The 1938-39 Moyne Commission and the Status of Children in Barbados

What is it about?

This article focuses on the investigation by the Royal Commission of Enquiry -- dispatched to the British West Indies after the riots of the 1930s -- of the status of children in Barbados. It shows how the process of reform was ultimately mediated through the commissioners' own brand of bureaucratic paternalism, as they took aim at both the local oligarchy and the dysfunctional culture of the black working classes. The focus on Barbados yields particularly rich insights because of its specifics.

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Why is it important?

This article helps to bring the Anglophone Caribbean into the growing literature on the history and sociology of childhood, and adds to the ongoing effort to make a case for the specificity of childhood(s) under colonialism.