Social change and continuity in Tobago, 1880-1940

Dr Rita Pemberton

The last two decades of the 19th century ushered in a process of change in Tobago which continued into the 20th century.

While the locus of this change was the island’s economic circumstance, it resulted in the transformation of other facets of life. The sugar crises of the 1880s, especially the collapse of the sugar industry in 1884, wreaked havoc on the island’s export-dependent economy which had far-reaching consequences for its class structure.

Tobago’s plantation society was based on a dominant planter class which was composed of a small white group that was buttressed by a coloured planter group.

This liaison was created to balance the population differential between whites and blacks, provide support for the white ruling class against black resistance and to fill vacancies in the administration caused by the shortage of white males.

This alliance was eroded by the decline of the old generation of white planters, a direct consequence of the decline of the sugar industry. The population of white planters, managers and attorneys dwindled as many sought to cut their losses by selling or abandoning their estates and returning to the UK. The population of the old coloured planters was also reduced, by migration and by death.

Both groups were replaced by the development of a new planter class.

Coloured emigration created a social vacuum in the middle class which was filled by the upward elevation of members of the labouring class who became landowners. This was made possible by the availability of land with the demise of the sugar industry. Through favourable terms for land purchase, a new class of black landowners was created, whose members moved up the social ranks as part of the landowning community.

The growth of this group led to a weakening of the dominant class, which became composed of black, coloured and white landowners, some of whom were migrants from Trinidad and other Caribbean territories.

By the beginning of the 20th century, land-owning became an important social marker which reduced the gap between blacks and whites.

It is to be noted, however, that considerations of race and colour remained prominent. While blacks were upgraded to the upper level of the landowning class, there was no commensurate adjustment in their relations with their white counterparts. The black and coloured landowners remained socially ostracised from their white counterparts. They all moved in different social circles and were never invited to the main social events, which remained the preserve of the white group.

The middle group on the social ladder was composed of coloureds and upwardly mobile blacks whose members included landowners, teachers, clerks, supervisors and skilled craftsmen. Their numbers were reduced by migration, which increased during the 20th century as people went in search of better opportunities in greener pastures – the US, Canada, UK, Maracaibo and Trinidad.

As a consequence, there was a distinct change in the population of Scarborough, which caused disquiet among the residents. The migrating families sold their properties to people from the rural communities, which aggravated another social barrier, that between town and country dwellers.

The growth of the middle group was facilitated by the upward movement of some of the labouring class who generated increased incomes from a range of activities. Some were engaged in commercial activity, such as cocoa purchasers, usually small shopkeepers with licences to trade in cocoa and coconuts and who were also cocoa producers; others, both male and female, were traffickers who travelled to the countryside and bought food items for trade in Trinidad; captains of the sloops which transported items for trade between Trinidad and Tobago; small owners of newly emerging business areas such as snackettes and restaurants.

The expansion of education by the establishment of secondary and private schools generated more people qualified for the teaching and clerical services; and there were migrants from Grenada and St Vincent.

Tobago’s labouring class possessed some unique features. Among its members were landowners, some of whom continued to work as labourers on the estates and also employed other members of their group. The labouring class supported themselves and their families by multiple economic activities. They were all agriculturalists who cultivated food and cash crops, combined with other forms of employment. These included: the skilled trades; fishing; stevedores and port workers; estate labour; and increasingly, the Public Works Department.

In the face of continual complaints from the planting community about a labour shortage, the numbers of the labouring class were increased by time-expired Indians from Trinidad, Grenada and St. Vincent, usually under contract arrangements with estates on the Windward side, which suffered most from internal migration. This group changed the composition of the island’s population from one totally African at its base to one mixed with a sprinkling of Indians.

Of greatest significance were three marked differences between the middle group and the labouring class. First and foremost, the colour prejudices which dominated the plantation era continued to hold sway.

Within the middle group it was shades of blackness which were important. Since the mixed population primarily lived in and around Scarborough, traditionally populated by the free coloured population, this was also the centre of the middle group. Its members held tightly to the Victorian ethic of language, dress, food and conduct. They shunned menial work and would employ black labour as domestic workers to do those jobs they considered demeaning.

Secondly, there was a perceived difference between the urban dwellers who adopted more facets of European culture and presumed themselves more sophisticated than rural folks.

This perception was strengthened by another very strong difference between these two groups, that of culture. In stark contrast to the Victorian leanings of the middle class, the labouring class was strongly African-oriented and its members engaged in practices scorned by the middle group.

The imperial government supported the colour prejudice. Imperial policy persisted in appointing white professionals and top administrators and refusing to appoint suitable black individuals, simply because there was a desire to prevent blacks from holding important positions. The imperial government also lent a sympathetic ear to the pleas of members of the white community who refused to be treated by non-white doctors for white doctors to be made available to rural communities.

The only whites who regularly interfaced with the black population were the clergy and agricultural officers whose job was to increase scientific practices in agriculture. White planters formed the Tobago Planters Association, in a futile bid to prevent the empowerment of the labouring class. Ultimately, they were forced to change their approach and confront the stark reality that control lay in the hands of the administrators in Trinidad.

Hence, while there was a change in the admission of the black population to the upper-level social groups, discrimination that was race-, colour- and culture-based persisted within and between social groups.