Empowered and unfree in post-Emancipation Tobago

quote:

'When the Emancipation Act was passed, it did not make any direct reference to those enslaved Africans who were serving prison terms. Although most of the African workers would be freed on August 1, 1838, there remained a body of Africans who remained unfree'

Dr Rita Pemberton

DUE TO concerns about their social and economic well-being in the post-Emancipation era, there was much trepidation among members of Tobago’s ruling class as the date for the termination of the apprenticeship system drew closer. The first hurdle to be overcome was that of control, which was related to the numbers of the white ruling class resident on the island.

From the time the island was confirmed as a British possession and the land was subdivided and sold to potential plantation owners, the island has historically had a significant proportion of absentee owners. Some owned and lived on properties elsewhere in the region while others remained in the United Kingdom and left their properties under the management of attorneys or other resident planters.

The decline of Tobago as a place with investment potential, which was evident since early in the 19th century, became aggravated as the century wore on because of a decline in the quantity and quality of the island’s sugar. As a result, profits were low, some owners left the island, many estates were heavily in debt and were put on the market for sale.

However, there was no abundance of buyers and after owners received their compensation some estates were abandoned, but it also became fashionable to lease estates which provided an avenue to generate some income and provide additional employment for the managers, attorneys, carpenters and other skilled whites who were able to become lessees on several estates.

One of the problems which the House of Assembly faced was the disability caused by the absence of sufficient resident planters to represent all the parishes on the island and perform other duties related to the administration for which the required qualification was large property ownership.

In an attempt to deal with the long-standing problem on the island where there were never enough resident people to serve as members of the Assembly or council and maintain the required presence of planters or their agents in the administration, an act was passed in 1838 to permit lessees to serve in the Assembly.

The required qualification for such people to be able to vote at elections was a lease on the property for no less than three years and payment of an annual rent of not less than £150. These qualifications were easily attainable because most lessees obtained leases for several estates.

The Assembly attempted to enforce attendance to its sessions by requiring people to indicate their willingness to serve or nominate a replacement for sessions they could not attend. People who offered themselves as candidates for election and were successful and did not attend sessions of the Assembly or council would be liable for the expenses of their election.

An attempt was made to end the long tradition on the island where, because of the shortage of qualified individuals, duplicity of offices was common. Under the new regulations, members were not allowed to represent more than one parish or town in the Assembly.

This was a strategy used by the planting community to strengthen itself to deal with the anticipated challenges which would emanate from the freedom of the labour force. The plan failed to increase white plantation owner presence on the island, but it did result in the empowerment of the lessees who acquired legislative authority.

The next issue to be dealt with was the question of unfree Africans.

When the Emancipation Act was passed, it did not make any direct reference to those enslaved Africans who were serving prison terms. Although most of the African workers would be freed on August 1, 1838, there remained a body of Africans who remained unfree. These included those prisoners who were sentenced to jail for various infractions during the period of apprenticeship and those who were serving longer terms dating back to the era of enslavement. In 1838, an act was passed to deal with those who were sentenced to death or to transportation to some unknown destination.

Transportation involved uprooting the offender from family and friends and banishing him from the island to prevent a recurrence of the offensive acts – mainly rebellion. The idea behind transportation was to stamp out resistance by isolating those who harboured such tendencies and were considered influencers in their communities. The fear of African resistance remained engrained in the minds of the Tobago’s ruling class and influenced their policies after 1838.

Enslaved Africans were usually transported for inciting, plotting and/or leading a rebellion which involved striking, injuring or killing a white person. The transportees were taken to one of two destinations. Some were taken to an undisclosed part of the Spanish Main where it was assumed that the rough living conditions would be appropriate punishment for such offenders. Their fate remains unknown.

The other more expensive option was to send them to the ships called hulks in the River Thames in England, a service for which the planters paid. From the hulks the prisoners could be sent to any part of the globe and were never heard of again.

The act stated that those Africans who were sentenced to death or transportation, if their sentences were commuted to life imprisonment they were to be placed under the charge of a supervisor or overseer, who functioned like a jailer. He was provided with a complete history of each of his charges and was required to maintain detailed records on their conduct during their incarceration. This information would be used to determine if, and when, the prisoners could be freed. The jailer was also responsible for organising an appropriate place of confinement for them.

These prisoners were to be used as convict labour on the streets, public works in Scarborough or in the districts, but it was a requirement that mechanisms be put in place to prevent their escape. The jailer was authorised to inflict “moderate” punishment, as obtained for other prisoners, on any of his charges who was guilty of misbehaviour or disorderly conduct.

The introduction of convict labour was the precursor to what was termed “hard labour” in the sentencing of regular prisoners during the post-Emancipation period, which also came to be called convict labour. Work on the streets was backbreaking. It involved breaking, crushing and manually transporting stone for the construction of roads and buildings and cutting and clearing to establish roads in the rural areas.

While the practice began with those people whose death or transportation sentences were commuted, this form of punishment became established as the norm for those incarcerated in the Tobago prison who were described as “difficult” or “disobedient,” or who attempted to escape from prison during the post-Emancipation period.

While the planting elite was able to strengthen its support base on the island by the elevation of lessees, the fate of those Africans who were sentenced to life imprisonment or transportation remained in the hands of the ruling class because the Emancipation Act was silent on their status. They remained doubly imprisoned because of actions which occurred and were judged during enslavement and resulted in their physical incarceration during the era of Emancipation. There was no specific timeline to indicate the duration of their confinement. They remained unfree in the era of freedom.