ABSTRACT
The yearning of the ex-slaves for social and economic advancement and independence, and the availability of land, led to a significant decline and a growing irregularity in their supply of labour to the plantations. The historical evidence is thus overwhelming in support of the hypothesis that race was the primary factor of social segmentation in post-emancipation Guyana, and that it was mainly responsible for the isolation and insulation of the several social groups behind ethnic boundaries, across which there was very little social interaction. One of the most critical features of the social order was the domination of the political system by the small white minority. The gradual breakdown of the racial barrier by individual black and coloured elites, further demonstrated by the increase in white-coloured marriages, facilitated their incorporation into the more privileged sectors of the colonial society on a basis of equality.
