ABSTRACT Guiana and the Shadows of Empire: Colonial and Cultural Negotiations at the Edge of the World Joshua R. Hyles, M.A. Mentor: Keith A. Francis, Ph.D. Nowhere in the world can objective study of colonialism and its effects be more fruitful than in the Guianas, the region of three small states in northeastern South America. The purpose of this thesis is threefold. First, the history of these three Guianas, now known as Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname, is considered briefly, emphasizing their similarities and regional homogeny when compared to other areas. Second, the study considers the administrative policies of each of the country’s colonizers, Britain, France, and the Netherlands, over the period from settlement to independence. Last, the thesis concentrates on current political and cultural situations in each country, linking these developments to the policies of imperial administrators in the previous decades. By doing so, this thesis hopes to show how an area that should have developed as a single polity could become a region of three very distinct cultures through the altering effects of colonialism. Guiana and the Shadows of Empire: Colonial and Cultural Negotiations at the Edge of the World by Joshua R. Hyles, A.S., B.A. A Thesis Approved by the Department of History ___________________________________ Jeffrey S. Hamilton, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee ___________________________________ Keith A. Francis, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ David L. Longfellow, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Thomas A. Offit, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Joan E. Supplee, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2010 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2010 by Joshua R. Hyles All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi DEDICATION vii CHAPTER ONE: Introduction 1 CHAPTER TWO: Homogeny and Hegemony 11 CHAPTER THREE: Guiana Asunder 21 CHAPTER FOUR: Shackles 45 CHAPTER FIVE: The Green Hell 63 CHAPTER SIX: A Dutch Emulsion 87 CHAPTER SEVEN: The Experiment Neglected 126 CHAPTER EIGHT: Cricket and McCartney 154 CHAPTER NINE: Odd Man Out 171 CHAPTER TEN: Acculturating a Culture of Cultures 186 CHAPTER ELEVEN: Conclusion 201 BIBLIOGRAPHY 207 iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 The Guiana Shield 3 1.2 The Guiana Coast and rivers 5 3.1 Map of Demerara 28 iv LIST OF TABLES 4.1 Total servants immigrating to British Guiana 56 6.1 Total slaves delivered by the Dutch trade 93 6.2 Origins of slaves departing Calcutta 1877-89 110 6.3 Immigration to Dutch Guiana, 1873-1932 113 6.4 Repatriation rates from Dutch Guiana, 1878-1932 114 6.5 Coffee and sugar plantations in Dutch Guiana 122 10.1 Comparison of education methods in Suriname 189 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author would like to thank Dr. Keith Francis, Dr. Joan Supplee, Dr. Tom Offit, and Dr. David Longfellow for their input and direction as members of the thesis committee. Additionally, the author wishes to note with great appreciation the additional academic support provided by: Dr. Jeffrey Hamilton, Dr. Barry Hankins, Dr. Jules Sweet, Dr. Michael Parrish, Dr. Stephen Sloan, Dr. Eric Rust, and Dr. Vernon Hyles. Lastly, this work would not be possible without the staunch support of my family and friends, who have supported my professional development through sacrifice and love, and to whom I owe many pages, whether or not they may desire to read them. vi To my daughter, Madison, for reminding me how joyful learning should be vii CHAPTER ONE Introduction Ask most casual students of history when the time of colonialism came to an end, and they will point to the 1960s, an era when a significant portion of Southeast Asia and Africa declared independence and joined the United Nations. A student of history in the Americas may even suggest the 1980s, when a significant number of Caribbean islands experienced the same transition. Few, if any, would consider twentieth-century South America a viable answer. It is here, though, in the northeast corner of the continent known as the Guiana Shield, where the Caribbean Sea fades into the Atlantic Ocean, that the vestiges of European colonialism can be the freshest and most acutely perceived. The Guianas, composed of Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname, are the ideal historical laboratory in which to study the cultural effects of European colonial influence.1 Unlike Africa and Southeast Asia, this region was, culturally speaking, relatively homogenous before contact, with scattered groups of Arawak, Carib, and Akawoi Indians living along the coast. Physically, the area possesses a high degree of uniformity, with geographical, geological, and ecological similarities that warrant calling the whole region by one name (Guiana). Yet, after four centuries of European colonization, the countries formerly known as British Guiana, French Guiana, and Dutch Guiana have developed widely 1 The spelling of each of these countries is varied. For the purposes of this paper, Guiana will be used in reference to the overall region or when discussing the area from a cultural perspective. Original colony names like Berbice, Guyane, and Demerara will be used when historically accurate. Otherwise, British Guiana, French Guiana, and Dutch Guiana will be employed when referring to the colonies after their final delineation in 1815. After independence in the 1970s and 1980s, the independent nations’ names of Guyana and Suriname will be used. 1 differing cultures, now possessing little in common. What once was a region only delineated on a map is now the quintessence of diverse colonial enterprises. The Guianas’ remoteness and obscurity contributed to their allure as an untapped blank slate for potential northern European investment. The generous area of land, roughly 181,000 square miles and comparable in size to California, is an area of transitions. As noted, the Guianas straddle the coasts of the calm Caribbean and the more turbulent Atlantic; they also mark a significant terrestrial transition, sitting high on a rocky, mineral-encrusted outcropping—the Guiana Shield—but falling away to the south into the verdant breadth of the Amazon Basin. Along the northern shores, alluvial deposits formed from the tidal undulations of the Atlantic Ocean, along with silt deposits carried by wide interior rivers emptying into the sea, have created alternating series of mangrove forests and parallel sand reefs up to ten miles inland, further isolating this already geographically detached region. A description from 1788 indicates that the early colonists and explorers saw a strikingly similar land. In the account, John Gabriel Stedman noted that, “Some parts of Guiana present a barren and mountainous aspect,” but that the “uncultivated parts of Guiana are covered with immense forests, rocks, and mountains. .and the whole country is intersected by very deep marshes or swamps, and by extensive heaths or savannas.”2 What the region lacks in size is made up for in natural abundance. 2 John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America from the Years 1772-1777 (1790; repr., Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1972), 23. 2 Figure 1.1. The Guiana Shield3 The Guianas were unique in their location and in their Northern European exploration. This interstice between Caribbean and Atlantic, highland and lowland, remained unexploited by either Spain or Portugal throughout the early years of European colonization—Spain’s territory ended at the Orinoco River delta, while Portugal’s Brazilian territory faded northward into the Amazon.4 Outside the areas of effective political settlement of either the Spanish or Portuguese empires, this “in-between area” came to be known as the “Wild Coast” and represented the only territory vulnerable to northern European colonists, entrepreneurs, and pirates in South America. Rumors of the existence of a lost Inca kingdom, El Dorado, deep in the jungles of Guiana, sparked the imaginations and greed of British, French, and Dutch explorers alike. After Sir Walter 3 Smithsonian Institute, “Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield,” Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, http://botany.si.edu/BDG/index.html (accessed November 27, 2009). 4 Ian Rogoziński, A Brief History of the Caribbean, from the Arawak and Carib to the Present (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1999), 43. 3 Raleigh’s initial explorations in 1594, further inroads into the Guianas were made. In 1595, Captain Lawrence Keymis expanded upon Raleigh’s surveys by charting the mouths of all major rivers; in the next year additional charts were made under Captain Leonard Berrie.5 Keymis and Raleigh returned on a second voyage in 1616, again in search of the city of gold. More tangible goals, too, existed along the Wild Coast. For the British, the potential of an additional colony capable of sugar production presented itself. The French exhibited interest in the area as a possible outpost from which to strike at Spanish ships. The Netherlands, as will be illustrated later, treated Guiana as an addition to its ever-growing trade network. British, French, and Dutch exploration of the area continued throughout the early seventeenth century while the Spanish busied themselves with Mesoamerica and the Andean regions. It was the Dutch who made the first lasting attempts at colonization, first exploring the area under the command of Abraham Cabeliau in 1598,6 then establishing a permanent trading and salt mining settlement in Guiana in 1616.7 The replacement of the Spanish military complex by a more trade-friendly Dutch presence in the Caribbean also allowed for increased British and French influence. Britain and France concentrated their colonizing activities in the Antilles islands northwest of the Guianas at first, but actively participated in exploration of the area.