The Slave Master of Trinidad: William Hardin Burnley and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World

Description

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. Front Cover Advance Praise Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Abbreviations Prologue Acknowledgments 1. Burnley’s Emergence 2. Burnley’s Schooling 3. Burnley’s Entrance to Trinidad 4. The Coming of Ralph Woodford 5. Opposition to Emancipation from Tacarigua 6. Toward Planter Control of the Colony 7. Life on the Plantation 8. Burnley’s Ascendancy 9. Declaration of Independence 10. Brighter Horizons 11. Monstrous Unnatural Results 12. Opinions on Slavery and Emancipation 13. The Politics of Compensation 14. The New Society 15. Preparing for Emancipation 16. Burnley’s Views on Apprenticeship 17. Apprenticeship: Making It Work for Him 18. The Virtues of Land Possession 19. An Artful Enemy 20. Changing Fortunes 21. Burnley’s Immigration Initiatives 22. The Road to Prosperity 23. Burnley’s Changing Racial Rhetoric 24. A Continuing Quest for Labor 25. Visiting Family in Virginia 26. Burnley and the Question of Free Labor Gallery of Images 27. The Evil of Squatting 28. Policing the Negroes 29. Waging War against Africans 30. Domestic Matters 31. Land Occupation 32. The New Order of Things 33. The Great Railway Debate 34. Toward Modernity 35. The Agony of Despair 36. Burnley’s Callousness 37. The Voice of the People 38. Burnley’s Declining Significance 39. Living Like a Lord 40. The Laborers’ Rebellion 41. Burnley Confronted 42. Revolutionary Ideas 43. A New Consciousness 44. The Island of Babel 45. Fading Glory 46. Cessation 47. RESURGAM Notes Index Author Bio Back Cover