Feb 18 (University of Guyana, Press Release) – For years, the lives of incarcerated women in colonial Guyana existed only in fragments, scattered across disciplinary reports, punishment books, and archival silences. Now, those voices have been gathered, restored, and placed at the centre of history in a powerful new book: “Slavery, Indentureship, and Women’s Labor Early British Guiana’s Jails” by Dr Estherine Adams, Head of the Department of History and Caribbean Studies in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Guyana.
Building on her award-winning research, Dr Adams has released a full-length scholarly work that offers the most comprehensive account to date of women’s imprisonment and labour in early British Guiana. The book traces the hidden histories of African and Indian women whose lives were shaped by colonial systems of punishment, coercion, and control, revealing how prisons functioned not merely as sites of discipline, but as crucial engines of labour in the colonial economy.
The publication comes on the heels of international recognition for Dr Adams’s earlier article, “At Work, in Hospital, or in Gaol: Women in British Guiana’s Jails, 1838–1917,” which recently won the ASSLH Edna Ryan Prize for Best Article on Women’s History (2023–2024). The judges praised the paper for its originality, theoretical depth, and human sensitivity, describing it as “beautifully written to imagine and illuminate the lives of female indentured labourers in British Guiana.”
While the prize-winning article made a significant intervention into debates about prison labour and women’s incarceration, Dr Adams noted that the book allowed her to go much further. “The article revealed the limits of the format. Expanding the research into a book has allowed me to fully develop the historical arc of women’s imprisonment and to situate it more clearly within wider debates about colonial labour regimes, gender, and punishment,” She added.
The book moves beyond a single period or argument, tracing women’s experiences across a much longer historical span, including the pre-emancipation era. It incorporates a broader range of archival voices and explores everyday strategies of survival, resistance, and negotiation within carceral spaces. Through micro-histories and individual cases, Dr Adams constructs a layered, deeply human narrative of women who were often rendered invisible in official records.
Organised both thematically and chronologically, the book begins with the development of colonial prison systems during the Dutch occupation, before moving into chapters on key sites such as the first all-women’s prison, work gangs, and moments of discipline and resistance. Across its pages, readers encounter recurring themes of coerced labour, race, gendered punishment, and the blurred lines between welfare and control in colonial governance.
For Guyanese and Caribbean readers in particular, the book holds significance. It recovers a neglected dimension of regional history and places women at the centre of narratives about colonial power. “This book is about more than prisons. It is about how power operated through gender, race, and labour, and how ordinary women navigated and sometimes challenged that power. These histories continue to shape our legal and social institutions today,” she explained.
The work speaks not only to scholars of slavery, indentureship, gender studies, and carceral history, but also to anyone interested in understanding Guyana’s past through the lives of those long erased from the record. It stands as both an academic contribution and an act of historical recovery.
Through this remarkable publication, Dr Estherine Adams ensures that the whispered lives of colonial Guyanese women are no longer confined to archival margins, but recognised as central to understanding the region’s history, not as footnotes, but as voices finally heard.
Dr Adams’s achievement also reflects the growing international impact of scholarship produced at the University of Guyana.
The book is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats and is scheduled for official release in October. Readers can pre-order through:
For pre-order on the publisher’s website (University Press of Mississippi):
https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Slavery-Indentureship-and-Women-s-Labor
The University of Guyana, through its students, faculty and research institutes, has consistently produced path-breaking research which continues to add to the existing body of knowledge in various areas of academic research. To learn more about UG’s research, please visit: https://researchandinnovation.uog.edu.gy/
Editor’s note: This article is republished from a press release issued by the University of Guyana.
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