FOUN 1101 Caribbean Civilisation Migration Stories: Auntie Rubina

By, Akeem Breedy-Kellman, FOUN 1101 Caribbean Civilisation student

Rubina Scantlebury, is my Barbadian aunt; the “fourth” daughter of my grandmother. Auntie Rubina was born in 1952. At the tender age of six years, her parents departed Barbados, to seek job opportunities in England. For another five years, she attended to her younger siblings in Barbados, with other close relatives. At the age of 11 years, her parents, Elma Bayley and Lambert Bayley sent a letter, telling her to come to England with her siblings.

At such an age, my aunt was ecstatic about going to England, yet, her only expectation was to meet her parents. All she could do is place the nursery stories such as “Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son” and the many pictures against the imaginary setting of England. The teachers at the St. Stephen’s School where she attended taught her the traditions of England, but had never been there. Auntie Rubina and her younger sisters were assisted by a flight attendant, from one airport into the other. As soon as auntie landed upon English soil, she confronted the very cold weather, so much so that coats and warm clothes were bought the day after their arrival. England was a dark environment with a lot of fog, and mostly white faces populated this foreign place with its landscape that was far larger and colder than Barbados. Auntie Rubina was blown away, and she was totally unprepared for such a journey. My aunt had to adjust to the language and the population had an accent which was difficult to follow. The food was also different. Nothing done differently in Barbados, would prepare her for this migration, even the nursery stories seemed to be true fallacies. Her worst experience occurred when she applied for jobs at the age of 17. She had to confront much racism. Although the “Mother Country” was seen as a place of opportunity, the population did not accept or want Caribbean people, especially black people, within the land. She had to work twice as hard as her white counterparts. Nevertheless, such a migratory experience broadened her perspectives of the world, and equipped her to have a good life; having retired from a successful job and acquired a good education. Such an experience enabled her to work with those of various cultures and ethnicities. She was and is also able to provide for her family, financially and emotionally in Barbados and England. She considers herself as a contributor to the multicultural society in England, which England has also benefited from. Unfortunately, upon returning to Barbados after forty years, she had to reintegrate herself into the Barbadian society and she believed her Barbadian identity was lost because of the migration. I would not migrate because I love the land in which I was born and I want to contribute to my home.

The experience of my aunt, reflects the migratory experience of many tender children  in the mid 20^th century, but she was able to overcome the challenges, and reap rewards benefiting herself, family and England.

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison -- Codd's House Site

Codd’s House Site

By, Dr. Tara Inniss, Department of History and Philosophy, Cave Hill Campus, UWI

The parking area immediately behind the Nidhe Israel synagogue and opposite Police Headquarters is the location of a once prominent building in Bridgetown and the now vacant space tells the story of heritage lost in the city.

Known as the site of Codd’s House, owned by William Codd, was leased to the Legislature and the Courts as the site for the New Town Hall. Parliament met there between 1837 and 1848. The termination of the Apprenticeship System in May, 1838 was signed in this location, finally freeing the apprenticed population, which was formerly enslaved – granting full emancipation. In 1840, Bridgetown became the 12^th constituency by statute, which was brought into effect at Codd’s House, paving the way for the election of the first non-white Barbadian to the House of Assembly for the City of Bridgetown, Rt. Hon. Samuel Jackman Prescod. Codd’s House was eventually pressed into service as the site for the first library, and later the Barbados Water Authority.

Unfortunately, in 1985, Government demolished Codd’s House to make way for the planned new law courts. The plan was abandoned and the Law Courts are now located just beyond Coleridge Street on Whitepark Road on the site of the old Barbados Foundry.[1] Now a car park, the site is now slated to become part of a redevelopment project for the quadrant with a memorial to the site of the building from which the island's enslaved, then apprenticed population, were finally made free. 

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[1] Carrington et al., A-Z of Barbados Heritage: 46.

Joseph Rachell (1716-66) and the Slave and Free Coloured Cemetery at Fontabelle on the Outskirts of Historic Bridgetown

By, Dr. Tara Inniss, Department of History and Philosophy, Cave Hill Campus, UWI

Joseph Rachell (1716-66) has been regarded as the first black businessman in Barbados -- although it can be argued that many enslaved and free black men and women had to be enterprising in slave society in order to secure their own survival -- but Joseph Rachell certainly stands out as an enigma of his time.

He was baptized at St. Michael’s at the age of 10 years and was described as a “free nego boy.” He began trading around 1740. He owned a small fleet of fishing boats and several properties in Bridgetown. He was a member of St. Michael’s Church, but was buried in the Old Churchyard which is now St. Mary’s.

Joseph Rachell was also a generous supporter of the black community in 18^th century Bridgetown. He purchased a plot of land in Fontabelle (now the location of the Barbados Investment Development Corporation Small Business Centre) where the urban enslaved and free coloured populations could bury their dead. One of our best insights into enslaved burial rites comes from an observer, Robert Poole, who witnessed the burial of a child there in the mid-18^th century.[1]

A Slave Burial at Fontabelle c. 1748

In 1748, a visiting physician wrote about a funeral for an infant on a Saturday evening (after the work day was over and Sunday was a day off). He described his encounter with a procession of several “Negroes” accompanying a small coffin to Fontabelle where the infant was to be buried. He reported that there was music and singing in the procession with participants jiggling shells and stones as well as beating stones together.  The lively crowd grew: “many running to them from other Parts [of the city], and join’d in their Mirth.”*

In the slave community, the conferral of funeral rites for a departed member did not require participants to be related or know the deceased personally. He commented that the enthusiastic participants had a duty to send the child off to “its own Country [Africa}” where freedom awaited departed Africans and their enslaved descendants. The procession was not mournful in this respect. Death or release from this world was often seen as a joyous event. Similar descriptions of African slave funerals persisted into the early 19^th century and after emancipation funerals were large community-based events.

*Poole, Robert. The Beneficient Bee; or the Traveller’s Companion. 1753, p. 295

Rescue archaeology was carried out in the early 2000s by a team of archaeologists from UWI and the Barbados Museum and Historical Society before the site suffered the ravages of modern development. There is now a small plaque memorialising the lives of Bridgetown's enslaved and free coloured communities. 

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[1] Sean Carrington et al., A-Z of Barbados Heritage  (Oxford: Macmillan, 2003). 175.

Sylvan Spooner on Early Stalwarts in Nursing Care in Barbados

EARLY STALWARTS IN NURSING CARE IN BARBADOS

By, Sylvan Spooner

NURSE THELMA HAMBLIN

Born in 1915, Thelma Hamblin was educated at the St. Michael Girls School. After completing her exams, she joined the staff at the Barbados General Hospital on April 1st 1936. Hers was no foolhardy decision, although a few days later she was ‘shocked’ and her resolved tested when she caught glimpse of a cadaver for the first time in that hospital’s mortuary.[1] Shocked, but unperturbed, she continued on her path of care and service. Thelma had found her calling in caring.

Nurse Hamblin

In 1963, well into her career, she travelled to London’s Royal College for a ward sister’s course and visited numerous hospitals. While in London, she visited the 750-bed Aldershey Children’s Hospital at Liverpool and gained important insights into child care. Subsequent to her return home, she sought to implement many of those best practices she observed while in England.

Having spent the first 13 years of her career in adult nursing, in 1949 she was assigned to the pediatric ward of the General Hospital.[2] Altruistic to a fault, one of her fondest memories was an incident in 1961 when she successfully nursed a child, stricken with meningitis, back to health. By 1966 she was resident Sister at ward C7 providing care for 30 pediatric patients. Hers was a long career and the Gazette of 1969 listed her as still on the register of nurses and midwives.[3]

AURORA WALTERS

Another early beacon was Miss Aurora Editha Walters. She was the first Public Health Nurse at the Speightstown Health Center upon its opening in 1953. To prepare for this appointment she underwent training at the Public Health Training Center in Jamaica and then a 4 month stint in Trinidad as part of a BCG training campaign at the Caribbean Medical Center. Constraints on space do not permit an elaboration on the work performed by Miss Walters but by 1953/4 she had risen to the post of Senior Public Health Officer with responsibility for the parishes of St. Lucy, St. Peter, St. James, St. Andrew, St. Thomas and St. Joseph.

By 1966 she was supervisor of public health nurses and travelling extensively throughout the Caribbean as one of Barbados’ representatives for nursing.[4] Even though by then in the twilight of her career, she continued to express the need to promote public health awareness. In 1966, she was awarded the British Empire Medal for meritorious service[5] and later, in 1984, the Silver Crown of Merit.

GRACE BAYLEY

Miss Grace Adina Bayley was yet another care giver who made great contributions to the local and Caribbean nursing fraternity. Born on Trinidad on June 19^th 1915, she entered the profession at an early age and by 1940 she was serving as a Staff Nurse at the Port of Spain VD Clinic; a position she held from 1940 to 1944.[6] Excelling in that position, she was promoted to Sister in charge of the island’s southern division responsible for venereal disease and she held this position from late 1944 until 1949.

Nurse Bayley. Painting by Karl Broodhagen (1967)

In 1955, Miss Bayley was promoted to the post of Assistant Matron at the St. Ann’s Mental Hospital and continued in the position until 1959 when she was offered and accepted the post of Matron of the Mental Hospital at Black Rock in Barbados.[7] At the Mental Hospital she was considered to be the ultimate professional with a focus on quality and she immersed herself completely in her new role. Such was the respect with she commanded that according to one nurse 'whenever she passed through everyone used to be at attention because she had that kind of control’.

Ms.Hamblin, Ms.Walters and Ms. Bayley are but three nurses out of many who gave yeoman service to the health services to 1975. The work of many others has gone undocumented but importantly not unappreciated.

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[1]Cyralene Fields. ‘An Unsung Heroine in the Wards, Barbados Advocate, Jan 2nt 1966, p3.

[2] Ibid, 3.

[3] Official Gazette, Bridgetown  23^th January  1969, p83,

[4] “New back with new ideas” Barbados Advocate, Oct 4^th 1964 p29.

[5] Barbados Registered Nurses Association 50^th Anniversary Special, p36.
[6] Henry A. Guy.  Women in the Caribbean: A Record of Career Women in the Caribbean: Their Background, Services, and Achievements. p 140.
[7] Carlton N. Comma. Who’s who in Trinidad and Tobago. Port of Spain 1966, p51.

Sylvan Spooner on Select Mental Health Treatments in Barbados to 1970

SELECT MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENTS IN BARBADOS TO 1970

By Sylvan Spooner

In the light of the plethora of modern treatment modalities available for the care of the mentally ill or persons seeking psychiatric care, it is nonetheless necessary to highlight some of treatments that were utilized locally before the advent of modern antipsychotics.

 

Example of a 1950s era ECT machine

One early and controversial treatment for the mentally ill was the Prefrontal Leucotomy. Performed on disruptive and aggressive patients, it involved the severing of nerves associated with the frontal lobe of the brain. Unfortunately, in the few local cases in which it was performed, this treatment often made patients regress to a child like docility from which they never recovered.[1] Its risks outweighed its benefits and its practice was brief.

Other interventions were less invasive and one such treatment (if it could be so termed) was known as work therapy. Through this, patients were tasked with manual labor designed to temper psychoses or other unwanted energies, which were believed to fuel impure thoughts and actions. A few trusted patients, under the watchful eyes of attendants, would perform assigned tasks on the hospital farm, its gardens or grounds during the period before ancillary staff was employed for the upkeep of the facility at Black Rock. Its therapeutic qualities remained questionable.

These therapies would give way to other treatment modalities, which were feared to the degree that those fears remain fixed within mental health folklore.

One such therapy was Anticonvulsive therapy (ECT). By 1970, in the absence of a well-established system of oral and Intramuscular treatment options, ECT, in a dangerously unmodified form (without muscle relaxant or anesthetic) had become an accepted ‘treatment of choice’ for patients suffering from chronic depressive and other illnesses where traditional treatments had failed. It was at the time considered to be a necessary evil for those upon whom the cloak of mental illness had befallen.

It was a violent affair. At times patients under its influence would soil themselves or risk dislocating joints and fractures because of the ‘violent’ nature of the process.  One individual who witnessed once such procedure explained it in the following terms:

It is like inducing a seizure in a patient when you use the ECT…you had two pads very much like headphones and you wet them and attach them to the patient’s temple. To do the ECT the doctor needed at least four, sometimes six patients on hand to hold the patient and you had to support all the joints. When the current is switch on the whole body would contract and then they had a thing called the *St. Vitus dance where the whole body would keep shaking for anything like one to three minutes.[2]

Such was its violence, such was the fear associated with ECT that one patient proclaimed that he “wouldn’t recommend it to a dog.”[3]

Mental health care continues to have its challenges well into the 21^st century but an examination of the past and the treatments used in the care of the mentally ill can indeed provide critical insights into why the stigma and fear continues to exist.

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[1] Personal Interview with Nurse Austin T (Retired)

[2] Personal interview with Observer A.

[3] Lawrence Fisher. Colonial Madness. Mental Health in the Barbadian Social Order. (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1985) 190-191.

The History Forum: 3rd From the Margins to the Main Graduate Symposium

BMHS-UWI 2015 Lecture Series: Infant & Maternal Health and Welfare in the 20th Century

Reflection: Angela Trotman on A People Without History: Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama

A Graduate of Cultural Studies, Angela Trotman, shares some reflections on last week's Humanities Festival 2015 panel discussion on Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama and the need to honour this connection with explorations in the Humanities:

To make an allegorical argument: As academics, we have taken lunches to Panama on several occasions, just like Biblical David. David, however, realized that lunch was not enough.  He recognized that while it was sustaining and strengthening and nourishing it was not enough.  He decided to bring his gutterperk and rockstone.  In making that decision he turned the tide, Goliath fell!

While the words historians use to explore this connection are vital and necessary, we should not leave our weapons behind: artists will make the difference; the singer will sing, the dramatist will perform, the poet will break the heart, the dancers will reenact and bring back memories of a connection in which so many migrants toiled and their contributions left forgotten.  Artists can make the words take wings and fly off the page and place them in the hearts of the people – here, in the descendants of Panama migrants, and in the leadership.  While the words are vital and necessary and engages the intellect, the artists will engage the heart, then we will have the whole man on board.  Goliath will fall and Phoenix will rise!!

 

I agree with the panelists that it will be ‘a long day’ before Panama truly embraces the contributions of West Indian migrants, and public awareness efforts should be repetitive.  That is why if we seek to make this a project we should engage the whole of Barbados, as there are the participants who perform at NIFCA every year with great usable talents; there are the people with money who might want to assist;  there are the people who speak Spanish; those who can make costumes, props, and also engage our communities; and there are also the international agencies we can reach out to. But hopefully we would have long term engagement, perhaps with student exchanges and social media connections. Outreach to secondary school students might convince them that learning Spanish can help to reconnect with the descendants of Barbadian migrants to Panama.  Filmmaker, Alison Saunders, who screened her trailer "Panama Fever" remarked that Barbadians must work to "heal ourselves" as we must also recognize the significance of the connection in Barbados. I think there was a saying somewhere which goes somewhat like this: “Give a man a noble cause and he will fight for what he believes in.”  This concept might help us to heal also, as in helping our overseas Bajan family we might learn a few things that just might help us on our own journey.

BMHS-UWI 2015 Lecture Series: Isolation Road -- Public Health and Sanitation -- 1854 and Beyond

BMHS UWI 2015 Lecture Series: Pedro Welch on "Overlooking the Mosquito: Medical Practice in the Barbados Theatre of the Barbados Military Forces"

History Forum Panel Discussion: A People without History -- Memory and Barbadian Migrants in Panama

2015 BMHS-UWI Lecture Series: Plantation Medicine in Barbados

Manjack Mining in Barbados

MANJAK MINING IN BARBADOS

By, Sylvan Spooner

In light of the current global dependence on fossil fuel, this article looks briefly at one segment of this island’s history of fossil fuel exploration as it examines, in brief, the history of manjak exploration on the island from 1894 to 1939. Profiled in 1657 by Richard Ligon as ‘hard and black as pitch’[1] and by Sir Hans Slone in 1707 as ‘a sort of pit coal,[2] this naturally occurring hydrocarbon has been referred to by numerous names, including: Munjak, Mountjack, Barbados Tar or simply as Barbados manjak. Found deep within slopes along the Scotland District which comprises an estimated 14% of the island’s land mass, some manjak mines reached depths of between 30 to a referenced maximum of 150 ft. Mining at such depths was often a treacherous affair even though the records indicate that they were no major mining incidents on the island.

Barbados Manjack

Two of the island’s early mine operators were Mr. R.H Emtage and Mr. Walter Merivale and these two for decades retained ownership of the most productive mines. After mining operations commenced in 1894/5, manjak’s use as a source of fuel was not instantly apparent; indeed, the practice of inserting huge blocks of manjak directly into plantation furnaces was largely unsuccessful since in that form its fuel potential was not maximized.

It took the intervention of a Boston businessman by the name of Mr. T.J Pinny to convince Marivale that manjak, if processed correctly, could act as a viable source of fuel. Pinny himself had become interested in manjak only after having received samples in 1893 which were sent to him in New York by a Mr. C. J Greenidge from Barbados.[3] It is highly likely that this was the same C.J Greenidge who a year later in 1894 would build the Mutual building and soon after that the St. Michael Alms House.[4]

Manjak became, for a time, a local export product and was first exported to the United States of America in 1895.[5] So important was Marivale’s dominance of the industry that it was shipped to North America under the name Marivale Manjak. By the turn of the century, other players had entered the manjak business; one of these was Barbados Manjak Mines ltd which employed between 70-100 men and women in various capacities.[6] Other than Emptage and Marivale, by 1908 Mr. T. W Whitchal also owned two mines at Irish Town.[7] Exports continued chiefly to the United States and between 1898 and 1908 over 9,000 tons were shipped to the US for use not as fuel, but as building and roofing material. The decline of manjak from around 1915 was a slow lingering process and by 1917 only one mine, under the ownership of Emptage at Springvale was in operation on the island. This mine produced 76 tons of manjak that year valued a mere £1,292.[8]  The Barbados Blue Books indicate that manjak exploration continued until the outbreak of WWII with production decreasing annually to that point. However, by 1940, with the world at war, manjak exploration came to an end.

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[1] Richard Ligon. A true and Exact History of the island of Barbadoes. p 101

[2] Hans Slone. A Voyage to the land  of Barbados, Barbados, Nieves and Jamaica. p33.

[3] R.H Emptage. The Barbados Handbook. p195.

[4] Warren Alleyne. Historic Bridgetown. p53.

[5] RH Emptage. “Manjak” Journal Of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, 1943. p59

[6] Sessional Papers, Vol. 64. House of Commons Report on Barbados 1902-1903, p15.

[7] Barbados Blue Book, 1908. J137b2. Manufactures, Mines Oil wells and Fisheries. Zip.2.

[8] Barbados Blue Book, 1917.

Thelma Vaughan: Stepping in Front

Thelma Vaughan: Stepping in Front

By Sylvan Spooner

Although the wife of Barbados Attorney General, Editor of the Barbados Reporter and Minister without portfolio Hilton Vaughn, Thelma Vaughn distinguished herself and carved a niche for herself beyond the shadow of her politically illustrious husband. After leaving school, Vaughan commenced her teaching career at St. Paul’s Girl’s school. She soon resigned from the profession and shortly after joined the Barbados Welfare Limited. In 1944, she went to Jamaica where she became involved in the second social welfare course organized by Professor T.S. Simey who at that time was Social Welfare Officer of the Colonial Development and Welfare Organization.[1]

Upon her return to the island, Vaughan worked mainly in the parish of St. Andrew but gave her time freely to similar welfare committees in other parishes throughout the island with special emphasis for day care services for children. In 1946, just two years after leaving the teaching profession she was awarded a Scholarship to the London School of Economics (LSE) where she obtained the Diploma in Social Science. She returned to the island in 1948 and one year later was appointed to the post of District Officer when the social welfare department was created.

Hers was a rapid rise given the relative lack of mobility for women during the period. After acting in the post of District Officer for a mere nine month she was promoted to Senior District Welfare Officer following the departure of Ms Betty Arne in 1950. After a decade, her appointment was finally confirmed effective September 25^th 1960. After a storied and successful career in education and later, the social services, Vaughn died on March 10^th 1966. The Thelma Vaughan Memorial Home, established in 1971[2] with Violet Baird as its first Matron[3]  which is situated at the Glebe in St. George is named in her honor. Today the home caters to children and adults with both physical and development challenges ranging from age 3- 18. In addition to being the wife of Hilton Vaughan she was also the sister of the late Daphne Joseph Hackett. The Thelma Vaughan Memorial is a lasting testament to the legacy of Thelma Vaughan.

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[1]  T.S. Simey.  Welfare and Planning in the West Indies p314.

[2] Challenge to Change. January- April 2007 p, 11.

[3] http://www.cbc.bb/obits/index.php/item/87-baird-violet-helena