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.