"Unhappy and afflicted women?" Free colored women in Barbados: 1780-1834.

On August 24, 1804, Charlotte Belgrave, a free colored woman, wrote a letter to Governor Seaforth. petitioned the governor for the release of her husband, Jacob Belgrave, from the local prison. Belgrave had been imprisoned following an altercation with a white merchant. Apparently, he had accused the latter, a Mr. Gittens, with having overcharged on an item which he had purchased. Gittens had responded by striking Belgrave and he had struck back in selfdefense. That action led to the local authorities binding him over to stand trial at the ‘Sessions.’ Interesting as the encounter between the two men is, what is particularly important, from an historiographic point of view, is the opportunity which the petition offers of accessing the world of the free colored woman in a struggle against the racism and oppression of a slave society. Indeed, although there have been some attempts in recent times to engage women’s activities in the slave societies