The History Forum

COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT WELFARE POLICY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Stemming from the damning indictment that was the Moyne Commission (and other) reports, various recommendations were made by colonial authorities in order to improve the health and wellness of the poor and lower classes on the island. The following article documents some of those    health care initiatives. In 1945, on the heels of the release of the Moyne Commission Report, Mr. Henry Douglas Weatherhead introduced a memorandum titled “Medical Services of Barbados and Proposals for Reorganization.” [1] [2] In this he concluded that there was a dire need for new legislation governing health care on the island and further recommended that the islands’ entire health care sector be reorganized. That same year, the Colonial Welfare Department, guided by the recently passed Colonial Welfare Act , allocated £800,000 to the island; funds meant to facilitate this reorganization over the ten year period from 1946 to 1956. [...

The Economic Consequences of the Panama Migrations in the Caribbean By: Sharifa Giles, Tianna Scott and Shaquan Foster  In the early twentieth century, migration had become a significant part of Caribbean society as it provided opportunities to overcome the economic struggles faced during this time. After emancipation, Caribbean societies were ‘characterised by underemployment, poverty and unemployment and were subject to the labour demands of the plantation and the inconsistency of the sugar economy’ ( Chamberlain 2008) . Due to these push factors, many Caribbean people seized the opportunity to work on the Panama Canal when the Americans began to recruit people from the British West Indies in 1904. However, despite drawing away a large number of the population , the positive consequences on the Caribbean’s economy greatly outweighed the negative consequences which resulted after the migration to Panama . Many of these migrants to Panama were p...

By:  Aderinsola Odueyungbo and  Amiesha Persaud The topic we were required to do a group presentation on was that of indigenous peoples. This looked at indigenous cultures and how they have been preserved and maintained within Caribbean civilisation. In the presentation, five main areas were discussed in relation to indigenous cultures. These were religion, trade, agriculture, relations with Europeans and material culture. Who were indigenous people? They were the first people of the Caribbean -- the original settlers. These settlers migrated from the Orinoco and Yucatan regions in South America. Their arrival in the Caribbean dates back to 5000 B.C (Watson, 2016). They planted crops, they hunted, they craved drawings into stone. Did we think they laid the foundation for the development of the Caribbean civilization? Of course not! Initially we had quite a limited knowledge of in knew so little about these cultures; our knowledge did not go far beyond the tr...

By, Dr. Karl Watson Joseph Rachell was undoubtedly the earliest and wealthiest black businessman of Bridgetown, described by contemporaries as ‘a capital merchant.” This was a remarkable achievement given the context of the times in which it was achieved. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the system of slavery was at its peak and non-whites were at a considerable disadvantage in every way conceivable. Slaves were chattel or disposable property and free coloureds and blacks had very limited legal standing and in a court of law, could not bear witness against whites. The first mention of Joseph Rachell in the existing documents, records his baptism on 4th May, 1726 at St Michael’s Church in Bridgetown. He is described as “a free negro boy about ten years old.” The witnesses to his baptism were John Bellarmine, Charles Mingo and Sarah Peace. We know nothing about the latter two witnesses, but the first one, John Bellarmine was a free Negro, born 1699, the son of Thomas an...