Tobago's enslaved in the 18th century

Dr Rita Pemberton

THE STATE of Tobago’s enslaved African population attracted considerable attention from agencies of the imperial government during the closing years of the 18th century.

This concern was stimulated by two forces. One functioned in the imperial country and the other in the colonies.

Despite the difference in geographical location, both were attacks on the slave system which inspired fear in the planting community. and their combined impact was to force the imperial hand to institute some mitigating measures in an attempt to placate the combatants.

In England, the anti-slavery group exposed the horrors of the slave trade and campaigned for its termination. while in the colonies, there was growing instability among the enslaved population and an increased incidence of resistance.

Both developments alarmed the planting community. whose members felt their businesses were under threat. In an effort to counter the impact of the anti-slavery group, in 1799 the Tobago Council and the Tobago House of Assembly established a committee to examine the state under which the enslaved population lived and to make recommendations for improvement where possible.

This committee began with a focus on matters concerning the welfare of the enslaved population and the causes of the problems.

The mortality rate among the enslaved African population in Tobago was extremely high and very interestingly, the first explanation offered was environmental.

The high death rate was said to be due to the unhealthiness of the climate, which was considered to be “inimical to human constitution”; yet it was admitted that more attention should be paid to the food, clothing and housing provisions for the enslaved workers.

Allocation to
the enslaved

Each adult worker was provided with a weekly allocation of one of the following: 3 lbs salt pork; 4 lbs salt beef; 4lbs saltfish or 14 good herring.

Seven quarts wheat flour, oatmeal, guinea corn, Indian corn, peas, plantains yam, potatoes; eddoes.

With pride, the committee reported that the enslaved in Tobago were fed as well as and possibly better than those in other colonies.

Africans were allocated two sets of clothing per year, in May and December

Males were given a cloth jacket and a pair of trousers made of osnaburg (cheap cotton) and females received a cloth jacket a hat, a coarse handkerchief, a petticoat and a wrapper (usually six yards) of osnaburg.

The enslaved population was portrayed as being well housed, clothed and fed by the produce of their provision grounds. It is to be noted that the allocation of provision grounds was made mandatory during the American War of Independence, when food supplies became so short that the survival of the enslaved population came under threat.

In order to preserve the lives of the members of the labour force, each enslaved person over 14 was provided with a plot of land, called the provision ground, on which food cultivation was mandatory. It was a survival mechanism, and not a planter strategy to improve the condition of his enslaved charges.

"Despicable' night travel

The next factor contributing to African mortality was the “despicable” habit of night travel, across eight or ten miles, when they assembled, under the pretext of funerary rites, to consume excessive alcohol and engage in all manner of debauchery and lewd dances throughout the night. and then make the return trip to go to work in the morning.

This activity was described as the cause of illness and premature aging of the African population.

Planters were unified in the belief that night travel should be banned, but lamented that the white population was not large enough to provide the number of magistrates for effective supervision over that activity.

Mention was made of the crop-time demand for night work, and it was suggested that this should be reduced, but, unsurprisingly, it was not considered as mortal as night travel.

By itself, frequent use of alcohol was considered a major factor.

Although there were laws which restricted the sale of rum to Africans and provided heavy penalties for those who contravened the laws, despite the fact that informers were encouraged, it was not possible to enforce the law because of the scarcity of white men who could serve as informers, policemen and magistrates.

Ironically, rum was used an incentive on some estates.

'Uncivilised African customs'

The uncivilised customs of the Africans were also mentioned as contributory factors to their mortality. This included lack of attention to feeding babies and the consumption of underripe fruit. As a consequence,
mal d’estomac (bad stomach) contributed to the high infant mortality rate.

Planters complained that old men and women could not be expected to forget their African communities, with their language and “barbarous habits and customs,” and expressed their desire for younger men, who they felt were more responsive to instruction and could be more easily civilised.

The high infant mortality rate was compounded by a low birthrate, which was ascribed to another practice which was associated with nigh travel. According to the planters, at the night assemblies, the young women were induced to indulge in all their passions: promiscuity and unrestrained intercourse.

The decrease of the adult enslaved population between July 1795 and July 1797 was contributed to by the transportation of five undesirables; three were hanged for murder; 80 members of the black army, the Corps Pioneers, which was formed in October 1795 and sent to Martinique, never returned to Tobago; and one man died in an expedition against Puerto Rico.

Tobago’s administrators and the planting community they represented did not present themselves as contributing in any significant manner to the state of the enslaved population at the end of the 18th century.

Rather, they blamed the uncivilised habits of the Africans, which persisted despite their best efforts.

In addition, they sought to give credence to the view that, contrary to the claims of the anti-slavery group, life was good for the enslaved on the island, and it was the planters who faced challenges – most prominently, the uncivilised habits of the Africans.