By Dr Rita Pemberton

The establishment of Tobago as a British sugar plantation colony, which was cultivated on enslaved labour, was based on two pieces of legislation which determined the future of the island and its residents well into the 20th century. The first was the international agreement, the Treaty of Paris, which was signed on February 10, 1763, by Britain, France, Spain and Portugal after France and Spain were defeated in the Seven Years' War. This treaty was intended to bring an end to the long-standing European contests for possession of property around the globe. During the war, they grabbed each other's territory, some of which was returned at the end of the war. However, Britain retained some of the French possessions, including the coveted island of Tobago and agreed to protect the Catholic faith in the New World.

As a British possession, there was an anxiety to convert Tobago to an operating sugar estate to share in the profits to be obtained from the high prices of sugar on the international market. Hence, the island was demarcated, and land was sold to anxious entrepreneurs who carved the land into plantations. The island was populated by white, predominantly Scottish estate owners, managers, professionals, some of whom were also owners or managers, skilled craftsmen, some Barbadian plantation owners and a large population of enslaved Africans. By the end of the decade of the 1760s sugar estates were fully operational on the island. As a British possession, the island remained subject to the whims of the French, who had not given up on possessing the island, which they hoped to retake. Tobago was therefore prone to French attempts to dislodge the island from the British, who, in anticipation, enlisted enslaved Africans to strengthen their armies. French efforts culminated in the French occupation of Tobago from 1781 to 1793 and further attack and occupation in 1802.

The second set of laws was the Barbados Slave Code of 1661 which was entitled An Act for the Better Ordering and Governing of Negroes. As the oldest British slave colony, the Barbadians established themselves as the connoisseurs of slave management and provided a guide to subsequent slavers. This law instituted a system of policing with force to match the 'brutish' nature of Africans for whom tight controls were considered essential. The punishment for striking a Christian ie a white person, was whipping, their nose would be slit, and they would be burned in the face. Those who engaged in plots were to be publicly executed with haste to dissuade others, but their owners would be compensated, for the loss of their property. The law underscored the fact that enslaved Africans were goods and chattel to be disposed of at their owners bidding.

Law was used to dehumanise the Africans to prevent expression of their culture and deny any attempt to improve their station in life. They were forbidden from beating drums or other noisy instruments which were associated with plotting revolts; trade in goods, strike a Christian, runnin