By Clyde W. Thierens
The high wages received by freed Africans immediately after Emancipation also helped to stimulate the rapid growth of a Black peasantry in British Guiana and Trinidad. Wages in these colonies ranged from one shilling and six pence to two shillings and one penny per task. Able- bodied Africans were often able to push themselves to complete as many as three tasks on some days. This enabled them to earn substantial sums which they saved up to purchase available lands in the colonies. To some measure, workers in Jamaica had similar experiences. However, the situation was somewhat different in the colonies of Barbados, Antigua, and St Kitts where the earnings of workers were as low as one shilling per day or less. The low earnings they received in those colonies generally prohibited them from purchasing scarce, highly priced lands in their territories.
The rapid growth of a Black peasantry in Trinidad and British Guiana was also stimulated by the weakened economic state of the sugar industry in the two colonies. Many planters found it difficult to cope with the loss of labour and the demands of the newly freed workers for higher pay and better terms of work. While being forced to offer inducements to keep workers, many planters found it impossible to remain in operation in the light of declining sugar prices. In these two colonies, as in Jamaica, a Black peasantry rapidly developed as a result of the post- Emancipation difficulties of the planters and their inability to adjust quickly. Many estates were abandoned as planters were forced to sell land to the Africans in an effort to cut their losses and accumulate desperately needed cash. The shortage of labour and capital led to reductions in the areas under cultivation. Between 1838 and 1844 there was a decrease in production. The situation worsened further in 1846 when the Sugar Duties Act was introduced. The drastic cuts in the price of sugar added to the planters’ woes.
However, in contrast, the sugar industry in Barbados, Antigua and St Kitts remained dominant. Cultivation in these colonies actually expanded and production increased. The continued dominance of the industry precluded the significant development of a peasantry in these colonies.
As unprofitable estates in British Guiana and Trinidad were abandoned or sold, many planters sought to enhance their labour supply by selling some of their estate lands to the Africans. This resulted in significant purchases being made by the ex- slaves and the hastening of the growth of a Black peasantry. Much of the land acquired in this manner was partially drained and therefore ‘workable’. This was in contrast to the Leeward Islands where any lands the ex- slaves could acquire were found in areas that were marginal to the estates and in difficult terrain. These lands, unlike much of those acquired in Trinidad and British Guiana, were unfit for effective utilization.
In Nevis, despite the collapse of the sugar industry, and then of cotton, a significant peasantry failed to develop partly due to a marked exodus of workers from the colony, in addition to the scarcity of land for this purpose. Similarly in Barbados, no real growth was experienced as only six villages were established by 1859. This was due to the unwillingness of planters to sell land to the ex- slaves and, whenever they did, they asked for exorbitant prices ranging from as much as one hundred to two hundred pounds per acre. However, a few ex-slaves acquired small portions of land from charitable proprietors.
Despite the chronic labour shortage in British Guiana and Trinidad, the decreasing levels of cultivation and production meant that many labourers could not be fully employed-especially during out of crop time. This helped to contribute to the rapid growth of a Black peasantry. In addition to this, the introduction of new techniques and machinery, to help counter the labour shortages, also reduced labour requirements and thereby ‘pushed’ more freed Africans into the ranks of the peasantry.
Throughout the British Caribbean, planters individually and collectively devised a number of official and unofficial policies to keep the freed Africans tied to plantation work. In British Guiana, and in Jamaica, acts such as the wanton destruction of fruit trees and provision grounds backfired on the planters. Instead of these acts achieving the desired objective of keeping the Africans bound to the plantations, they resulted in the opposite effect of driving the Black workers away from the plantations and making them more determined to free themselves as much as possible from being in positions where they could be victims of such spite and vindictiveness.
In Trinidad, planters’ actions such as the introduction of the tenancy system, the withdrawal of allowances and the attempts to reduce wages, forced many Africans to leave the estates. Hall is of the view that there would not have been the mass exodus away from some plantations in some territories if planters had sought to foster better relations with the labourers. He contends that they may very well have fared better had they not imposed such harsh conditions for workers’ use of estate residences and provision grounds.
The tenancy-at-will system, which combined rents and wages, and confined labourers to work on particular estates or be evicted, was utilized in Dominica, Nevis, Montserrat, St Lucia, Tobago, St Vincent and Antigua. Successful resistance was mounted by Jamaican labourers, leading to the withdrawal of the system in that colony in 1842. In St Lucia, the system proved ineffective because of the moderate population density of that colony. Implementation of the system in British Guiana and Trinidad was not vigorously pursued as it was felt that- as was the case in St Lucia- the low population density of these territories would have rendered it unsuccessful.
The Barbadian planters, by the Masters and Servants Acts, maintained their stranglehold on the labourers by keeping them working on the estates for wages that were less than market rates. Barbadian workers were forced to pay high rents for dwellings. They were only allowed to remain on the plantations at the discretion of the planters. With land in the colony already scarce, proprietors themselves immediately bought or rented any plots that became available so that African workers could not acquire them. African Barbadian labourers were forced to continue working under onerous conditions on the plantations or face starvation as a result of the employment of these strategies.
Planters in British Guiana and Trinidad introduced measures to lessen production costs, and control workers’ wages and conduct, as a result of falling sugar prices. In 1842, African Guianese workers resisted these draconian ‘Rules and regulations’ by staging massive strikes. Many plantations were ruined as a result of the withdrawal of labour and this led to decreases in the prices of land from which the Africans benefitted. The measures adopted by the planters helped to convince many more Black workers that they would be better off on their own ‘pieces of ground’. This was demonstrated in the substantial growth of the peasantry.
A similar situation unfolded in Trinidad as labourers resisted regulations by moving to available lands in the colony away from the plantations. In Jamaica, planters also attempted to cut wages but strikes by workers there threatened the impending production and labourers left the estates in protest. In 1847-48, the Black peasantry in British Guiana again received a boost as planters once more attempted to reduce wages. More labourers fled to areas up the creeks and rivers, many anticipating the collapse of the entire economic system.
Anticipating that Emancipation would result in a mass exodus of Africans from the plantations, the Secretary of State for the colonies had outlined a land policy to prevent free access to Crown lands in order to keep the labourers on the estate. This official policy did not have the desired effect in British Guiana and Trinidad. Some African Trinidadians were able to squat on Crown lands, while in British Guiana, in addition to some squatting, significant numbers of Africans purchased many of the abandoned plantations on the coast. In both instances the freed Black populations were able to circumvent official policy and acquire land. This contributed immensely to the growth of a Black peasantry in the two colonies.
In Trinidad, despite the passage of legislation in 1839, many labourers were able to squat successfully on Crown lands until the 1860s. In British Guiana, the Peter Rose Report of 1850 indicated that there was significant squatting on the banks of the Demerara River. Africans in this area were engaged in farming, fishing, hunting and the production of firewood and charcoal to support themselves.
It must be noted that there was some measure of official support of the growth of a Black peasantry in Trinidad and British Guiana. Governor Light reported favourably on its growth while at least two Stipendiary Magistrates provided legal advice to the Africans regarding their purchases of land. In Trinidad, Governor Lord Harris supported the growth of a peasantry by selling one-acre plots of land to workers and making some attempts to regularize squatting in the colony.
