Sunday, May 12, 2013
Child brides and their brass lotha and tharia dowries circa 1915.
Child marriages and betrothals originated in the pre-Mughal era of Indian history as a means of creating a tangible bond between two families.
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The child brides
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Nelson Island—indentureship’s gateway
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Newly-arrived indentured immigrants assemble outside the main dormitory on Nelson Island for a group photo in 1880.
Emancipation in 1834 and the understandable reluctance of former slaves to return to a new form of bondage on the sugar plantations of Trinidad, left a massive labour void which subsequent immigrat
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Hindu burials of yesteryear
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Even though cremation of the dead is prescribed for orthodox Hindus, the practice was illegal in Trinidad until the 1930s.
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Masters worked Indians hard
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Women clearing a canefield circa 1940.
In 1845, indentured labour from India began arriving in Trinidad primarily as labour for the sugar plantations which were the mainstay of the economy. For new Indo-Trinidadians, the commissary of t
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Ross and Co, an original 24-hour pharmacy
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Drawing from 1904 of WC Ross and Co at the corner of Queen and Frederick Streets, Port-of-Spain.
William Clayton Ross established his well known Colonial Dispensary, at the corner of Queen and Frederick Streets, Port-of-Spain, around 1846.
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The formidable Wm Tennant and Co
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Tennant and Co building seen in 1930. It was erected in 1911.
From the 1840s until well into the 1950s, the sugar holdings of Wm Tennant and Co were formidable.
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Queen of the kitchen
Sunday, June 9, 2013
A pencil drawing of a cook of yesteryear. Rudolph Bissessarsingh
(Model: Anna Fenton)
Even before chattel slavery ended in 1834, a skilled cook was a must for every household of substance in Trinidad.
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Randolph Rust’s quest for oil
Sunday, June 16, 2013
The firm of Rust, Trowbridge and Company on Charlotte St during the 1890s. Inset: Major Randolph Rust.
In a recent conversation with the Minister of Energy, Senator Kevin Ramnarine (himself an accomplished historian), we came to the realisation that little is known about our oil pioneers, to whom we
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Rust’s persistence paved the way
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Randolph Rust's oil well at Guayaguayare in 1904.
Last week we began looking at the story of how Major Randolph Rust, a former merchant, fought enormous obstacles and in partnership with Chinese businessman John Lee Lum, drilled the first commerci
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Douens and other folklore
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Douens and the lost child. Sketch by Rudolph Bissessarsingh
My grandmother Theresa tells a story of an incident that really happened over 70 years ago in a forest a couple hundred feet from where we live. A young couple ventured into the woods to pick mango
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Life of a plantation slave
Sunday, July 14, 2013
The Speyside watermill and boiling house ruins (1928) which are typical of the sugar plantation fixtures of Tobago during the plantation era.
Many types of speculation have long been rife as to the conditions of slavery in T&T.
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Life of a plantation slave Part II
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Market Square—now APT James Square—in Tobago (1877) where slaves were once brought to be sold.
Tobago is a bit different from Trinidad, in that its slaves had no significant French heritage and thus were subjected to the brutalities of British plantocracy. Whereas slave trading in Trinidad w
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Gang Gang Sarah The Witch of Golden Lane
Sunday, July 28, 2013
The silk cotton tree from which Gang Gang Sarah fell and died has attracted attention for decades as this 1875 photo attests.
Tobago is unique among the former British West Indian colonies in that much of its West African heritage survived the obliterating effects of slavery and existed in vibrant tradition long into the
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A royal visit in 1920
Sunday, August 4, 2013
H R H Edward Prince of Wales stands and salutes the crowd near the old City Hall on Knox Street in Port-of-Spain.
In the starchy and very classist colonial atmosphere of British Trinidad there were few social events more envied than to be invited to a ball at the Governor’s House.
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The Brighton of Trinidad
Sunday, August 11, 2013
TOP: Rock Island around 1910 showing the holiday home in its heyday. BOTTOM:Caledonia Island around 1905 showing the remains of the causeway that connected it to Craig Island and the house where Lord Harris spent his honeymoon.
As hard as it may be to believe, even the party-hardened islanders of Trinidad need to take a break from life in a tropical paradise. These days that means jetting off to our sister island, Tobago.
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Return of the First Nations
Sunday, August 18, 2013
A Warao homestead in 1900
In parts of Trinidad, there are places with the names Indian Trail or Indian Walk. These have nothing to do with Indo-Trinidadians but with the first peoples of the nation.
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Woodbrook’s early origins
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Woodbrook, circa 1925.
Woodbrook is best known today as being the liming capital of the island. There is little reminder of the old days save the sprawling mass of Lapeyrouse Cemetery and the names of the streets.
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Recounting the Corbeaux Town days
Sunday, September 1, 2013
The foreshore at Corbeaux Town in the late 1920s. Note the concrete box at the left which still stands near the Capital Plaza Hotel.
Until the Port-of-Spain harbour was reclaimed in the 1930s, the sea approach was very shallow, necessitating the landing of passengers and goods at a wooden jetty called St Vincent Wharf because it
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Charles McEnearney and Ford A 94-year partnership
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Local ford advert 1922
The first automobile in T&T rolled ashore in 1900—a Locomobile Runabout, which was basically a two-seat horseless carriage powered by a small steam engine. Following closely on the exciting new
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The North Post
Sunday, September 15, 2013
The North Post signal station circa 1890.
When the British armed forces under Admiral Ralph Abercromby seized Trinidad from Spain in 1797 it inherited a very weak defence and communications network.
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