Social class in post-emancipation Tobago

Dr Rita Pemberton

The class structure of post-emancipation Tobago was heavily influenced by colour and with it nationality, wealth, the means to generate wealth, and the ability to exert administrative and political influence. Given its history as a British plantation colony, it was clear that from the start of the island’s existence as a British possession, white British males were positioned to be at the top of the class structure. All the island’s accessible land resources were apportioned to white males who could afford the prices on their own or with the backing of financiers in Britain. There were also some white male purchasers, such as Cedney Clarke, who owned and operated a sugar plantation in Barbados, the flagship of the conduct of enslavement in the region. At the top of the social ladder, Tobago’s society was very patriarchal because the presence of white women on the island was minimal, since the island’s environment was not considered salubrious for delicate white women.

Shortly after the land purchases were completed and the work on the plantations was operative with the introduction of captive Africans to constitute the labour force, the new owners requested and were granted the privilege of constituting a government for the island under the old representative system. Plantation owners therefore controlled land and labour and as members of the island’s Council and Assembly, they were involved in policy decision-making.

One of the very first challenges they faced was the spate of rebellions, which almost decimated the nascent sugar industry, and highlighted the position and problems of the labouring class and the vulnerabilities of the white ruling class.

The business of sugar production was heavily dependent on trade and shipping to facilitate the movement of exports of sugar and its by-products and imports of food and other essential items for the population, in addition to the movement of mail between the administration in the colony and the imperial government. It followed the rigid timetable with which the ships operated. Hence, there was a mercantile presence which also functioned as the financial sector, which was required to support estates’ needs. British merchant houses, which monopolised the handling of the business of Tobago planters, established business operations. Some of these were run by their agents, who also managed shipping arrangements, gave loans and credit to planters and formed a part of the island’s ruling class. Given the small size of the white population, it was common for the combination of responsibilities to be housed in a few individuals. There were planter/ merchant/ attorney or lessee/managers combinations who also served as members of the Assembly or Council which for a time tightened the hold of wealthy white males on all aspects of life.

At the instructions of the imperial government, the island’s administration was supported by a group of professionals or people with professional titles because some lacked formal training in the areas to which they were appointed. These included senior government officials – magistrates, judges, attorneys, estate managers, collector of customs, inspector of police, senior army officers and ministers of the church. These formed a part of the upper class. However, there were white men, mainly Scottish, who performed other roles in the society as skilled workmen, clerks, regular soldiers and seamen who by virtue of their colour populated the rung above the enslaved and coloured populations.

At the base of the society was the labour force. In stark contradiction to what occurred in the white upper class, this group was composed of both men and women who, in accordance with the Barbados slave law of 1661, were the property of their owners and were forced to function as demanded by their owners. There was no allocation of women’s work, and they were expected to provide labour on the plantations alongside the men. Tobago's society was therefore initially three-tiered with the white population occupying the two upper tiers and the blacks relegated to the base. Apart from labour relations, there was no visible facility for social relations between whites and blacks in Tobago’s society. In fact, every attempt was made to keep a clear social distance between members of the two groups, the one being considered inferior to the other. Yet the contact did occur as evidenced by the existence of a coloured population.

After emancipation, there were changes in the colour line of the ruling class in which the coloured line became more prominent. It existed as a result of the development of a coloured population which occurred as a result of two practices. Despite the presence of rigid social barriers, sexual relations between white males and black females produced a coloured class on the island. Some of the coloured offspring of these liaisons either inherited property from or were provided with education by their fathers. Some upper-class white men selected the most educated – and (some were also considered the most beautiful women) as their wives. This led to the growth of a coloured well-to-do class of coloured people some of whom became landowners, estate managers or lessees of estates, and businessmen while others held important positions in the administration of the island as trained professionals. The accelerated decline of Tobago’s sugar industry after emancipation caused the failure of several merchant businesses which left openings which were filled by coloured men. Thus, the former white planter /merchant oligarchy disappeared, and its role was assumed by coloured men.

While the coloured presence was welcomed as a buffer group between the blacks and whites, particularly during periods of black resistance, its members were not welcomed to participate in the social gatherings of the whites who found them pushy and took pains to exclude them from the social activities of white society.

There was another level of coloured people on the island which was formed from those offsprings of black/white relations who did not receive support from their white planter/owner/fathers who were left as members of the enslaved population. Within this community, some of them were given less laborious roles as trainees to skilled men and women or put to work in the master’s house and they formed an elevated group within the black community but occupied a lower position than the wealthier members of the coloured population.

The social composition of Tobago underwent further change with the appearance of black estate owners like Brutus Murray and Kent Hector, lessees like James Hackett and managers of estates and merchants like Robinson Scobie. The black population of Tobago sought social mobility after emancipation as they took advantage of educational opportunities which were offered by the churches, and they encouraged their children to seek vocational training by apprenticeship to skilled craft men and women to reduce the dependence on estate labour. This process facilitated the social transformation of Tobago from a controlled slave society to wriggling free of plantation constrictions and creating a society in which its right to pursue its ambitions was asserted.