An Assessment of Carl Campbell’s Contribution to the Historiography of Trinidad & Tobago

Abstract

Abstract:This paper attempts to assess Carl Campbell’s body of research on the history of Trinidad, and of Tobago, since the late 1700s. First, it examines his detailed and deeply researched work on the social history of education in both islands, from the 1830s to the 1980s. Second, it considers Campbell’s pioneering studies of Trinidad’s free coloured and free black community between the 1780s and the 1840s. Lastly, the paper considers his important articles on Trinidad’s political, legal and institutional history in the nineteenth century. It concludes that Campbell’s contributions to these three areas have been pioneering, and that he belongs to the top rank of historians of Trinidad & Tobago.