Slave Family Patterns in the Caribbean

Professor Barry Higman specialises in the social and economic history of Australia, the Americas and more specifically, the Caribbean. In his article, African and Creole Slave Family Patterns in Trinidad, Higman seeks to educate readers about the structures of family life that existed within the plantations during slavery and the period right before indentureship started, on the island of Trinidad. He was able to analyze data and make conclusions based on information produced in the census that would have existed at the time, as well as the historical records of slaves names an families. It did not have much written documents at the time, but through oral history as well, claims could be made. Those familiar with Caribbean history, particularly plantation life during colonialism, would be well aware of the treatment of slaves given the fact that they were seen as property, hence the term “chattel slavery.” Therefore, it is problematic when comparing a modern day family to that of an ex-slave because of the conditions that slaves lived under, but it must not go unnoticed that family structures on the plantation did influence the existing family patterns that exist within Caribbean societies including Trinidad. New patterns of families have also emerged due to the changing roles of women, secularization, industrialization, among other reasons. For the purpose of this analytical piece, the family patterns during slavery that have been identified, such as nuclear, extended and mother-child families would be discussed, as well as the continuity of these patterns and the ways in which they have been modified, along with family types that have emerged in Trinidadian post colonial era.

When George Peter Murdock defined the family, his definition referred to the nuclear family as the universal family type.1 It was characterized based on European society and did not account for the rest of the world. When researching family types of the Caribbean, a new definition should...