More on the French Creoles
While making arrangements for financial support for the re-publication of the Historical Digest, a would-be sponsor said to me, "I hope you're not putting in a lot about French creoles."I was not...
View ArticleAlbuquerque
It was during the administration of Don E.S. de Liñan, governor of the island of Trinidad, that in April of 1749 a remarkable earthquake occurred. I had just entered the town of San José de Oruña,...
View ArticleDon José Maria Chacon
The foregoing article, which is sourced in its entirety from E.L. Joseph's "History of Trinidad", written in 1883, serves to provide an excellent description of life in Spanish Trinidad in the 1750s...
View ArticleThe Company Villages
People of African descent came to Trinidad and Tobago in various ways. Some arrived in Spanish times as slaves; however, because there was hardly any industry, these early arrivals were distinguishable...
View ArticleMama Glo's Gift
From the time of her earliest memories, she always entered the forest quietly, silently stepping, slowly moving through the dew-wet underbrush, trying not to tread too hard.She paused, not so much to...
View ArticleBy Rail to San Fernando
by J.H. Collens (abridged), 1886When hundreds of wild cows roamed CaripichaimaThe different estates and objects of interest on the line between Port of Spain and St. Joseph junction have already been...
View ArticleWhere the Belmont Tram went
The Belmont tram was probably the most important of the Port of Spain tram lines, as Belmont was the city's first suburb, densely populated. Belmont was initially an area of coffee and sugar estates,...
View ArticleThe East Indians in Trinidad
by Jean de BoissièreFull of the typical anti-colonial sentiment of the times, the young author looks at the conditions of East Indian indentured life in Trinidad. Written in 1937.After 1834, the...
View ArticleWhite servants in the Caribbean
When we think of emancipation, we know we are thinking of a time when human bondage was an economic reality. Driven by avarice and greed, the New World was "opened up" on the backs of those who...
View ArticleRoume's last moments
His breath came in small, rapid gasps. His once sweetly handsome face now decimated by pain. Sunken cheeks, his lips propped up from beneath by teeth grown large from the shrinking of their...
View ArticleTobago
A historian, whose name I cannot bring to mind, wrote that the Lesser Antilles, that curving island chain facing the rolling Atlantic breakers, are the "orphans of three centuries of sea power".To get...
View ArticleCocoa - a New World Product
The impact of the New World on the old is hard to grasp in these times of globalisation, but may be glimpsed in the appreciation of the sweet potato as being highly praised. It was precious a delicacy...
View ArticleThe Mayoral Election at Port of Spain
by Jean de BoissièreFirst published in 1937 in Boissière's book "Trinidad - Land of the Rising Inflection".Before eight in the morning, the meager two benches provided for the public were filled with...
View ArticleThe Arrival of Fruits and Veggies
That not only people crossed the Atlantic to find new homes for themselves in these islands, but also a variety of fruits and plants, also made that crossing and like the people are now taken quite for...
View ArticleA Ride on the Bus
A hundred or more people rushed to get the bus. It is supposed to carry 28 and no more according to law, but nobody on that bus seems to have much regard for the law. The seats go to the victors in the...
View ArticleThe Story of the Government House
It will be interesting to record some of the facts regarding the construction of this old building as well as some information concerning it given by the late Mr. Thomas James St. Hill, six months...
View ArticleColour Prejudice
Just over 120 years ago, the late 1870s, life in Trinidad reflected the ups and downs and overall uncertainties of the colonial experience. All in all, the island was prosperous. Sugar was making money...
View ArticleThe Spanish Dons of La Trinidad
The house was not very large as estate houses go, neither was it very old. It sat in the contented manner that bungalows do on a quarter of an acre of slightly rolling lawn, surrounded by a startling...
View ArticleThe Arena Massacre of Trinidad Part 1.
Documents relating to the massacre of theGovernor, Don Jose de Leon y Echales,other officials and missionaries atSan Francisco de la Arena, byIndians, on 1st December, 1699.Collected and translated...
View ArticleThe Arena Massacre of Trinidad Part 2.
ORDINANCE AND DECLARATION OF PEDRO RAMOS (AGED 34YEARS) CONCERNING THAT WHICH HE OWES. In this said town, on the above named day, month andyear, I the said alcalde Don Antonio de Robles...
View Article
