I would like to express my sincere thanks to the staff of the Scarborough Library for the recently concluded exhibition of Slave Registers. The registers cover a relatively short period in the 1800s so they represent a very small part of our island's history, but I felt really privileged to leaf through two of them which were photocopied and made accessible to the public. It was indeed a very moving experience for me to step into this painful reminder of our colonial past.
In general, the registers listed slaves according to owner, gender, age, colour (interesting!), and occupation; and in cases where the master's "stock" had decreased because of slave deaths, the cause of death was also listed–old age, scorpion sting, "hooping" cough, etc. I also noted instances where several people on an estate died of the same ailment–lack of care on the part of the owner or lack of medical expertise? I could only speculate.
I read the slave names with interest–Billy, Franky, Cordelia, Hannah, et al. Somehow, seeing the actual names of the slaves reminded me that these were real people, with real lives, and I couldn't help wondering which of them were my ancestors. Not surprisingly, the last names of the slave owners (eg Brasnell, Hislop, Grimshaw), are today reflected in many well known Tobago family names.
The names of the various estates–Argyle, "Roxburgh," Calder Hall, etc–would be familiar to most Tobagonians, but what struck me was the fact that pretty much the whole of Tobago was divided up into estates/plantations. I had no idea there were so many!
Bernadette Phillips,
15 Calder Hall Trace, Scarborough