The Merikins were African-American refugees of the War of 1812 – freed black slaves who fought for the British against the USA in the Corps of Colonial Marines. freed black slaves were recruited by the British during the American Revolution. There was a similar policy and six companies of freed black slaves were recruited into a Corps of Colonial Marines along the Atlantic coast, from Chesapeake Bay to Georgia After that war, they were settled in colonies of British Empire including Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas. After the end of the War, the Colonial Marines were first stationed at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda, and on rejecting government orders to be transferred to the West India Regiments, agreed to be settled in Trinidad.
The Governor of Trinidad, Sir Ralph Woodford, wanted to increase the number of small farmers in that colony and arranged for the creation of a village for each company on the Naparima Plain in the south of the island.They established as a community in the south of Trinidad in 1815–16.They were settled in an area populated by French-speaking Catholics as an English-speaking, Baptist community. Unlike the American refugees who were brought to Trinidad in 1815 in ships of the Royal Navy, the ex-marines were brought there in 1816 in hired transports. There were 574 former soldiers plus about 200 women and children. To balance the sexes, more black women were subsequently recruited – women who had been freed from other places such as captured French slave ships. The six companies were each settled in a separate village under the command of a corporal or sergeant, who maintained a military style of discipline. The villages were named after the companies. Some of the Company villages and land grants established back then still exist in Trinidad today. The Fifth and Sixth Company villages still retain those names.
The villages were in a forested area of the Naparima Plain near a former Spanish mission, La Misión de Savana Grande. Each soldier was granted 16 acres of land and some of these plots are still farmed today by descendants of an original settler. The land was fertile but the conditions were primitive initially as the land had to be cleared and the lack of roads was an special problem. Some of the settlers were craftsmen more used to an urban environment and, as they had been expecting better, they were disgruntled and some returned to America. The rest persisted, building houses from the felled timber, and planting crops of bananas, cassava, maize and potatoes. Rice was introduced from America and was especially useful because it could be stored for long periods without spoiling.
Twenty years after the initial establishment, the then governor arranged for the settlers to get deeds to their lands, so confirming their property rights as originally stated on arrival. As they prospered, they became a significant element in Trinidad's economy. Their agriculture advanced from subsistence farming to include cash crops of cocoa and sugar cane. Later, oil was discovered and then some descendants were able to lease their lands for the mineral rights.
It is sometimes said that the term "Merikins" derived from the local dialect, but as many Americans have long been in the habit of dropping the initial 'A' it seems more likely that the new settlers brought that pronunciation with them from the United States.
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