Dr. Eric Eustace Williams (September 25, 1911 – March 29, 1981) was the first Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. He served from 1956 until his death in 1981. He was also a noted Caribbean historian.

Williams was born the son of minor civil servant, but his mother was descendant of the French Creole elite. He was educated at Queen's Royal College in Port-of-Spain, where he excelled at academics and football. He won an island scholarship in 1932 which allowed him to attend Oxford University where he received his doctorate in 1938. His doctoral thesis was titled The Economic Aspect of the West Indian Slave Trade and Slavery.

Political contributions

In 1939 Williams accepted a position at Howard University, becoming a full professor by 1947. In 1944 he was appointed to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission. In 1948 Williams returned to Trinidad as the Commission's Deputy Chairman of the Caribbean Research Council. In Trinidad Williams delivered a series of educational lectures for which he became famous. In 1955 after disagreements between Williams and the Commission, the Commission elected not to renew his contract.

On January 15, 1956 Williams inaugurated his own political party, the People's National Movement. Until this time his campaign of lectures had been carried out under the auspices of the Political Education Movement (PEM) a branch of the Teachers Education and Cultural Association, a group which had been founded in the 1940s as an alternative to the official teachers’ union. The PNM’s first document was its constitution. Unlike the other political parties of the time, the PNM was a highly organised, hierarchical body. Its second document was The People’s Charter’ in which the party strove to separate itself from the transitory political assemblages which had thus far been the norm in Trinidadian politics.

In elections held eight months later, on September 24, the PNM won 13 of the 24 elected seats in the Legislative Council, defeating 6 of the 16 incumbents running for re-election. Although the PNM did not secure a majority in the 31-member Legislative Council, he was able to convince the Secretary of State for the Colonies to allow him to name the five appointed members of the council (despite the opposition of the Governor Sir Edward Betham Beetham). This gave him a clear majority in the Legislative Council. Williams was thus elected Chief Minister and was also able to get all seven of his ministers elected.

Academic contributions

A descendant of a family which made its fortune illegally trading slaves after 1807 (the de Boissiere family), Williams specialised in the study of the abolition of the slave trade, and some have argued that his work was ground-breaking for the direction which it took.

In 1944 his book Capitalism and Slavery argued that the British abolition of their Atlantic slave trade in 1807 was motivated primarily by economics; by extension, so was the emancipation of the slaves and the fight against the trading in slaves by other nations.

Before Williams the historiography of this issue had been dominated by (mainly) British writers who generally were prone to depict Britain's actions as unimpeachable.

The difficulty with Williams' argument is they are underdetermined by the facts of the matter. The decline in the West Indian economies began to manifest itself after slave trading was banned in 1807; prior to this, slavery was flourishing. The economic decline in the West Indies was consequently more likely to have been a direct result of the suppression of the slave trade. Williams' evidence showing falling commodity prices as a rationale can largely be discounted; the falls in price led to an increase in demand, raising overall profits for the importers.

Profits for the slave traders remained at around ten percent on investment and displayed no evidence of declining. Land prices in the West Indies, an important tool for analysing the economy of the area did not begin to decrease until after the slave trade was discontinued.

The sugar colonies were not in decline at all, in fact they were at their economic peak in 1807. It should be noted that Williams was heavily involved in the movements for independence of the Caribbean colonies and had a fairly obvious motive to impugn the colonial power.

A third generation of scholars led by the likes of Seymour Drescher and Roger Anstey have discounted many of Williams' arguments. They do however acknowledge that morality had to be combined with the forces of politics and economic theory to bring about the end of the slave trade.

References

• Cudjoe, Selwyn. 1993. Eric E. Williams Speaks: Essays on Colonialism and Independence ISBN 0870238876
• Meighoo, Kirk. 2003. Politics in a Half Made Society: Trinidad and Tobago, 1925-2002 ISBN 1558763066
• Eric Williams. 1964. History of the People of Trinidad and Tobago. Port-of-Spain ISBN 1881316653
• Eric Williams. 1964. British Historians and the West Indies, Port-of-Spain.

Preceded by: --

Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago

Succeeded by: George Chambers