Philip Rostant | |
|---|---|
| Born | Philippe Rostant 1822 |
| Died | June 14, 1904 (aged 81–82) |
Philip Rostant (1822–14 June 1904) was a Trinidad and Tobago newspaper editor and social activist.[1]
Early life and education
editRostant was born in 1822, the second son of Léon Toussaint Rostant, a Trinidadian planter of French descent, and Marie Louise d'Angleberne, the daughter of a French army officer who had settled in Martinique in 1793 during the French Revolution.[1]: 189 He was educated in Ireland and Paris, before returning to Trinidad.[1]: 197
Early political career and exile
editHe left his father's estates and moved to Port of Spain where entered politics and was elected to the Port of Spain town council in 1848. In 1853 he was elected to the newly organised Port of Spain Borough Council. Having gone into debt to support his lifestyle, Rostant resigned from the council in 1855 after his father and brother agreed to provide security for his debts.[1]: 197–198
In 1862, to escape Léon Toussaint Rostant's creditors and the threat of imprisonment, the family fled first to Venezuela, and then to Puerto Rico. In 1866 they moved to Dominica before returning to Trinidad.[1]: 192–194 Historian Anthony de Verteuil reports that Philip Rostant "apparently" returned to Trinidad in 1867.[1]: 198
Newspapers and political reform
editBetween January 1881 and October 1884 Rostant served as editor of the Port of Spain Gazette, before leaving to launch a rival paper, Public Opinion[2] which was financed by Hypolite Borde.[1]: 206 Rostant was editor of the paper until 1889[1]: 211 when it was sold to Joseph de la Sauvagère.[1]: 213 After the sale of Public Opinion Rostant launched a new paper, Reform.[1]: 206 Bridget Brereton also reports that he was involved with the San Fernando Gazette.[3]: 54
Brereton says that despite his background, Rostant "stands out as the most radical political leader of the later years of the [nineteenth] century" and describes his hostility to British officialdom as "a kind of anti-colonialism".[3]: 56
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Verteuil, Anthony (2010). "Philip Rostant: Newspapers". Trinidad's French legacy. Port of Spain: Litho Press. pp. 187–214. ISBN 978-976-95299-0-8. OCLC 754915109.
- ^ Will, H. A. (1970). Constitutional change in the British West Indies, 1880-1903: with special reference to Jamaica, British Guiana, and Trinidad. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 978-0-19-822335-1.
- ^ a b Brereton, Bridget (1979). Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad 1870-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.