Proclaiming respectability across the colour line: headstones of free blacks in St Peter's churchyard, St George's, Bermuda

Abstract

The editors offer their apologies to Bruce Elliott for an uncorrected error in the caption to Fig. 8 in this article, which should read ‘Slate marker to Jacob Pitcairn alias Jacob Tucker, King’s Pilot (d. 1814) (photograph, B. Elliott)Bermudians began erecting permanent headstones as early as many Britons. That both black and white populations did this suggests something of the unusual status of Bermuda's black population, but in some respects the colour line became more sharply defined as increasing numbers of blacks gained their freedom. The free black generation of the 1790s began purchasing property and laid claim to the respectability and gentlemanly virtues claimed in earlier generations by aspiring whites. The monumental inscriptions composed at the ends of these people's lives must be understood as part of an ongoing campaign to assert their citizenship in the broader community.