The free Africans’ struggle for land space in Tobago

DR RITA PEMBERTON

The termination of the abominable system of apprenticeship and the implementation of what has been termed “full Emancipation” on August 1, 1838, was marked by officially mandated church services and joyous celebrations by the very grateful freed Africans.

Given the contentious issues which emerged during the apprenticeship period (1834-1838), it was very evident that the transition from the confusing, conflict-ridden, half-free status that was apprenticeship to full freedom would not be smooth.

There were irreconcilable differences between the two groups which occupied the Tobago space. While the law changed the status of the Africans, there was no facility to liberate the planting community and its supporters from their enslavement to the notion of the operation of plantations with a servile work force under absolute planter control.

The ruling class remained obstinate in its opposition to Emancipation and its determination to nullify its impact as far as possible. Hence the House of Assembly enacted a number of restrictive laws to ensure that objectives of the ruling class were attained.

On the other hand, the law made no provision for the allocation of land resources to the free Africans, who presumably, were expected to remain within the precincts of the plantations and the responsibility of their former masters.

However, the freed Africans were anxious to shed the restrictions of the former era, pursue their ambitions and make Emancipation real. They sought to assert their freedom from planter control and become independent landowners.

The dream of land owning was not easily realised, because of the impediments deliberately set up by plantation owners in their effort to ensure that the freed population remained an available work force to maintain the operations of the impoverished sugar industry in the traditional manner.

Firstly, there were gentlemen’s agreements not to sell land to the freed people; but there was no rigid compliance, because the Tobago sugar industry was an unprofitable enterprise.

Many estates were heavily indebted, few were able to break even and the desperate planters who sought to cut their losses advertised their properties for sale on the London market but failed to attract buyers. Some had little option but to sell to available purchasers.

Secondly, land was sold at the prohibitive price of £20 ($96) per acre, which was a strategy to make land unaffordable to free Africans, most of whom earned eight pence (16 cents) a day as estate labourers.

Such was the determination of some freed people that some who persevered and bought land fell victim to unscrupulous planters who sold them useless land – very hilly, with no access; marshy and uncultivable land; land that they did not own; in some cases crown land which the vendors had no authority to sell; and land with no title. In some instances, the purchasers were not given any receipts, so there was no evidence of the transaction.

Thirdly, plantation owners became watchful over abandoned estates and crown land in order to prevent illegal occupation by the free Africans. Some owners illegally extended their properties to include parts of neighbouring abandoned estates, beachfronts, crown land, unoccupied poor settlers’ lots and lots much smaller than the size paid for.

Fourthly, the House of Assembly passed punitive anti-squatting laws which applied only to freed Africans.

The immediate response of the Africans to freedom was to move off the estates, to escape planter control, and because those who occupied estate housing were paid lower wages than those who lived off the estates. Women and children were removed from estate labour. The women were employed caring for their homes and families, cultivating provision grounds, processing some of their produce into saleable items such as candies, starch and farine, which they sold in the market, huckstering or jobs as domestic workers.

The children were sent to learn trades, but some of the older boys were allowed to work on the estates tending animals.

However, the ability to shift from residence on the plantations to other locations varied in different parts of the island and was primarily based on the fortunes of the estates in that particular district.

Tobago was divided into three administrative districts, the Leeward, Middle and Windward districts. The areas from Signal Hill to Milford, and Buccoo to Plymouth constituted the Leeward district, where the largest number of estates were located.

The Middle district, the most populous, included Scarborough and its environs, through Mason Hall, Moriah, Castara, Parlatuvier and Mt St George.

The Windward district was composed of the areas between Mt St George and Charlotteville and the northern areas of Bloody Bay and L’Anse Fourmi. This district covered the largest geographical area, the hilliest terrain and housed the smallest population on the island.

During the 1840s there was a rapid movement of freed Africans to their own homes, constructed on rented land or on estate lands which they occupied as tenants at will (ie subject to eviction without notice), with the next step being to obtain and occupy their own piece of land.

This movement, which resulted in the creation of free villages, was most marked in the Leeward and Middle districts. where the greatest number of land purchases were made.

There were two reasons for this development. Firstly, it was easier to obtain land for purchase because of the number of estates in the district which encountered financial problems.

In addition, planters sought to take advantage of the land hunger of the freed Africans by selling land to them in order to maintain a residential labour force close to the estate. It was expected that the estate would benefit from the services of this pool of labour.

As a result there were a number of free villages which developed on the fringes of distressed estates. These first villages were unplanned settlements which developed without any infrastructural provision for water supply and garbage and sewage disposal.

The first village settlements in the Middle district began before Emancipation, when free black and coloured people purchased land from the first debt-ridden estates before 1838. This resulted in the establishment of free villages initially in Calder Hall, Rockley Vale and Morne Quiton.

After 1838, freed Africans were attracted to these areas and villages also developed in Mt Grace, Cinnamon Hill, and St Cecilia. Villages grew up around the Methodist churches at Mason Hall and Mt St George, and at Moriah from lands purchased from Indian Walk Estates.

The villages in Parlatuvier were populated by migrants from the southwest of the island who engaged in trade with Barbados. The Middle district had the largest population in villages and owners of freehold lands.

The first villages that sprang up in the Leeward district in the early 1840s developed around the Moravian Church at Signal Hill, Hopeton, Patience Hill, Milford and Montgomery. These were later followed by church-centred villages at Black Rock, Bethel and Bethlehem which were formed from the sales of Prospect Estate.

Land sales from the smaller estates in the district resulted in the establishment of villages which carry the names of the estates: Hampden, Grafton, Old Grange, New Grange and Buccoo.

The first villages appeared in the Windward district in 1855. The movement was slower in this district because there was little land available for sale, and there was heavy migration from the area to the Middle and Leeward districts, where amenities and employment opportunities were more available, and from which it was easier to transport goods for trade.

The first villages in the Windward district were established from land sales from Kendall Place estate. The control of the planter community over the land resources of this district was strongest on the island.

The establishment and growth of free villages in post-Emancipation Tobago resulted from the struggle of the freed Africans to own land despite the cost and legal impediments intended to restrict them to the status of estate labour. For them, land-owning was prized as the liberating force from continued ruling-class domination.