Belonging To Barbuda
An interview conducted with the spirit of Sarah (Sally) Bullock of Barbuda by
a feminist in the year 2020
Barbudan Feminist: Ms. Bullock thank you very much for agreeing to meet with me for this quick interview.
Sally: Make it quick. I can’t stay on this side very long. To be truthful I don’t have any desire to stay on this side. I hardly recognize Barbuda when I flitter through these days. In other ways it feels as though nothing has changed in these last 250 years.
Barbudan Feminist: Let’s start with the last thing you said. Two hundred and fifty years ago. So when exactly were you born?
Sally: You bring me here to ask foolish questions like that? You think anybody take time to tell enslaved people when and where they born? Many of us didn’t even know who bring us into this world, but not my children. I made sure that they grew up with me and that they knew their father.
Barbudan Feminist: Why was that important to you and how did you make it happen?
Sally: I glad you know is I make it happen. Nothing happen to Sally and Sally’s children by accident. I wanted a better future for my children so I made sure to lighten up their skin just like my mother did for me. I might have been born a slave but I was a Mulatto and a fine pretty light skin one at that and I had brains enough to use everything God gave me to make life better for myself.
Barbudan Feminist: Tell me more Ms. Bullock. Tell me about your life. You had a very famous son who was born in Barbuda, Henry Redhead who became a writer and revolutionist in Europe. How did that happen?
Sally: Let’s start with his father, MY man, Samuel Redhead. Samuel was the Attorney for all of the Codrington estates; those in Antigua and the island of Barbuda. When he got older and his son George (a son he had with his old, white wife in Antigua) was able to take over running Betty’s Hope, My Samuel decided to make Barbuda his main home, or I should say our home.
When he used to visit from Antigua he would stay in the Castle but when he decided to move over completely we wanted our privacy so he built a nice big house for me and the children outside the village.
Barbuda people min too nosey in them days. They always had some rumour to spread and we needed our space.
Barbudan Feminist: What about your son Henry?
Sally: Henry was my best child. He took everything from his father’s blood. Nobody had to know his mother wasn’t white. Sometimes when I looked at him, even I was amazed.
You see technically my little white child was born a slave. I might not have been treated like a slave completely and I didn’t behave like nobody’s slave but the truth was that I and my children were the property of the Codrington Estate; even though their father was the Attorney for the estate.
Barbudan Feminist: How did all that make you feel Ms. Bullock?
Sally: Feel? I didn’t have time to feel anything! Is only you people nowadays always talking about feelings. I was an action woman. When Samuel went with money to Old Codrington to buy my freedom in 1771 and that bastard refused to set me free that was when I put plans in place. I knew that someday I would be free and I wasn’t going to be a poor free Mulato woman.
It was I, Sally Bullock, who was really in charge of Barbuda for many years and Massa Codrington knew it too. That’s why he refused to let Samuel buy me. I was valuable. No dog barked in Barbuda in them days unless Sally said they should. No black dog, no white dog, no Mulatto dog.
Mr Codrington and I had an understanding you might say. He allowed me to live as a free person so long as I made sure that whatever he called for from Barbuda was there.
Barbudan Feminist: So the rumours about you stealing from the Codringtons was true?
Sally: You hear me say that? You never hear me say that! What I will say is that when Samuel left Barbuda for England in 1779 Codrington didn’t know that I and my children were also on board the ship. When later his manager tried to reconcile the books they might not have been able to. I’ll also tell you that once we reached England my son received the best education that
MY money could buy to prepare him for life as a gentleman.
Barbudan Feminist: Last but not least Ms. Bullock could you comment on the rumour that was handed down even in the history books that Mr. Redhead might not have been your only white lover and that the children may not all have actually been his.
Sally: All a alyou the same. Even after all this time you have the nerve to ask me a question like that. Ya lucky I don’t just pop off and maybe take you with me to the great beyond. You listen little Missy. Hear me and hear me good. Many of you have forgotten my name. You have forgotten that a woman of colour was in charge of this little island during a time when white men could have taken my life and had no questions to answer. Think on that when you try to judge me with your 2020 standards.
If Barbudans remembered me maybe they would be stronger now. Next time you see the light, and you know what light I’m talking about, remember that my spirit wants to live on in you.