Liminal figures: poor whites, freedmen, and racial reinscription in colonial Barbados

The author argues that liminal groups occupied uncertain positions within c olonial societies and that this reveals the complexities and tensions atten dant with colonial rule. The ambiguous nature of such groups does not simpl y reflect divisions within the colonising elite, but also the acts and repr esentations of subalterns, including the liminal groups themselves. Focusin g on the debates about the poor whites and freedmen in early 19th-century B arbados, the author seeks to explore a project of 'racial reinscription' wh ich focused on a particular attempt to reproduce colonial whiteness. The re sistance to and failure of this project reveal the dynamic and contested na ture both of liminality and of colonial whiteness. In this way, the author aims to contribute to the growing critical literature on whiteness, and to do so in a way that avoids its recentring.