Land-grabbing after Emancipation

DR RITA PEMBERTON

AFTER EMANCIPATION, many plantations in the British Caribbean faced challenges related to increased competition on the sugar market, falling prices, labour problems, increases in freight, duties, taxes and production costs and shortage of credit. Concern about the growing number of insolvent estates caused the British Parliament to pass a series of laws, the West Indian Encumbered Estates Acts, from 1854 as a relief measure for the indebted planters. They permitted the sale of plantations with legal encumbrances which would normally have prevented their sale.

The acts provided for a chief commissioner and one or two assistant commissioners, and activity was facilitated by the Encumbered Estates Court. The land could be sold by either creditor or owner, and the proceeds were distributed equally to all creditors, after which the property acquired an unassailable title. Through their local legislatures, colonies could apply to participate in the scheme. Indicative of their state of penury, the first to do so were St Vincent in 1756 and Tobago in 1758.

Since the start of the 19th century, the Tobago sugar industry had been in decline. Some estates changed hands, but as the island’s reputation as an impoverished colony spread, it became very difficult to find buyers for them. The inability of some plantations to turn a profit and attract buyers led some owners to cut their losses by simply abandoning their estates.

The existence of abandoned estates and unoccupied land was viewed as a serious threat to the hoped-for survival of the sugar industry. The planter community feared these properties would be occupied by the freed population and planters deprived of their labour. Planter policy was to keep the land-hungry freed people landless by refusing to sell them land, charging exorbitant prices, selling bad land or land that they did not own, and dishonest transactions in which the freed people were robbed. Thus there was no significant reallocation of land resources to accommodate the free population.

Only a few Tobago estates were sold by the Encumbered Estates Court. By 1885, 13 of the 18 sugar estates in the Windward district, as well as Goat Island and Little Tobago, had been sold by the court. In the Middle district, it sold only five of 21 estates, and of the 1,207 acres offered for sale, only 31.5 acres were sold, in small lots. The 457 acres of Indian Walk Estate were put up for sale, but by 1885 only 31.5 acres, which formed Moriah Village, had been sold. In the Leeward district 14 of the 32 sugar estates were sold, including Pigeon Point and one coconut estate.

Between 1838 and 1885 only 171.8 acres of the 7,120 acres for sale in the Leeward district were sold, in small lots, to members of the labouring class. In the Windward district, 17 properties which totalled 14,888 acres were offered for sale; only 107.6 acres of 17 properties of 14,888 acres were sold to smallholders.

Of the total of 23,215 acres put up for sale, only 310.9 acres were sold to smallholders.

The Encumbered Estates Court did not resolve the problems of either the planters or the free workers of Tobago. Estates remained debt-ridden, the numbers of abandoned estates increased and planters maintained their repressive policy towards the free population.

However, the free African workers resisted these restrictions and the court did allow some freed Africans to become landowners – albeit on small parcels, usually between a half and just over one acre. By 1840, 47 labourers had bought land at Grafton Estate; ten at Old Grange; 18 at New Grange; 22 at Buccoo; and one at Kendal Place.

While this was insufficient to create an independent peasant class, it indicated the erosion of planter control over land and demonstrated how the forces which worked against the planting community and the sugar industry would serve the interests of the workers. This would be more strongly demonstrated during the last years of the 19th century.

Contrary to their policy of restrictive land ownership for the freed Africans, Tobago planters ensured unoccupied land remained at a minimum in several ways. They extended their properties by taking over land from abandoned estates, crown land and the unoccupied Poor Settlers’ lots. Those at Pirates’ Bay were acquired by Charlotteville Estates; Hope Estate was increased by the inclusion of the nearby Poor Settlers’ lots. Campbelton Estate included coastal crown land; Kings Bay took part of the adjoining crown land; Richmond and neighbouring estates acquired the 700-acre Pulteny Hill.

Around the island, planters appropriated lands bordering the sea, making them able to restrict the seafaring activities of the free African population. Thus, by illegal means, many estates were augmented and although officials were aware of the practice, no attempt was made to stop it or to censure those who engaged in it. Land-grabbing was condoned as a part of the island’s post-Emancipation land policy, and big planters were the island’s first land-grabbers.