Susannah Ostrehan facts for kids

Susannah Ostrehan (who died in 1809) was a successful businesswoman from Barbados. She owned many buildings in Bridgetown, the capital city. Susannah was once an enslaved person, but she gained her freedom. After becoming free, she bought enslaved people herself. Many of these were her friends or family members whom she bought to help them become free, too. This process of freeing enslaved people was called manumission.

Susannah's Early Life

Susannah Ostrehan was born into slavery. Her mother, Priscilla, had several other children and was owned by the Ostrehan family. This family had lived in Barbados since the 1600s and were important landowners. Susannah was of mixed race, likely because her father was her mother's owner or one of his relatives. It's not clear exactly when Susannah became free, but it happened quite early in her life. Her mother and siblings, however, remained enslaved for a longer time.

What Susannah Owned

Her Properties and Buildings

By 1779, Susannah Ostrehan owned two houses in the center of Bridgetown. One was on Reed Street and the other on Back Church Street (which is now Suttle Street). The value of these properties for tax purposes went up a lot the next year. This suggests that she made big improvements to them.

Susannah kept buying more properties over the next few decades. She even bought land in other places. In 1799, she bought two plots of land by the sea in St. George's, the capital of Grenada. She had been renting these plots before. We don't know for sure what these properties were used for. However, it's likely that some of them were hotels or guesthouses where people could stay.

Enslaved People She Owned

It was common for free Black people who had enough money to buy enslaved people. Susannah Ostrehan did this once she had the means. Some of the people she owned were her own family members, including her mother and probably her siblings. She felt that owning her family members was the safest way to protect them in a society where private property was so important.

She also bought other enslaved people just to set them free. At that time, Barbados had very strict laws about freeing enslaved people. These laws were put in place to limit the number of free Black people on the island. Owners had to pay a lot of money: £200 for male enslaved people and £300 for female enslaved people. They also had to get permission from local authorities.

It was often cheaper to free people in other colonies. Susannah helped with manumissions in Grenada, Dominica, and Berbice at different times. She also used people in London to free family members, like her mother and her niece Elizabeth Swain Bannister. However, some of the enslaved people she owned were kept to work on her properties. No attempts were made to free them before she died.

Susannah's Death and What She Left Behind

When Susannah Ostrehan died in late 1809, most of her wealth was in "two very large houses" in Bridgetown. These houses were worth a total of £2,850. Her entire estate was worth about £4,000. This included several smaller properties, household items like mahogany furniture, silverware, and porcelain, and thirteen enslaved people.

Susannah did not have any children of her own. She left most of her money to her two nieces, Mary and Susannah II. Her mother was still enslaved when Susannah died, so she could not inherit property. Susannah left her mother to a friend, Christian Blackman, with instructions to free her and give her a house. Four white friends each received £100. This shows how well-connected Susannah was in Barbadian society.

Susannah's nieces continued her business, running hotels in the new colonies of Demerara and Berbice. Susannah II continued to own enslaved people until slavery was abolished in 1833 by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. She received money for the loss of the enslaved people she owned.

See also

• Amaryllis Collymore
• Rachael Pringle Polgreen
• Dorothy Thomas (entrepreneur)