Period of history must not colour the present

Gifts of land were granted to the migrants and further grants were made to slaves who accompanied the migrants.

The only restriction was a religious one: migrants had to be Catholic. Blacks and coloureds benefitted in that they also came with their slaves and were granted lands.

Pierre Gustave-Louis Borde in his The History of Trinidad under Spanish Government (1883) mentioned that the fourth provision of the Cedula “grants the same privileges to black or coloured colonists but only one half of the quantity of land given to white colonists.” The lands given to the slaves remain practically the same.

Trinidad had a black and coloured slave-owning class. In fact, they constituted the largest slave-owning group but were not the largest slave owners.

Blacks were also owners of Amerindian (Tainos) slaves and contributed to the genocide of Amerindians in Trinidad.

Franciso Morales Padron in his Spanish Trinidad (2012) clearly mentions this. He wrote that “there was a third social element that the governor dared not go against, the Africans.” Men of colour and mixed ancestry employed Amerindians for work, but Governor Sebastian de Roteta dared not forbid them to use Amerindians as he had done with the Spaniards.

The reason had to do with the colony’s security. “A third of the island’s population was of African descent and they were the ones who carried the burden of the island’s defences.

If they were to take away the Amerindians from them, they would surely move elsewhere.” Roteta was governor in 1654.

The reality is that all races were subjected to slavery at some point in their history.

There were white slaves throughout the Arab Empire.

The Muslim invasions of south Asia also saw millions of Hindus subjected to enslavement.

In fact, this is being call the Hindu Holocaust.

One should not use a period of history, have a fixation with it and allow it to colour the present. A proper view of the past is essential.

The continuous control of state power by blacks in Trinidad has definitely created a dependency syndrome among blacks and this has spread to other sections of the society.

This has had a devastating effect on society.

KAMAL PERSAD Carapichaima