33:
234:, she manumitted an enslaved person named Joanna and transferred ownership of two of the other people she enslaved to Joanna. She also freed an enslaved person named Princess and four mulatto children. The rest of the people she enslaved were bequeathed to "William Firebrace and his female relatives, William Stevens, and Captain Thomas Pringle". It is unclear from the will whether the freedom of Joanna discounted her earlier manumission or whether it terminated her contract of indenture.
217:, a scholar who studies enslaved women of the Caribbean, has evaluated how formerly enslaved women became dependent upon the slave economy and thus perpetuated the system of exploitation of others. For example, in 1780, Polgreen sold a woman named Joanna to a soldier, Joseph Haycock, who manumitted her. Unable to support herself as a free woman, three years later, Joanna
168:, from his father John Orderson, would have been a teenager during Polgreen's life; it is probable from the evidence of advertisements placed in his paper by Polgreen that the two knew each other. Other than archival records, a lithograph, and Orderson's stereotyped and sexualized retelling of her life with its intent to make a moral statement against
221:
herself to
Polgreen for twelve years in exchange for clothing, food, and drink. Likewise, though Polgreen was able to amass property and gain an economic position similar to many white business people, she was only able to do that in an endeavor that would not have been considered respectable for her
188:
After settling Lauder in the house, Pringle left the island, returning to his military career. Lauder took his name and later took the surname
Polgreen, though it is unclear whether that was due to another relationship. She turned the house Pringle purchased for her into a hotel, which also served as
248:
depicts
Polgreen sitting in front of her establishment, which is adorned with a sign proclaiming "Pawpaw Sweetmeats & Pickles of all Sorts by Rachel PP". Behind her and to her left in the work is a young woman, clad in a low-cut dress, facing a portly white man wearing tattered garments. To her
293:
Current scholarship is reevaluating her story once again to ascertain how the complexities of her life, such as her sexual abuse and then sexual exploitation of others, living under the threat of punishment and then domination of others, interacted, keeping in mind that the discourse is colored by
196:
visited her hotel, wrecking it in a drunken spree, and threw
Polgreen from her chair into the street, Orderson tells that she sent the prince (later King William IV) a hefty bill for damages. She named the establishment the Royal Naval Hotel, referencing the prince and the navy as her prestigious
257:
reference to
Polgreen's life, with the woman in the background representing Polgreen as a young woman, the tattered man depicting her master-father-abuser, and the officer illustrating her savior Pringle. Fuentes noted that figures and the sign allude to sexuality, as is typical for works by
132:
women to operate a business in the colony. Rising to prominence, her story has been told and retold in Bajan history, with the narrative being shaped by different eras. At times, her biography was used as a cautionary tale, while in other eras, it was used to illustrate empowerment. Recent
225:
Polgreen accrued an estate worth over £2,900, which included houses, goods, furnishings, and thirty-eight enslaved people. Comparable to an estate of a moderately well-to-do white person at the time, her wealth bound her to an affluent social network, allowing her burial in the
285:
Her legacy has been used repeatedly in Bajan historiography to represent different images at different times. In the nineteenth century, her story was exploited as a cautionary tale about the dangers of not curtailing the sexuality of black women. In the
290:, Polgreen's story was used by elites to foster a sense of the benefits to be gained by accommodation and loyalty to Britain. Still later, she began to symbolize the power that black women could wield in resistance to slavery.
201:
in 1789 offered a reward from
Polgreen for the return of several items. The publication dates coincide with the prince's visit to the island and might indicate that there is some truth to the novel's depiction of events.
282:, who ran it successfully for a decade, before turning it over to Carolyn Barrow (also sometimes Charlotte Barrow). It continued in business until it was destroyed in a fire in 1821.
275:
604:
Fuentes, Marisa J. (2016a). "Power and historical figuring: Rachael
Pringle Polgreen's Troubled Archive". In Brier, Jennifer; Downs, Jim; Morgan, Jennifer L. (eds.).
636:
133:
scholarship has focused on archival records in an attempt to provide a clearer picture of
African and African-descended women's lives during the slave economy.
262:
of the words both indicate that
Polgreen was involved in the market economy, but also refer to the consumption of women's bodies (delectable fruit) by men (
121:, her freedom was purchased, and she became the owner of the Royal Naval Hotel, a brothel that catered to the itinerant military personnel on the island of
852:
118:
32:
717:
756:
690:
817:
679:
646:
621:
594:
172:, little is known from her perspective of her life. In Orderson's narrative, she was purchased by Captain Thomas Pringle, an officer in the
744:
847:
837:
586:
193:
832:
812:
635:
Fuentes, Marisa J. (2016b). "Pringle
Polgreen, Rachael (c. 1753–1791)". In Knight, Franklin W.; Gates, Jr, Henry Louis (eds.).
613:
213:
allowed enslavers to punish people they enslaved with extreme violence, nor was her running of a brothel controversial.
857:
722:
279:
176:, to rescue her from her sexually abusive father. Pringle and Lauder had become lovers and after he purchased her, he
827:
209:
minutes of 1791 paint a portrait of Polgreen as having a violent temper and abusing the people she enslaved. The
822:
206:
253:
contained an anonymously written article analyzing the painting. The author claimed that the painting was an
671:
197:
clients. Whether the story of the encounter is legend or not is unknown; however, an advertisement in the
802:
727:
700:
189:
a brothel, offering sexual services to the itinerant military personnel traveling through Bridgetown.
807:
218:
150:
142:
57:
287:
210:
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61:
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263:
237:
214:
38:
776:
580:
259:
154:
691:"'The negative side of history': Marisa J. Fuentes discusses the dark side of Barbados"
110:
796:
169:
294:
the facts that she was an illiterate woman of color and did not tell her own story.
627:
254:
227:
177:
249:
right is a white British military officer peering from a window. In 1958, the
245:
241:
173:
764:
772:
745:""Unhappy and Afflicted Women?": Free Colored Women in Barbados: 1780-1834"
667:
Cities of Empire: The British Colonies and the Creation of the Urban World
122:
164:
in 1855, which details her life. Orderson, who inherited the newspaper,
606:
129:
114:
278:
churchyard in Bridgetown on 23 July 1791. Her hotel was taken over by
654:
582:
Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive
522:
520:
507:
505:
503:
501:
638:
Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro–Latin American Biography
416:
414:
377:
375:
373:
336:
334:
332:
330:
608:
Connexions: Histories of Race and Sex in North America
317:
315:
313:
311:
726:. Fontabelle, Saint Michael, Barbados. Archived from
251:
Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society
96:
88:
80:
68:
46:
23:
605:
276:Cathedral Church of Saint Michael and All Angels
699:. Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Archived from
180:her and set her up in a house in Bridgetown.
8:
641:. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
393:
31:
20:
75:Bridgetown, Barbados, British West Indies
16:Afro-Barbadian hotelier and brothel owner
538:
526:
511:
492:
480:
468:
444:
432:
420:
405:
381:
364:
352:
340:
321:
37:Rachel Pringle Polgreen, as depicted in
757:Interamerican University of Puerto Rico
307:
456:
716:Martindale, Carol (6 November 2012).
562:
7:
550:
743:Welch, Pedro L.V. (December 1999).
141:Born Rachael Lauder around 1753 in
853:18th-century British businesswomen
14:
145:, Barbados, in the colony of the
755:(1–4). San Germán, Puerto Rico:
587:University of Pennsylvania Press
718:"Things Bajan: Rachael Pringle"
689:Jensen, Rachel (8 March 2018).
240:, an English artist, printed a
230:cemetery. Per the terms of her
585:. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
160:J. W. Orderson wrote a novel,
1:
749:Revista/Review Interamericana
818:African diaspora in Barbados
614:University of Illinois Press
579:Fuentes, Marisa J. (2016c).
153:and William Lauder, a white
72:1791 (aged 37–38)
274:Polgreen was buried in the
192:After an incident in which
874:
205:Archival records from the
848:Brothel owners and madams
244:of Polgreen in 1796. The
128:She was one of the first
30:
838:Barbadian businesspeople
107:Rachael Pringle Polgreen
25:Rachael Pringle Polgreen
664:Hunt, Tristram (2014).
659:(subscription required)
655:Oxford University Press
612:. Champaign, Illinois:
100:hotelier, brothel owner
833:Barbadian slave owners
813:People from Bridgetown
672:Henry Holt and Company
670:. New York, New York:
653: – via
109:(c. 1753–1791) was an
657:'s Reference Online
616:. pp. 143–168.
288:post-colonial period
222:white counterparts.
194:Prince William Henry
553:, pp. 101–102.
541:, pp. 159–160.
367:, pp. 150–151.
211:Barbados Slave Code
147:British West Indies
62:British West Indies
39:Thomas Rowlandson's
858:Women slave owners
779:on 3 February 2020
696:The Daily Tar Heel
681:978-0-8050-9600-2
648:978-0-199-93580-2
623:978-0-252-09881-9
596:978-0-8122-9300-5
264:phallic symbolism
238:Thomas Rowlandson
215:Marisa J. Fuentes
117:owner. Born into
104:
103:
865:
828:Barbadian slaves
788:
786:
784:
775:. Archived from
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270:Death and legacy
258:Rowlandson. The
199:Barbados Gazette
166:Barbados Mercury
89:Other names
35:
21:
873:
872:
868:
867:
866:
864:
863:
862:
823:Barbadian women
793:
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780:
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730:on 13 June 2017
715:
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394:Martindale 2012
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309:
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260:double entendre
186:
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76:
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53:
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42:
41:1796 lithograph
26:
17:
12:
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5:
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555:
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531:
529:, p. 149.
516:
514:, p. 148.
497:
485:
483:, p. 159.
473:
461:
449:
437:
435:, p. 156.
425:
423:, p. 155.
410:
408:, p. 154.
398:
386:
384:, p. 150.
369:
357:
355:, p. 151.
345:
343:, p. 147.
326:
306:
304:
301:
299:
296:
271:
268:
185:
182:
157:schoolmaster.
151:enslaved woman
138:
135:
111:Afro-Barbadian
102:
101:
98:
94:
93:
92:Rachel Pringle
90:
86:
85:
82:
78:
77:
74:
70:
66:
65:
56:
51:Rachael Lauder
50:
48:
44:
43:
36:
28:
27:
24:
15:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
870:
859:
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854:
851:
849:
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839:
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766:
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729:
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714:
703:on 3 May 2018
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539:Fuentes 2016a
535:
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527:Fuentes 2016a
523:
521:
517:
513:
512:Fuentes 2016a
508:
506:
504:
502:
498:
495:, p. 50.
494:
493:Fuentes 2016c
489:
486:
482:
481:Fuentes 2016a
477:
474:
471:, p. 51.
470:
469:Fuentes 2016c
465:
462:
458:
453:
450:
447:, p. 48.
446:
445:Fuentes 2016c
441:
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433:Fuentes 2016a
429:
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421:Fuentes 2016a
417:
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406:Fuentes 2016a
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353:Fuentes 2016a
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207:Privy Council
203:
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170:miscegenation
167:
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113:hotelier and
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97:Occupation(s)
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49:
45:
40:
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29:
22:
19:
803:1750s births
781:. Retrieved
777:the original
752:
748:
732:. Retrieved
728:the original
721:
705:. Retrieved
701:the original
694:
666:
637:
628:Project MUSE
626:– via
607:
581:
572:Bibliography
558:
546:
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389:
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280:Nancy Clarke
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127:
106:
105:
60:, Barbados,
18:
808:1791 deaths
723:Nation News
457:Jensen 2018
255:allegorical
81:Nationality
797:Categories
783:8 February
563:Welch 1999
298:References
246:caricature
242:lithograph
219:indentured
178:manumitted
174:Royal Navy
143:Bridgetown
137:Early life
58:Bridgetown
843:Hoteliers
765:0360-7917
551:Hunt 2014
303:Citations
162:Creoleana
84:Barbadian
773:22106505
228:Anglican
155:Scottish
123:Barbados
759:: n/a.
130:mulatto
119:slavery
115:brothel
54:c. 1753
771:
763:
678:
645:
620:
593:
184:Career
149:to an
734:3 May
707:3 May
785:2020
769:PMID
761:ISSN
736:2018
709:2018
676:ISBN
643:ISBN
618:ISBN
591:ISBN
232:will
69:Died
47:Born
266:).
799::
767:.
753:29
751:.
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519:^
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125:.
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324:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
