Paria Publishing was founded by the late Trinidadian scholar Gérard A. Besson, who died in July 2023 and left behind three historical works. At the time of his illness, Volume 1, titled “Philippine: Book First – Children of the Sun,” was already finished. His goal was to finish Volume 2, which included “Philippine: Book Second – Souls on Fire, and Book Third – The Representative Man.” He did so just a few days before he passed away. With both novels being finished, Paria Publishing released them just in time for Christmas.
Written during the COVID lockdown, Book One of the Philippine trilogy had an intriguing beginning since the author met Peter Readhead, a fantastic researcher overseas, via email. During a period when no one else could visit archives or repositories, he sent many of the historical papers that shaped the story to Trinidad.
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“Children of the Sun” Jeanette, Free Negro Woman of Grenada, her French husband Honoré Philip, and their children are the subjects of this first book, which is dedicated to him and chronicles the exciting life of an 18th-century free colored family in Grenada, Carriacou, and Trinidad—with trips into France, England, and, on a French corsair raider, all over the Atlantic Ocean.
The history of the Revolutionary Atlantic, when the peoples of the Western World started to struggle against the bonds of monarchy and slavery and overthrew the established social order, is dramatically reflected in the numerous Philip family members.
As mentioned in the extract, “In the distance he saw that she was returning. He thought to rise and run into the sea, but found that he was incapable of flight. Paralyzed, not even his eyes could shift away as she drew closer. She passed quite near, leaving her footprints in the crystal sand. He thought to gather them, but could only manage to put a hand upon the two that were within his reach, believing that he felt the residue of her warmth.”
The source papers that Besson reviewed to compose the book are available online in Philippine Volume 1 on his blog, www.caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com.
In the year following the author’s death, Bridget Brereton, a longtime friend and Professor Emerita, helped Paria Publishing edit Volume 11. She is honored in Volume 11.
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Philip, the “Free Mulatto,” is the subject of Book Two. He is descended from Jeannette and Honoré Philip from Book One. In addition to being an alienist (what is now known as a psychologist) and one of the “Souls on Fire” of the early 19th-century Romantic Movement, Dr. Philip fought and won the first civil rights case in the New World on behalf of the free colored people in Trinidad, an accomplishment that, with emancipation, also benefited the former slaves and eventually the entire population. He also investigated the psychological effects of colonial prejudice on his people.
An excerpt from the book noted: “Jean-Baptiste was such a unique man, a doctor of both the body and the mind. He was passionate about us, his family, and our cause. His friends abroad, as Fr. De Ridder said in his oration, described him as ‘a Soul on Fire!’ I knew as a man inspired.”
The biographical account of Maxwell Philip, another member of the Philip family in Trinidad, is found in Book Three of Volume 11. He became known as “The Representative Man,” a prominent figure in Port of Spain politics and law in the middle of the 19th century. It is set in the 1920s, and the author allows a young C.L.R. James to “discover” Maxwell through his conversations with Ethel Broadway, Maxwell’s daughter, and Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani.
You may buy the books online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon, as well as in your neighborhood bookshop.
