Jean-Baptiste Philip

Jean-Baptiste Philip (1796 – 1829), sometimes spelled "Phillipe," was a Trinidad-born doctor and the leader of an activist group formed in Trinidad in 1823, which fought against the racist attitudes of colonial authorities through letters and petitions.

[1] He was a complex figure as he fought against racist attitudes of colonial authorities in Trinidad while also belonging to a Black slave-owning family.

[7][8] Despite this, Philip sought to challenge the racial discrimination he faced in the medical profession in the Caribbean and critiqued the many inequalities between the Black and the White population.

[4] The text was a call on the British governor of Trinidad, Bathurst to grant the "coloured population" of the island the same "civil and political privileges as their white fellow subjects."

[5] Philip states that the text aims to highlight the prejudices free Blacks in Trinidad face in order to inspire Bathurst to act.

[4] Philip presents the introduction of these repressive laws as a response to agitation by whites for superiority over the Black population and references disturbances on other Caribbean islands as creating fear.

[4] Later British governors made additional restrictive proclamations, which Philip describes as reducing the condition of free Blacks on the island to the same as those on other West Indian settlements.

[5] Philip campaigned for complete racial equality in Trinidad, contributing to a larger movement of petitions between 1823-4 calling for new laws that equalised free men of colour and white people.