© 2019 DIONNA D. RICHARDSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PURLOINED SUBJECTS: RACE, GENDER, AND THE LEGACIES OF COLONIAL SURVEILLANCE IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN A Dissertation Presented to The Graduate Faculty of The University of Akron In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Dionna D. Richardson August, 2019 PURLOINED SUBJECTS: RACE, GENDER, AND THE LEGACIES OF COLONIAL SURVEILLANCE IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN Dionna D. Richardson Dissertation Approved: Accepted: _________________________________ _________________________________ Advisor Department Chair Dr. A. Martin Wainwright Dr. A. Martin Wainwright _________________________________ _________________________________ Committee Member Interim Dean of the College Dr. Martha Santos Dr. Linda Subich _________________________________ _________________________________ Committee Member Dean of the Graduate School Dr. Stephen Harp Dr. Chand Midha _________________________________ _______________________________ Committee Member Date Dr. Timothy Scarnecchia _________________________________ Committee Member Dr. Maria A. Zanetta ii ABSTRACT This dissertation is an investigation of the imperial racialized and gendered origins of surveillance culture. It is primarily an interrogation of the British Empire’s methods and justifications for measures taken to maintain imperial control in the colonial Caribbean. The main subjects of this study are women that migrated from India to the Trinidad during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but their story is told within the context of the larger history of the Caribbean. This dissertation is significant because the patterns revealed extend far beyond these subjects, geographical locations, and this historical period of time. This dissertation shows how white colonialists employed racialized and gendered language in their justifications for the establishment of imperial surveillance practices. They created government systems, customs, and laws along with hegemonic attitudes of white superiority that led to unfair and unregulated discriminatory practices against individuals of color. Discussions regarding the physical, sexual, and reproductive labor of women of color dominated white colonial male discourse from the rise of the transatlantic slave system to the present day. Discriminatory language and its accompanying arguments became so deeply embedded in the collective consciousness of the colonized people that, in places like the Caribbean where groups of diverse ethnic origin converged, much of that rhetoric persisted beyond the colonial era. The scope of this dissertation ends in the 1960s, just as colonies such as Jamaica and Trinidad gained iii their independence from Britain, and the research shows that in the power struggle for the emergent nation, men who identified as AfroCaribbean and IndoCaribbean used the same systemic racialization and gendered language to try to assert their own dominance over one another and over the female inhabitants of the region. Through an examination of mid-twentieth-century music, poetry, street fights, customs, and institutionalized discrimination, it is readily apparent that the colonial racialized and gendered hegemonic ideals were still very much at play, even in the absence of the white colonial power structure. iv DEDICATION For Mom, who never stopped believing in me. I wish you were here to see this. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I’d like to thank my dissertation committee—Drs. Martin Wainwright, Martha Santos, Steve Harp, Maria Alejandra Zanetta, and Tim Scarnecchia—your feedback was indispensable and greatly appreciated. I am grateful for the time that the five of you spent in carefully reviewing and providing suggestions on this dissertation. It will all be immensely useful as I develop these ideas throughout my career. My graduate school journey has been a long, strange trip. I’ve met so many people, had such a variety of experiences, and have changed and grown so much along the way. Because of this, there are numerous individuals and groups to whom I owe an enormous debt of gratitude. First, the professors in Kent State’s history department, where I completed my master’s degree, were the first to challenge the way I thought, the way I wrote, and the way I saw the world around me. Drs. Clarence Wunderlin, Ann Heiss, Tim Scarnecchia, and Elizabeth Smith-Pryor pushed me, encouraged me, and prepared me for the rigors of a doctoral program. Dr. Heiss made me a better writer, Dr. Wunderlin supplied unrelenting encouragement, and Drs. Smith-Pryor and Scarnecchia first exposed me to the importance of politics and the global history of race relations and power. Looking back on my time as a doctoral student at the University of Akron, I realize how fortunate I was to be surrounded by such great scholars. Dr. Steve Harp saw potential in me that I never saw in myself, gave me opportunities I’d never dreamed vi within my reach, and contributed immensely to my personal growth and conceptualization of myself as a capable, intelligent, and impactful global citizen. His mentorship truly made me a better teacher, scholar, and person. My primary advisor, Dr. Martin Wainwright, sparked my interest in empire and migration that informed and inspired the rest of my graduate work. Without his knowledge and excitement for the subject material, flexibility in allowing me to explore my options, and sustained support and encouragement, I would not have been able to hone my research interests and find my path. I am especially grateful, as a woman in academia, to have had the immense pleasure of working closely with several brilliant professors at the U of A, such as Drs. Lesley Gordon, T.J. Boisseau, Martha Santos, Janet Klein, Shelley Baranowski, Constance Bouchard, Kira Thurman, and Toja Okoh. Those who knew me early on in my graduate career can attest that I knew embarrassingly little about feminist politics and women’s and gender history, and that my naivety about gender inequities shone quite brightly. However, thanks to the examples, mentorship, and teaching of these women, my mind opened and I was able to see the world and its history much more clearly. Through my coursework, preparation for qualifying exams, and research and writing of this dissertation, these women’s voices and actions inspired me every step of the way. The contributions of Dr. Martha Santos to my success were immeasurable and worthy of special mention. Dr. Santos consistently went above and beyond the call of duty to help me conceptualize complicated ideas and make meaningful connections. She challenged me to rethink my phrasing, sourcing, and structure at several points throughout the process of writing this dissertation. Because of her, it is a much stronger final product. vii Additionally, her administrative support and quickly-returned and thoughtfully-edited drafts were essential to my completing this project and my degree. Financially, I am grateful to the University of Akron’s Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences for their support by way of a research grant, and to the Department of History at the University of Akron for the support of the Robert W. Little Fellowship, which allowed me a year of research and writing without the extra burden of teaching. I am also grateful for the archivists who assisted me at the National Archives in Kew, the British Library, the University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, the Indian Indenture Museum of Trinidad, the National Museum of Trinidad, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the American Antiquarian Association, and the Centre of Diplomatic Archives in Nantes. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the friends that provided me support and encouragement along the way. The camaraderie of fellow graduate students often kept me going. To Erika and Alex Briesacher—thank you for opening your home for gatherings, setting up our softball team, and always being there to read my drafts, recommend books, or just hang out and study together. Erika, I cannot ever adequately express my gratitude and love for you. Your friendship has been one of my life’s greatest blessings. Also, thank you to so many others for your friendship and fellowship over the past several years—Hannah Vazquez, Johnny Livigni, Jennifer George, Denise Jenison, Austin McCoy, Kelly McFarland, Stacy Maruskin, Emily Boetcher, Andy Tremel, Natalie Hall-Hiles, Valerie Schutte, Angela Riotto, Jana Russ, Rose Eichler, Megan Allen, Devaun Tyler-Wolfe, Amanda Lamadanie, Karen Lamandanie, Fatima Shendy, Soufiane Aityahia, Amal Almahd, Sheffa Almahd, Ahlem Zaaeed, Ahmad Deeb, Mohsin viii Vora, Runah Assad, Sehar Shaikh, Moe Mishal, Ola Mishal, Sondos Mishal, Iman Mishal, Lama Abu Amara, Marihan Al Bitar, Tristan Wheeler, Abdou Soulah, Mounif Ammoura, Gwendolyn Szeligo, Aleric Taylor, Angela Taylor, Vincent Corriol, Dominique Avon, Alexandre Manceau, Vincent Damiens, Elisabeth Lamothe, and everyone else with whom I have traveled, broke bread, had a drink, played a sport, or spent meaningful time. Each of you left a very special mark on me. Finally, after so many years in graduate school, I owe an enormous debt to my family—both some blood-related and some made family by choice. To my daughter, Julie, your joy and love has brought me innumerable smiles and consistently motivated me to keep going. I have tried my best to provide a solid example for you to follow. To my mom, who just left this world a few months ago and did not make it to see me cross the finish line, I am eternally grateful for the thousands of times you told me how proud you were and how much you loved me. To my stepmom, Cindy Nicholson, and my mom’s lifelong best friend, Shirley Foucher, thank you for always checking in on me, reassuring me, and being there to talk when I need it. To Ivana Zajkovska, Muhamad Musa, and their girls, my chosen “family,” thank you for all your love and support— though the miles now separate us, you are always with us. And finally, to Omar, my partner in everything, I am grateful for your unwavering support, and the bright light you have brought into my life. Thank you for listening to my ideas, helping me talk through chapters, and calming me down when I became overwhelmed.