Dr. Eric Williams
| Eric Williams was born on September 25, 1911, the son of Elisa and Henry Williams, a Post Office official in Trinidad. He was educated at Queen's
Royal College and won the Island Scholarship to Oxford University. At Oxford, he placed first in the First Class of the History Honours School and received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1938. His doctoral thesis, The Economic
Aspect of the West Indian Slave Trade and Slavery,considered an important contribution to research on the subject, was published in 1944 in his larger work Capitalism and Slavery. |
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In 1939, Williams journeyed to the United States and accepted the position of assistant professor of social and political sciences at Howard University. He organized several courses, including a humanities course for which he developed a three-volume work called Documents Illustrating the Development of
Civilization (1947). While at Howard, Williams also worked as a consultant to the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, a body set up after the war to study the future of the region. In 1948, he left Howard to head the Research Branch of the Caribbean Commission. He later (1955) resigned from the
Commission in protest to its colonial policies. |
| Williams returned to Trinidad and Tobago and became more involved in politics. His first major political speech was titled My Relations with the
Caribbean Commission (1955). A year later, Williams formed the People's National Movement (PNM), a political party of which he became the leader. In September of 1956, the PNM won the national elections and he became the chief minister of the country from 1956 to 1959, premier from 1959 to 1962, and prime minister from 1962 to 1981. During his term as prime minister,
Williams led Trinidad and Tobago into the Federation of the West Indies and to independence within the Commonwealth in 1962. Williams died in office on March 29, 1981. Often called the "Father of the Nation," Williams remains one of the most significant leaders in the history of modern Trinidad and Tobago. (Information and photo courtesy of Eric E. Williams Speaks: Essays on Colonialism and Independence ed. by Selwyn R. Cudjoe) |
