The last days of enslavement in Tobago

Dr Rita Pemberton

The operation of the apprenticeship system in Tobago was so conflict-ridden that the prospect of full emancipation was opposed by the island’s planter community. The system was based on the division of the enslaved labour force into praedial and non-praedial workers.

The praedials were considered the more “civilised” because they worked in closer contact with the white community, and their apprenticeship lasted from 1834 to 1838.

The non-praedials required two more years of exposure to the civilised (white) world before they could be freed in 1840.

Of course, the non-praedials constituted the larger section of the enslaved community and were critical for the cultivation and harvesting of the sugar cane. The labour supply for the plantations was therefore behind the move to extend the apprenticeship period for that class of workers.

The experience of the apprenticeship system across the region made the imperial administration realise that any attempt to free one section of the enslaved population and retain the rest in legal bondage would be met with unbridled resistance – a cost they wished to avoid. Hence the British Parliament instituted full emancipation in 1838.

Tobago, along with St Vincent and Grenada, was then a part of the Windward Islands government which was centred in Barbados. The legislatures of St Vincent and Grenada were equally vehemently opposed to the early termination of the apprenticeship system.

The Legislative Council of Tobago refused to introduce the measure in May 1838, based on what were “considerations of hardship” of the planting community – a reference to the labour supply which was the primary concern of planters on the island at that time.

The Tobago Assembly did not hide its disapproval of the measure, which it considered to be beneficial neither to employer nor apprentices, and was an unconstitutional imposition of the imperial government. This was the prevailing attitude of the planting community in Tobago to emancipation.

There were two significant developments in Tobago in 1838 that affected subsequent occurrences with respect to labour relations on the island.

Firstly, there was considerable land speculation on the island as attorneys, managers and other officials had invested in estates to take advantage of the low land prices which were stimulated by the uncertainties of emancipation. These new owners, who were anxious to wring profits from their investment were loudest among the chorus of opposition to early termination of apprenticeship.

Secondly, the classification of workers provided another avenue for the planting community to circumvent the regulations. There was uncertainty about the classification of domestic workers and mechanics.

In an attempt to ensure an extended service of those who were considered essential to plantation operations, the position of the Tobago planters, as was articulated by planter solicitor general Edward Sanderson, was that all employees on the estate were praedial workers. They predicted disaster on the island after August 1838 if their requests were not granted.

This was neither the intention nor the stated provisions of the regulations that emanated from the imperial government, but since the other members of the unit had agreed, the members of the Tobago administration reluctantly agreed to give their assent to the required legislation after being cajoled by the governor in chief in Barbados.

The planters approached emancipation with a desperation to institute other measures which would maintain their labour force, permit them to extract profits from cheap labour and strengthen their control of the society.

Their first recourse was to use the law and the establishment of institutions of correction – the expectation was that there would be deviancy in reaction to the laws which sought to enforce labour under servile conditions.

A regular police force and public prisons were established on the island which would be populated by those who dared to defy the laws against vagrancy, squatting, building on unoccupied lands, and those who were classified as “idle rogues and vagabonds.”

Punishment was with hard labour which, in some instances, meant free labour on an estate or road works. Then they tried to use the traditional allowances of houses, garden plots and pasturage on estate land to bind the freed people to estate labour on terms reminiscent of enslavement.

But it was clear that while they were willing to accept access to plantation land to establish their homes and gardens, the newly freed were determined to forge a new life for themselves and their families and were not prepared to accept servile conditions. This set the stage for an era of conflict that ensued beyond 1838 between the desperate plantation owners and the determined freed Africans, each seeking to advance the best interests for its group.