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Collection Description

SITE DETAILS

Colonial Office and Predecessors: West Indies Original Correspondence

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA
Reference code(s): CO 318
Title: Colonial Office and Predecessors: West Indies Original Correspondence
Date(s): 1624 - 1951
Level of description: Series
Extent and medium of the unit of description: 515 files and volumes

CONTEXT AREA
Name of creator(s): Commonwealth Office, 1966-1968 Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1968 Colonial Office, 1854-1966 War and Colonial Department, 1801-1854
Administrative/Biographical history:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA
Scope and content: This series contains original correspondence relating to the West Indies. Until 1825 the papers are mainly military despatches. Includes from 1843 to 1875 a section on indentured labour (referred to in the records as 'coolie' immigration); correspondence with the commissioners to enquire into the administration of civil and criminal justice in the West Indies (from 1822) and the commissioners to consider the state of negro slaves confiscated by the Crown (from 1825), and about the Imperial Department of Agriculture (from 1898).
The rest of the series includes files on economic and political affairs in the West Indies in general on colonial development and welfare and on plans for closer association between the separate countries of the British West Indies. The series also contains papers of and relating to the Royal Commission on the West Indies (1940) and the Caribbean Commission.

Correspondence at subseries level covers the following subjects:

  • Correspondence, Original - Board of Trade
  • Correspondence, Original - Secretary of State
  • Federation in the West Indies
  • Education Commission
  • Closer Union Report
  • Royal Commission Immigration
  • Royal Commission on the West Indies
  • Colonial Development and Welfare
  • West India Royal Commission
  • Anglo-American Caribbean Commission
  • West Indian Conferences
  • Caribbean Commission Closer Association: British West Indian Colonies
  • Evans Commission.


At sub-subseries level there are a number of important relevant files concerning slavery abolition, for example:

  • CO 318/116: Abolition of Slavery, part 1, 1833.
  • Abolition of Slavery, part 2, 1834.

  • CO 318/150 Slave Compensation Commission, No. 2: Statement of awards and balances of intercolonial apportionment, 1840.

    Further records at sub-subseries level refer to `Negro Education' for example, see:

    • CO 318/122
    • CO 318/126
    • CO 318/130
    • CO 318/131
    • CO 318/137
    • CO 318/138
    • CO 318/139
    • CO 318/145
    • CO 318/152
    • CO 318/156
    • CO 318/163
    • CO 318/165
    • CO 318/167
    • CO 318/168
    • CO 318/169
    • CO 318/171
    • CO 318/173
    • CO 318/176
    • CO 318/178
    • CO 318/181
    • CO 318/185
    • CO 318/190
    • CO 318/192
    • CO 318/193

    Also see: CO 318/388/7, Destitute British subjects of West Indian birth: inter-colonial repatriation

    Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
    Accruals:
    System of arrangement:

    CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA
    Conditions governing access: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
    Conditions governing reproduction:
    Language/scripts of material: English
    Physical characteristics:
    Finding aids: PRO Online Catalogue (PROCAT)
    See also, PROCAT series CO 375, an unpublished finding aid which contains registers of correspondence relating to the West Indies.

    ALLIED MATERIALS AREA
    Existence and location of originals:
    Existence and location of copies:
    Related units of description: For earlier records see PRO Online Catalogue (PROCAT) series: CO 1.
    For further records see PROCAT series: CO 5.
    For later correspondence on indentured labour immigration see PROCAT series: CO 571.
    For records after 1951 see PROCAT series: CO 1031.
    Publication note:

    DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA
    Recorder's note:
    Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
    Date(s) of descriptions: December 2001

    • Interest: Caribbean, Black, Asian

    Specific group:

    INDEX ENTRIES
    Subjects
    Social policy and welfare
    Social and economic development
    Abolition of slavery
    Slavery
    Politics
    Immigration
    Indentured labour
    Education
    Colonization
    Colonialism

    Personal/Corporate names
    Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, 1942-1945
    Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies, 1898-1922
    Royal Commission on the West Indies, 1938-194
    Slave Compensation Commission

    Places
    Virgin Islands
    Montserrat
    Anguilla
    Turks and Caicos Islands
    Cayman Islands
    Barbados
    Trinidad and Tobago
    Windward Islands
    Leeward Islands
    Lesser Antilles
    Puerto Rico
    Dominican Republic
    Haiti
    Jamaica
    Cuba
    Greater Antilles
    Bahamas

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