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accessed 14 Apr 2017), James William Gittens
Page 6 of Story
My search into my family history started with the knowledge and memories of family elders and progressed through documents and records going back to the 18th century. Back in this era in the midst of colonization, sugar plantations and slavery I found him, my oldest recorded ancestor, James William Gittens. The earliest historical record of my direct family line that I found, the baptismal record, documented the birth of James William Gittens on October 28th 1787, black slave of the Honourable Joshua Gittens at Pilgrim Plantation, east of St. Philip Parish Church.
James William would have been born into the plantation slavery system that was established since the 17th century. At Pilgrim Plantation, in St. Philip in the south of the island, he probably grew up escaping the true harshness of plantation field labour. It was his good fortune, as mentioned earlier, that he was documented from birth, unlike most who were born into slavery over the 200 year period and who lived, laboured and languished without their existence ever being recorded except as an owned asset or as a requirement for plantation taxation purposes.
The research of local historians, including Mr. Bobby Morris and Professor Pedro Welch of the University of the West Indies on similar family situations, suggests that James William was probably not just a slave or servant of the Hon. Joshua Gittens, but rather his child, born of a relationship with one of his favoured female servants. |
