This seminar, part of the Legacies of Enslavement seminar series, featured Dr Mark Tumbridge (University of Guyana), who explored one of the earliest documentary accounts of Indian indentured migration to the Caribbean and the historical questions it raises. His central argument was that seemingly minor details in historical texts can open up much larger questions about history, identity, and memory.
Historical context: indentureship and the Hesperus
This seminar focused on Theophilus Richmond’s journal of the Hesperus, one of the first ships to carry Indian indentured labourers to British Guiana in 1838. Richmond’s journal, later published as The First Crossing, is one of the earliest surviving accounts of this journey and the conditions experienced on board.
Richmond, a 23-year-old surgeon assigned to the ship, recorded the voyage in a journal documenting the crossing and the experiences of those on board, including a cholera outbreak that claimed several lives. As one of the earliest surviving accounts of indentured migration to the Caribbean, the journal provides valuable insight into the origins of the indentureship system and the human stories connected to it.
Cover of The First Crossing, Theophilus Richmond's account of the voyage of the Hesperus.
Violence, absence, and historical silences
During the seminar, Dr Tumbridge highlighted the brief appearance of a Black cabin ‘boy’ in the journal. In otherwise vivid and poetic descriptions of the sea, Richmond abruptly shifts tone to describe an incident involving this person, described as a ‘boy’ - a derogatory term often used in slavery societies for Black men of all ages.
The entire encounter is contained within a single sentence. In a brief aside, Richmond notes seeing the cabin ‘boy’ using his penknife to scrape an old teapot, before explaining that he “sent him and his pot head over heels along the deck.” Immediately afterwards, the narrative moves on, returning to routine observations as if nothing significant has occurred.
The cabin 'boy’ is almost hidden within the wider prose, appearing only once and only in relation to an act of violence. Countering this minimal and fleeting presence, Dr Tumbridge’s analysis brings him to the fore, raising questions about who he was, where he came from, and how he came to be aboard the Hesperus.
Dr Mark Tumbridge discusses archival records associated with the Hesperus voyage, including muster lists.
The seminar explored attempts to answer these questions through archival research, including the examination of muster lists and other records. However, rather than producing definitive answers, this research generated further questions. All of the available information about him is contained within that single sentence. The absence of information itself became significant, highlighting how some individuals remain largely invisible within historical records.
Rethinking creolisation and identity in Guyana
The presence of this unnamed Black person also challenges understandings of creolisation and identity in Guyana. Dr Tumbridge suggested that histories of migration to the Caribbean are often presented in separate narratives: slavery followed by Indian indenture. However, the Black presence on the Hesperus hints at overlaps and continuities between these histories, suggesting encounters between African and East Indian populations involved in slavery and indentureship may have begun earlier than is commonly assumed.
Reading between the lines of history
Overall, the seminar was not about finding answers but about demonstrating how historical silences can open new avenues of enquiry. The brief mention of a cabin ‘boy’ in Richmond’s journal becomes a starting point for thinking about wider questions of racialised labour, migration, and historical erasure within the context of post-emancipation Caribbean history. Demonstrating how even marginal figures in historical texts can reshape our understanding of the past.
About the speaker
Dr Mark Tumbridge is a scholar of Caribbean literature and culture, whose research focuses on literary representations of indentureship and slavery, world literature, and critical theory. His work also explores the cultural significance of commodities such as sugar and opium. He is currently a lecturer at the University of Guyana.
