British Tobago: The first seven years

Dr Rita Pemberton

IMMEDIATELY after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which ceded Tobago to the British in 1763, plans were made to establish effective occupation and integrate the new acquisition into the British Empire.

The process was initiated with attempts to alienate land to British owners who would settle and populate the island. It was determined that its only occupants were French turtlers and “a few Caribs” who could be dealt with easily, and on March 17, 1764, there was a proclamation of the sale by auction of land in possessions which included Tobago. The terms included an initial 20 per cent downpayment, ten per cent the following year and 20 per cent each subsequent year until the account was fully paid up.

The population plan was revealed by the mandate that each purchaser was required to have one white man or two white women for every 100 acres cleared, in default of which the penalty was a charge of £20 for every missing white woman or £40 for every missing white man.

Purchasers were required to clear at least one acre every year until the entire estate was cleared, and were charged a quit rent (land tax) of fivepence an acre on all cleared land. The maximum land sale to an individual was 500 acres.

This was the start of the imposition of minimal taxes on estate land and the allocation of all cultivable land resources to the large planting fraternity, with no consideration of other groups.

For the business community, land allotted in the town was to be rented at one penny for tenements and sixpence for fields. Only one town lot with five acres of pasturage was to be granted to each individual. Eight hundred acres were to be reserved in each parish for poor settlers, to be divided up between ten and 20 acres to be granted in fee simple.

To prevent the presence of a large number of “lower-class” people who could become “burdensome,” land reserved for poor settlers was not alienable by sale or other means until after seven years, except to the children of the first settlers.

Reflecting the hopes of the imperial government, all gold and silver mines were to be retained by the crown.

Sales were set to begin in June 1765, if the surveyors were ready.

The island’s defence, initially directed at protection from the “insolence” of the French settlers, was to be provided by five companies of the 4th Regiment in the HMS Winchester under Capt Campbell Dalrymple.

It was, however, not smooth sailing in the first years, when some important developments occurred. One of the earliest issues was conflict with Spanish Trinidad. It began with the capture of a sloop on its way to Tobago by a Spanish vessel, which angered the British authorities, who demanded restitution of £2,566 for the damage associated with the capture of the sloop and the barbarous treatment meted out to the soldiers and sailors. They were imprisoned, and on their release, were taken to parts of the Spanish Main occupied by “savages,” and the uninhabited parts of Tobago, where they were left without sustenance.

On August 10, 1764, the Spanish governor of Trinidad complained about violence perpetrated by the crews of two English vessels from Tobago on Trinidad and urged the Governor General of Grenada to search for and punish them. Suspicion and tension continued between the administrations until the British captured Trinidad in 1797.

The new colony presented other challenges, outlined by the commander of the troops in a communication to the secretary of state. Mention was made of the lack of accommodation for officers and the absence of cleared land for barracks for the troops, a particularly critical deficiency because the rainy season brought a high incidence of fevers. In addition, there were no provisions for the garrison.

The men took advantage of the illness of officers to protest the poor conditions, forcing sick officers to return to duty. The mutineers were confined, and order restored.

However, illness decimated the garrison and forced the use of Africans, who were owned by a gentleman waiting to purchase lands, to supplement the defence force. The use of enslaved labour as soldiers became a pattern used by both British and French administrations of Tobago.

Other problems included: a poorly maintained hospital too small for the needs of the population; lack of items to treat the sick, such as wine, sugar, vinegar and fresh meat; inadequate staffing and infrastructure – nurses, candles, utensils and cradles for the sick.

By September 1764 every officer on the island was ill. The death rate gave the island a bad reputation as the white man’s grave, and it was feared this would deter potential land buyers. There were reports of slow land sales, which were blamed on competition from St Vincent and Tobago’s negative image.

It was considered imperative to mount a campaign to amend this image. This stimulated several publications which advocated Tobago's potential for investors. They lauded the fertility of the island’s soil and good shipping spaces in the bays around it. These views were later supported by the excitement created by the identification of nutmeg trees on the island in 1768.

The outbreak of sickness on the leeward side led to a decision to promote settlement on the windward side, which was considered healthier. This resulted in the sales of plantations in windward areas.

By January 1767 many plantations had been purchased, yet the pattern of absentee ownership was established from very early in the island’s history. The 20 resident planters in November 1767 called for a council to guide the island’s development, which was prioritised as the creation of a police service to enforce the law, and the subjection of slaves – a reflection of planters' concerns. A small planter elite controlled the administration under British rule.

On September 7, 1770, in the wake of the euphoria generated by the shipment of sugar from the island, taken by Capt Peter Maddock on the Dolly and consigned to John Blackburn, gave credence to the sentiments favouring Tobago as suitable for cultivation.

At the same time the annual register for the island, Vol 13 1770, ironically stated: "The negroes thrive extremely well, the planters are healthy and, what adds to their happiness, there is a spirit of concord and unanimity that animates them in every part of their conduct."

Thus began the inaccurate notion of the benign nature of enslavement in Tobago.

Three months later the outbreak of resistance, the island’s first recorded struggle for liberation, belied the notion of happy enslaved Africans and shocked and terrorised the Tobago planters.