trinidad in 1498 and began transporting enslaved Africans to Trinidad in 1517 (Fergus, 2006; Wikipedia, 2020). In addition, around half of Afro-Trinidadians were the descendants of emigrants from other islands of the Caribbean and others even trace their ancestry to American slaves recruited to fight for the British in the War of 1812 or from indentured labourers from West Africa (Wikipedia, 2020). The most common African ethnic groups of Afro-Trinidadians were Igbo, Kongo, Ibibio, and Malinke people (Wikipedia, 2020).

Great Britain gained control of the colony in 1802 and increased the the import of slaves. Slavery was abolished there and in the rest of the British Empire in 1834 (Wikipedia, 2020; Matthews, 2007). However, this didn’t end slavery because former slaves served an “apprenticeship” period which ended on 1 August 1838 with full emancipation (Wikipedia, 2020).

This is a case of forced labor because Afro- Trinidadians / Tobagonians were forced into slavery and never compensated. The data quality is rated as a 2 out of 3.

Sources

  1. Fergus, C. (2006). Centring the City in the Amelioration of Slavery in Trinidad, 1824-1834. The Journal of Caribbean History, 40(1), 117.
  2. Matthews, G. (2007). Trinidad: a model colony for British slave trade abolition. Parliamentary History, 26(4), 84-96.
  3. Wikipedia. “Afro-Trinidadians and Tobagonians.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2020 (last edited), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Trinidadians_and_Tobagonians.
  4. Wikipedia. “History of Trinidad and Tobago.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Oct. 2020 (last edited), en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago.