The Plantation Slaves of Trinidad, 1783-1816

This study of the slave plantation of Trinidad is based on the Trinidadian slave registration of 1813, 1815, and 1816, when the Registrar of Slaves recorded information on 17,087 plantation slaves. The principal goal of the study is to draw plausible upper and lower bounds on the levels of plantation slave mortality and fertility in Trinidad in the early nineteenth century. The book examines in detail the collection of the slave registration data in 1813 and the ensuing controversy over slave smuggling. Further chapters describe Trinidad's population in 1813, including what little is known about the free population, the methods used in studying the mortality and fertility of the plantation slaves, the findings about plantation slave mortality and a discussion of these findings. The final chapter discusses the conclusions in a wider historical context.