DR RITA PEMBERTON

Land became a question of critical importance after emancipation in Tobago. Since the island became a British possession in 1763 all the island’s land resources were placed under the control of people who could afford to purchase plantation-sized properties and possessed the required labour to bring the land into production within a short period of time. The individuals who became established as members of the planter class came to Tobago from Barbados, Scotland and England with the expectation that, given the prevailing demand on the international market, the sugar industry would generate handsome profits. Despite the challenges posed by rebellions of the enslaved workers in the 1770s and the ongoing conflicts with the French for possession of the island, the sugar industry did return profits. This, however, was short-lived.

Since the start of the 19th century, although the planter class remained positive, the early signs of the industry’s decline were evident. After Emancipation in 1838, the situation changed when evidence of the decline of the sugar industry became stronger, and planters were forced into survival mode to keep their plantations operative. Developments during the post-emancipation years placed planters and the freed population diametrically opposed to each other in a combative stance for survival in the Tobago space. Planters sought to maintain the control they were able to exercise over their enslaved charges during the years of enslavement without change during the era of freedom, but the freed men and women were determined to free themselves from planter control to find true liberation. In this scenario, land ownership was of central importance.

Both the planting community and the freed population attached importance to land-owning. The efforts of the landed class were focused on the prevention of black land ownership as the means to ensure that the freed population had no option but to remain as the resident pool of estate labour. However, the ambitions of the newly freed population were directed to the procurement of land in order to avoid being confined to estate labour. The conflicting motives of these two groups made them competitors which made land-owning become a highly contested matter during the post-emancipation years.

The waning fortunes of the Tobago sugar industry and the determination of the freed workers to assert their independence, militated against the ability of the planters to maintain the controls over the free workers which they exercised before emancipation, and which they considered essential to the profitability of the sugar industry. But the economic outlook for the sugar industry worsened as the century progressed, several estates fell into financial problems causing their owners to attempt unsuccessfully, to sell their properties but as the situation approached crisis levels, some estates became so heavily in debt that they were abandoned. This practice caused great consternation because unoccupied land would provide land-owning opportunit