Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T01:37:26.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Beginnings of Samuel J. Prescod, 1806-1843: Afro-Barbadian Civil Rights Crusader and Activist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Glenn O. Phillips*
Affiliation:
Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland

Extract

Samuel J. Prescod's path into Barbados' House of Assembly is singular in the island's history. The first Afro-Barbadian to sit on the island's highest elective body, he became its first representative from Bridgetown, the most populous and colorful constituency in Barbados. Most significantly, Prescod's electoral victory on June 6, 1843 symbolized the primary triumph of genuine freedom for the Barbadian working class, an accomplishment the Colonial Office was unable to implement in the island's community for almost thirty years through forced imperial legislation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1982 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Schomburgk, Robert H., The History of Barbados, (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans 1848) p. 208 Google Scholar and C. O.137/322 Governor Barkly to New Castle No. 37, March 22,1854.

2 Levy, Claude, “Barbados Last Years of Slavery 1823–1833,” Journal of Negro History. Vol. 44, No. 4 October 1959: 308345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 A Statement of the Number of Slaves for whom Compensation has been Granted, Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed March 9, 1838, No. 93.

4 Pinckard, George, Notes on the West Indies, (London: Messrs. Baldwin, Cradock and Joy 1816) Vol. 1, pp. 369–70Google Scholar; Thome, James A. and Horace Kimball, J., Emancipation in the West Indies, (New York: The American Anti-Slavery Society 1838q) p. 75.Google Scholar

5 Eliot, Edward E., Christianity and Slavery, (London: J. Hutchard and Son 1833) pp. 225–26Google Scholar; CO. 31/45 (Barbados) Council Minutes, January 16, 1811.

6 The West Indian, February 21, 1842, p. 3.

7 Handler, J.S. and Sio, A.Barbados” in Cohen, David W. and Green, Jack P., Neither Slave nor Free, The Freedman of African Descent in the Slave Society of the New World, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins 1972) p. 160.Google Scholar

8 Eliot, Edward, op. cit., p. 226.Google Scholar

9 Vaughan, Hilton A., “Samuel reseod: the Birth of a HeroNew World Quarterly, 1966 Independence Issue :57.Google Scholar

l0 Lloyd, William, Letters From the West Indies. (London: Darton and Harvey 1838) p. 17.Google Scholar

11 Smith, M.G., “Some Aspects of Social Structure in the British Caribbean About 1820Social and Economic Studies. Vol. 1, No. 4, August 1953: 61–2.Google Scholar

12 Hoyos, F.A., Builders of Barbados. (London: MacMillan Education Ltd., 1972), p. 49.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.

14 Vaughan, H.A., Op cit., p. 59.Google Scholar

15 Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press 1944) pp. 180–83.Google Scholar

16 Schomburgk, R.H., op. cit., p. 454, CO. 28/112 Lionel Smith to the Free Black and Free Coloured Petitioners, May 13, 1833.Google Scholar

17 Schomburgk, R.H., op. cit., p. 455.Google Scholar

l8 C.O. 28/113 Address of the Free Coloured and Free Black Inhabitants of Bridgetown to the Council and the Assembly April 2, 1834.

19 Sturge, Joseph and Harvey, Thomas, The West Indies in 1837, (London: Hamilton, Adams and Co., 1838), Appendix p. 33.Google Scholar

20 Vaughan, H. A., loc. cit.Google Scholar

21 The West Indian, Vol. III No. 215, November 23, 1835.

22 The West Indian, Vol. III No. 219, December 7, 1835.

23 Ibid.

24 Vaughan, H.A., op. cit., p. 60 Google Scholar; Thome, J.A. and Kimball, J.H., op. cit., p. 74.Google Scholar

25 Sturge, J. and Harvey, T., op. cit., p. 139 Google Scholar; Thome, J.A. and Kimball, J.H., loc. cit., Lloyd, William, loc. cit., and Truman, George, et al, A Narrative of a Visit to the West Indies in 1840 and 1841, (Philadelphia 1844) pp. 70, 1.Google Scholar

26 The Uberai, April 18, 1838.

27 Sewell, William G., The Ordeal of Free Labor in the British West Indies, (London: Sampson Low, Son and Co. 1862) p. 60.Google Scholar

28 Prescod, Samuel J. to Russell, Lord John, July 13,1840 in The West Indian, October 28,1841, p. 1.Google Scholar

29 The Liberal, January 21, 1843, p. 1, The Liberal, June 24, 1843, p. 2, The West Indian, December 7, 1835, p. 1.

30 Prescod, Samuel J. to Russell, Lord John, July 13, 1840, The West Indian, October 28, 1841.Google Scholar

31 Prescod, S.J. to Sturge, Joseph, March 21, 1840 in The Anti-Slavery Reporter, No. 10, Wednesday, May 20, 1840.Google Scholar

32 The Anti-Slavery Reporter. XXXIV, Vol. II, No. 7, April 7, 1841, p. 69.

33 Prescod, S.J. to Sturge, Joseph, March 21, 1840, The Anti-Slavery Reporter. May 20, 1840.Google Scholar

34 The Liberal, December 24, 1839, p. 1.

35 Prescod, S.J. to Tredgold, J.H., June 5, 1840, The Ami-Slavery Reporter, No. 12, June 10, 1840, p. 125.Google Scholar

36 The Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery, Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, (London: British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society 1841) pp.43,103–4, 403, 523, 527.

37 Ibid. p. 527.

38 The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter. Nos. 16 and 17, July 15, w9, 1840, p. 1.

39 Prescod, S.J. to Russell, Lord John, July 13, 1840, loc. cit.Google Scholar

40 The West Indian. October 28, 1841.

41 The Anti-Slavery Reporter. XXXIV, Vol. II, No. 7, April 7, 1841.

42 The Liberal, December 23, 1840: 1.

43 Ibid.

44 The Anti-Slavery Reporter. XXXI, Vol. II, No. 4, February 28, 1841, p. 43.

45 Burnley, William H., Observations on the Present Condition of the Island of Trinidad, (London: Longmans, Brown, Green and Longman 1842) p. 87.Google Scholar

46 Barbados: Laws, Statutes, etc., Laws of Barbados 1648–1874, (London: William Clowes and Sons 1875) pp. 209, 210.

47 Schomburgk, R.H., op. cit., p. 494.Google Scholar

48 Ibid.

49 The Liberal, January 21, 1843: 1.

50 The West Indian, June 22, 1843: 1.

51 The Liberal, June 24, 1843: 1.

52 The Barbadian, June 3, 1843: 1.

53 The West Indian, June 6, 1843: 1.

54 The Liberal, June 24, 1843: 1.

55 The West Indian, June 6, 1843: 1.