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The museum I choose to attend was the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad, and Tobago, located in Port-of-Spain. The museum itself is a remnant of Trinidad’s colonial past. It was formerly built in commemoration of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, as the Royal Victoria Institute (RVI) in 1892, as part of a British colonial policy to build cultural institutes throughout the Commonwealth. However, just after under one hundred years, a fire destroyed most of the building, and it was later rebuilt to its current state, and then renamed in 1945. The museum holds five collections in totality but three permanent ones, this is, their art, and history galleries, and the Children’s Heritage Workshop.

The Settlement gallery possesses numerous artifacts representative of this colonial past. This gallery seeks to define the Caribbean through its historical, political, and geographical attributes. In that, it depicts a collection of deeply shared historical roots between those of the past and present civilizations. It contains artifacts, articles, and pictures of Caribbean ancestry from the Amerindians, Spanish, French, British, Africans, East Indians, Chinese, and Portuguese. Through revisionism, which is where historians offer a new version of history based on detailed evidence, we can use these artifacts, and articles to give us insight into versions of our history that was not previously unearthed or told. These articles and artifacts are important for the awareness, and an unbiased understanding of the ethnocentric perspectives, which is the evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture, previously promulgated by those of our colonial past.

The following is a short video covering a summary of the history of the National Museum of Trinidad and Tobago.

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If you want to know about a country's national identity one place to visit is a museum.

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One half of a picture depicting the trade routes used to transport enslaved persons

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One half of a picture depicting the trade routes used to transport enslaved persons

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Second half of a picture depicting the trade routes used to transport enslaved persons. 

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Second half of a picture depicting the trade routes used to transport enslaved persons. 

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A country may belong to the Caribbean region, being defined by many different terms. One such term is geography. When defining the Caribbean region and its territories by geography, we can describe them as, “lands washed by the Caribbean Sea.” In this case, Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Guyana, and Mexico, would all be considered as part of the Caribbean due to the Caribbean Sea touching their shores. However, if defined by different terms, not all the previously mentioned countries would be defined as part of the Caribbean.

Each country is simultaneously segregated, and unified by varying perspectives of the definition of the Caribbean. For example, a shared colonial past unifies these countries, and they all would be considered ‘Caribbean’ if defined historically, while these same countries are separated by their cultural diversity, and therefore would not be considered as part of the Caribbean if solely defined culturally. Additionally, if we define the Caribbean solely using a political definition, it is difficult to include all Puerto Rico, St. Martin, Guyana, and Mexico due to Puerto Rico being an associated state, this is, not being an independent country such as Guyana, but enjoying all the rights and privileges of the country that governs it.

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The non-sugar industry within the Caribbean lasted from 1492 to 1654. During this time, crops such as tobacco, indigo, ginger, cocoa, and cotton were being harvested and produced. In the sixteenth century, the non-sugar industry was weakening as sugar began to replace honey for multiple recipes and popular food products. This landed this industry in a precarious position as without a demand for their cultivated products, they would lose money quickly and the economy would be in shambles due to their inability to support their businesses.

The first commercial production of sugar occurred in 1550 by the Portuguese through sharecropping, which is where the owner leased his land to a number of small planters, and in return they give him a percentage of their crops harvested. The sugar industry greatly expanded rapidly, and by 1612, an influx of enslaved persons was being brought to Brazil to work on the sugar fields, therefore, production was booming. The weakening of the non-sugar industry in the creation of the Caribbean economy in the early seventeenth century deeply impacted the economy as it allowed for other options to be explored, such as finding sugar to replace the weakening demand for crops such as tobacco and cotton, while perpetuating the affairs of slavery, by bringing more enslaved persons to the Caribbean to work on the fields.

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The apprenticeship period was due to the Emancipation Act of August of 1833 This act stated, that those under six years of age would be freed of enslavement, while those over the age of six were to continue working on the fields. They were to work forty-five hours a week, for free, and only were paid for overtime, which is a process which ensured that the plantation owners made the most profit they could gain from apprenticeship. The statement, “neither freedom nor enslavement,” is accurate in describing the apprenticeship period, as enslaved persons and their families were to be freed after a period of time, however plantation owners made it difficult for enslaved persons to claim their freedom through various ways which would ultimately force them to stay on the plantations.

Plantation owners mainly influenced the passage of laws to control these ex-slaves. An example of the laws they created were that it was illegal for apprentices to leave the plantation during their free time without written permission from their owners. Hence, they still held the majority of control over the workers on their plantations. The punishments endured under slavery were also still being used during the apprenticeship period, such as the flogging of women, which only ended in 1837. The owners also sought to charge high prices for food, and shelter so that enslaved persons would have to work overtime in order to afford their living spaces, therefore increasing production.

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Picture showing the sleeping positions of enslaved persons on board the ships during travelling. The conditions met did not allow for much movement as the amount of persons greatly exceeded the capacity of the ships so they were forced to crouch or lie down. 

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Picture showing the sleeping positions of enslaved persons on board the ships during travelling. The conditions met did not allow for much movement as the amount of persons greatly exceeded the capacity of the ships so they were forced to crouch or lie down. 

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Picture showing an advertisement for a petition to end slavery

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Picture showing an advertisement for a petition to end slavery

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"Tobacco Production" by Sidney King, showing enslaved persons harvesting tobacco on a plantation. 

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"Tobacco Production" by Sidney King, showing enslaved persons harvesting tobacco on a plantation. 

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Picture showing the early colonial agriculture and crops. 

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Picture showing the early colonial agriculture and crops. 