ABSTRACT
Little is known of Yorke’s early life but new evidence is revealed here. This chapter examines Yorke’s background and his early life on Barbuda in a slave society. Yorke lived there part-time with his mother, Sarah Bullock (a freed slave), his illegitimate siblings, and his father, Samuel Redhead. It is unlikely Yorke was baptised or educated while living on Barbuda. Redhead, a sugar plantation owner in Antigua, also managed Barbuda, and Antiguan plantations for the absentee owners, the Codrington family. Attitudes toward Redhead and Bullock by the Codringtons and their representatives, from Britain or Antigua, reveal much negativity. There is particular evidence of racial and gender prejudice towards Bullock.
Samuel Redhead’s life is examined within the context of Georgian ideas about West Indian planters as promoted in England by writers such as Edward Long. This chapter notes how sexual miscegenation increased hostility to planter families. Such behaviour challenged Christian morals and English ideals of colonial masculinity. New concepts of national identity linked to race, emerging in Britain, and how they played out on the ground in the West Indies are considered here. How such issues affected the development of Yorke’s early identity is addressed.
