MBC’s Andrea Potts spoke to historian Isaac Crichlow about histories of resistance and the West India Regiments. Isaac is a PhD researcher at University College London, funded through a studentship with the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS). His research focuses on the West India Regiments, units of formerly enslaved soldiers. He is interested in the transference of African culture to the Caribbean through transatlantic enslavement, and it’s use by the enslaved in new contexts as a tool for resistance and survival.
Andrea: What do you research?
Isaac: My research is about histories of resistance to enslavement, broadly, but specifically, I’m looking at the West Indian regiments, which were British line infantry regiments recruited by conscripting enslaved African men directly through the slave trade. And I’m looking at why they were recruited and how they were deployed, how they were then treated by the British Army, and then finally, how they reacted to that treatment through a series of acts of resistance to their conscription and military service and discrimination by their officers.
A: What kinds of sources are you using?
I: So, I’m trying my best to get a broad range of sources, because I think having a good variety of primary sources is how you get, a really nice, rich history. But the foundation of my research is really the War Office records and the Colonial Office records, both of which are stored at the National Archives at Kew. And the Colonial Office records are basically a series of letters sent to and from the different colonies where the soldiers were stationed, and the War Office records have military records which are useful when we’re thinking about histories of enslavement. Very often there’s little to nothing recorded about the enslaved themselves. So, these enslaved soldiers are some of the best recorded enslaved people within the British Caribbean at this time.
A: How is resistance referred to these sources and what work do you have to do to make sense of what was happening?
I: Well, first there are two different kinds of resistance referred to. Because these soldiers, I argue, were really recruited to repress acts of resistance by the enslaved. And then resistance by these soldiers is recorded differently, as military crimes, most commonly desertion and mutiny. Statistically, these West Indian regiment soldiers, these soldiers of African descent, were far more likely to engage in acts of armed resistance and mutiny against their officers than their European equivalents, and they were also, interestingly, less likely to desert. And I’ve interpreted that as owing to the difficulties for an African soldier deserting the military within a slave society. There wasn’t anywhere for them to go. They were more limited in their options, whereas a European soldier could perhaps go to a port town and just get on a ship back to England, that wasn’t an option for these soldiers. And they could risk becoming enslaved or kidnapped. And while their resistance normally shows up as mutinies, I found that soldiers actually wrote a petition to the governor of the Bahamas where they were stationed, complaining about how badly they were being treated.
A: So, how was that petition received?
I: Badly! To write the petition, they would have had to go into town discreetly and post it anonymously. They didn’t leave their names. They just said the number of soldiers that were dissatisfied. And their commanding officer basically said in response that it wasn’t a real petition. That someone was pretending to be these soldiers, just to upset us. He didn’t listen at all.
A: That’s interesting that the British didn’t even believe that they’d written the petition. Because they couldn’t have possibly written the letter, or have had the nerve to resist?
I: I think the commanding officer knew very well that it probably did come from the men. Even if they didn’t write it themselves, it did represent their genuine feelings. But he downplayed it to try and diminish what they were saying, so that the civilian authorities wouldn’t get involved and interfere with the way that he wanted to control his troops. They were given some basic education in literacy by the Army. It’s difficult to know how effective that was because none of their writings have survived. But, you know, not all of them were bought directly through the slave trade. Some of them were Creole enslaved men born in the Americas and it’s very possible that someone could have gained some skills and literacy before joining the Army. Or they might have relied on an ally living in the town who wrote the letter for them. But even if they didn’t write it themselves, it seems to be a genuine representation of their feelings. And the way it’s written as well is interesting. The English isn’t very good. It’s written phonetically.
A: So, what kind of things were in the petition?
I: In this particular example, because there were others, they complained that they were being mistreated by their officers. They said that the commanding officer was giving the officers subordinate to him too much power to mistreat the soldiers of the regiment. The rank and file of the regiment were Africans, and all the commanding officers were Europeans, and the Europeans who were recruited were essentially the dregs of the officers trained in Britain. It wasn’t a popular posting, partly because of the tropical diseases. And clearly these officers did not think very highly of their men, as they mistreated them.
A: This feels like a distinct space in which enslavement takes on a particular form in this military context. Does this context provide these men with a way to complain?
I: These men are in a liminal position in these societies. In many ways, they have things better off than those on plantations, which were obviously brutal. And there are these channels that are meant to be open to them to address grievances. And in theory they have rights as soldiers. They are meant to receive pay, proper clothing and shelter. But what consistently comes through from the sources is that they are treated worse than European soldiers. They’ll always get the oldest uniforms, the shabbiest accommodations. Often, they’re not paid regularly enough. One of the causes for the petition was the fact that the commanding officers decided to make the men buy new shirts, overcharged them, and made them pay for them in advance from their wages, which basically means the men had no wages for collect for two to three months. And while they were following a tradition of petitioning, they did not actually have the right to petition. Technically, it is viewed as an act of insubordination. Soldiers are not meant to even gather or to leave the barracks. And eventually, they were charged with absence from parade and were punished. It’s interesting that this is what they ended up being charged with.
“These men are in a liminal position in these societies.”
It’s also worth noting that soldiers would make informal complaints to their officers too. And whenever that happened, they would be detained, and they would be tried in what is called a drum head court martial. So, this is kind of summary justice that doesn’t need the proper protocol. The officer would just have them whipped, basically. And this isn’t properly recorded.
A: And what other sources do you use?
I: You can find some fascinating anecdotes and case studies in newspapers that you wouldn’t get in official British sources. They’re good for giving a kind of outside perspective of the soldiers. Generally, Creole Europeans living in the Caribbean do not like the idea of any type of armed men of African descent, for whatever reason. They’re very suspicious of that, very cautious of that. So, these newspapers generally represent them quite badly. There’s one example where there’s a gun fight in a garrison in Barbados that is reported on by a newspaper, and they essentially recognise that it was the European soldiers who started this fight, but they still try to blame the West India Regiment soldiers.
A: What’s been the biggest challenge for you to overcome in reconstructing these histories?
I: Definitely the fact that these sources don’t have anything from their perspective. So, I was trying to get at how they were thinking, how they were feeling. And that’s what drew me to this project. You know, I’m a historian of resistance, and that’s really how I got into this. I was looking at various acts of resistance, and I began to realise that, almost always, if we’re talking about resistance to slavery in the British Caribbean, there’s some kind of armed African fighting on the side of the colonisers. And I wanted to try and understand that. And it is hard to get the perspective of the men. You get these little glimpses, like the petition. But other than that, I have to try and look at their actions as they’re recorded by European observers and try to extrapolate from that what those actions might mean for how they think and feel about their relationship to the British Army, to slave society and to the enslaved themselves.
“I’m a historian of resistance, and that’s really how I got into this. I was looking at various acts of resistance, and I began to realise that, almost always, if we’re talking about resistance to slavery in the British Caribbean, there’s some kind of armed African fighting on the side of the colonisers. And I wanted to try and understand that.”
It’s important to remember that not all of these men would have actively resisted the British. Indeed, some would have been actually quite pleased with their position. They might have been quite happy to have this slightly elevated station over the rest of the populations that they police. They’re happy with their treatment by the Army overall. Maybe they have been promoted to sergeants, so they get slightly better treatment and more benefits. The sergeants were allowed to take wives and would have got slightly better pay. For others, it would have been a practical decision, I think, in terms of, they would have looked at the life on the enslavement plantations, and they would have thought you know what, even though I didn’t necessarily choose to do this, this is probably where I have the best chance to survive. I’m not trying to argue by any means that all of these men are necessarily seeing themselves as oppressed by the British Army, but it is clear to me that they are not treated as well as their European equivalents and that rests upon racial discrimination. And an important element behind how these men were treated is the fear of a mutiny spreading. If these guys mutiny successfully in Jamaica, in Barbados, in Trinidad, then there’s an armed, well-trained group of African men. And that that has revolutionary connotations in a slave society.
A: Did you get a sense in the sources of that anxiety?
I: Yes, definitely. What they’re really worried about is either that the West Indian regiment soldiers will refuse to put down acts of resistance by the enslaved or that they will literally take up arms with the enslaved against Europeans. So, they rotate them around different islands. And the idea is to stop them from forming social connections with the enslaved societies. And we see this particularly after these acts of resistance. After that petition in the Bahamas, within two or three months the regiment is moved somewhere else because they want to separate them any kind of allies they might have made. And they want to stop the men from establishing familial connections: anyone in slave society that they care about, who might turn them from the side of the coloniser to the side of the colonised. They also deploy them in the most isolated fortifications, the most isolated barracks, far removed from town and from plantations to keep them isolated and separate.
A: Why should people engage with this history today?
I: I find these stories fascinating. I find it interesting to hear stories about British slave society that are not just about powerlessness, suffering and endurance, but stories in which people of African descent have a leading role, even if, in this case, they’re not always doing the right thing or things that I would agree with. I think there’s something to be said for the fact that these guys are clearly important to this society. In my opinion, they kind of underpin it. And there’s a pattern that starts around this time of soldiers of African descent serving the British Empire. And consistently, over time and space, these people are recruited by the British because they needed them, and then they are mistreated by them. They’re forced to do the most menial, laborious tasks. And I would hope that anyone of African descent that is considering joining the British Army would find this type of history interesting, and it would inform that decision. I saw a headline recently about racism within the British Army today.
“I find it interesting to hear stories about British slave society that are not just about powerlessness, suffering and endurance, but stories in which people of African descent have a leading role, even if, in this case, they’re not always doing the right thing or things that I would agree with. I think there’s something to be said for the fact that these guys are clearly important to this society. In my opinion, they kind of underpin it.”
A: What’s next?
I: I would like to become a historian. And then, in addition, I’d really like to do something involving school children. I’d like to get into schools and share some Caribbean history with school students. Because I think it’s not something that is dealt with and it’s important. I think it can be an empowering history, if not a difficult one. You know, it can be empowering if it’s done correctly and shown in the right light. That’s my ambition.