​Credit : Historian Angelo Bissessarsingh.
It's that time of year when Christmas Treats for Children up to 2019 was a common occurrence in most ECCE Centres , primary schools, villages and communities throughout Trinidad and Tobago.
But how many of us are aware of the origin of the first Christmas Treat for children in Trinidad ? This article written by Founder of VMOTT Angelo Bissessarsingh provides us with the answer.
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When indentured labour began entering Trinidad from India in 1845, the overwhelming majority of these people were Hindus with a small number of Muslims. Christmas was an unknown concept to them of course and here in the Caribbean, they would have their first contact with this festive season.
The labourers were bound in five and ten-year contracts to sugar estates (cocoa plantations to a lesser extent), and from 1866-1880, were offered an incentive to remain in the island and form a peasantry which would provide a seasonal workforce for the plantations. Whilst bound to the estates, a few owners and managers of a more benign disposition would have introduced Christmas to the lives of the workers.
Almost certainly, this was the case of the Orange Grove Estates conglomerate which was managed by the foresighted William Eccles (1816-59), who founded an industrial school and orphanage in Tacarigua, under the auspices of the Anglican Church.
This paternalistic approach would have also pertained at Lothians Estate near Princes Town where the kindly Irishman, H B Darling was the proprietor.
The coming of the Rev John Morton and his wife, Sarah, in 1868 to establish the Presbyterian Church’s Canadian Mission to the Indians (CMI) began a long process of trying to find the right method of evangelisation and at once hit upon education as the key.
Dozens of schools were founded across the island with concentration on the areas where there was a predominantly high population of ex-indentured labourers and their children.
Churches in Quebec, Nova Scotia and Ontario would forward to the CMI large boxes filled with small bibles, toys, religious books and sometimes clothing (made by the Auxiliaries of the Women’s Foreign Mission Society) which would be distributed in the schools.
The ladies of the Chalmers church in Quebec were particularly magnanimous for in addition to the regular fare, they sent along dressed dolls, pocketknives, school bags, marbles, pencil boxes, scissors, whistles, necklaces and watches. The whole was often valued at $60 which was quite a large sum in those days, and this generosity from Quebec was a steady expectation from the early 1890s right up to 1914. One can only imagine the excitement of the poor children of the canefields upon receiving such elaborate presents.
Mrs Morton described one such treat in 1877, at Mission Village, which would later become Princes Town:
“Examination of the Mission School Miss Blackadder’s began at 12 sharp. A number of white people present—Mr Darling, who sent a good supply of candies and two beautiful bouquets, Mr and Mrs Frost, who sent a nice parcel of small books and cards, and some others. Children present sang nicely and, indeed, went through their exercises very well and were particularly clean. The little pictures from the box you sent were greatly prized. I hope you will be able to get some more.
*“All got some candy and a large banana; that was all the treat.”*
The early experiments with treats proved to be so successful for the conversion process that it spread to other parts of the CMI field including Tunapuna. At the Tacarigua school, where the very same Mrs Blackadder from Mission Village was later assigned, Mrs Morton described a treat in 1887:
*“A Christmas treat early became an institution. We had seven schools to provide for. In each we examined the register and counted how many children had made over 400 attendances, how many 300, and so on. All these had cakes and candy and a little present according to the days they had made. The careless ones who had too few attendances were called up and told they could not have any present and only a small share of the sweetmeats. A very few who came in for cakes but had not come to read were sent home without anything as a warning to the rest.*
*“We find this a good plan for encouraging attendance; we have adopted the same plan in our Sabbath schools, but confining the rewards to the very best children.”*
The Christmas treat tradition soon spread to other denominational schools and was often accompanied by a concert. This often coincided with the auspicious annual visit by the local school inspector who would assess the progress of the students.
Today, Christmas treats have become sordid affairs of sometimes dubious motives, but those who were educated in the primary schools of several decades ago still cherish memories of the joy felt at the bestowing of small gifts which meant so much.
Photo description :Mrs Blackadder, schoolmistress of many years at the Tacarigua CMI school, with some of her students and Dalmatian. Circa 1899

​Did you know that there were people of Chinese descent who played a critical role in the development of the local oil industry? In this article, Angelo Bissessarsingh tells of the contribution of John Lee Lum to the development of the Local Oil Industry .
JOHN LEE LUM – OIL PIONEER
Author and Researcher : Angelo Bissessarsingh
John Lee Lum was one of the few Chinese in Trinidad who did not come here directly. Born in Guangdong , China in 1847, he went to California , USA where he worked with thousands of other Chinese coolies to lay the track for the Trans Pacific Railroad which connected the East and West Coasts. In 1885, he came to Trinidad and set up a provision shop on Charlotte St. It prospered since there was a boom in the price of cocoa which meant that he traded provisions for dried cocoa beans which were then exported. Ever the shrewd businessman, he recognized instantly the value of having agencies in the outlying areas of the island and by 1900, owned 60 shops in villages throughout Trinidad, including La Brea, Mayaro, Siparia, Toco, Tunapuna, Sangre Grande, Chaguanas, Pointe-a-Pierre, Moruga, Princes Town and Tabaquite. Lee Lum gave credit and so was able to foreclose on many peasant-owned smallholdings. This is how he was able to acquire vast cocoa estates on the south coast and in the Montserrat Hills near Gran Couva .
Lee Lum was supposed to have been the originator of a catchphrase “Chinee for Chinee” which meant that he sent back to China for labour to staff his shops. At the time (1890s) there was a shortage of coins in the island. At his La Brea shop in particular, Lee Lum issued stamped metal tokens which were square and bore his name as well as the word ‘La Brea’. Perhaps remembering the copper ‘cash’ of his homeland, the tokens had a hole in the middle which meant that they could be strung together. Estates such as those owned by Lee Lum, paid their workers with IOU slips called ‘chits’ which would be taken to the shop to be exchanged for goods. Perhaps John Lee Lum is best remembered for the role he played in the development of the local oil industry.
In the 1880s, a surveyor mapping the southeastern coast noticed seepages of oil in the Guayaguyare forest. By 1893, Major Randolph Rust, a POS merchant who had been bitten by the oil bug, was in the same forest looking at the seepages. The land was owned by Lee Lum. Rust was sufficiently convinced of the commercial possibilities of oil, and undertook to provide financing for his enterprise BEFORE drilling. Backed by Lee Lum, Rust entered into a partnership with the Walkerville Whisky Company of Canada to form the “Canadian Oil Exploration Syndicate in 1901.Erecting a rickety wooden drilling rig, powered by a steam engine Rust and his men struck a rich oilsand at just 2000 feet. The recovery process was even cruder than the drilling apparatus. A large well was dug and a pulley system installed on which drill pipe dippers were dipped in the pooling oil and then dumped into wooden barrels which were then loaded on canoes and taken to the mouth of the river. Although the production of oil had begun in earnest the costs associated with the remote location were huge. Moreover, refining the oil was a problem since it had to be sent to La Brea to be distilled into fuel. In 1913, Trinidad Leaseholds Ltd who had commenced operations at Fyzabad and had opened a refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre took over the Guayaguayare wells of Rust and Lee Lum.
John Lee Lum married and had three sons; Aldrich, Edwin and Oliver who were educated in the USA and England and returned to Trinidad to take over the family business which by the 1920s was one of the largest family-owned firms in Trinidad and diversifying into the importation of Chinese goods and wares. In 1914 he purchased a quantity of land at Pointe Gourde in Chaguaramas where the subsoil was suitable for road metal. A thriving quarry was operated here well into the 1930s before the coming of the Americans in WWII when the entire peninsula was ceded to them under the Bases Agreement. Lee Lum was always a supporter of the local Chinese community and in 1925 established a cooperative business for them called the Canton Trading Company which imported dry goods from China and became one of the best known retailers of Charlotte St. The first Managing Director of the Canton Trading Company was John T. Allum, a local Chinese who later branched off to form the well-known Allum’s supermarket chain which survives today as JTA Supermarkets. Lee Lum retired to Hong Kong to enjoy his wealth and died there in the 1930s.
Source : A History of Trinidad Oil by George E. Higgins.
Copy of photo of John Lee Lum  (Source: Virtual Museum of T&T, October 5, 2023)

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Author : Professor Angelo Bissessarsingh ( HMG) Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago, (Published by Patricia Bissessarsingh, Nov 7, 2023)
In the first chapter of this three-part series we looked at the religious awakenings of Hinduism under indentureship among the Indo Trinidadians of the 19th century. This consciousness of self and personal doctrine was largely due to the formation of small villages as Sir Louis De Verteuil noted in 1884:
“Many have already availed themselves of the offer, and have thus become permanent settlers. At first they were granted 10 acres of land, worth £10, considered as equivalent to the passage-money. As a rule, a locality is selected, surveyed in lots of five acres, and a settlement is thus formed of Indian immigrants only; and an Indian name is given to the settlement. Thus we have the Calcutta, the Madras, the Barrackpoor, and the Fyzabad settlements. The immigrants are thus encouraged to form small communities, speaking the same language, and having the same habits and ways.”
In these settlements, village life went on much the same way as it had in India for thousands of years. The community council of the panchayat was revived and festivals observed regularly. Divali was not initially foremost among these. It began as largely a family affair among the immigrants since its celebration as a neighbourhood occasion is not mentioned anywhere in the writings of the 19thcentury. The all-important deya was most likely moulded from the earth of the dooryard of the homesteads formed by the Indians in their villages and filled with coconut oil made by themselves from nuts grown on their own land. Phagwa was a much larger concern since its riot of colours and very nature made it a village event.
Divali truly emerged as a large-scale festival in the 20th century, about a decade or so after the end of indentureship in 1917. It began to take on an elaborate dimension with bamboo being split into fantastic scaffoldings wherein thousands of deyas would be placed to shine forth . The sound of bursting bamboo is still something which breaks on the ear and heralds the Divali season and it is a pastime indulged in by all the youths of the community regardless of colour or creed. Deyas were also being mass produced by potters, especially along the Southern Main Road from Chase Village to Chaguanas where they still ply their ancestral trades today. Along the main road and Cacandee Road in Felicity is where the first large community Divali displays began to occur in the 1950s. Anthropologist Morton Klass lived for a while in the area whilst observing the villagers and noted:
“This is a festival of lights said to be in honour of both the goddess Lakshmi and of Lord Rama’s return from the forest. It falls on the thirteenth day of the first half of the month of Kartik or around November, and is one of the most happily and eagerly anticipated of holidays . Every house is cleaned , fresh curtains are hung and special delicacies are prepared. Around each house a display of deyas is set out. During Divali the maximum number of deyas that the family can afford is displayed. The deyas are lighted at sunset and mos of the children and old people remain at home to keep them refilled and burning. There is a service in the Siwala in the evening but few except the most religious attend and most of these for a short time. Most of the younger adults set out and lighted their own deyas go walking through the community to see the display of others.”
Stay tuned for the final installment of this series to find out how Divali emerged from its enclave in the Indo Trinidadian villages to achieve national holiday status and its continued evolution.
Painting courtesy Rudolph Bissessarsingh

​In the first chapter of this three-part series written by historian Angelo Bissessarsingh we are given an insight into the religious awakenings of Hinduism under indentureship among the Indo-Trinidadians of the 19th century.
CHAPTER 1
Hinduism’s Arrival in the West Indies.
Author : Angelo Bissessarsingh.
As a historian and erstwhile anthropologist it never ceases to amaze me at how religious and cultural tolerance manifests itself in Trinidad and Tobago. Almost every schoolchild can recite a basic understanding of the annual Hindu festival of Lights, Divali. They know the elements of the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil, bits of the sacred Ramayana and the welcoming of the goddess Lakshmi into the home to ensure a year of prosperity for the family.
There are few communities here where in the Hindu calendar month of Kartik (although the earlier month of Ashvin sometimes encompasses the festival) where the firefly lights of tiny clay deyas do not shine forth on the night of the festival, upholding ancient traditions deeply rooted in our ancestry.
To fully understand the portent of Divali (Deepaavali as the celebration is known in India) one must take a brief look at the roots of Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1845 a group of indentured immigrants arrived from India aboard the Fatel Razack as the first of thousands who would flock hither to found a new society in an alien land. With them to the west came the ancient ways of their motherland and Hinduism had arrived. Initially there was no provision for any cultural or religious freedom since the colonial authorities merely envisioned the presence of the Indians as an easily-replenished source of labour bound to fixed contracts. It was only when the eminent suitability of these people for sugar estate work became apparent then financial and land incentives were offered between 1860 and 1880 which resulted in the formation of a permanent peasant class.
It is with this firm establishment that itinerant babajis or pundits began to appear in the villages of their people alongside quaint mandirs with mud walls and carat-thatched roofs. A few of these holy men were real Brahmins but these were in the minority with a large number merely being elevated to piety by having a considerable knowledge of the epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Although most of the indentured immigrants were from agrarian classes were from rural stock and formerly bound by the fetters of the caste system, it was noted in 1887 by J.H Collens (in a rather myopic account) that a widespread knowledge of the epics was apparent and this of course was the local origin of the Ramayana readings and Ramleela plays which have characterized Indo -Trinidadian Hinduism ever since:
“It must be acknowledged that the Puranas are a mass of contradiction, extravagance, and idolatry, though couched in highly poetical language. It is, nevertheless, astonishing how familiar the Trinidadian coolies are with them ; even amongst the humble labourers who till our fields there is a considerable knowledge of them, and you may often in the evening, work being done, see and hear a group of coolies crouching down in a semicircle, chanting whole stanzas of the epic poems, Ramayan etc. In the preface of the Ramayan it is stated that he who constantly hears and sings this poem will obtain the highest bliss hereafter, and become as one of the gods.”
It is this spiritual awakening which inevitably led to the introduction of Divali and other Hindu festivals to Trinidad. In the next chapter of this series, we will look at how deyas punctuated the darkness in rural Trinidad as Divali emerged as a national phenomenon.
Photo :Three babas or pundits in Trinidad circa 1894. The permanent settlement of formerly indentured immigrants paved the way for a cultural and religious expansion of their identities hitherto suppressed by the colonial plantocracy.
​(Source:  Patricia Bissessarsingh, Oct 15, 2022)