Roads in the history of Tobago to 1838

Dr Rita Pemberton

Although it was not an item of initial emphasis of the British coloniser, much of the history of Tobago since the European incursions into the island revolves around communication. This presented challenges to the rival European contenders for possession of the heavily contested island of Tobago, in their clashes with each other and with the First Peoples who were more familiar with the territory which was certainly a factor in their success in resisting European settlement until the 18th century.

Once they acquired the prized possession, the British government hastily developed a policy for the settlement of its acquisition by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. Given the intensity of French rivalry, it was considered essential to apply a preconditioning strategy to facilitate the successful implementation of the major aim of British policy. The strategy was to demonstrate effective occupation of the island with its own nationals as a mechanism to dissuade further attempts by the green-eyed French who were not willing signatories to the 1763 treaty and continued to harbour intentions to oust the British from the island. As a corollary, should the feared French attack occur, it was hoped that the existence of a sizeable British population engaged in cultivation would be effective in defending the island against the French attack. This would hopefully, clear the path for bringing the island under cultivation as quickly as possible in order to profit from the lucrative international sugar market, which was the central aim of British imperial policy in Tobago. The strategy did not work.

The British government sent out commissioners to survey and subdivide the island into lots between 300 and 500 acres which were sold on the London market and were eagerly purchased by investors in the United Kingdom, some of whom already owned sugar estates in other British possessions in the Caribbean and planters who owned and operated sugar estates in Barbados. Emphasis was placed on maximising the use of potentially valuable sugar cane lands therefore only simple roads were made between plantations. This decision was not based on close attention to the island’s physical features which included a mountainous interior with the most elevated areas on the Windward side and the major water sources flowing from the northern side of the island.

The road network which was created by the land surveyors was made up of connecting tracks between plantations which were located on the lowlands on the western side and those which were located along the windward coast between Scarborough and Georgetown. Another track was created between Scarborough and Plymouth and there was a bridle path between Charlotteville, L’Anse Fourmi, Bloody Bay and Parlatuvier which was never properly maintained and during the dry season was passable on foot or by donkeys. However, the positioning of the tracks did not make allowances for the locations of the major rivers and watercourses hence some tracts were susceptible to landslides and flooding during the rainy season when parts became impassable because of swollen rivers and there were no attempts to construct bridges to deal with the problem. Communication between Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay and L’Anse Fourmi and with the rest of the island through Plymouth, was mainly by boat which was itself a risky undertaking without jetties in the area.

However, these connecting tracts were important for plantation owners to remain in contact with each other in the event of emergencies such as external attacks by the French or other European rivals, internal challenges from the First Peoples occupants and the newly introduced enslaved African population. During the 1770s, there was a series of resistance episodes by the enslaved population, which terrified the planting community and almost destroyed the newly established plantations. While, these events demonstrated the importance of road connections particularly on the windward side of the island, for security, the reaction by the resident planter community was the implementation of more brutal laws with punishment for the transgressors and the request for the establishment of an island government under the old representative system to allow planters to respond more immediately to such security challenges. Despite the occurrences of casualties of people crossing swollen rivers in the area, no attention was given to road improvement by the British administration.

During the period of their occupation of Tobago between 1781 and 1793, blasting through rocks and creating openings to facilitate the flow of water to the sea, the French pioneered the construction of the Windward Road between Georgetown and Speyside in 1783. by enlarging the existing road network along the windward side. This was an important development because, even though the connection was problem-ridden, it provided the possibility for improved communication along the windward coast.

This situation continued up to the end of the 18th century. Although Britain regained control in 1793, the challenges continued with the French menace into the 19th century which presented new challenges – the anti-slave trade and slavery movements, which were compounded by market loss for Tobago’s sugar, estates changing owners which placed the island’s sugar industry on a downward slide right until the end of the 19th century the Tobago Assembly demonstrated no interest in road improvement the island’s roads remained in a very poor state until 1838 the problem of road access was compounded because no attempt was made to provide road access to the settlements which were established by the free population after Emancipation. The problem of roads would remain a major issue for the development of Tobago from 1838 onward.