Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-331) and index.
Contents:
Prologue : Burnley at Orange Grove -- Burnley's emergence -- Burnley's schooling -- Burnley's entrance to Trinidad -- The coming of Ralph Woodford -- Opposition to emancipation from Tacarigua -- Toward planter control of the colony -- Life on the plantation -- Burnley's ascendancy -- Declaration of Independence -- Brighter horizons -- Monstrous unnatural results -- Opinions on slavery and emancipation -- The politics of compensation -- The new society -- Preparing for emancipation -- Burnley's views on apprenticeship -- Apprenticeship : making it work for him -- The virtues of land possession -- An artful enemy -- Changing fortunes -- Burnley's immigration initiatives -- The road to prosperity -- Burnley's changing racial rhetoric -- A continuing quest for labor -- Visiting family in Virginia -- Burnley and the question of free labor -- The evil of squatting -- Policing the Negroes -- Waging war against Africans -- Domestic matters -- Land occupation -- The new order of things -- The great railway debate -- Toward modernity -- The agony of despair -- Burnley's callousness -- The voice of the people -- Burnley's declining significance -- Living like a lord -- The laborers' rebellion -- Burnley confronted -- Revolutionary ideas -- A new consciousness -- The island of Babel -- Fading glory -- Cessation -- RESURGAM.
Summary:
"William Hardin Burnley (1780-1850) was the largest slave owner in Trinidad during the nineteenth century. Born in the United States to English parents, he settled on the island in 1802 and became one of its most influential citizens and a prominent agent of the British Empire. A central figure among elite and moneyed transnational slave owners, Burnley moved easily through the Atlantic world of the Caribbean, the United States, Great Britain, and Europe, and counted among his friends Alexis de Tocqueville, British politician Joseph Hume, and prime minister William Gladstone. In this first full-length biography of Burnley, Selwyn R. Cudjoe chronicles the life of Trinidad's "founding father" and sketches the social and cultural milieu in which he lived. Reexamining the decades of transition from slavery to freedom through the lens of Burnley's life, The Slave Master of Trinidad demonstrates that the legacies of slavery persisted in the new post-emancipation society"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.