Eric Williams
Eric Eustace Williams was born on the 25th of September in 1911. His father Thomas Henry Williams worked as a minor civil servant and held devout Roman Catholic beliefs. His mother Eliza Frances Boissiere descended from the mixed French Creole Mulatto elite with African and French ancestry. She traced her lineage to the notable de Boissière family in Trinidad. Her paternal grandfather John Boissiere was an upper-middle class Frenchman who maintained an intimate relationship with an African slave named Ma Zu Zule. This union produced Jules Arnold Boissiere, the father of Eliza.
Williams attended his first school years at Tranquillity Boys' Intermediate Government School. He later studied at Queen's Royal College in Port of Spain where he excelled academically and played football. A football injury sustained at that college led to a hearing problem requiring him to wear a hearing aid for correction. He won an island scholarship in 1932 which allowed him to attend St. Catherine's Society at Oxford University. In 1935 he received a first class honours degree ranking first among history graduates that year. He also represented the university at football matches.
In the period following his graduation Williams faced severe handicaps in his research due to a lack of money. He was turned down everywhere he tried to secure funding and could not ignore the racial factor involved. In 1936 thanks to a recommendation by Sir Alfred Claud Hollis the Leathersellers' Company awarded him a £50 grant to continue advanced research in history at Oxford. He completed his D.Phil in 1938 under the supervision of Vincent Harlow. His doctoral thesis was titled The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery.
The work was published as Capitalism and Slavery in 1944 although excerpts appeared earlier in 1939 by The Keys journal of the League of Coloured Peoples. Fredric Warburg a publisher of Marxist literature refused to publish the full thesis stating such a book would be contrary to British tradition. Williams argued that declining economies of the British West Indies led to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself. Gad Heuman notes that more recent research has rejected this conclusion regarding the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. However the text covers economic history beyond those wars discussing the decline of sugar plantations from 1823 until emancipation in the 1830s.
In 1939 Williams joined the Political Science department at Howard University. He organized a conference about the economic future of the Caribbean in 1943 arguing small islands would be vulnerable to domination by former colonial powers. In 1944 he was appointed to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission. He returned to Trinidad in 1948 as deputy chairman of the Caribbean Research Council delivering acclaimed educational lectures there. After disagreements between Williams and the Commission the body elected not to renew his contract in 1955.
A speech at Woodford Square in Port of Spain marked his decision to put down his bucket in the land of his birth. He rechristened that enclosed park standing before the courts and legislature The University of Woodford Square. He proceeded to give public lectures on world history Greek democracy philosophy and the history of slavery to large audiences drawn from every social class. From that platform on the 15th of January 1956 Williams inaugurated his own political party the People's National Movement or PNM. This organization would take Trinidad and Tobago into independence in 1962 and dominate its post-colonial politics.
After the Second World War the Colonial Office preferred colonies move toward federal systems similar to Canadian confederation which created Canada in the 19th century. A Montego Bay conference of 1948 declared the common aim to be Dominion Status for the West Indies as a Federation. In 1958 a West Indies Federation emerged leaving Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as dominant players after British Guiana and British Honduras opted out. Most parties aligned with either the West Indies Federal Labour Party led by Grantley Adams and Norman Manley or the Democratic Labour Party led by Sir Alexander Bustamante.
The DLP victory in the 1958 Federal Elections soured Williams on the Federation. Lord Hailes Governor-General overruled two PNM nominations to balance a Senate dominated by WIFLP. When Bustamante withdrew Jamaica from the Federation Trinidad and Tobago faced an untenable position providing 75% of the budget while holding less than half the seats. In a speech Williams declared that one from ten leaves nought. Following a resolution by the PNM General Council on the 15th of January 1962 he withdrew Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies Federation dissolving the body.
Between 1968 and 1970 the Black Power movement gained strength within the Guild of Undergraduates at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies. Leadership developed through Geddes Granger leading the National Joint Action Committee alongside trade unionists like George Weekes of the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union. The revolution started during the 1970 Carnival. Williams countered with a broadcast entitled I am for Black Power introducing a 5% levy to fund unemployment reduction and establishing the first locally owned commercial bank.
On the 3rd of April 1970 a protester was killed by police followed by A. N. R. Robinson's resignation as Member of Parliament for Tobago East on the 13th of April. Sugar workers went on strike on the 18th of April sparking talk of a general strike. Williams proclaimed a State of Emergency on the 21st of April arresting 15 Black Power leaders. A portion of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force led by Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle mutinied taking hostages at Teteron army barracks. The Coast Guard contained the mutiny and mutineers surrendered on the 25th of April.
Eric Williams married Elsie Ribeiro on the 30th of January 1937 while he was a postgraduate student at Oxford University. She was born to a mother from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and a Portuguese Trinidadian father. The ceremony remained private due to fear that scholarship terms could prohibit marriage. They moved to Washington D.C. where he obtained a position at Howard University producing a son named Alistair in 1943 and a daughter named Elsie Pamela in 1947.
Williams questioned the paternity of Elsie Pamela leading to marital problems. In May 1948 he left Washington D.C. returning to Trinidad abandoning his wife and children. He met Evelyn Siulan Soy Moyou a typist 13 years his junior of Chinese descent on her father's side. They began a relationship and he initiated divorce proceedings from Ribeiro in January 1950. After legal battles involving injunctions and court orders he eventually secured a divorce in Reno Nevada on the 2nd of January 1951 marrying Moyou there. Their daughter Erica was born on the 12th of February 1951 in Reno.
Prime Minister Eric Eustace Williams died on the 29th of March 1981 at his official house in St. Ann's Port of Spain. He was 69 years old at the time of death. His academic contributions specialized in the study of slavery challenging Western academics who focused only on abolition chapters. Barbara Solow and Stanley Engerman noted that Williams defined the study of Caribbean history affecting its writing course. David Brion Davis referred to his thesis as undermined by empirical evidence yet it remains the starting point for discussion.
Williams sent one of 73 Apollo 11 Goodwill Messages to NASA for the historic first lunar landing in 1969 stating It is our earnest hope for mankind that while we gain the moon we shall not lose the world. The Eric Williams Memorial Collection at the University of the West Indies was inaugurated in 1998 by former US Secretary of State Colin Powell. In 1999 it was named to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register containing some 7,000 volumes plus correspondence speeches manuscripts and historical writings. A documentary film titled Inward Hunger directed by Mariel Brown marked the centenary of his birth in 2011.
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Common questions
When was Eric Williams born and what were his parents' backgrounds?
Eric Eustace Williams was born on the 25th of September in 1911. His father Thomas Henry Williams worked as a minor civil servant with devout Roman Catholic beliefs, while his mother Eliza Frances Boissiere descended from the mixed French Creole Mulatto elite with African and French ancestry.
What academic achievements did Eric Williams earn at Oxford University?
Eric Williams won an island scholarship in 1932 to attend St. Catherine's Society at Oxford University where he received a first class honours degree ranking first among history graduates in 1935. He completed his D.Phil in 1938 under the supervision of Vincent Harlow with a thesis titled The Economic Aspects of the Abolition of the Slave Trade and West Indian Slavery.
How did Eric Williams influence Trinidad and Tobago independence politics?
Eric Williams inaugurated his political party the People's National Movement or PNM on the 15th of January 1956 which took Trinidad and Tobago into independence in 1962. He withdrew Trinidad and Tobago from the West Indies Federation following a resolution by the PNM General Council on the 15th of January 1962 after Jamaica left the federation.
What events occurred during the Black Power movement in 1970 under Eric Williams leadership?
The Black Power movement gained strength between 1968 and 1970 within the Guild of Undergraduates at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies. Eric Williams proclaimed a State of Emergency on the 21st of April 1970 arresting 15 Black Power leaders while the Coast Guard contained a mutiny led by Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle that surrendered on the 25th of April.
When did Eric Williams die and what is the status of his academic legacy today?
Prime Minister Eric Eustace Williams died on the 29th of March 1981 at his official house in St. Ann's Port of Spain at age 69. The Eric Williams Memorial Collection at the University of the West Indies was inaugurated in 1998 and named to UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 1999 containing some 7,000 volumes plus correspondence speeches manuscripts and historical writings.