SIR SANFORD FREELING: 1880 to 1883
(My Great-Grandfather)

When Sir Sanford Freeling came here in 1880, one of the biggest concerns of the authorities was what
was deemed the outrageous behaviour of the canboulay bands during Carnival. The police chief,
Lionel Fraser, had just been fired and in came Captain Arthur Wybrow Baker declaring he was going
to do away with canboulay.

Canboulay, which comes from the French cannes brullées (burning cane) was a violent aggressive
dance, developed by the ex-slaves to depict the burning cane-fields which they had to deal with during
slavery. These dances featured flambeaux (lighted torches) and drums, and clubs. The police tried to
suppress them and it always led to fights on the Carnival days. The canboulay devotees were
determined to “come out and play,” for Carnival 1881, and that occasion was going to be the test for
Captain Baker. When Carnival 1881 came the trial of strength was almost even. The canboulay
masqueraders and the police beat each other mercilessly. The next morning the canboulay
masqueraders went to the Government House to complain to Sir Sanford Freeling.

Although Freeling was new saw how the police were cruel and he was sympathetic to the
masqueraders. He went down to their chief meeting place, the George Street market, and there he
addressed a vast crowd: “My Friends,” he said, “the police had no intention of stopping your
masquerade. It was the lighted torches they were afraid of because the lighted torches could burn
down the town. If you promise me that you would go out and play your masquerade, and you will
not burn down the town, I will confine the police to barracks and you can go and enjoy yourself
to your heart’s content.”

Captain Baker did not take kindly to Fraser’s action to do this however, and protested to the
Secretary of State for the Colonies. The Secretary of State was appalled at what the governor had
done, but wanted to investigate this thoroughly, and so the case move on slowly. Came Carnival
1882 and 1883, and the enquiry was not yet over. For those Carnivals, Port-of-Spain was as quiet
as a churchyard because the canboulay folk were determined to support the governor. Yet it
confirmed what the authorities called “collusion,” because to have the governor supported by a
wild,  aggressive, noisy group was in itself a scandal. Anyway the authorities, in looking deeply
into the case saw that the only people to benefit by what had transpired were those who
challenged colonial authority, and rather than leave Freeling at his post they recalled him to
England in 1883 and did not send him back.

Sir Sanford Freeling, who came here in 1880, could be said to have changed the Carnival, for in
1884 Baker issued police instructions, that because of that early morning of 1881 when police
and masqueraders alike were beaten without pity, no one would be allowed on the street on
Carnival Monday before the hour of six a.m. Thus, because six a.m. was the opening of day,
it was called jour ouvert. But more than that the Canboulay riots changed the direction
of Carnival. From that time onwards revelers stopped coming out to fight. Carnival then took
the course of becoming the pageantry it is today.