Dr Rita Pemberton

The members of the Tobago planting fraternity were totally opposed to the union of Trinidad and Tobago in their attempt to prevent the implementation of a policy which they anticipated would result in distasteful changes, not the least of which would be their separation from the reins of power.

But that union was a fait accompli

where the imperial government was concerned and once the union was made operative, it became very clear that the position of dominance and the power traditionally wielded by the island’s planters and merchants were relegated to the past.

This was a difficult pill for the members of the erstwhile ruling class to swallow and in a desperate attempt to protect their interests, the Tobago Planters Association was formed in 1905. Its membership was composed of white and near-white planters and merchants who sought strength in unity with the hope that they could salvage some semblance of the influence which plantation owners and merchants once exercised.

It is to be noted that this body of planters and merchants constituted a new planter /merchant presence who had to function in a very different social and economic environment.

Firstly, the era of quick wealth from profit bearing plantations was over. The old plantocracy stubbornly held on to sugar cultivation until forced to give it up when the industry crashed, after which no suitable profit generating crop had been identified. The island became stuck in financial doldrums which along with the social ferment which it stirred, provided the imperial government with the opportunity to implement its policy of terminating the powers of the local assembly and implement direct rule over the island without effective opposition.

Secondly the new planters did not wield the powers of their predecessors who had surrendered their powers to the imperial government amid fears of a black backlash against exploitation and control.

Thirdly, the new planters needed workers on their properties, but they encountered a working class that resisted low wages and poor working conditions and was further stirred by the activities of the Trinidad Working Mens' Association. In addition, the misfortunes of the sugar industry facilitated the actualisation of the land acquisition ambitions of the working class.

Since the start of union there was opposition to the over centralisation of decision making in Trinidad and there were calls for popular control over decisions pertaining to the island which increased towards the end of the 19th and into the early years of the 20th century when the number of black landowners was on the increase. To the employers this development created what was considered a void on the labour market forcing them to grapple with what they termed “a labour problem” which they were unable to resolve.

They failed (or refused) to see the growing consciousness of the working-class population of political matters and their strong desires for a more participatory administration.

Fourthly, the new crop of planters and me