Today the DAILY NATION wraps up its Black History Month series on the lives of people of colour who have made their mark on the local, regional and global stage, with a look at the contributions of black Barbadian entrepreneurs. Heading the list is Newman E. Wilson.
IN THE FIRST SIX DECADES of the 20th century, several black merchants emerged operating mainly from Roebuck Street, Bridgetown. Other black entrepreneurs, located at various points in The City, conducted business in an environment dominated by white merchants who generally sought to stifle this black progress.
The surge in economic activity among black entrepreneurs was also evident in the Bridgetown department stores. Such stores, which represented considerable capital outlay for building, stock and wages, were not as ubiquitous as the provision stores.
However, through being owned and managed by Blacks, they effectively made encroachments on areas dominated by white-owned and managed stores such as Harrison’s (1870), DaCosta’s (1898) and Cave Shepherd (1906), to name a few.
Two black entrepreneurs, N.E. Wilson and Archibald Rollock, made inroads into this sector and competed for over 20 years with the established white merchants. Both of them started with small, one-door operations on Swan Street, then expanded and moved to locations that were more prestigious.
Newman E. Wilson, born in Grenada, came to Barbados in 1935, after a stint managing a store in Carriaçou, and established a store on Trafalgar Street, a few yards away from Broad Street.
Wilson’s effort can be perceived as resistance in several ways. First, he rejected that a Black from the Eastern Caribbean would not succeed in Barbados.
Second, when the white merchants tried to apply pressure on him by making it difficult to acquire goods to stock his Swan Street store, he met the manufacturer’s representatives by night. They had shunned him for fear of victimisation by established store owners.
Thirdly, Wilson bypassed the local merchants and ventured to the Far East, Europe and the United States to supply his store with the best goods, at competitive prices. Persons of the upper class were attracted to his store and when challenged on their shopping habits, they would counter by saying that they were shopping for their house cleaners.
Fourthly, Wilson moved out of his Swan Street location, known for small shops and low prices, into the more prestigious Trafalgar Square location, where he constructed a three-storey building – N.E. Wilson Co. Ltd – which was incorported on November 28, 1967. Finally, Wilson expanded his business to venture into new, emerging operations such as the manufacturing and hotel sectors, and, in so doing, defied notions of “smallness” and made himself less vulnerable to market shocks.
Sadly, Wilson’s legacy was not carried on by family members. After his death his adopted son indicated that he was not interested in continuing the business and it was eventually sold around the 1980s. Today a number of shops and a nightclub occupy the former N.E Wilson building. Wilson’s stately residential home in Fontabelle was also sold and now houses the Small Business Association.
Archibald Rollock also started in Swan Street, but unlike Wilson, established his three-storey store on Lower Broad Street. By locating on Broad Street, he was challenging the assumptions held by the Bridgetown merchants that this street was the sole preserve of the white merchant elite.
He went further by introducing the first escalator in Barbados in his Five And Ten Model Store, a technological innovation that brought droves of shoppers to buy goods sourced from the United States, Britain and Germany.
The resistance of black entrepreneurs is also evident in the drive to enter and stay in the commission merchant business, an area of activity long considered the domain of the leading white merchant houses such as DaCosta’s, Manning Wilkinson Challenor Ltd, and S.P. Musson.
They sold to the provision merchants on credit, and in this way had considerable control of the distributive sector. From 1917, with the formation of Plantations Ltd, they consolidated their interests through the formation of another conglomerate – Barbados Shipping Trading – in 1920.
Two black entrepreneurs, Lionel Richards and Lloyd Alleyne, made advances into this highly privileged sector. Richards worked as an office assistant at the commission business of John D. Taylor, before he moved to C.L. Pitt Co., another commission enterprise. Within the space of ten years, he moved from office assistant to sales representative, company secretary and then director in 1954.
When Pitt retired in 1959, Richards – who had been in a favourable financial position – bought out most of the shares in the company, with Pitt retaining a small portion. In so doing, he had joined an elite band of 56 commission agents operating in Barbados in the 1950s and the only black entrepreneur in this sector.
He expanded into wholesale distribution and later diversified into the manufacturing sector, which was slowly gaining momentum, establishing West Indies Handbags Ltd, a joint venture with a manufacturer from Britain.
Alleyne was a carpenter by profession, but aspired to business when he started with a small three-door shop in Wellhouse, St Philip. He then later expanded his operations to create a chain of shops and supermarkets. By 1980, he had amassed enough wealth to establishing Shamrock Trading Company, a commission merchant enterprise, in the business of importing and distributing.
Alleyne did not accept his place as an artisan, nor was he resigned to the position of shop owner, but aspired to move to the top of the ladder in the merchant business, which allowed him to cross over into planation ownership.
Still other black entrepreneurs continued to “encroach” on white business, especially influenced by Charles Duncan O’Neal’s envisioning of the purchase of plantations in the 1920s, although this did not become a reality for Blacks on a cooperative basis for another 13 years.
When the plantations ran into difficulties between 1941 and 1953 because of a lack of working capital, neglect and poor management, this provied opportunities for Blacks to purchase. Researcher Trevor Rudder informed us that between 1945 and 1990, Blacks owned plantations, representing a total arable acreage of 11 472.40. Whites owned 208 plantations, with arable acreage of 50 030.
Between 1951 and 1970, Mrs Erma Rock, who established the Rocklyn Bus Company, used her operation as her base for ownership of four plantations, a limestone quarry that supplied construction material, and a canteen in Belleplaine, St Andrew.
Charles Miller Austin, a blacksmith who patented a wheel and made a fortune from his patent, became the first black man to purchase substantial properties among the St John plantocracy, buying Malvern and Eastmonte, two large plantations with a combined size of 391 acres, at the turn of the 20th century. Miller-Austin also owned grocery shops in St Joseph.
Elliot Lisle Ward inherited plantations and a rum refinery from his white father. As the third largest single plantation owner in Barbados, he held directorships in key supporting organisations such as Plantations Ltd, the Barbados Sugar Producers Federation, and the Sugar Industry Agricultural Bank.
Black entrepreneurs venturing into other areas included:
MacDonald Symmonds who established the Barbados Cooperative Bank in 1938, with capital of $240 000. Known locally as the Penny Bank, it was the bank of the working people, with membership of over.
Grenadian-born James A. Martineau who, after establishing a drink manufacturing plant in Brazil, ventured to Barbados in 1920 where he ran his soft drink company for 40 years, successfully competing with imported products.
James A. Tudor followed Martineau into manufacturing, establishing a small soft drink factory and a soap factory in 1929. He also established a tannery business, producing leather from local hides; and
John Beckles established a laundry in Chapel Lane, Bridgetown, in 1910. He called his enterprise Barbados Dye Laundry Works.
Finally, Livina Maxwell and her husband William, who resided at Tent Bay, St Joseph, were two enterprising black entrepreneurs who ventured into the hotel business. William was a small farmer who later bought the Atlantis Hotel, and Livina brought Fleetview Guest House. On William’s retirement, his daughter, Enid Maxwell, an educator, operated the Atlantis Hotel.
Unlike many other black enterprises that died with the founder, the Atlantis Hotel continued into the 1990s under Miss Maxwell’s leadership before being auctioned and sold. Today it is still a vibrant hotel on the scenic East Coast.
Source: Henderson Carter, Resisting Hegemony: Black Entrepreneurship in Colonial Barbados, 1900-1966.
