ORIGIN OF THE MERIKANS FROM TRINIDAD

"During this quick withdrawal 222 American slaves joined the British sailors and

   army in their retreat to the Gulf of Mexico and re-embarkation.   

   Slave owners or their agents                                                                                    

   followed the British to Dauphin Island seeking the return of the Blacks. While 18

  did return, the Americans found the British less then helpful. In some cases ship masters

   stopped the owners from boarding ships. Captains kept the slaves hidden below deck,

   while the Blacks still ashore kept inside the tents the British gave them for shelter so as 

 not to be identified by their former masters. Despite the Treaty of Ghent’s first    paragraph,

    which required the British to return all property and slaves taken, the British officers

re   refused to send back any person who did not wish to return. Two hundred and four

American Blacks from New Orleans were sent to Bermuda before being forwarded to

Trinidad.

As the American Blacks were taken aboard the British ships Rear-Admiral

Edward Codrington ordered all Blacks, both ex-slaves and troops in the West Indies

Regiment (composed of Black troops), shipped in transports separate from the white

troops, in part to encourage enlistment of the newly freed."