Tobago’s mixed peoples

Dr Rita Pemberton

Tobago’s population, which was initially made up of the First People who remained in undisturbed occupation of the island up to the latter years of the 17th century, subsequently underwent a significant change.

The First Peoples established communities in various parts of the island, evidence of which has been provided by archaeological findings in 93 sites, which include: Milford, Mt Irvine, Friendship, Golden Grove, Plymouth, Scarborough, Buccoo, Charlotteville, Speyside, Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay, Culloden, Castara and Moriah.

While there is no available accurate information on the size of the First Peoples’ population, it is known that their numbers were decimated by Europeans who competed for possession of the island. The population was reduced by the Spaniards who captured and carted some of them away to labour in their colonies in the region, and others were killed in the fights to defend their land against the invading Courlanders, Dutch, English and French who sought to establish settlements during the 17th and 18th centuries.

By the last decades of the 18th century, there was minimal First People presence on the island. Some of the survivors of the European onslaught sought refuge in other islands, while the very small numbers who remained intermixed with newly introduced groups.

After intense British/French rivalry for Tobago, by the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Tobago was ceded to Britain. The British administration, conscious that French ambitions to possess Tobago had been inflamed by the treaty, was anxious to secure its possession by establishing a strong presence of British landowners.

The strategy implemented was the immediate survey and subdivision of the island into 300-500 acre blocks which were sold by auction to those who were able to provide the required labour and begin to bring their plantations into cultivation within two years. This marked the introduction of captive Africans, who constituted the workforce as enslaved labourers on the cotton and sugar plantations, and who lived on the estates of their purchasers, and the start of significant population change in Tobago. After seven years of British occupation, the population was made up of a majority of Africans and a small number of Europeans.

The European population was primarily Scottish males and a few white females. In 1770 there were 238 white plantation owners and colonial officials and 3,000 enslaved Africans in Tobago, but by 1776, the white population had increased to 2,597 and the African population to 11,802 (enslaved and free). This pattern reflected the rapid growth of the island’s sugar industry and its insatiable demand for labour.

However, by 1814, while the size of the African population continued to increase to over 15,000, the white population had declined to 900, which resulted from two developments. Signs of economic decline had become evident in the face of falling profits, estates were changing hands and new owners were mainly absentee and in addition, the prevailing view was that island was unhealthy and an unsuitable environment for the white population.

The growth of the African population after the termination of the British trade in captive and enslaved Africans in 1807 was caused by an increase in the number of births.

Therefore, from the time of the British presence in Tobago, Africans constituted the largest segment of the island’s population, the largest concentrations of which occurred on the leeward side of the island, on the largest estates. Except for estate owners or managers, who lived on their plantations, the white population lived in and around Scarborough, which was the centre of administration, trade and commercial activity.

After emancipation, the distribution of the population was determined by the settlement pattern during this period, which was influenced by three factors. Firstly, the willingness of plantation owners to sell or rent marginal land to the freed Africans, who saw access to land, preferably as owners, as their means to liberation; secondly, the popularity of the church in the area, as the nucleus for the development of settlements; and thirdly, the availability of access roads.

The initial settlement pattern extended from Scarborough, to which settlers were attracted because of the access to communication and transport and other services it offered, across to Castara and between Plymouth and Scarborough.

The main population centre developed on the leeward side because it permitted ease of movement into the capital and alternative employment on coconut estates in the area. There was a movement of free Africans from Windward to Leeward Tobago which continued into the 20th century.

There was another element of the population, which was not officially recorded until the census of 1846, which revealed that a mixed population of 2,862 existed on the island. This population, which resulted from enforced sexual relations between white plantation owners/managers and enslaved African females, developed and increased during the era of enslavement. Its numbers increased because of liaisons among the coloured population and between whites and coloureds. The majority of the coloured population occupied areas in and around Scarborough, except for those employed on estates in positions for which no white candidates could be found.

Several other factors influenced the composition and location of the population after emancipation, when immigrants from other British Caribbean possessions migrated to Tobago. Between 1841 and 1844, 45 Barbadian immigrants arrived, but after 1845, the number increased to 300. In 1875 a further group of 200 Barbadians were introduced to work on estates in the windward area.

In 1849, 292 liberated Africans were allocated to Tobago and were distributed to estates as follows: 55 in middle Tobago, 51 in leeward and 186 to Windward. A second batch of 224, which arrived in 1862, was distributed 95 to estates in leeward, 46 to estates in middle and 83 to estates in windward Tobago.

In the attempt to introduce and spread cocoa cultivation in Tobago, Grenadian immigrants were encouraged during the latter years of the 19th and early 20th century. In addition, some blacks were among the Grenadian immigrants who bought estates in Tobago during the 20th century. Low land prices stimulated both an internal migration from the Leeward to the northern areas of Tobago and from immigrants from Grenada and Trinidad.

Thus, while as a result of European activity in Tobago, the First People were almost totally wiped out, the white population, whose presence was determined by economics, declined after a short spate of growth.

However, Tobago’s black population remained the dominant element after British imperial presence was established in 1763. Its numbers were increased by immigrants from other territories in the region and the distribution of the population was largely determined by geography, estate decline, land prices, available infrastructure and employment opportunities.