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As was common for free blacks, Ostrehan assisted enslaved people once she had the means to do so. Some of the people she owned were family members, including her mother and probably her siblings – she "clearly felt that personal ownership of her family members was the safest option in a society ruled
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By 1779, Ostrehan owned two houses in central
Bridgetown, one on Reed Street and one on Back Church Street (now Suttle Street). Their tax assessment had increased significantly by the following year, suggesting substantial improvements had been made to the properties. Ostrehan continued to expand her
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Her mother was still enslaved at the time of her death, and thus unable to inherit property; she was willed to a friend, Christian
Blackman, with instructions to free her and provide her a house. Four white acquaintances received £100 each, demonstrating the extent of her connections in Barbadian
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By the time of her death in late 1809, Ostrehan's wealth was concentrated in "two very large houses" in
Bridgetown, which were valued at a combined total of £2,850. The total value of her estate was around £4,000, which included several smaller properties, household effects (mahogany furniture,
51:, likely fathered by her mother's owner or one of his relatives. It is unclear at what point she was freed, but it occurred relatively early in her life; her mother and siblings remained enslaved.
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Ostrehan was born into slavery. Her mother
Priscilla had several other children and was owned by the Ostrehan family, who had been on the island since the 1600s and were prominent members of the
73:, which she had previously been renting. There is no definite evidence of what the properties were used for, but at least some of them were likely to have been hotels or boardinghouses.
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laws at the time, which had been imposed in order to limit the number of free blacks on the island. Owners had to pay £200 for male slaves and £300 for female slaves, and also had to
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silverware, porcelain), and thirteen slaves. Ostrehan had no children of her own, and willed most of her fortune to her two nieces, Mary and
Susannah II.
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property holdings over the following decades, and even expanded into other colonies – in 1799, she bought two seafront lots in
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to the local authorities. It was often cheaper to manumit in other colonies, and
Ostrehan assisted manumissions in
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Candlin, Kit; Pybus, Cassandra (2015). "A Lasting
Testament of Gratitude: Susannah Ostrehan and her nieces".
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society. Ostrehan's nieces carried on the same line of business, operating hotels in the new colonies of
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110:. She kept slaves to work on her properties, and no attempts to free them were made before her death.
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by private property". Others she purchased solely in order to free. Barbados had extremely strict
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at various times. She also used agents to manumit family members, like her mother and niece
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Enterprising Women: Gender, Race, and Power in the
Revolutionary Atlantic
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178:. University of Georgia Press. p. 87.
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306:18th-century British businesspeople
301:19th-century British businesspeople
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311:18th-century British businesswomen
259:Candlin & Pybus (2015), p. 99.
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155:Dorothy Thomas (entrepreneur)
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104:Elizabeth Swain Bannister
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281:Barbadian businesspeople
150:Rachael Pringle Polgreen
296:Barbadian slave owners
133:abolition of slavery
145:Amaryllis Collymore
321:Women slave owners
19:(died 1809) was a
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47:. Ostrehan was a
17:Susannah Ostrehan
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27:. She was a
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276:1809 deaths
84:manumission
45:plantocracy
33:manumission
29:freed slave
270:Categories
161:References
88:show cause
39:Early life
25:Bridgetown
21:Barbadian
139:See also
125:Demerara
96:Dominica
60:Property
55:Holdings
129:Berbice
100:Berbice
92:Grenada
71:Grenada
49:mulatta
108:London
98:, and
77:Slaves
106:, in
127:and
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234:^
193:^
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35:.
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