News Releases

75 Years on, UWI examines the legacy of Dr. Eric Williams’ Capitalism and Slavery

For Release Upon Receipt - December 3, 2019

St. Augustine


Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus, Presiding Officer of the Tobago House of Assembly, tenth session (2017 to 2021); Dr Hilary Brown, CARICOM Secretariat; Ambassador Dr June Soomer, Secretary General, Association of Caribbean States (ACS); Ms Erica Williams Connell, daughter of Dr Eric Williams, Trinidad and Tobago’s late first Prime Minister and historian; Professor Brian Copeland, Pro Vice Chancellor (PVC) and Campus Principal, The UWI, Augustine; The Honourable Dr Lovell Francis, Minister in the Ministry of Education

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago. December 3, 2019 – Seventy-five years ago, in the first half of the 20th century, a brilliant young academic at Oxford University, Eric Williams, published Capitalism and Slavery connecting the economic aspects between the abolition of the slave trade and West Indian slavery. 

During 13-14 November, the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) in collaboration with The UWI Centre for Reparation Research and the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the St. Augustine Campus hosted an international symposium to examine the impact of Dr. Eric Williams and his work on the contemporary Caribbean and wider world. This Caribbean perspective joined similar commemorative activities taking place all over the world, including Africa, Britain, and the United States. 

UWI St. Augustine Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Brian Copeland noted that Dr. Eric Williams has been an integral part of the history of the St. Augustine Campus from inception, “He served as the first and only Pro-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies and was instrumental, as were other Prime Ministers at the time, in setting the current framework for The University of the West Indies while being a strong advocate for the State playing a significant role in supporting the UWI.” He expressed his appreciation for the symposium which brought together scholars, intellectuals, corporate interest groups, artists, and activists. “It provides us with an opportunity to discuss his legacy with the next generation of Caribbean leaders and intellectuals. This body of work is certainly culturally important not just to Caribbean students, but is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it,” said Professor Copeland. 

When Capitalism and Slavery was first published, its groundbreaking work ignited scholarly debate and became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Keynote speaker at the Symposium, Professor Verene Shepherd, Director of The UWI Centre for Reparation Research, explained that using the evidence from Capitalism and Slavery as the foundational text and adding other books on similar themes published since, along with Archival Records to which Dr. Williams may have access or perhaps never thought of using, the governments of CARICOM, through the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC), have articulated the justification for the reparation demand. “The CRC stresses that the region’s indigenous and African descendant communities who are the victims of Crimes against Humanity in the forms of genocide, enslavement, human trafficking, deceptive Asian indentureship and racial apartheid have a legal right to reparatory justice, and that those who committed these crimes, and who have been enriched by the proceeds of these crimes, have a reparatory case to answer,” said Professor Shepherd.

Present at the Symposium was Erica Williams-Connell, daughter of Trinidad and Tobago’s first Prime Minister, who spearheaded the establishment of the Eric Williams Memorial Collection at The UWI St. Augustine Campus. Also present were students from secondary schools in Trinidad and Tobago who were invited to join the programme of activities dedicated to Dr. Eric Williams’ work.

 

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