Susannah Ostrehan (died 1809) was a Barbadian businesswoman who owned a number of properties in

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...

. She was a

freed slave A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

, and acquired a number of slaves herself, many of which were friends or family she purchased in order to expedite their

manumission Manumission, or enfranchisement, is the act of freeing slaves by their owners. Different approaches to manumission were developed, each specific to the time and place of a particular society. Historian Verene Shepherd states that the most wi ...

Early life

Ostrehan was born into slavery. Her mother Priscilla had several other children and was owned by the Ostrehan family, who had been on the island since the 1600s and were prominent members of the

plantocracy A slavocracy (from ''slave'' + '' -ocracy'') is a society primarily ruled by a class of slaveholders, such as those in the southern United States and their confederacy during the American Civil War. The term was initially coined in the 1830s ...

. Ostrehan was a mulatta, likely fathered by her mother's owner or one of his relatives. It is unclear at what point she was freed, but it occurred relatively early in her life; her mother and siblings remained enslaved.

Holdings

Property

By 1779, Ostrehan owned two houses in central Bridgetown, one on Reed Street and one on Back Church Street (now Suttle Street). Their tax assessment had increased significantly by the following year, suggesting substantial improvements had been made to the properties. Ostrehan continued to expand her property holdings over the following decades, and even expanded into other colonies – in 1799, she bought two seafront lots in St. George's, the capital of

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

, which she had previously been renting. There is no definite evidence of what the properties were used for, but at least some of them were likely to have been hotels or boardinghouses.Candlin & Pybus (2015), p. 89.

Slaves

As was common for free blacks, Ostrehan assisted enslaved people once she had the means to do so. Some of the people she owned were family members, including her mother and probably her siblings – she "clearly felt that personal ownership of her family members was the safest option in a society ruled by private property". Others she purchased solely in order to free. Barbados had extremely strict

laws at the time, which had been imposed in order to limit the number of free blacks on the island. Owners had to pay £200 for male slaves and £300 for female slaves, and also had to

show cause An order to show cause is a court order that requires one or more of the parties to a case to justify, explain, or prove something to the court. Courts commonly use orders to show cause when the judge needs more information before deciding whether ...

to the local authorities. It was often cheaper to manumit in other colonies, and Ostrehan assisted manumissions in

Dominica Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of t ...

, and

Berbice Berbice () is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1792 a colony of the Dutch West India Company and between 1792 and 1815 a colony of the Dutch state. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom of Great Brita ...

at various times. She also used agents to manumit family members, like her mother and niece Elizabeth Swain Bannister, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. She kept slaves to work on her properties, and no attempts to free them were made before her death.

Death and estate

By the time of her death in late 1809, Ostrehan's wealth was concentrated in "two very large houses" in Bridgetown, which were valued at a combined total of £2,850. The total value of her estate was around £4,000, which included several smaller properties, household effects (mahogany furniture, silverware, porcelain), and thirteen slaves. Ostrehan had no children of her own, and willed most of her fortune to her two nieces, Mary and Susannah II.Candlin & Pybus (2015), p. 90. Her mother was still enslaved at the time of her death, and thus unable to inherit property; she was willed to a friend, Christian Blackman, with instructions to free her and provide her a house. Four white acquaintances received £100 each, demonstrating the extent of her connections in Barbadian society. Ostrehan's nieces carried on the same line of business, operating hotels in the new colonies of

Demerara Demerara (; , ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 unti ...

and

; Susannah II continued to own slaves up until the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...

in 1833, and received compensation for her loss.Candlin & Pybus (2015), p. 99.

References