Amaryllis Collymore
Amaryllis Collymore (1745–1828) was an Afro-Barbadian slave who gained her freedom from her relationship with a white man. The couple had eleven children and she successfully ran a plantation allowing her to acquire numerous other properties, to become the wealthiest free black woman in the colony at the time of her death.
Amaryllis Collymore | |
|---|---|
| Born | Amaryllis Renn Phillips 1745 Barbados, British West Indies |
| Died | 1828 (aged 82–83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Amarillis Collymore, Amarillis Colymore |
| Occupation(s) | plantation owner and businesswoman |
| Years active | 1784–1829 |
Life
Amaryllis Renn Phillips was born into slavery in 1745[Notes 1] on Barbados, during British colonial rule[2] where records indicate she was a mulatto.[3][4] She was purchased by Robert Collymore in 1780, from Rebecca Phillips, a free coloured hotelier,[4][5] along with her five mulatto children,[5] four of whom were Robert's children.[6] In 1784, Robert arranged their manumission by selling her and the children to a friend, James Scuffield.[4][6] Selling a slave to a trusted third-party to avoid high manumission fees was a common practice during the period in Barbados.[7]
Robert acquired Lightfoots, a 42-acre sugar plantation with its 44 slaves, to provide for her and the children.[4] Collymore expanded the estate to over a hundred acres[8] and was able to buy seven properties throughout Bridgetown, on Canary Street, High Street and James Street, which she rented out.[4][9] She also ran a successful shop.[4] By 1805, Collymore owned another property, on Roebuck Street, which she sold for £800.[6] She and her daughter, Katherine Anne Collymore, were the recipients of a bequest from Renn Phillips in his 1809 will.[10]
In 1824, when Robert died, he bequeathed she and her eleven children, full title to Lightfoots and the slaves working on the plantation.[6] Among her children, besides Katherine were Frances Lasley, Margaret Jane, and Robert (baptized 18 February 1792),[11] Thomazin Ashby (baptized 6 June 1795),[12] Elizabeth Clarke (baptized 13 June 1798),[3] Samuel Francis Collymore, Jackson Brown Collymore[13] and Renn Phillips Collymore, who would become the great-great grandfather of Frank Collymore.[2] Collymore's will, dated 1826[6] (or 1829 but which was probably the date the estate was probated),[13] left her estate, worth over £10,000 to relatives. She devised a home in Bridgetown and a plantation known as Haggat Hall, and 67 slaves, as well as silver and personal property.[6] At the time of her death she was "the richest free woman of color in pre-emancipation Barbados".[8]
Death and legacy
Collymore died on 16 December 1828 and was buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Bridgetown.[4][9] The house that Collymore and her children occupied is now the Morningside Building, and houses the Arts Department of the Barbados Community College.[4]
See also
Other former enslaved women who became slave-owners in Barbados:
Notes
- If her tombstone is correct that she was 78 years old at her death, she may have been born in 1750; however, as the date of 1745 is given by Dr. Karl Watson, the president of the Barbados National Trust, that date was used.[1]
References
Citations
- Watson 2014, pp. 244, 249.
- Gafoor 2010.
- Sanders 1984, p. 240.
- Watson 2014, p. 249.
- Paugh 2017, p. 271.
- Welch 1999.
- Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 43.
- Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 39.
- Nation News 2015.
- The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 2000, p. 54-55.
- Sanders 1984, p. 217.
- Sanders 1984, p. 228.
- Handler 2009, p. 121.
Bibliography
- Candlin, Kit; Pybus, Cassandra (2015). Enterprising Women: Gender, Race, and Power in the Revolutionary Atlantic. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4779-0 – via Project MUSE.
- Gafoor, Ameena (20 March 2010). "Book Review: Edward Baugh. Frank Collymore: A Biography. Kingston and Miami: Ian Randle Publishers. 302 pp. ISBN 978-976-637-391-7 (hbk)". Georgetown, Guyana: Kaieteur News. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- Handler, Jerome S. (2009). The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 978-976-640-218-1.
- Paugh, Katherine (2017). The Politics of Reproduction: Race, Medicine, and Fertility in the Age of Abolition. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-250699-3.
- Sanders, Joanne Mcree, ed. (1984). Barbados Records: Baptisms 1637-1800. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0-8063-1090-1.
- Watson, Karl (2014). "Vignettes of Eight Interesting Barbadians". In Bryan, Janelle (ed.). Ins & Outs of Barbados – The People Edition. St. Thomas, Barbados: Miller Publishing Company. pp. 244–253.
- Welch, Pedro L. V. (1999). "Unhappy and Afflicted Women? Free Coloured Women in Barbados 1780–1834". Revista/Review Interamericana. Hato Rey, Puerto Rico: Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Press. 29 (1–4): 9–12. ISSN 0196-1373. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- "Heather-Lynn's Habitat: Grave links to the past". St. Michael, Barbados: Nation News. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- "Progenitors". The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. St. Michael, Barbados: Barbados Museum & Historical Society. 46: 53–55. 2000. ISSN 0005-5891. Retrieved 29 November 2017.