![]() | Enterprising Women: Gender, Race, and Power in the Revolutionary Atlantic Subjects: Racially mixed women -- Caribbean Area -- History -- 19th century; Women Black -- Caribbean Area -- History -- 19th century; Businesswomen -- Caribbean Area -- History -- 19th century; Social stratification -- Caribbean Area -- History -- 18th century; In the Caribbean colony of Grenada in 1797, Dorothy Thomas signed the manumission documents for her elderly slave Betty. Thomas owned dozens of slaves and was well on her way to amassing the fortune that would make her the richest black resident in the nearby colony of Demerara. What made the transaction notable was that Betty was Dorothy Thomas's mother and that fifteen years earlier Dorothy had purchased her own freedom and that of her children. Although she was just one remove from bondage, Dorothy Thomas managed to become so rich and powerful that she was known as the Queen of Demerara. Kit Candlin (Author) KIT CANDLIN is a research fellow in history at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Last Caribbean Frontier, 1795-1815 . Cassandra Pybus (Author) CASSANDRA PYBUS is a professor of history at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty and Black Founders: The Unknown Story of Australia's First Black Settlers . |
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