User:Battleofalma/Articles/Luisa Calderón

Luisa Calderón was a young mixed-race woman from Trinidad who worked as a domestic servant. She was a key witness in the trial of Thomas Picton, first British governor of Trinidad, for illegal torture.

Trial of Thomas Picton

At the age of 10 or 11, Calderon began living as a mistress to a man named Pedro Ruiz, from whom she was accused of robbing a substantial amount of cash. She and her accomplice, Pedro Gonzalez, were taken into custody where she refused to confess to the robbery. The Governor of Trinidad at the time, Thomas Picton, took this refusal to confess as a reason to sanction the torture upon the young girl.

The mode of torture used was a military form of torture, 'picqueting', wherein the victim is tied by one wrist to a scaffold, the other wrist tied to her ankle, and then she was lowered onto a spike which pressed into her foot. This was an unprecedented instance of a governor introducing torture into a British settlement.

Louisa, now aged 16, was main witness-asked by the prosecution to give an account of the torture and the time she spent living with Ruiz.

The jury eventually returned a guilty verdict.

Spoken Languages

Luisa Calderon spoke Spanish and Creole.