Misplaced attempts to save Tobago’s sugar industry

Dr Rita Pemberton

THE ECONOMIC state of Tobago during the years after enslavement got steadily worse because the island’s revenue was dependent on the declining sugar plantations. The termination of enslavement angered the planting community, whose members were not prepared to give up their modus operandi in the operations of their plantations.

But the African workers, who had their own aspirations and plans for their freedom, were not prepared to continue working under those conditions.

The era of freedom in Tobago began with workers and employers on opposite sides of the freedom fence, each strongly opposed to the other, creating deep-seated tensions.

Planter attempts to maintain the practices of enslavement triggered workers into intensified resistance mode in their efforts to free themselves from these restrictions. As a result, the post-emancipation period in Tobago was fraught with planter/worker conflicts.

These were seen as wilfully placed obstacles to the welfare of the sugar industry, which angered the planting community even more.

Even while it was embattled with the executive and struggling for its political survival, the assembly maintained a fixation with its interpretation of the conflict as something to be managed by the imposition of legal and physical restrictions to be enforced.

Planters convinced themselves that their problems stemmed from two sources. The first was that the island suffered from a shortage of labour and of credit, which gave the labouring class the upper hand in its dealings with the employers.

In addition, the Tobago worker possessed what were considered undesirable traits. They were described as being naturally lazy. Conditions on the island were so favourable to the workers that they were too well off, had gardens, could sell items and were too independent. There were no signs of poverty and no beggars in the streets. The workers in Tobago were said to be better off than their counterparts in Trinidad and other Caribbean territories.

The solution the planters favoured was to increase the numbers of workers. They therefore directed their attention to several schemes to increase the workforce.

Requests to the imperial government resulted in the allocation of two batches of liberated Africans to the island in 1851 and 1862, but these were children, who did not make the impact on the labour force that the planters sought.

The imperial government indicated that it was not prepared to fund immigration schemes to its colonies and mandated that these had to be funded by the colonial treasuries under specific regulations.

The Tobago Assembly sought to raise money to fund immigration by imposing several taxes in 1852 and 1870, the burdens of which fell on the workforce. Some members of the administration opposed these taxes, and at any rate they did not generate the amounts required for any effective action.

Faced with declining revenue, the Tobago Treasury could not afford immigration schemes, but Barbados, which possessed a large African population which did not enjoy the “liberties” of the Tobago worker, was targeted as a source of labourers. Barbadian immigrants were brought to estates in windward Tobago under private arrangements which did not require the importing planters to be responsible for the medical expenses of the immigrants.

This scheme never attained the levels the Tobago planters desired, because of the strong opposition of Barbadian planters to the recruiters, as well as the dissatisfaction of some immigrants with conditions on the estates.

There were also instances in which planters were disappointed with Barbadians who absconded and engaged in other forms of employment, and those who “acquired the habits of the creole labourers” in Tobago.

A small group of planters sought to access labourers from the Azores, where reports were that workers were willing to migrate. This scheme never got off the ground because correspondence with a recruiting company received the response that the wages offered in Tobago were far too low. A scheme to introduce Chinese labourers was discussed by the planting community, but never got off the ground.

There was conviction among the members of the community, especially the new planters who migrated from Trinidad, that immigration was the answer to Tobago’s problems. Based on the successful Trinidad immigration experience, it was considered expedient to introduce some time-expired Indian indentured immigrants. The Tucker brothers complained that they were unable to obtain the labourers they needed on their Waterloo Estate, so they were among the strongest advocates for the introduction of Indian immigrants.

It was felt that they would teach the Africans desirable work habits, which included working on Saturdays without objecting, and accepting the wages offered to them. This scheme was operative on the windward side.

The attempts at immigration failed to address the island’s labour problems, so Tobago’s sugar industry remained decadent.

The only other source of hope for the planters was a central sugar factory which would make the sugar industry viable. Since the island was unable to generate the capital required, the expectation was that it would be funded by the imperial government. But the Colonial Office was not sold on this idea.

Despite various attempts to stimulate the Tobago sugar industry into becoming a profitable enterprise, it continued on its downward spiral.

The fact is that these efforts were misplaced, since there was no attempt to deal with the fundamental issues which plagued the industry. Planters failed to confront their own role in contributing to the problems, preferring to blame the workers. They sought an increase in the numbers of workers, when the need was for a change in their methods.