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![11
3 The United States had shaken off colonialism,
but this still held sway over most of America.
Moreover, the colonial powers were checking the
expansion of the United States.
4 There were many specific quarrels which the
United States had to settle with Britain, France
and Spain. Peace would imply weakness;
aggression might bring success in boundary
disputes.
Factors favouring a peaceful policy
1 After a long, hard-fought war the country was
very poor and needed peace for recovery and
consolidation.
2 There was westward expansion to be undertaken
within North America while keeping peace with
foreign countries.
3 The United States had much to gain from peace
and neutrality. The commercial prospects
for a neutral trading nation were particularly
attractive in the Caribbean if Britain and France
were fighting each other.
4 The United States would benefit from peace with
Britain in particular. As Thomas Jefferson, the
third President, said later: ‘with her [Britain] on
our side we need not fear the whole world’.
Peace was the policy adopted by the first two
federalist Presidents, George Washington and John
Adams. The opposition party, the Republicans, were
moreaggressiveandwantedwarwiththemonarchies
of Europe on any pretext, but generally peace was
popular in the new nation, especially amongst New
Yorkers and New Englanders who were anxious to
extend commerce and trade.
Becoming a Caribbean power
The United States entered the Caribbean sphere
geographically as well as commercially by obtaining
a long coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. This was
achieved in three stages.
1 Pinckney’s Treaty When the French Revolution-
ary Wars broke out in 1793, France expected the
United States to support her in accordance with
the alliance of1778. However,thelatterremained
neutral, concluding minor treaties with either
side. One of these was a treaty negotiated by the
federalist statesman Charles Pinckney with Spain
in 1795. Spain agreed to open the Mississippi
and the port of New Orleans to the United States
and in return the United States accepted latitude
31 degrees north as the northern boundary of
Florida. The United States had her first outlet
into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.
2 The Louisiana Purchase Thomas Jefferson, a
republican, became President in 1801 and
adopted an openly expansionist policy. His
greatestsuccesswastobuyLouisianafromFrance
in 1803 for $15 000 000. This established the
United States on the west bank of the Mississippi
and gave her a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to
the west of New Orleans.
3 The acquisition of Florida Spain still held the
coastline to the east of New Orleans. Jefferson
had tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain it in 1805
because it would enable the United States to
become involved in the Caribbean, particularly
in Cuba. In the decade after the Anglo-American
War of 1812–1815, nationalism was strong. The
United States pursued a very aggressive policy
towards Spain over Florida, forcing them to hand
it over in 1819 in return for agreeing to take over
the payment of $5 000 000 compensation which
Spain then owed to American merchants.
‘Manifest Destiny’
Jefferson spoke of expansion not only within the
North American continent, but also in other parts
of the Americas. In 1801 he said:
However our present interests may restrain us
withinourlimits,itisimpossiblenottolookforward
to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will
expand beyond those limits and cover the whole
northern, if not the southern, continent with a
people speaking the same language, governed in
similar forms and by similar laws.
This was the first expression of the idea which, many
years later, came to be called ‘Manifest Destiny’.
Put simply, it was the idea that it was natural and
inevitable that the United States would dominate
the Americas in wealth, power and territory. It
was nationalistic, expansionist and aggressive, and
was based on a feeling of the racial and cultural
superiority of the American people. Thus the United](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/history-emancipationtoemigration3rded-230223125155-96795f39/85/History-Emancipation-to-Emigration-3rd-Ed-pdf-20-320.jpg)
![independent Haiti, but the United States withheld
recognition until 1862 because they thought that it
would encourage their own slaves in the southern
states to rebel.
Economic ruin
The Revolution of 1791–1803, and the subsequent
disorder, brought disaster to Haiti’s economy. Before
this period St Domingue had been the leading
sugar producer in the West Indies, and in 1791 had
exported 73 000 tons of sugar. By 1804 this had
dropped to 20 500 tons and by 1825 Haiti exported
under one ton. Coffee exports did not decline so
dramatically. They fell from 30 500 tons in 1791
to 14 000 tons in 1804 and 10 000 tons in 1818.
Thereafter, there was a slight recovery and by 1825
Haiti was exporting 26 000 tons annually. Coffee did
not collapse completely because it could be grown
on the peasant smallholdings which sprang up
during the Revolution.
Independent Haiti could not support large estates
because the ex-slaves were not willing to undertake
plantation labour. Therefore, peasant smallholdings
for subsistence living, with a little coffee produced
for export, became the basis of Haiti’s economy.
Organised labour was disrupted and this led to
the failure to maintain the irrigation works in the
Western Plain, and to the floods of 1800. In this way,
some of the most productive land in Haiti was lost.
It suffered repeated flooding and erosion and was
allowed to return to bush.
However, the new subsistence economy of Haiti
enabled independence to be preserved and made
Haiti the first country in the New World to abolish
slavery successfully, an achievement which was
worth economic sacrifices. At first, Britain, France,
Spain and the United States put an embargo on
trade with Haiti. By the time this was lifted she had
lost her means of production and her markets, and
never recovered them.
The boost to other sugar producers
The collapse of St Domingue’s sugar industry
boosted sugar production elsewhere. It brought the
results that British sugar planters had been hoping
for since the Seven Years’ War. A reflection of the
expanding sugar trade of the British islands was the
THE FIRST CROWNED MONARCH
OF THE NEW WORLD
Henri Christophe
Henri Christophe (1767–1820), who could
neither read nor write, was born to free black
parents in Grenada. He left the island as a ten-
year-oldcabinboyandbeganlifeinStDomingue
some time later, employed as a scullion. These
days were long forgotten by the time he created
his monarchy in 1811, and had himself crowned
as ‘Henry’ [preferring the English spelling], by
the Grace of God and the Constitutional Law of
the State, King of Haiti, Sovereign of Tortuga,
Gonâve and other adjacent islands, Destroyer
of Tyranny, Regenerator and Benefactor of the
Haitian Nation, Creator of the Moral, Political
and Martial Institutions, First Crowned
Monarch of the New World, Founder of the
Royal and Military Order of ‘Saint-Henry’. By
this time he had already created an hereditary
nobility consisting of four princes, eight dukes,
twenty-two counts, thirty-seven barons and
fourteen knights.
His monarchy, together with the titles of his
nobility and his Royal and Military Order of
‘Saint-Henry’, all disappeared after his suicide
nineyearslater.Hewasburiedinhismagnificent
fortress, the Citadelle La Ferrière, which still
stands. It dominates the summit of a mountain
with walls up to 130 feet (40 m) high and 16 feet
(5 m) thick, and is the largest military structure
in the western hemisphere.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/history-emancipationtoemigration3rded-230223125155-96795f39/85/History-Emancipation-to-Emigration-3rd-Ed-pdf-32-320.jpg)
![31
which, because of the slow speed of communication
between Britain and the Americas, was carried out
after peace had been signed.
Spanish American independence
During the first decade of the nineteenth century
the Spanish mainland colonies became increasingly
restive. The prosperity they had enjoyed during the
previous century had begun to fade, and many of
their inhabitants wanted to follow the precedent set
by the United States in breaking free of a European
power and establishing independence. Attempts
to achieve this began in 1810 and continued for
another sixteen years.
The Monroe Doctrine
The United States, being a republic made up
of ex-colonies, supported colonial uprisings in
Latin America. In 1818 several revolutionary
governments, including that of Venezuela, asked
for, and expected to receive, American recognition.
However, the United States was trying to obtain
Florida from Spain and did not want to upset her, so
she remained neutral during the uprisings. By 1822
Peru and Mexico had become independent of Spain,
and Brazil had become independent of Portugal. The
European powers began to consider restoring the
Latin American colonies to their former masters.
This threat of European intervention made the
United States act as if she had already recognised
the independence of most of these new countries.
Britain was interested in trade with Latin America
andconsideredshehadaclaimonitsincemostofthe
money for the revolutions had come from Britain. In
1823 George Canning, the British Foreign Minister,
proposed that the United States and Britain should
cooperate to stop the re-colonisation of Latin
America. Many people in the United States favoured
this, but John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State,
felt that Canning’s proposal would allow Britain to
stop the United States expanding into any territory
once held by Spain, particularly Cuba. He advised
the rejection of cooperation and President Monroe
(in office 1817–25) followed his advice. These words
from his Presidential Address became known as the
Monroe Doctrine:
Weshouldconsideranyattemptontheir [European
powers] part to extend their system to any portion
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and
safety. With the governments who have declared
their independence and maintained it, and whose
independence we have acknowledged, we could
not view any interposition by any European power
in any other light than as the manifestation of an
unfriendly disposition toward the United States.
New Orleans at the beginning of the nineteenth century](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/history-emancipationtoemigration3rded-230223125155-96795f39/85/History-Emancipation-to-Emigration-3rd-Ed-pdf-40-320.jpg)
![170
3 (a) In what ways did the indentured workers
from India contribute to the growth of the
Caribbean sugar industry?
(b) What difficulties did these workers face
in Trinidad and British Guiana up until
1876?
4 (a) Describe how indentured Indian workers
were recruited and brought to the
Caribbean.
(b) Name the non-British territories which
also recruited Indian workers.
(c) Explain why Chinese workers were not
imported into the British West Indies in
large numbers.
Theme 6: Economic Diversification,
1875–1985 [in the 19th century]
1 (a) What were the reasons which made Cuba
such a large producer of sugar in the late
1800s?
(b) What was the main reason for the fall in
Cuban sugar production after 1895?
(c) Explain why, in the late nineteenth century,
Barbadian sugar exports rose at the same
time as they fell in Jamaica.
2 (a) What crops, other than sugar-cane, began
to be grown in the British West Indies after
1875?
(b) What were the reasons for this?
(c) Outline the reasons why such crops were
not a great success.
Theme 8: The United States in the Caribbean,
1776–1985 [the 18th and 19th century aspects]
1 (a) What goods did the British planters import
from the American colonies before the
American War of Independence?
(b) Explain why Britain was not successful in
ending this trade.
2 (a) Explain as fully as possible why Cuba
became of increasing importance to the
USA during the nineteenth century.
(b) Explain as fully as possible why the USA
became involved in the Cuban War of
Independence.
3 (a) WhatreasonsdidtheUSAhaveforwanting
to build and control the Panama Canal?
(b) How did the US Government obtain the
land on which to build the canal?
Theme 9: Social Life 1838–1962
[in the 19th century]
1 (a) In what ways did immigration cause racial
tension after emancipation?
(b) In what ways did racial discrimination
affect indentured workers during the
nineteenth century?
2 (a) Why did those who had once been slaves
continue to worship in Christian churches
after 1834?
(b) In which Churches did this section of
society worship after slavery had ended?
(c) What were the reasons why some blacks
came to hold positions of influence in
Christian churches after emancipation?
3 (a) Describe the dress and occupations of
the indentured Indian workers in the
Caribbean during the nineteenth century.
(b) What were the reasons for racial tension
between these workers and the black
labourers?
(c) Why was Hinduism seen as something
strange by the rest of society in the
British West Indies during the nineteenth
century?
4 (a) What means of travel existed in the
Caribbean in the mid-nineteenth century?
(b) What transportation difficulties were en-
countered at this time?
(c) What changes took place in transport by
the end of the nineteenth century?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/history-emancipationtoemigration3rded-230223125155-96795f39/85/History-Emancipation-to-Emigration-3rd-Ed-pdf-179-320.jpg)
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History - Emancipation to Emigration 3rd Ed..pdf
- 1. Emancipation to Emigration Brian Dyde,Robert Greenwood, Shirley Hamber 2 CSEC History will prove indispensable to anyone teaching or studying the history of the region. The series, comprising three books, tells in a straightforward and stimulating way the story of the people of many races and of many nations who have inhabited the region from the earliest times up to the present day. The third edition of the series has been completely revised and expanded and meets all the requirements of the latest Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) syllabus of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). Book 2, Emancipation to Emigration, concentrates on the events of the nineteenth century, and in particular Emancipation and its aftermath and the beginning of the presence of the United States in the region. Also available in the series: Book 1: Amerindians to Africans 978-0-230-02088-7 Book 3: Decolonisation and Development 978-0-230-02087-0 Other books for CSEC History A Sketchmap History of the Caribbean 978-0-333-53623-0 Caribbean Revision History 978-0-333-46116-7 Emancipation to Emigration Emancipation to Emigration 3rd Edition Brian Dyde, Robert Greenwood, Shirley Hamber 3rd Edition Please note: Spine = 11.5mm (based on 192pp, 90g w/f) Also available: CXC REVISION GUIDE History 978-1-4050-5982-4 Find us on Facebook /macmillancaribbean Find us on Twitter @MacCaribbean www.macmillan-caribbean.com I S B N 978-0-230-02089-4 9 7 8 0 2 3 0 0 2 0 8 9 4 CSEC® is a registered trade mark of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). HISTORY FOR CSEC® EXAMINATIONS: EMANCIPATION TO EMIGRATION is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by CXC. History for CSEC® Examinations History for CSEC® Examinations CSEC_HISTORY_2.indd 1 09/12/2014 13:51
- 2. 3rd edition Brian Dyde,RobertGreenwood,Shirley Hamber History for CSEC® Examinations Emancipation to Emigration 2 CSEC® is a registered trade mark of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). HISTORY FOR CSEC® EXAMINATIONS: EMANCIPATION TO EMIGRATION is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by CXC.
- 3. Macmillan Education 4 CrinanStreet London N1 9XW A division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Companies and representatives throughout the world www.macmillan-caribbean.com ISBN: 978-0-230-02089-4 Text © Brian Dyde, Robert Greenwood and Shirley Hamber 2008 Design and illustration © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2008 All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers. Typeset by Carol Hulme Cover design by Gary Fielder at Conka Cover photograph: The Emancipation Monument, Slave in Revolt, by the Barbadian sculptor Karl Broodhagen, erected in Bridgetown in 1985. (Photo: © Corbis/Franz Marc Frei) The authors and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs their photographic material: AKG Photos pp13, 33, 43, 102, 111, 115, 118; Alamy / Mary Evans Picture Library pp36, 80, Alamy / The Print Collector p108, Library p80, Alamy/ Ray Roberts p83, Alamy / Amoret Tanner p162,; The Art Archive p127B; Barbados Government Archives p127 (tr); The Bridgman Art Library / Bibliotheque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France. Archives Charmet p117, The Bridgeman Art Library / Private Collection/(c) Michael Graham-Stewart p69; Cambridge University Library p107; Caribbean Stock Photography p146,; Corbis pp45, 85, 119, 154, Corbis / Earl & Nazima Kowall p24, Corbis/Bob Krist p145; Getty Images / Hulton Archive pp3, 5, 27, 31, 90, 130, 131, 143, 166; The Library of Congress, Washington D.C., p12(l); LOC p66,; Mary Evans Picture Library pp22, 26, 34, 35, 75(r), 70, 72, 89, 100, 137; National Maritime Museum Picture Library p1; National Portrait Gallery, London p59, 167; Peter Newark’s Historical Picture Library p76, 142; Popperfoto p147; The Royal Geographical Society p121; Topfoto p150; University of Cambridge Archive p156; Wikipedia p12(r). Picture Research by Virginia Stroud-Lewis Printed and bound in Malaysia 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
- 4. Contents List of Mapsvii Preface to the Third Edition viii I European Rivalry in the Caribbean in 1 the Eighteenth Century Relative positions of the European powers in the Caribbean 1 Naval power 3 Economic aims of the powers 3 The effects of the eighteenth-century wars on the West Indies 3 The War of Spanish Succession 3 The War of Jenkins’ Ear 4 The War of Austrian Succession 4 The Seven Years’ War 6 The effects of the Seven Years’ War 6 The War of American Independence 7 The effects of the War of American Independence 8 The United States and the Caribbean in the eighteenth century 9 The position in 1783 9 Factors favouring an aggressive policy 10 Factors favouring a peaceful policy 11 Becoming a Caribbean power 11 ‘Manifest Destiny’ 11 Conclusion 12 2 The Haitian Revolution 13 The French Revolution 13 The effect of the Revolution in the French Caribbean 13 The effect of the Revolution in St Domingue 14 The effect on the white population 14 The effect on the coloured population 14 The effect on the slave population 15 The coloured revolt of 1790 15 The slave rising around Cap Français in 1791 16 The Jacobin Commission 16 British Intervention in St Domingue 17 Toussaint Louverture 17 Toussaint’s rise to power 17 Toussaint’s domination of St Domingue 18 Toussaint’s Constitution 18 Napoleon’s attitude to Toussaint 19 The attempted ‘pacification’ of St Domingue 19 Leclerc’s expedition to St Domingue 19 Christophe and Dessalines take over 19 Haitian independence 21 The price of independence 21 Loss of life 21 Political chaos 22 Economic ruin 23 The boost to other sugar producers 23 Effects of the Haitian Revolution on other countries 24 3 Europe and the United States in the Caribbean, 1783–1823 26 The French Revolutionary Wars 26 Victor Hugues and Julien Fédon 26 The Black Carib revolt in St Vincent 27 Seizure of the Dutch, Danish and Swedish colonies 28 The widening of the war in the Caribbean 28 The West India Regiments 28 The Napoleonic Wars 29 The economic effects of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 29 The United States and the Caribbean 30 Spanish American independence 31 The Monroe Doctrine 31 The United States and Cuba 32 4 The Control and Treatment of Slaves 33 Slavery and the law 33 Slave laws and codes in the British Caribbean 34 iii
- 5. iv The originof the slave codes 35 The features of the slave codes 35 Punishments 35 Manumission 36 Marriage and divorce 37 Religion 37 Education 38 Forces of law and order 38 The Militia 38 British troops 39 Constables 39 Other forms of slave control 39 Pro-slavery alliances 39 Amelioration 40 The Huggins and Hodge cases 41 Slave codes in the non-British Caribbean 41 The Spanish Code 41 The French Code 42 The Dutch and Danish Codes 42 Conclusion 43 5 Resistance and Revolt 45 Response to slavery 45 Passive resistance 45 Amerindian influence on resistance 46 Resistance through African culture 46 Active resistance 46 Marronage 47 The Maroons in Jamaica 47 The First Maroon War 48 The Second Maroon War 48 The Bush Negroes of Surinam 50 Slave rebellions 50 The 1763 rebellion in Berbice 51 The spread of the rebellion 52 The arrival of troops 52 The death of Kofi 53 A National Hero 53 The late slave rebellions in the British West Indies 53 The 1816 revolt in Barbados 53 The 1823 revolt in Demerara 54 The 1831 revolt in Jamaica, the ‘Western Liberation Uprising’ 54 Conclusion 56 6 Slavery Challenged 59 Attitudes towards slavery 59 Pre-eighteenth-century attitudes 59 Acquisition and justification 59 Racial attitudes 60 Eighteenth-century attitudes 60 Arguments used to condone slavery 62 Arguments used to condemn slavery 63 The British anti-slavery movement 63 The Quakers 63 The Clapham Sect, or ‘The Saints’ 64 Industrialists 64 The campaign for the abolition of the slave trade 64 The campaign outside Parliament 64 The campaign in Parliament 66 The West India Interest 67 The abolition of the slave trade 68 Difficulties in enforcing the abolition of the slave trade 68 Better days for the free coloureds 70 7 The Emancipation of Slaves 72 Amelioration 72 The Registration of Slaves 72 The Amelioration Bill 73 The failure of amelioration 73 Missionaries in the British West Indies 74 Nonconformist missions 74 The persecution of missionaries 75 Other obstacles faced by the missionaries 75 Conclusion 76 The emancipation of slaves 77 Immediate causes 77 The Emancipation Act, 1833 77 Compensation 78 The apprenticeship system 79 Reasons for apprenticeship 79 Apprenticeship at work 80
- 6. Special magistrates 80 The end of apprenticeship 81 Abolition and emancipation in the non-British Caribbean 82 The French islands 82 The Spanish islands 82 The Dutch colonies 85 The Swedish and Danish islands 86 Conclusion 86 8 Post-Emancipation Adjustments 87 The immediate post-emancipation period 87 The new labouring class in 1838 88 The attitude of the labourers 89 The attitude of the planters 89 The effect on sugar production 90 Wages and fringe benefits 92 Sugar cultivation by independent blacks 93 The ‘free village’ movement 93 Free villages in Jamaica 94 Free villages in other colonies 94 The labour situation after emancipation 96 9 Immigrant Labour 97 Official reaction to immigration 97 Immigration schemes 98 European labour 98 Madeirans and Maltese 98 Free African immigration 98 Chinese immigration 99 Indian immigration 99 The contracts 101 Organisation of Asian immigration schemes 102 ‘The New Slavery’ 103 Immigration to non-British colonies 104 The Dutch colonies 106 The French colonies 106 Cuba 106 The effects of immigration in the British colonies 108 On the sugar industry 108 On culture and society 109 10 Problems of the Caribbean Sugar Industry 111 British West Indian sugar before 1846 111 Sugar prices 112 The Sugar Equalisation Act, 1846 113 Free trade 113 Results of the 1846 Act 113 Surviving the crisis 114 The Encumbered Estates Act, 1854 114 Foreign competition 115 Cuba 115 The natural advantages of Cuba 116 The man-made advantages of Cuba 116 The sugar revolution in Cuba 117 The Dominican Republic 118 Louisiana and Brazil 118 European beet sugar 119 The backwardness of the British West Indian sugar industry 120 Causes 120 The Royal Commission of 1882–83 121 The Norman Commission of 1896 122 The need for alternative crops 122 Before the Norman Commission 122 Small farming and alternative crops 123 The importance of the Norman Commission 123 11 Constitutional Developments in the British Caribbean in the Nineteenth Century 124 Breakdown of the representative system of government 124 The representative system 124 Non-cooperative Assemblies 125 The judiciary 126 Local government 128 Status of Trinidad, St Lucia and British Guiana 128 Trinidad 128 St Lucia 128 British Guiana 128 The Morant Bay Rebellion 129
- 7. vi The hardshipsof the 1850s and 1860s 129 The key personalities 130 Events leading to the rebellion 131 The rebellion 131 The repression 133 Judgement on Eyre 133 The change to Crown Colony government 134 Crown Colony government in Jamaica 134 Crown Colony government in the Windward Islands 135 Crown Colony government in the Leeward Islands 135 Bahamas, Bermuda and Barbados 135 Crown Colony government at work 135 Conclusion 136 12 Religion in the British Caribbean in the Nineteenth Century 137 The Anglican Church 137 Church of England missions 137 Reforms in the Anglican Church 138 The creation of two dioceses 138 Post-emancipation period 138 The disestablishment of the Church of England 139 Barbados 139 Nonconformist Churches 140 The Moravians 140 The Wesleyan Methodists 140 The Baptists 141 Nonconformist missions 141 Persecution of Nonconformist Churches 142 Post-emancipation 144 The Roman Catholic Church 144 Immigrant religions 145 Hinduism 145 Islam 147 Hinduism and Islam in the West Indies 148 13 Social Life and Changes, 1838–1914 150 After emancipation 150 Divisions in society 150 The anti-Portuguese riot in British Guiana 151 Religious and cultural divisions 152 The absence of social mobility 152 The emergence of a diverse culture 153 West Indian soldiers 153 Social patterns 154 Marriage 154 Matrifocal families 155 Segregation of the sexes 155 Kinship 155 The ‘yard’ 155 Social welfare 155 Education 156 Charity schools 156 Mission schools 157 The training of teachers 157 School attendance 157 The dual system 158 Education under Crown Colony government 159 Secondary education 159 Curriculum 160 Social results of education by 1914 160 Public health and medical services 161 Public works 162 Communications 163 Railways 163 Sea transport 164 Posts and telegraphs 164 Emigration 165 Background to emigration 165 Trinidad and British Guiana 165 Panama 165 Central America 166 Cuba and the Dominican Republic 167 The United States 167 Conclusion 167 Revision Questions 169 Further Reading 171 Index 173
- 8. vii List of Maps 1The Caribbean at the beginning of the eighteenth century 2 2 The independent United States in 1783 10 3 St Domingue 15 4 The Caribbean in 1815 20 5 The strategic importance of Cuba to the United States 32 6 Jamaica and the Maroon Wars 49 7 The principal sources of Asian immigrants 105 8 Eastern Jamaica at the time of the Morant Bay Rebellion 132 9 Emigration from the British Caribbean islands, 1838 to 1914 168
- 9. viii Emancipation to Emigrationis the second of three books aimed at covering the 2000 Caribbean History syllabus of the Caribbean Examinations Council. As with the first book, Amerindians to Africans, it is a considerably revised and enlarged version of a work written to meet the needs of earlier editions of the syllabus. The book is devoted almost entirely to the history of the Caribbean during the nineteenth century. As such it deals in their entirety with three themes in the syllabus: Resistance and Revolt, Movements towards Emancipation and Adjustments to Emancipation, 1838–1876. The book also deals with the nineteenth-century aspects of three other themes, Economic Diversification, 1875–1985andTheUnitedStatesintheCaribbean, 1776–1985 and Social Life, 1838–1962, as well as providing the background information required for full appreciation of a fourth theme, Social and Economic Conditions in the Twentieth Century. Full treatment has been given to such topics as: the effects of the wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries on the West Indies; the origins and course of the Haitian Revolution; attitudes to slavery inside and outside the Caribbean; the law and the slave in the English, French, Spanish and Dutch colonies; the treatment of slaves in these colonies; the slaves’ response to their condition; marronage and slave revolts; the stirring of European consciences against slavery; the abolition movement in Britain; Nonconformist missionary activity before emancipation; amelioration and its failure; the difficulties arising out of emancipation; the apprenticeship system; the free village movement; plantation labour after emancipation; immigrant labour and its effects; the problems of the sugar industry after emancipation; the Morant Bay Rebellion and the change to Crown Colony government; alternative crops; religion, public health and education in the British colonies; and emigration both within and out of the Caribbean. In order to meet the needs of the 2000 syllabus, it has been necessary to incorporate much new and revised material. This has involved considerable rearrangement of the contents of the original 1979 edition of the book, the inclusion with amendments of some parts of the third volume of the series, and an increase in the number of chapters. The chapters dealing with the control and treatment of slaves, and of slave resistance and revolt, have been largely rewritten in the light of modern scholarship. The policy adopted by the authors of the first edition was to concentrate on a factual approach, and to attempt to treat all the topics listed above at the level required by the Caribbean Examinations Council,bothinfactualcontentandcomprehension. The same approach has been followed in the new edition, but with the addition of the reviser’s analysis and interpretation of, and insights into, key events. The Revision Questions at the end of the book have also been revised, and are now based very much on questions which were set for the history examinations conducted during the seven years which followed the introduction of the new syllabus. The Further Reading list contains many of the books used both in writing the original second volume of the Caribbean Certificate History, and in the preparation of this revised edition. It contains the general standard texts for Caribbean history, as well as some of the more readily available, up-to- date histories of individual territories. Brian Dyde Pembroke, 2007 Preface to the Third Edition
- 10. 1 EuropeanRivalryinthe CaribbeanintheEighteenth Century Relative positions ofthe European powers in the Caribbean At the beginning of the eighteenth century, France, Britain, Holland and Denmark, as well as Spain, had territorial possessions in the Caribbean. France and Britain were the chief rivals with possessions which, in number if not in size, were more or less evenly balanced. In the Greater Antilles the British had Jamaica, and the French had St Domingue. In the Lesser AntillestheBritishownedBarbados,Nevis,Antigua, Montserrat, Tortola, Anguilla and Barbuda, while the French held Guadeloupe, Martinique, Grenada, Tobago, Marie Galante, St Croix and St Barthélemy. St Kitts, of course, was shared between England and France. The islands of Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent were still in dispute between the British, the French and the original Kalinago inhabitants, although all three had more French than English settlers. Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, St Eustatius and Saba all belonged to the Dutch, while St Martin was shared between the Dutch and the French. Denmark had the island of St Thomas. Elsewhere in the region the Dutch, French and British all had settlements in the Guianas, and Britain had begun to lay claim to the Bahamas and to the Turks and Caicos. By 1700 the British island colonies were more valuable than those of the French, as they produced more and had higher populations. But the French islands were potentially more valuable as they had greater acreage and more virgin soil. The total area of the British islands, excluding the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, was about 5000 square miles (13 000 square kilometres (sq km)), while the total area of the French islands was Bombardment of the Moro Castle, Havana, 1762
- 11. Map 1 same size 0 200 400600 km 0 100 200 300 400 miles PUERTO RICO (SPANISH) ST EUSTATIUS (DUTCH) ST KITTS (BRITISH FRENCH) NEVIS (BRITISH) GUADELOUPE (FRENCH) ST VINCENT (FRENCH) GRENADA (FRENCH) VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH) BARBUDA (BRITISH) ANTIGUA (BRITISH) MONTSERRAT (BRITISH) MARIE GALANTE (BRITISH) DOMINICA (FRENCH) MARTINIQUE (FRENCH) ST LUCIA (FRENCH) BARBADOS (BRITISH) TOBAGO (FRENCH) TRINIDAD (SPANISH) ANGUILLA (BRITISH) ST MARTIN (DUTCH FRENCH) CURAÇAO (DUTCH) BAHAMAS (BRITISH) TURKS CAICOS (BRITISH) JAMAICA (BRITISH) HONDURAS SETTLEMENTS (BRITISH) BAY ISLANDS (SPANISH) ST DOMINGUE (FRENCH) SANTO DOMINGO (SPANISH) ARUBA (DUTCH) BONAIRE (DUTCH) GUIANA SETTLEMENTS (DUTCH) CUBA (SPANISH) CAYMAN ISLANDS (BRITISH) ST CROIX (FRENCH) ST THOMAS (DANISH) Map 1 The Caribbean at the beginning of the eighteenth century
- 12. about 12 000square miles (31 000 sq km). In St Domingue, the French had potentially the richest sugar producer in the Caribbean. Naval power Britain was soon to have the advantage here because ofthepossessionoftwonavalbasesintheCaribbean. The development of facilities for provisioning and refitting ships at English Harbour in Antigua, and Port Royal in Jamaica, took place during the first half of the eighteenth century. This enabled the British to keep warships in the Caribbean throughout the year, except for the period they spent in North America to avoid the hurricane season. The French had no such base, and relied on sending out warships each year in the spring. As they too had to leave the Caribbean during the hurricane season their operations were much more limited than those of the British ships. Economic aims of the powers In a mercantilist age the West Indies were very important. The sugar trade was something that everyone thought was worth fighting for. But, by the end of the eighteenth century, mercantilism had become mixed with imperialism and Britain and France both wanted to enlarge their empires at the expense of the other, so the islands themselves became worth fighting for. The West Indies suffered the fate of other colonies in having no say in the policies which involved them in war, hardship and sometimes ruin. The effects of the eighteenth-century wars on the West Indies There were five major wars in the Caribbean in the eighteenth century and they occupied thirty-four years of fighting. This excludes the Revolutionary Wars which began in 1793, but which carried on into the Napoleonic Wars and so belong to the next century. The War of Spanish Succession, 1702 to 1713 This was a European war arising from the French claim to the Spanish throne. Britain resisted this claim, and Britain and France became involved in a colonial war. One West Indian issue for which they were fighting was the asiento which King Louis XIV had claimed in 1702. Most of the fighting was in the Leewards. The British captured the French part of St Kitts in 1702. In 1706 the French counter-attacked in the Leewards and, thereafter, dominated the naval war there. The Leewards, of course, felt the main effects of the war. Nevis, raided in 1706, and Montserrat, raided in 1712, never fully recovered. Their planters were killed and their slaves carried off. The British English Harbour, Antigua, at the end of the eighteenth century
- 13. 4 Leewards were notable to export any sugar until after the war. Slaves suffered because they were regarded as booty and carried off after a raid and, when peace returned, there was no labour to start up the plantations again. The navy saved Jamaica from attack at the beginning of the war and thereafter the island was untroubled, except by pirates. Jamaica maintained her exports of sugar to Britain and imported 11 000 slaves. In the Peace of Utrecht, 1713, St Kitts became completely British and remained so for the rest of the colonial period. Britain was given the asiento but on terms which led to another major war in the Caribbean. The War of Jenkins’ Ear, 1739 This was a purely Caribbean war. The asiento of 1713 allowed Britain to supply slaves to the Spanish colonies, but no other trade could be carried on, apart from one ship of general cargo per year to the Porto Bello Fair. The Spanish emphasised that the British must not engage in ‘unlawful trade’. Spanish coastguards claimed that the asiento gave them the right to search British ships, and they confiscated all the goods they could. Jamaica’s trade with Spanish possessions suffered especially. The British retaliated against the searches and they fought minor wars with the Spanish in 1718 and 1727 in which the metropolitan governments did not become involved. Then, in 1738, a Captain Jenkins claimed before Parliament that the Spanish had cut off his ear during a search of his ship. Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister, tried to settle grievances in the Convention of El Pardo, 1739, and the British claimed damages of £95 000 for losses suffered in 1718 and 1727. The Spanish agreed to pay the damages subject to the South Sea Company paying what it owed under the asiento, but this was not done. Therefore, the Spanish suspended the asiento and this, together with the conduct of the coastguards, was thought sufficient cause for war. Other minor causes were the Spanish dislike of British subjects cutting logwood in Honduras, and the dispute over the boundary between the British colony of Georgia and the Spanish colony of Florida in North America. War against Spain meant war against France as the rulers of the two countries were both members of the same family, the Bourbons. This alliance became known as ‘The Family Compact’. Britain defeated Spain very easily in the western Caribbean. Porto Bello, Cartagena and Santiago de Cuba were raided and Spanish trade was so badly affected that only one treasure fleet reached home in tenyears.Britishtrade,ontheotherhand,flourished. In the eastern Caribbean, Britain and France aimed at destroying each other’s competitiveness in the sugar trade and, as Britain had command of the sea, she was successful. Only one French fleet, in 1740, was sent to the Caribbean and it returned after a few months without fighting. The War of Austrian Succession, 1740 to 1748 This was a continuation of the War of Jenkins’ Ear. The fighting was on a small scale and was carried out mainly by privateers. The British dominated the sea to such an extent that goods could not reach the French islands and prices rose dramatically. At the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, which settled both wars, the Spanish agreed to pay compensation for having suspended the asiento four years early. In the western Caribbean, the British removed their settlers from the Bay Islands THE SOUTH SEA COMPANY The South Sea Company was chartered in 1711, and given a perpetual monopoly on British trade with South America and all the Spanish colonies in the New World. Two years later, under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, it was awarded the asiento to supply these same colonies with slaves. The asiento contract required the company to deliver 4800 slaves each year for 30 years, with a fee for each one being paid to the king of Spain. The slaves intended for the Caribbean were delivered to factories set up in Barbados and at Port Royal in Jamaica, where they were ‘refreshed’ before onward shipment. In 1750 the asiento and other trading rights were surrendered to the Spanish crown for £100 000. From then on the company had no further dealings with the Caribbean until it went out of existence in 1854.
- 14. 5 in the Gulfof Honduras, but left those on the Belize River and Moskito Coast in spite of Spanish protest. Britain and France restored each other’s islands and Dominica, St Vincent, St Lucia and Tobago were declared ‘Neutral Islands’. British and French settlers were to evacuate them and leave them for the Caribs. The most important effects of the wars were in the sugar market. The British enjoyed a sugar boom between 1748 and 1756 because supplies had been restricted and French exports cut completely. The price rose to a new level on the British market, and by 1750 was twice what it had been before the war. Jamaica profited by this, because she was in a position to increase her supply without increasing her costs by bringing new land under sugar. The Spanish took over supplying slaves to their own possessions, and the British, without the cover of the asiento, could be detected smuggling more easily. Unfortunately, British and French settlers did not leave the Neutral Islands and the Caribs were pushed into the less fertile parts of the islands, killed or deported. Walpole and Jenkins’ Ear, 1739 THE BAY ISLANDS These islands, about 34 miles (55 km) off the north coast of Honduras, were sighted by Columbus in 1502 but were not settled by the Spanish. As a result, in the seventeenth century theybegantobeusedbytheBaymen,theEnglish log cutters who were living on the mainland, and this gradually brought them under British protection. This was demonstrated in the 1740s when a few troops were sent to the main island of Roatan and they were placed under the titular jurisdiction of the Governor of Jamaica. The presence of the settlement was resented by Honduras after it achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and the inhabitants were attacked from time to time. The islands were formally claimed by Britain in 1852, but protests by the United States caused the claim to be surrendered seven years later. Although the islands were ceded to Honduras in 1859, the inhabitants retain a distinct identity and English is still widely spoken.
- 15. The Seven Years’War, 1756 to 1763 This was the greatest colonial war in history. It was most famous for what happened in India and Canada, but it was also a very important war in West Indian history. William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, believed that Britain’s future strength lay in commerce and empire and he wanted to capture as many French colonies as he could. If this led to a surplus of sugar on the British market, he hoped to re-export this to a new market on the continent of Europe. Pitt saw the war as a global struggle and did not want to commit too many ships to the Caribbean. The British islands saw the war from the Caribbean viewpoint and they felt seriously threatened. In view of the danger, local militias were easily recruited, but they were hardly used as most of the fighting was at sea. Pitt held that he was defending the West Indies by blockading the French ports in Europe, but the British islands would have felt more comfortable had they been able to see British warships in their own waters. After an initial setback in 1756 when French ships were able to escape from the Mediterranean and reach the Caribbean, the British were clearly winning the colonial war by 1758. Pitt was ready to start capturing the French sugar islands, but first he ordered the taking of Gorée, the great French slave- trading station in West Africa, in order to cut off the French supply of slaves. In January 1759 the British tried to capture Martinique but found it too strong, so they turned againstGuadeloupewhichsurrenderedinMay1759. Then Marie Galante, Désirade and Les Saintes all surrendered. The treatment of Guadeloupe caused much dissatisfaction among the British planters. It was allowed to keep French laws and the Catholic religion, and it could go on producing sugar which had to be sold on the British market, thus reducing the price of sugar. Guadeloupe could import food from North America and, in the four years of the war remaining, the British imported 40 000 slaves into the island, thus enabling it to become a major sugar competitor. Barbados and Antigua were particularly affected by the drop in sugar prices. By 1759 the British were in command of the Caribbean. In 1761 Dominica was captured, to be followed the next year by Martinique, St Lucia and Grenada. Because of the Family Compact, Spain entered the war in 1762. The British sent a large expedition to Cuba. Troops were landed and Havana was besieged for two months. The surrender of Havana in August 1762 marked the end of the Seven Years’ War in the West Indies. Before the Peace of Paris, 1763, which concluded the war, William Pitt fell from office and was succeeded by the Earl of Bute. Bute feared that Britain’s greatly enlarged empire would excite the jealousy of the other powers, so he gave back much of what had been won in the war. Martinique and Guadeloupe with their neighbouring islands were restored to France. Of the Neutral Islands, France was given St Lucia, while Britain kept Dominica, St Vincent and Tobago. Britain also kept Grenada. In the treaty with Spain, Britain gave back Cuba, but kept Florida, and insisted on the right to keep logwood cutters in Honduras, promising that there would be no fortifications. The effects of the Seven Years’ War The effects of the war on the sugar market were felt as early as 1759. The future looked bleak for the British islands. Sugar prices were falling as French production, especially in Guadeloupe and St Domingue, increased. Some British planters moved from the islands to Guiana where costs were lower. The British government took little notice of the planters’ pleas to restrict French sugar on the British market, and to enforce the Molasses Act, an Act which had been passed in 1733 imposing heavy duty on all sugar, molasses and rum imported from non-British sources into the North American colonies. The supply of slaves had dropped because many had been diverted to Guadeloupe and Cuba during the war, and there was a new demand from the ex-Neutral Islands where sugar planting was beginning. Consequently, the price of slaves in the old islands was much higher: planters were having to pay £40 for a good Gold Coast slave after the war. For the French islands, a sugar boom was beginning. Gorée had been restored so they regained their supply of slaves. For the first time the French islands overtook the British islands in
- 16. quantity of sugarproduced. French production in 1767 was 78 000 tons and British was 73 000 tons. French sugar was cheaper because virgin land meant lower production costs. It was also of better quality because much of it was semi-refined. Finally, the French islands were winning a larger share of the North American market in spite of the Molasses Act. In the British islands, the future was bleakest for Barbados and the Leewards, which were facing problems of soil exhaustion. Their production costs were high because the land needed much fertilisation, and they also had to pay the 4½ per cent export duty which Jamaica and the former Neutral Islands did not have to pay. The attitude of the British government and British manufacturers to the West Indies was changing, in spite of the West Indian Interest being fifty strong in Parliament.TheSugarActof1764loweredtheduties by half, but all the islands had to pay and the duties were carefully collected. Moreover, the government did little to stop the illegal trade between the French islands and the North American colonies. English sugar refiners did not like having to pay such high prices for sugar, although they were not yet calling for free trade. However, they did not expect the government to show favour to the British islands as they had done before the war. The War of American Independence, 1775 to 1783 This involved the West Indies because France supported the North American colonies in their revolt and turned a civil war into another colonial struggle between Britain and France, to avenge her losses in the Seven Years’ War. After that war, the Duc de Choiseul, the French Foreign Minister, had strengthened the French navy and urged Spain to strengthen hers. France joined the war in 1778, Spain in 1779 and the Dutch in 1780. Britain thus found herself fighting her North American colonies and the three other major colonial powers. The sympathies of the British islands lay with the North American colonies. They shared the same grievances against Britain, such as trade restrictions, taxation and legislation imposed on them from England. In 1775 the Jamaican Assembly sent a petition to Parliament saying that the colonies had a right to legislate for themselves. This view was supported by Barbados and the other islands. However, only Bermuda openly sided with the rebel colonies. The British West Indian colonies did not rebel because they needed the protection of the navy. Before the French entered the war, there were attacks by American privateers on British ships in the West Indies, and they even carried off slaves from as far south as the Grenadines. The French and Dutch allowed these privateers to use their harbours in the West Indies. Due to Choiseul’s policy, the French were much stronger at sea and, for the first time in the century, they were superior to the British at the start of the war. By 1780 the French had captured Dominica, St Vincent, Tobago and Grenada, while the British had captured only St Lucia. However, when reinforcements joined a fleet under the command of Admiral Sir George Rodney in Barbados, the British navy was approaching the strength of the French. Rodney turned against the Dutch. His capture of St Eustatius caused much controversy because he stayed there to distribute the prizes from 180 ships instead of proceeding to North America to relieve the British forces besieged at Yorktown. The latter had to surrender and this allowed a French fleet to sail to the Caribbean. The other Dutch possess- ions – Saba, St Martin, Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo – all surrendered to Rodney but were recaptured when he left. The French fleet, under the command of the Comte de Grasse, attacked the Leewards in 1781, capturing St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. This was the peak of French success. The battle of the Saintes in April 1782 led to a British victory which saved Jamaica and deterred the French and the Spanish from making any further attacks. Thus it brought an end to the war in the West Indies. The British had lost their North American colonies, but had salvaged a little pride from Rodney’s great victory and they were thus able to obtain better terms at the Peace of Versailles, 1783. All the colonies were restored to their former owners, with the exception of Tobago which was retained by the French.
- 17. The effects ofthe War of American Independence The effects of the War of American Independence on the West Indies were more profound than those of any of the previous wars. Every British island except Barbados, Antigua and Jamaica had been captured. For the first time, Barbados and Jamaica were in grave danger of being captured and they maintained their militias under constant call for five years, even though the British government refused their call for financial help. Unlike the British treatment of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the previous war, the French treated their captured islandsveryharshly.TheyweregarrisonedbyFrench soldiers and subjected to strict laws. Planters were evacuated and their plantations pillaged. The slaves were carried off to the French islands. Theeconomiceffectsofthewarweregrave.Cutting the trade with the North American colonies had deprived the West Indies of timber, salt-fish, meat, grain and rice. The slaves suffered starvation and Battle of the Saintes, 1782 THE BATTLE OF THE SAINTES This was the largest naval battle of the eighteenth century, and the only one between fleets of battleships ever to take place in the Caribbean. It was fought between 37 British ships under the command of Admiral Sir George Rodney, and 36 French ships under Vice-Admiral the Comte de Grasse, off the small island group between Guadeloupe and Dominica called Les Saintes. The battle took place on 12 April 1782, and ended in a British Victory after Rodney had captured de Grasse and his flagship along with four other French battleships. It re-established British command of the sea and forced the French to abandon plans to invade Jamaica. In celebration, the Jamaica Assembly voted money for the erec- tion of a statue of Rodney (dressed for no very good reason as a Roman emperor) which is still to be seen standing in a temple in Spanish Town. 8
- 18. death. In Jamaica14 000 slave deaths were attributed to famine or disease contracted due to malnutrition. In the Leeward Islands, 3000 slaves died. Again, Barbados suffered most because not enough food was produced on the island to alleviate the shortages and 15 000 slaves died there. Even after the war, the fear of famine remained until trade with the north was resumed. Antigua spoke of famine in 1785. The British islands wanted a resumption of trade with the newly independent United States, but Canada was anxious to supply the islands. The United States was now a foreign country, although some concessions were allowed in trade with the West Indies. Sugar, molasses, rum, coffee and pimento could be exported to the United States, and timber, beef cattle, grain and flour imported from them, provided that all the trade was carried in British ships. The omission of meat, fish and maize from the list of permitted imports was particularly serious for the islands’ slave economies. These had now to come from Canada and prices were 30–40 per cent higher on average than before the war. Maize could be 400 per cent higher! Canada was not yet in a position to fulfil the needs of the West Indies in the same way that the North American colonies had done. Other costs for the planters went up. Insurance charges rose throughout the war. Sugar duties went up progressively, more than doubling between 1776 and 1791 in an attempt to make the colonies pay for the war. Many planters were forced to mortgage their estates, or sell up. The War of American Independence taught the British islands many lessons which were, however, largely unheeded. Firstly, it showed their vulnerability once the British navy lost command of the sea; the islands could be captured by the enemy and trade could be easily stopped. They had been exporting about 80 000 tons of sugar per year to Britain at the beginning of the war. By 1778 this had been cut by half and the naval war against France had not yet properly started. Another valuable lesson was the danger of not being self-sufficient in food in time of war. Every resource had been given over to plantation agriculture and food was imported. When food supplies were cut, people starved. There was talk of turning to food crops, but little was done. Finally, they should have detected a change in attitude on the part of the British government who felt that too many favours had been shown to the sugar interests. Duties had been raised more than 200 per cent. Favourable trade terms were not given after the peace, and, more seriously, people in Britain – not only the economists, but also the merchants and manufacturers – were talking about ‘free trade’. The United States and the Caribbean in the eighteenth century The position in 1783 From 1775 to 1783 the British North American colonies had been fighting for their independence. By 1783 they had achieved this and by the Treaty of Paris a new country was established – the United States of America. The thirteen colonies had had close links with the British West Indies, having had not only the same colonial master but also a thriving mutual trade which Britain had never been able to control completely. Relations between the United States and the Caribbean were obviously going to be of very great importance in the future. The United States found herself in a hostile world. Britain restricted American trade with the British West Indies, refused to abandon forts on the north- westernfrontieranddisputedterritoriestothenorth. France and Spain, who had sided with the North American colonies during the War of Independence in order to defeat Britain, were also colonial powers. They feared the effects that a successful colonial revolt might have on their own colonies. They had both wanted the United States to be confined to the east of the Appalachians even though the Treaty of 1763 had established the Mississippi as her western boundary. France also restricted American trade with her West Indian colonies. Even more serious was the hostile attitude of Spain. In 1783 the United States had no outlet into the Gulf of Mexico and, hence, the Caribbean. Louisiana and Florida were Spanish. The Spanish closed the port of New Orleans to the United States, although they had accepted that the Mississippi was her western boundary. The vast area from the Appalachians to the Mississippi was open to American expansion, but it would do little good
- 19. 10 if these landscould not transport their goods down the Mississippi. The United States could not play a bigger role in the Caribbean until her boundaries extended to the Gulf of Mexico. Nationalism in a newly independent country is strong and in the United States there was certainly a desire to show the world that she was a force to be reckoned with. An adventurous and aggressive foreign policy would demonstrate this. Factors favouring an aggressive policy 1 The thirteen disunited colonies had united to achieve independence. Peace might bring back disunity but war would ensure the maintenance of unity in the face of a common danger. 2 The United States was a republic and hated the idea of monarchy. European monarchies still dominated the western hemisphere and should be opposed. 0 200 400 600 km 0 100 200 300 400 miles BRITISH BRITISH B R I T I S H SPANISH S P A N I S H ( F l o r i d a ) ( t o U S 1 8 1 9 ) Mass: = Massachusetts Conn: = Connecticut Key: R . M i s s i s s i p p i L. Superior L. Huron L. Michigan disputed by Britain and US Mass Conn Pennsylvania New Jersey New York Philadelphia Rhode Island Boston New Hampshire Delaware Maryland Charleston Savannah St Augustine New Orleans Louisiana (Spanish 1783 - 1800) (French 1800 - 1803) To United States 1803 Virginia Baltimore Alexandria Richmond Yorktown North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Map 2 The independent United States in 1783
- 20. 11 3 The UnitedStates had shaken off colonialism, but this still held sway over most of America. Moreover, the colonial powers were checking the expansion of the United States. 4 There were many specific quarrels which the United States had to settle with Britain, France and Spain. Peace would imply weakness; aggression might bring success in boundary disputes. Factors favouring a peaceful policy 1 After a long, hard-fought war the country was very poor and needed peace for recovery and consolidation. 2 There was westward expansion to be undertaken within North America while keeping peace with foreign countries. 3 The United States had much to gain from peace and neutrality. The commercial prospects for a neutral trading nation were particularly attractive in the Caribbean if Britain and France were fighting each other. 4 The United States would benefit from peace with Britain in particular. As Thomas Jefferson, the third President, said later: ‘with her [Britain] on our side we need not fear the whole world’. Peace was the policy adopted by the first two federalist Presidents, George Washington and John Adams. The opposition party, the Republicans, were moreaggressiveandwantedwarwiththemonarchies of Europe on any pretext, but generally peace was popular in the new nation, especially amongst New Yorkers and New Englanders who were anxious to extend commerce and trade. Becoming a Caribbean power The United States entered the Caribbean sphere geographically as well as commercially by obtaining a long coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. This was achieved in three stages. 1 Pinckney’s Treaty When the French Revolution- ary Wars broke out in 1793, France expected the United States to support her in accordance with the alliance of1778. However,thelatterremained neutral, concluding minor treaties with either side. One of these was a treaty negotiated by the federalist statesman Charles Pinckney with Spain in 1795. Spain agreed to open the Mississippi and the port of New Orleans to the United States and in return the United States accepted latitude 31 degrees north as the northern boundary of Florida. The United States had her first outlet into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. 2 The Louisiana Purchase Thomas Jefferson, a republican, became President in 1801 and adopted an openly expansionist policy. His greatestsuccesswastobuyLouisianafromFrance in 1803 for $15 000 000. This established the United States on the west bank of the Mississippi and gave her a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the west of New Orleans. 3 The acquisition of Florida Spain still held the coastline to the east of New Orleans. Jefferson had tried, unsuccessfully, to obtain it in 1805 because it would enable the United States to become involved in the Caribbean, particularly in Cuba. In the decade after the Anglo-American War of 1812–1815, nationalism was strong. The United States pursued a very aggressive policy towards Spain over Florida, forcing them to hand it over in 1819 in return for agreeing to take over the payment of $5 000 000 compensation which Spain then owed to American merchants. ‘Manifest Destiny’ Jefferson spoke of expansion not only within the North American continent, but also in other parts of the Americas. In 1801 he said: However our present interests may restrain us withinourlimits,itisimpossiblenottolookforward to distant times, when our rapid multiplication will expand beyond those limits and cover the whole northern, if not the southern, continent with a people speaking the same language, governed in similar forms and by similar laws. This was the first expression of the idea which, many years later, came to be called ‘Manifest Destiny’. Put simply, it was the idea that it was natural and inevitable that the United States would dominate the Americas in wealth, power and territory. It was nationalistic, expansionist and aggressive, and was based on a feeling of the racial and cultural superiority of the American people. Thus the United
- 21. 1 States expected intime to dominate the Caribbean. To many the first step towards this would be to control Cuba. Conclusion For about forty years of the eighteenth century, European powers were engaged in major wars and, because of their colonial interests in the Caribbean, there was fighting in the West Indies for many of PARALLEL LIVES ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND WILLIAM THORNTON Two white West Indians, both from small islands in the eastern Caribbean,playedimportantrolesintheearlyhistoryoftheUSA. Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) was born as the illegitimate son of a shopkeeper in Nevis. He later lived in St Croix before beingsenttoNewYorktofinishhiseducation.Hetookpartinthe WarofAmericanIndependence,servingasGeorgeWashington’s secretary for four years, and later qualified as a lawyer. He served in Congress in 1782–83 and afterwards took part in the convention which drew up the American Constitution. From 1789 to 1795 he was Secretary of the Treasury. He died at the age of 47 after being shot in a duel with a political opponent. Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) Hamilton undoubtedly had many dealings with William Thornton (1759–1828) who was born in Jost Van Dyke in the Virgin Islands, and who became a doctor and went to the USA in 1787. There he gave up medicine and took up architecture, a profession for which he had no formal training. In spite of this, five years later he submitted the winning design for the US Capitol which George Washington praised for its ‘grandeur, simplicity and convenience’. He acted as a commissioner for the city of Washington DC from 1794 to 1802, and then spent the remainder of his life in charge of the US Patent Office. William Thornton (1759–1828) these years. On balance, this brought difficulties to the islands as sugar producers, though there were boom years. The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars at the end of the century benefited the sugar producers in the British islands. However, it was a false promise, as in the new century the planters had to face the problems caused for them by abolition, emancipation, free trade and increased foreign competition which made earlier economic difficulties seem only minor.
- 22. 1 TheHaitianRevolution The French Revolution InSeptember 1789, the National Assembly in Paris issued the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’. This document insisted on the freedom and equality of man and gave the French Revolution its slogan of ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’. In France this meant the ending of privilege and feudalism, and equality between peasant and noble. In the French Caribbean it led to demands for equal political rights and social equality by the free coloureds. Logically, it should have meant the ending of slavery, but this step was not officially taken by the Revolutionary Government until 1794. However, once the slaves in the French islands in the West Indies had heard the slogan, they did not wait for the decree, but seized their own freedom. The effect of the Revolution in the French Caribbean The news of the French Revolution spread slowly through the Caribbean. Most people did not know whether to remain loyal to the King or join the revolutionary cause. Those with property and power were reluctant to support the Revolution because they were not sure of the strength of the movement and thought that if the King regained power they would be in trouble. Others with nothing to lose were inclined to join the Revolution at its outset. Generally, the planters remained loyal to the King and were known as ‘royalists’. Freedom and equality were dangerous to their position and they felt that they had to resist the movement from the beginning. The coloureds wanted equality with the whites politically and socially. The slaves just wanted their freedom. Each class selfishly pursued its own ends and resisted gains by the other classes. White and coloured tended to combine to resist freedom for Toussaint Louverture
- 23. 14 slaves. In thecolonies nobody wanted to help the blacks. Assistance for the blacks came from a group in France known as the ‘Société des Amis des Noirs’. Whites and coloureds combined with the blacks only when they thought that the added strength of the blacks would save them. The dilemma of the whites was well illustrated in Martinique, where the planters outside St Pierre were royalist while the whites from the city were revolutionaries. There was fighting between the two white groups in 1789. However, the whites united as soon as the slaves revolted and stayed united in 1790 to put down a rising among the coloureds who were demanding equal political rights. In both France and the Caribbean possessions, revolutionaries refused to accept orders from officers who had been appointed by the King. This led to mutinies in the French islands: for example, French soldiers in Tobago mutinied in 1790 and in St Lucia in 1792 the revolutionaries expelled the governor. There was anarchy and revolt due more to the local populations taking advantage of the lack of control from France than to any belief on their part in the Revolution. The effect of the Revolution in St Domingue The effect on the white population In 1789 the population of St Domingue consisted of about 35 000 whites, 25 000 coloureds and 450 000 slaves. There were rigid legal distinctions between these groups based on colour, and there was a mutual distrust and hatred which was far deeper than in the other French islands. Thewhiteswerenotaunitedgroup.Atthetopwere the very rich planters, the ‘seigneurs’, far superior in status to the planters of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Grouped with them socially were the leading civil and military officers. All together they were known as the grands blancs. Some of them had aristocratic originsinFranceandwhentheRevolutioncamethey joined the royalists. Earlier, when the grands blancs heard of the calling of the States-General, they drew up lists of planters and elected deputies to send to the meeting in an attempt to keep political power in their hands. This action caused their relations with the other classes in St Domingue to deteriorate. The merchants and the professional men were cut off socially from the grands blancs. In Martinique and Guadeloupe, the planters were frequently in debt to the merchants, but this was not the case in St Domingue where the grands blancs, free of any obligation, despised them. In the Revolution some of the merchants were royalist and some republican. They all hoped for political and social equality with thegrandsblancs,butdidnotwantequalityextended to the coloured population. The third class of whites was the petits blancs. They were the poor whites: the overseers, artisans and small shopkeepers. They often had affinities through marriage with the coloureds, and were republican in the Revolution until they themselves were in mortal danger from the blacks. On top of all these divisions, all Creole whites (those born in the West Indies) were despised by those born in France. The effect on the coloured population The free coloureds were known as affranchis in St Domingue. They were unique among the coloured populations of the West Indies in that, not only were they very numerous, but some were also very rich. Some of them had been educated in France and some even chose to live there. The Code Noir (see page 42) had allowed the coloureds the rights of free men, but the restrictive laws which came later, especially those of 1766, had taken away much of their freedom. They could not hold public office or any legal position, nor could they be officers in the Militia. They were not allowed to carry firearms and they had to wear different clothes from the whites. However, they were free to own property, including land and slaves, and they had made the most of this freedom. In 1789 one third of all fertile land in St Domingue belonged to coloureds and many of them owned very large estates. Property put them on the side of the whites when it came to the question of freedom for slaves. Ontheotherhand,theirlegalandsocialdisabilities made them closer to the slaves. They were forced to serve in the Militia for longer periods than whites and they were conscripted into gangs for labour on the roads. Moreover, because they were of mixed race, they could never aspire to equality with the
- 24. 15 whites. They werein a dilemma between the whites and the blacks, not liking either. On balance, the desire to keep slavery put them on the side of the whites at first. Later, after emancipation, they felt more affinity with the blacks. The effect on the slave population The vast number of slaves in St Domingue was due to the rapid expansion of the economy, especially the sugar industry. In 1789 St Domingue was producing nearly 90 000 tons of sugar per year from 800 plantations. This was nearly as much as the combined production of all the British islands. St Domingue’s economy was also more diversified than that of the other West Indian islands, due to its fertile soil. Coffee, cotton and indigo plantations employed thousands of slaves. DuringtheeighteenthcenturytheFrenchcolonies in the New World imported about one million slaves from Africa. In the early years of the century only a small proportion went to St Domingue. As the century progressed, the proportion grew larger until, in the last decade before the Revolution, three out of four slaves ended up in St Domingue either directly from West Africa, or as Creole slaves from other French colonies. St Domingue flourished because of her trade with the newly independent United States and because she supplied Europe, outside Britain, with half its tropical products. To maintain the production which made these exports possible, 30 000 slaves per year entered St Domingue. Of the 450 000 slaves there, most were African-born which was unusual in the West Indies. The condition and treatment of slaves in St Domingue was worse than in any other West Indian island, including Jamaica. It had become the extreme example of a slave economy. In the boom, planters were making much bigger profits than elsewhere, to the detriment of the slaves. They were worked excessively hard and were poorly fed. The death rate of slaves in St Domingue in the 1780s was the highest in the West Indies. On some estates, the whole labour force had to be renewed every five years. The terrible life of the slaves was accentuated by the luxurious life of the planters, both white and coloured. Consequently, the hatred felt by slaves towards their masters was correspondingly great. When the Revolution broke out and anarchy prevailed,the slaves were determined to exterminate the whites. The coloured revolt of 1790 The French Revolution had a greater impact on St Domingue because of the structure of its society and the great divisions between classes. The whites had been demanding political representation in DBSJCCFBOIJTUPSZCPPL .BQ TBNFTJ[F 8 JOEXBSE1BTTBHF / LN NJMFT +ÊSÊNJF 50356( 4/50%0.*/(0 (0/7 1PSUEF1BJY .PMF 4U/JDPMBT 1PSU.BSHPU $BQ'SBOÉBJT (POBJWFT 4U.BSD 1PSUBV1SJODF -ÊPHBOF 1FUJU(PBWF 5JCVSÓO N 1PSU-PVJT -FT$BZFT ²MFÆ7BDIF +BDNFM N 4BOT4PVDJ -B'FSSJÍSF 3SUJCPOJUF Map 3 St Domingue
- 25. 16 their own Assemblybefore the Revolution began. Without waiting for authority from the National Assembly, they set up Provincial Assemblies and denied coloureds representation in them. At first, the whites managed to pacify the coloureds by allowing them equality with whites in the Militia but, in January 1790, orders came from France that a single Colonial Assembly should be set up in St Domingue. Again, the whites denied the coloureds representation in spite of a decree from France in March 1790, giving the vote to all free persons over twenty-five years old possessing a certain income. In October 1790, Vincent Ogé arrived in St Domingue to lead the coloureds in revolt. Ogé had been educated in Paris and, on his return to St Domingue, he became the spokesman for the coloureds. He went back to France to collect arms and ammunition for the rising, and returned via Britain and the United States. Then with another coloured man, Jean-Baptiste Chavannes, he led a rising which was doomed to failure. Ogé wanted to keep slavery so he refused to lead the blacks and his forces were easily put down. He fled into the Spanish part of Hispaniola, but the Spaniards handed him over and he was executed by being broken on the wheel. An important result of this coloured rising and Ogé’s execution was to turn public opinion in France against the whites. The slave rising around Cap Français in 1791 In May 1791, the National Assembly decreed that all men, of whatever colour, born of free parents, should be equal and have equal political rights in the Colonial Assembly. The white Assembly of St Marc in St Domingue refused this decree, saying that the laws of the National Assembly had to be ratified by the Assembly of St Marc. The Governor also refused to enforce the decree. Apart from the action of the whites, the coloureds were annoyed with the decree itself because it insisted that both parents had to be free, and most of them had slave mothers. In fact, only a few hundred would have been eligible for political rights under this law. In August 1791 the coloureds revolted again and this time included the slaves in the revolt. In the slave rising, the blacks were led by a slave originally from Jamaica, called Boukman, who claimed that he was a high priest of voudun. Around Cap Français 2000 whites – men, women and children – were massacred and 180 sugar estates and 900 coffee and indigo plantations were laid waste. In an attempt to suppress this uprising, 10 000 slaves and coloureds were killed or executed but the revolt quickly spread over the whole northern plain. Matters became worse in September. The whites and coloureds united against the slaves. The whites agreed to allow free-born coloureds into the Assembly. However, the National Assembly in Paris reverseditsdecreeofMayanddisqualifiedthem.The coloureds considered that they had been betrayed and they joined the slaves in a war to exterminate the whites. The white planters appealed to Jamaica for help and a British naval squadron was sent to Cap Français to defend the town and evacuate the French women and children. The Jacobin Commission, 1792 In France the Société des Amis des Noirs (1787), which supported equality for coloureds and the emancipation of slaves, put pressure on the Jacobins in the National Assembly to pass laws giving equality to the coloureds as a first step. To make sure that these laws were enforced in St Domingue, three Commissioners were sent with 6000 republican soldiers. The Commissioners were extreme Jacobins. In August 1792 their leader, Léger-Félicité Sonthonax, promised the slaves freedom in order to win their support, as he was meeting resistance from the whites. No doubt emancipation was coming legally from France, but Sonthonax anticipated the Revolutionary government’s wishes and produced a ‘black terror’ in St Domingue. He promised the blacks plunder, and heavy fighting and bloodshed followed. The evacuation of whites began from all parts of the colony. They settled in the United States, Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. The settlement of Mayagüez in Puerto Rico took on a characteristically French appearance from this time. SonthonaxbehavedlikeadictatorinStDomingue. He murdered the new governor, Galbaud, and his supporters when they arrived in Cap Français in 1793, and anarchy prevailed. Cap Français and some fortified camps in the western mountains were in white hands, but the rest of the north was terrorised
- 26. 1 by bands ofarmed blacks. In the west the situation was more confused. The slaves were in revolt and the whites and coloureds were fighting each other. The coloureds under their very good general, André Rigaud, were winning. In the south, Port-au-Prince was in the hands of the petits blancs. Outside the city the planters had armed their loyal slaves against the coloureds. Sonthonax made matters worse in the north by entering Cap Français and freeing the rest of the slaves, leaving them to terrorise the area. British intervention in St Domingue The execution of the French King Louis XVI was regarded by Britain as a cause for war, which began on1February1793.StDominguewaseasilythemost important colony in the West Indies and the British Prime Minister, William Pitt, realised the strategic importance of its central position in the Caribbean. It could link the scattered British possessions in the east and west and, in alliance with Spain, provide a base for Britain’s defence of the West Indies against France and the United States. BritainwasinvitedtotakeoverStDominguebythe royalist planters, who thought this would guarantee monarchy, white domination and slavery. In return, they wanted the right to continue their trade with the United States. Jamaica also urged Britain to take action in St Domingue, because she was frightened of the Revolution spreading. Finally, Britain saw a chance of revenge against France for assisting the North American colonies in 1778 in their revolt against Britain, and so decided to intervene. A force of 900 men was sent to St Domingue. They landed unopposed at Jérémie in the south and raised the British flag, warmly welcomed by the French planters. The British then occupied Mole St Nicolas in the north. Léogane surrendered and in January 1794 Tiburón was captured. Other towns also fell to the British; some surrendered willingly, while others had to be fought for. But in the south, the coloured army of General Rigaud, fighting for the French, was in control. British losses were heavy, caused mostly by disease. Luckily for the British, General Rigaud’s army was suffering from the same yellow fever epidemic. When reinforcements arrived from Britain, Port-au-Prince was captured in June 1794 andtheBritishappointedGeneralAdamWilliamson as Governor. However, in spite of all the reinforcements they had sent, the British were not really in control. French and coloured forces still held towns in the south. General Rigaud recaptured Tiburón in December 1794, and the French held Jacmel and Les Cayes, two towns on the south coast from which privateers could operate against Jamaica. A further setback was the Second Maroon War (see Chapter 5) in Jamaica in 1795. Because of this, the British were unwilling to release more troops from Jamaica. In the north of St Domingue in 1794– 95 a new figure had appeared. He was Toussaint Louverture. YELLOW FEVER No-one knows for sure whether this disease originated in Africa or Central America, but it seems very probable that the source was Africa. In the Caribbean the first known outbreak which can be identified with any certainty was in Barbados in 1647. The disease, which causes fever and jaundice, comes from the bite of the same genus of mosquito which carries malaria. About ten days after being bitten the patient begins to vomit blood and suffer from acute aches and high fever. Death follows once the heart and liver are affected. Those who do recover are then immune for life. There is no such thing as a natural immunity to the disease, and the fact that the black population of the West Indies during the era of slavery suffered less was because many among each new shipment of slaves had been rendered immune by mild cases of the disease caught while still in Africa. It was the scourge of all white troops sent to the Caribbean and was the key factor in Napoleon’s failed attempt to create a French empire in the Americas. Toussaint Louverture Toussaint’s rise to power Toussaint was the son of a coachman on the plantation of a Monsieur Bréda in the north of St Domingue. Bréda had permitted Toussaint’s father to marry and raise a family in which Toussaint was the eldest of eight children. His father held a
- 27. 18 responsible position fora slave and he managed to have his son, Toussaint, educated in French, Latin and mathematics by his godfather. His father’s occupation enabled Toussaint to become such an expert horseman that he was later nicknamed ‘the centaur of the savannas’. Toussaint also became a coachman, but later he was put in charge of all the livestock on the estate. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was forty-five years old. Toussaint was loyal to France and played little part in the rising of 1791. However, he wanted emancipation more than anything else and when the possibility of this arose, he was prepared to fight France to secure freedom for the slaves. In 1792 France declared war on Spain, and Toussaint joined the Spanish forces as a mercenary because he thought that the French would preserve slavery. The Spanish allowed him to command his own force of 4000 blacks, by whom he was called ‘Physician to the armies of the King’ because of his knowledge of herbal medicine. Other black leaders had joined the Spanish, and they provided the core of the Spanish forces in Hispaniola. When the Convention government in Paris abolished slavery in 1794, Toussaint felt that he had to join the French republican forces in the west. He fought his way out of the Spanish army, and by 1795 he was in command of 20 000 black soldiers in the north of St Domingue, fighting against the British for freedom from slavery. Toussaint’s army was formidable because it was not just the black rabble that had been roaming the north before, but a well- disciplined, well-armed force. Toussaint was known abroad and he won the friendship and support of John Adams, the Vice- President of the United States in 1795, and President in 1797. Through Adams, Toussaint imported 30 000 guns for the black forces in St Domingue, and ships and supplies were sent to help against the British. As he distributed the guns he told his black forces, ‘The gun is your liberty’. They knew that they had to win or become slaves again. Toussaint soon became the real leader of the French forces. He drove the British from the right bank of the Artibonite River and he threatened their stronghold of St Marc to the south. By 1798 the British were in a desperate position, as a result of disease and Toussaint’s attacks. The commander of the British forces was forced to make an armistice with Toussaint. The British would withdraw from St Domingue, if Toussaint would agree to protect the French inhabitants, refrain from attacking British trade and from trying to spread the revolution to Jamaica. Toussaint himself kept the terms honourably. By October 1798 the British, who had lost 40 000 men from fighting and disease in a five- year campaign in St Domingue, withdrew from their last town, Mole St Nicolas. Toussaint’s domination of St Domingue After the British had evacuated St Domingue, Toussaint turned against the coloureds and French in the west and south. He sacked Rigaud’s base at Les Cayes, then the blacks turned on the coloureds and mutilated and murdered thousands in 1799 and 1800. On top of this horrible massacre, the autumn rains never stopped and the irrigation dams on the Artibonite and Cul de Sac Rivers burst and flooded theCuldeSacPlain.Peoplelosttheirland,evacuated the area and never returned. In 1799 the government in France, powerless to do anything about it, accepted that Toussaint was in control of St Domingue and appointed him Governor-General. Toussaint’s followers called him ‘L’Ouverture’, because he had ‘opened’ the door to freedom. He assumed the name in 1793 and later dropped the apostrophe. In 1800 Toussaint stopped the widespread slaughter. He wanted stability and economic recovery for St Domingue and he even managed to persuade some exiled whites to return and resume planting. Unfortunately, his only answer to the labour problem on the estates was forced labour. However, there was a slight economic revival between 1800 and 1802. Toussaint’s Constitution In 1801 Toussaint issued a Constitution for St Domingue which he put into operation without waiting for approval from France. He made himself Governor-General for life with the right to nominate his successor. There was to be a Cen- tral Assembly for St Domingue composed of two delegates from each département chosen by the municipal administrations. Members of the municipal administrations were to be nominated by
- 28. 19 the governor froma minimum list of sixteen names. The Central Assembly was to make the laws, but they had to be initiated by the governor. An important point was that laws would not need approval from France, in spite of the fact that the Constitution affirmed that St Domingue was part of the French empire. This made St Domingue self-governing, which was an entirely new idea in empire in those days. Slavery was abolished for ever and there was to be no colour distinction in the civil service. Under this Constitution Toussaint claimed the whole of Hispaniola. By the Treaty of Basle, 1795, the Spanish had transferred their part of the island to the French, but the transfer had never been effected. Toussaint made the French claim a fact by taking Santo Domingo in 1801. Napoleon’s attitude to Toussaint Napoleon Bonaparte took over the government of France in 1799 and set up the ‘Consulate’, with himself as First Consul. In 1802 he made himself Consul for life with the right to nominate his successor. Finally, in 1803, he became hereditary Emperor of France. Napoleonwasunwillingtoaccepttworulerswithin the French empire and tried to bring Toussaint back under his rule. He regarded Toussaint as an upstart, and referred to him as a ‘gilded African’. The points at issue were: 1 Toussaint’s Constitution of 1801 which made St Domingue independent of France. Napoleon was particularly upset because Toussaint had put it into effect without his approval. 2 Napoleon was planning to rebuild the French empire in North America around St Domingue and Louisiana. Spain had ceded Louisiana to France in 1800 and Napoleon now wanted St Domingue under his control. He felt that St Domingue, as a supplier of tropical products, was indispensable to his North American plans. It was important strategically because it was in the centre of the Caribbean and could guard the approaches to the Gulf of Mexico and the mouth of the Mississippi. Toussaint stood in the way of these plans. 3 The biggest point at issue was slavery. Toussaint had made it clear in 1799 that he would resist slavery to the last drop of his blood. Napoleon thought that the reintroduction of slavery in St Domingue was essential for the revival of the economy. He also felt that an independent black republic was not a good example to the rest of the empire and that it was dangerous to let it continue. The attempted ‘pacification’ of St Domingue Leclerc’s expedition to St Domingue In December 1801 Napoleon sent an army of 20 000 veteran soldiers from France to St Domingue under the command of General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, the husband of Napoleon’s favourite sister, Pauline. The coloured generals in St Domingue – Rigaud, Jean Pierre Boyer and Alexandre Pétion – joined Leclerc’s staff. At first, friendly messages were sent to Toussaint in the hope that he would cooperate, but there could be no cooperation over such an issue as slavery. When the French landed at Cap Français, Toussaint was in another part of the island and they were resisted by a black general named Henri Christophe. He burnt most of the town before the French could take it, saying to his men: ‘We will blow in the wind like ash, rather than submit to a new slavery’. When Toussaint finally received the French overtures he replied that he would not submit to the French. Leclerc brought forward Toussaint’s two sons, Issac and Placide, and asked them to choose between France, where they had been educated, and their father. They chose their father. Leclerc then denounced Toussaint and his followers as traitors and the war began. The French soldiers quickly captured the principal towns, including Santo Domingo and Port-au- Prince. Some of the black commanders surrendered without fighting. Leclerc defeated Toussaint and he took over the Governor-Generalship. Christophe and Dessalines take over Toussaint accepted an amnesty for all his men. He was allowed to retire as a general with his own guard to his estate at Ennery on the western coast. Christophe and two other generals, Jean-Jacques
- 29. 20 Map 4 TheCaribbean in 1815
- 30. 21 Dessalines and JacquesMaurepas, were taken into the French army as generals. All native officers were allowed to keep their ranks in the French army. Finally, Leclerc promised liberty to all. By May 1802 the fighting was over. Then in June 1802 Toussaint was taken prisoner, put on board a French warship and taken to France. Toussaint said to his captors: ‘In overthrowing me, you have cut down in St Domingue only the trunk of the tree of liberty. It will spring up again by the roots for they are numerous and deep.’ His prophecy quickly came true. Christophe, Dessalines and the other black generals were so shocked at this betrayal of Toussaint that they escaped from French service and began fighting again. Napoleon’s decree of May 1802, re-instituting slavery in the French empire, also increased the determination of the blacks. The desperation with which they received this news was best shown in Guadeloupe where there was a mass suicide of 400 ex-slaves in August. The war was fought bitterly on both sides. The French obtained bloodhounds from Cuba and eastern Hispaniola to hunt down the blacks, but their resistance was fiercer even than before and this time the French did not win. They could not live off the land and had to buy all their supplies at inflated prices from the United States. Then, in the autumn of 1802, a terrible yellow fever epidemic struck St Domingue, killing 40 000 French soldiers and 60 000 blacks. Leclerc himself died and General Vicomte de Rochambeau succeeded him. The French army was now very weak, but there was no hope of reinforcements as France was again at war with Britain early in 1803. Napoleon decided that he needed all his men in Europe. He gave up his idea of a new French empire in North America, sold Louisiana to the United States and virtually abandoned St Domingue. Rochambeau had no hope of winning, but he fought ferociously. The British blockaded all the ports of Hispaniola and cut off food supplies so that the French retreated to Santo Domingo, Mole St Nicolas and Cap Français. In November 1803 Rochambeau was besieged in Cap Français by Dessalines’ army while the British prevented a French escape by sea. Rochambeau knew that Dessalines would slaughter his garrison to a man, so on 30 November the French garrison of 8000 put to sea and surrendered to the British who took them to Jamaica as prisoners. Four days later the French garrison at Mole St Nicolas did the same. Haitian independence On 29 November 1803 Dessalines, Christophe and another general named Clerveaux, the commander of the black forces in eastern Hispaniola, declared the independence of St Domingue. Then on 1 January 1804, at a meeting of blacks and coloureds at Arcahaye, Dessalines, the General-in-Chief, renounced all connection with France and renamed St Domingue ‘Haiti’ (the Arawak word for ‘Land of Mountains’). He tore the white out of the Tricolour, the French flag, and left the red and the blue. He replaced the letters ‘R.F.’ (République Française) with the words ‘Liberty or Death’. In May 1804 Dessalines was made Governor- General for life and during his two-year regime the remaining whites were assassinated. He was an extremely ruthless and bloodthirsty man who had been brought from Africa to be a slave on a plantation of a free black. In the rising of 1791 he had murdered his master and taken his property and his name. He soon became the scourge of the coloureds and the whites, leading the massacres in the south in 1800. The price of independence Loss of life In the fighting in 1791 as many as 10 000 blacks died; another 30 000 died before the end of the century in the various wars against the coloureds and the British; and 60 000 blacks were killed in the campaigns of Leclerc and Rochambeau. Apart from the deaths in the fighting, thousands more were murdered or starved in the anarchy that followed the fighting. Then in 1802 a yellow fever epidemic broke out which resulted in the deaths of another 60 000 blacks. Thus between 1791 and 1803 about 200 000 blacks died. This was between a third and a half of the population. The coloured population also suffered terribly from both the blacks and the whites. A few lost their lives in Ogé’s rising of 1790, and many more
- 31. 22 in Sonthonax’s terrorof 1792–93. Many more were killed fighting in Rigaud’s army against the British between 1794 and 1795. After the British withdrawal, Toussaint turned against the coloureds and Dessalines massacred many of them when Rigaud and Pétion attempted resistance. Between 1798 and 1800 about 10 000 coloureds were killed. Most of those under Rigaud, Pétion and Boyer joined Leclerc’s army and more were killed. After the amnesty and the threat of the restoration of slavery, they joined the blacks and, in spite of further deaths, some survived the Revolution, most notably Pétion and Boyer. Creole whites in St Domingue virtually disap- peared. In 1791 they numbered between 30 000 and 35 000 but, by the end of Dessalines’ rule in 1806, there were almost none. Thousands were killed in the uprising of 1791 and many more went into exile in 1791, 1793–94 and 1795–98. Whites had evacuated the north from 1791 onwards and those who had stayed on, or who returned in the relative peace of 1800–02, were massacred by Dessalines. However, Christophe invited 2000 white British planters into the north of the island to re-establish the plantations in 1814. The loss of life to foreign armies was also high, due to both fighting and yellow fever. Between 1793 and 1798 there were about 80 000 British soldiers in St Domingue, of whom about 40 000 died, 20 000 from yellow fever. The French lost about 50 000 soldiers, many in the yellow fever epidemic of 1802. Political chaos After independence there was political instability in Haiti. Dessalines was crowned Emperor Jacques I in October 1804, but two years later he was assassinated by the soldiers of Pétion. The eastern part of Hispaniola seceded and came under Spain again. Haiti itself was divided into a kingdom in the north under Henri Christophe who was crowned King Henri I in 1811, and a republic in the south under General Pétion. In 1812 the north and south were at war with each other and Pétion captured Port-au-Prince. However, they made peace in 1814 as they feared another invasion from France. In the north Christophe created a medieval-type monarchy, building himself a huge fortress to the south of Cap Français, now renamed Cap Haitian, at La Ferrière. He was very friendly towards Britain and proposed an alliance against Napoleon. The independence Constitution had abolished slavery, but people were forced to work on the sugar estates to try to revive the export trade. His tyrannical and cruel regime made him so unpopular that there was a revolt against him and he committed suicide in 1820. In the south Pétion was not prepared to face the unpopularity of forced labour and he gave way to the peasants, allowing them to set up smallholdings which became the pattern of Haiti’s agriculture for the future. In 1818 Pétion died and was succeeded by Jean Pierre Boyer, his nominated successor. On the suicide of Christophe, Boyer became ‘life regent’ of the whole of Haiti. In 1822 Boyer reoccupied eastern Hispaniola and this remained under Haitian rule until 1844. In 1815 the king of France (the monarchy having been restored the previous year) tried to persuade both Christophe and Pétion to put themselves under the French once again, but they refused and maintained Haiti’s independence and freedom from slavery.In1825Francerecognisedtheindependence of Haiti on condition of payment of compensation. Haiti started to pay this compensation, but only a fraction of the full amount was actually paid. In 1826 Britain recognised Boyer’s rule of an Christophe’s palace of Sans Souci
- 32. independent Haiti, butthe United States withheld recognition until 1862 because they thought that it would encourage their own slaves in the southern states to rebel. Economic ruin The Revolution of 1791–1803, and the subsequent disorder, brought disaster to Haiti’s economy. Before this period St Domingue had been the leading sugar producer in the West Indies, and in 1791 had exported 73 000 tons of sugar. By 1804 this had dropped to 20 500 tons and by 1825 Haiti exported under one ton. Coffee exports did not decline so dramatically. They fell from 30 500 tons in 1791 to 14 000 tons in 1804 and 10 000 tons in 1818. Thereafter, there was a slight recovery and by 1825 Haiti was exporting 26 000 tons annually. Coffee did not collapse completely because it could be grown on the peasant smallholdings which sprang up during the Revolution. Independent Haiti could not support large estates because the ex-slaves were not willing to undertake plantation labour. Therefore, peasant smallholdings for subsistence living, with a little coffee produced for export, became the basis of Haiti’s economy. Organised labour was disrupted and this led to the failure to maintain the irrigation works in the Western Plain, and to the floods of 1800. In this way, some of the most productive land in Haiti was lost. It suffered repeated flooding and erosion and was allowed to return to bush. However, the new subsistence economy of Haiti enabled independence to be preserved and made Haiti the first country in the New World to abolish slavery successfully, an achievement which was worth economic sacrifices. At first, Britain, France, Spain and the United States put an embargo on trade with Haiti. By the time this was lifted she had lost her means of production and her markets, and never recovered them. The boost to other sugar producers The collapse of St Domingue’s sugar industry boosted sugar production elsewhere. It brought the results that British sugar planters had been hoping for since the Seven Years’ War. A reflection of the expanding sugar trade of the British islands was the THE FIRST CROWNED MONARCH OF THE NEW WORLD Henri Christophe Henri Christophe (1767–1820), who could neither read nor write, was born to free black parents in Grenada. He left the island as a ten- year-oldcabinboyandbeganlifeinStDomingue some time later, employed as a scullion. These days were long forgotten by the time he created his monarchy in 1811, and had himself crowned as ‘Henry’ [preferring the English spelling], by the Grace of God and the Constitutional Law of the State, King of Haiti, Sovereign of Tortuga, Gonâve and other adjacent islands, Destroyer of Tyranny, Regenerator and Benefactor of the Haitian Nation, Creator of the Moral, Political and Martial Institutions, First Crowned Monarch of the New World, Founder of the Royal and Military Order of ‘Saint-Henry’. By this time he had already created an hereditary nobility consisting of four princes, eight dukes, twenty-two counts, thirty-seven barons and fourteen knights. His monarchy, together with the titles of his nobility and his Royal and Military Order of ‘Saint-Henry’, all disappeared after his suicide nineyearslater.Hewasburiedinhismagnificent fortress, the Citadelle La Ferrière, which still stands. It dominates the summit of a mountain with walls up to 130 feet (40 m) high and 16 feet (5 m) thick, and is the largest military structure in the western hemisphere.
- 33. 24 opening of theWest India Docks in London in 1800. Prices for sugar on the London market rose from 54 shillings (s) and 3 pence (d) per hundred weight (cwt) in 1792 to 69s 2d per cwt in 1796. Then they fell, but rose again in 1807. After another drop they reached 96s per cwt, some sales actually topping 100s per cwt by 1814. Sugar from the British islands sold extensively in Europe, and in 1794 the British islands took over part of St Domingue’s trade with the United States. Impetus was also given to sugar production elsewhere. In 1794 the sugar industry was started in Louisiana and by 1800 there were eighty-one sugar plantations there. The Indian sugar industry had been established before the collapse of St Domingue, and William Pitt, the British Prime Minister, thought that India should take over the European sugar market. The first sugar exports from India had reached Britain in 1701, and by 1800 they had reached 10 000 tons per year. In Europe, Prussia started the sugar beet industry at this time with the encouragement of the king. However, it was Cuba which was to become the successor to St Domingue as the world’s leading sugar producer and to ruin many British planters in the nineteenth century. Effects of the Haitian Revolution on other countries The Haitian Revolution was a symbol for millions of slaves and people fighting for their liberty throughout the world. It was the only slave revolt in history which led to a permanent political change, and was the inspiration of Simon Bolivar in his independence struggles in Venezuela and other parts of South America. All countries with slaves feared that the revolution would spread and so they opposed it. Countries which were monarchies, like most of the European countries, were against it because it was republican. Countries with colonies feared it because it would lead to the breakdown of their empires. On the other hand, some countries, like Britain and Spain, welcomed it because it weakened France, their chief La Ferrière fortress, Haiti
- 34. 25 colonial rival. TheUnited States was in a dilemma. They had only recently fought for their own independence, but they had a huge slave population inthesouthandtheydidnotwantslaverevoltsthere. They had also built up a considerable trade with St Domingue which was being ruined. When the Revolution began, the United States was persuaded to support it because its aims were independence and freedom, and because of the embarrassment it was causing France, Britain and Spain. However, when it proved successful the United States thought again, and saw the dangers of a similar revolution in its southern states. Therefore, they placed an embargo on trade and withheld recognition from the newly independent Haiti. The Revolution directly affected the Spanish part of Hispaniola which shared its border with St Domingue. Cuba, separated from it by only 50 miles (80 km) of sea, was unaffected but in Jamaica the Maroon War broke out in 1795. The authorities in Jamaica, conscious of the nearness of St Domingue andofhoweasilyafull-scalerevolutioncouldspread, suppressed the rebels ruthlessly. The Maroons were conscious of the troubles in St Domingue and the absence of British forces, and they timed their rising accordingly. Although the situation in Martinique and Guadeloupe was somewhat similar to St Domingue at the outbreak of the French Revolution, the differences were significant enough to stop them following the same pattern. The white populations of Martinique and Guadeloupe had been established longer and were more unified. Racial hatred was not as strong. However, there might have been a revolution but for the arrival of the Jacobin Commission in 1792. The effect of this was that the white planters called in the British who captured both islands in 1794. Guadeloupe enjoyed a longer period of freedom than Martinique, but finally both islands were restored to France in 1814. The white exiles from St Domingue went to the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Jamaica. This exodus began after the arrival of Sonthonax’s Commission in 1792, although there had been a small evacuation from Cap Français to Jamaica in 1791. (When Toussaint captured Santo Domingo in 1801 as many as 2000 Spaniards fled to the United States.) The French planters from St Domingue usually became planters in their new homes; for example, they took their coffee planting to Jamaica and were responsible for raising Jamaica’s coffee exports to over 6000 tons in 1812.
- 35. EuropeandtheUnitedStates intheCaribbean,1783–1823 The French RevolutionaryWars British policy at the outbreak of war in 1793 was directedbyHenryDundas,theSecretaryforWar.He decided that the best way to protect the British West Indies and the sugar trade was to occupy the French islands. He thought Britain would be able to do this easily because of the collapse of the French navy at the beginning of the Revolution, and with help from royalist planters which, however, later proved to be very disappointing. Although Dundas’s ideas were basically correct, his plans suffered a setback when the Jacobin Commissioners persuaded people to fight for their freedom in the French islands, and the British were temporarily driven out. In 1793 the French sent eight ships to the Caribbean. The British answered by sending an expedition under Rear-Admiral Alan Gardner to protect the British planters. He was recalled after three months, but he left two ships to protect Jamaica’s trade, and six frigates to guard that of the Leewards. The British captured Tobago, but after landing troops at Martinique, Gardner decided that St Pierre was too strongly fortified and they were re-embarked. However, another expedition under Admiral Sir John Jervis and General Sir Charles Grey arrived in the West Indies in January 1794. They captured Martinique, St Lucia, Les Saintes and Guadeloupe within ten weeks. Victor Hugues and Julien Fédon InJune1794VictorHugues,acolouredex-innkeeper from Guadeloupe, returned to the West Indies as a Jacobin Commissioner to enforce the decrees of freedom and equality passed by the National Assembly. He was a bloodthirsty revolutionary who stirred up the people to drive out the British and Soldier of the West India Regiment
- 36. 27 the French royalistsfrom Guadeloupe and the other islands. The recovery of Guadeloupe which followed was disastrous for the British, because the French then used it as a base for spreading revolutionary ideas, and for attacking the British islands. Dominica withstood an attack from Guadeloupe in June 1795, but St Lucia was recaptured. In Grenada a coloured planter, Julien Fédon, freed his slaves and led them with other slaves in a revolt. His aims were to abolish slavery altogether and to return the island to French republican rule. For several months he controlled a large part of the island, but his revolt ended in March 1796 after British reinforcements under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercromby had arrived in the Caribbean. The Black Carib revolt in St Vincent A revolt also took place in St Vincent in 1795, stirred up by agents working for Hugues. This was among the island’s large population of Black Caribs. These were so called because they were largely the descendants of unions which had taken place between the island’s original Kalinago inhabitants and escaped or shipwrecked slaves. They lived mainly on the windward side of St Vincent, separate from the ethnically pure ‘Yellow’ or ‘Red’ Caribs on the leeward side. Although their leader, Joseph Chatoyer, was killed soon after the revolt began, the Black Caribs continued to fight until October 1796. They only admitted defeat after Abercromby had reinforced the British garrison. After surrendering, some 5000 were sent to Balliceaux in the Grenadine Islands, and kept there under primitive and disease- ridden conditions until March 1797. The 2200 who remained alive by then were shipped into permanent exile in the Bay Islands, in the Bay of Honduras. In time, they gradually dispersed from there to establish coastal settlements in Central America. Some ended up in what is now Belize, where their descendants today still retain their separate identity. Chatoyer was recognised as the first National Hero of St Vincent in 1988. Chatoyer and his wives
- 37. 8 Seizure of theDutch, Danish and Swedish colonies As the Netherlands had been conquered by France thepreviousyear,inApril1796Abercrombyattacked the Dutch colonies in the Guianas, where at least half the planters were British. Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice all surrendered without resistance. Surinam was seized three years later, and Curaçao fell in 1800, followed by the northern Dutch islands of St Martin, St Eustatius and Saba in 1801. St Thomas, St Croix, St John and St Barthélemy were also seized in 1801, as by this time Britain was also at war with both Denmark and Sweden. St Barthélemy had been sold to Sweden by France in 1785. The widening of the war in the Caribbean Spain declared war on Britain in 1796 because of the presence of British troops in Hispaniola and because it was thought the capture of the Dutch colonies in South America gave the British opportunities for further conquests on the mainland. In February 1797 Abercromby captured Trinidad after very little fighting, and then went on to attack Puerto Rico in April. San Juan was bombarded, but it was decided the defences were too strong and the attack was abandoned. The only other clash between British and Spanish forces took place in the western part of the Caribbean. The continued presence of British settlers in Belize had been accepted reluctantly by both the Spanish and British governments in 1786, when the first Superintendent was appointed. The British claim was strengthened in September 1798, after a Spanish fleet was forced to withdraw following an engagement known as the Battle of St George’s Cay, in which less than 400 defenders were involved. Thus, by April 1801, Britain held nearly all the Caribbean possessions of France and her allies, other thanCuba,PuertoRicoandGuadeloupe.Hispaniola, of course, was still in the throes of revolution. This situation lasted less than a year. In October preliminary articles of peace were signed between Britain and France, and these were confirmed by the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802. Underthetermsofthistreaty,alltheFrench,Dutch, Danish and Swedish colonies in the Caribbean held bytheBritishwerereturnedtotheirpreviousowners. Only Spain suffered a loss, as Trinidad remained in British hands. The West India Regiments One reason why Abercromby and the generals who succeeded him were so successful in their Caribbean campaigns up to 1801 was because of a decision taken by the British government in 1795 to train and use slaves as regular soldiers. This came about because too many British soldiers in the West Indies had died from disease in the two years since the war began, and also because various officers had seen how well small groups of armed, escaped slaves in the French islands had fought for the British against their former owners. Authorisation for the formation of two regiments, each of about 1000 slaves under the command of white officers and white non-commissioned officers, arrived in the Caribbean in April 1795. In September the requirement was changed to eight regiments with 600 men in each. By 1798, when four more were authorised, each had been officially designated as a numbered West India Regiment. The formation of these regiments of armed slaves was greatly resented by the very people they were BATTLE OF ST GEORGE’S CAY This took place off Belize City, on the barrier reef which protects the shoreline of Belize, on 10 September 1798. It was the culmination of a series of brief actions which had taken place during the previous week, between a large Spanish invasion force attempting to force a passage through the reef and the British inhabitants of the settlement, which in the next century would be named British Honduras and who were determined to stop them. The Spanish forces consisted of about 2000 soldiers embarked in 32 vessels manned by around 500 seamen. They were opposed by one small British warship, HMS Merlin, and between 300 to 400 armed locals aboard a dozen even smaller vessels. In spite of this great imbalance, the Spanish were unable to capture the cay which controlled the passage through the reef, and they were obliged to withdraw through lack of water and supplies. As this represented the last serious attempt by the Spanish to destroy the settlement, 10 September, St George’s Cay Day, is still celebrated as a public holiday in Belize.
- 38. 29 being trained tohelp protect. The island legislatures all complained and tried to prevent the Army authoritiesfromcarryingouttheirplans,butwithout success. As very few of the planters were willing to sell any of their slaves, the Army was obliged to buy the men needed for the regiments direct from slave- traders. Between 1795 and when the slave trade was made illegal in 1808 the British Army became the largest single purchaser of slaves in the Americas. About 13 000 slaves were bought during this period. Once they had been trained these men were clothed, fed, accommodated and paid exactly the same as white soldiers. The West India Regiments took part in nearly every campaign conducted by the British in the Caribbean between 1796 and when fighting stopped in October 1801. As trained soldiers, the slaves proved to be just as brave and loyal as the white troops they fought alongside. At the same time they were more capable of withstanding the hard and difficult conditions under which the fighting took place, and had far more resistance to the tropical diseases which so badly affected European soldiers. Following the Treaty of Amiens the number of the regiments was reduced to eight, with a total strength of about 5000 men. The Napoleonic Wars War between Britain and France was resumed in March 1803. In the Caribbean the British set about trying to recapture all that had been lost by the Treaty of Amiens. St Lucia and Tobago were soon retaken, and later in the year Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were again under British control. Surinam joined them in 1804. In 1805 Napoleon planned to send two fleets to the Caribbean in order to mount a combined attack on the British possessions, but this failed as the fleets could not manage to cross the Atlantic at the same time. One fleet, under Admiral Edouard Missiessy, managed to extract large sums of ransom money in lieu of invasion from Dominica, St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat. The other, under Admiral Pierre Villeneuve, arrived in the Caribbean after Missiessy had left, and was then chased back to Europe by a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson. These two fleets met up off the coast of Spain on 21 October, and Villeneuve was decisively beaten in the Battle of Trafalgar. This great victory gave the British conclusive command of the sea, and ended the danger for the British Caribbean. Curaçao, as well as the three Danish islands, were seized in 1807, followed by Martinique in 1809, and Guadeloupe, St Martin, St Eustatius and Saba in 1810. After that, all the European colonies in the Caribbean, other than those belonging to Spain, which was now an ally of Britain, were in British hands. The eight West India Regiments formed an invaluable part of the British forces involved in achieving this success. One or more took part in every invasion. In 1807 the British government ordered that all the soldiers then in the regiments were to be given their freedom. As a result, probably close to 10 000 men immediately became free, by far the largest number of slaves manumitted simultaneously anywhere in the Americas up until this time. However, as it was taken that as soldiers they had enlisted in the Army until they were no longer fit enough to serve, it was only a limited kind of freedom they received. In the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1814, Britain restored to their previous owners all the captured colonies except for St Lucia and Tobago. The Netherlands ceded Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice on payment of £5 000 000, and these were united as British Guiana in 1831. Thereafter, except for when St Barthélemy was returned by Sweden to France in 1878, the political make-up of the Caribbean was to remain unchanged until 1898. The economic effects of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars The economy of the British West Indies was helped by the wars, but afterwards there was a slump which pointed to future difficulties. Theeffectofthevacuumintradeleftbythecollapse of St Domingue has been discussed. Exports from the other French islands were also cut. The British West Indies filled most of this vacuum. By 1794 the output of tropical products from the British West Indies had doubled, and prices were high and rising higher. New species of sugar cane, the Otaheite and Bourbon varieties, had been introduced into the British islands and they helped in the expansion of
- 39. 0 output. This produceda glut of sugar by 1806 and prices fell sharply. The situation was made worse by the Berlin Decrees of 1806 by which Napoleon closed the ports of Europe to British products. There was far too much sugar left in Britain for home consumption. However, leaks gradually appeared in Napoleon’s system, and British products found their way into Europe and sugar prices rose again. Foreign sugar, being carried in foreign ships, chiefly American, was also reaching Europe and depressing prices. The war between Britain and the United States in 1812–1814 stopped this trade and helped British sugar prices reach all-time records. Coffee became an important export for Jamaica for a short time during the wars with France. By 1796 output and prices for coffee had doubled, but they crashed in 1799 when other parts of the world increased their production and could undersell Jamaican coffee. From 1790 to 1810, cotton in the British West Indies enjoyed a boom. It was expensive, Sea Island cotton, fashionable for women’s clothes, men’s shirts and nightwear. At one time the British West Indies supplied nearly three-quarters of the cotton on the British market. However, in 1793 a cotton gin was invented in America which made it possible to clean the green seeds from the much hardier, short-staple boll which could be grown profitably throughout the southern United States. The new gin could replace the labour of fourteen slaves. By 1810 South Carolina and Georgia cotton made up a quarter of all the exports of the United States, and British West Indian cotton declined sharply. From 1810 to 1814 there was one more sugar boom for the British islands. In 1814 Britain restored nearly all of her conquests, and competition from the French islands began to build up again, but very slowly. The Guiana colonies and Trinidad were now British and they could have been used to produce sugarmorecheaplythantheotherBritishislands,but they could not import slaves as the slave trade had been abolished after 1807. Moreover, the high duties which had been levied in wartime and which were easily paid in periods of high prices were continued after the war and crippled the sugar industry when prices dropped. Jamaica benefited most from the wars. By 1812–13 she was exporting three-quarters of all British West Indian exports. This was because Jamaica was one of the few British colonies with vacant land on which to expand production. She also benefited from the increased trade with the Spanish after 1808. Spain herself was overrun in the Peninsular War and the supplying of her colonies was taken over to a large extent by Britain via Jamaica; for example, Cuba was open to British goods between 1812 and 1814 because the United States was prevented from trading with Cuba by the war. The United States and the Caribbean Between 1812 and 1814 Britain was also at war with the United States. This was one of the most unnecessary wars ever fought, and was mostly brought about by the Royal Navy kidnapping American sailors and forcing them to serve in British ships. It had little effect on the Caribbean, except in the Bahamas. After the American War of Independence many loyalists had settled in both the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos (which had been federated with the Bahamas in 1799), and strong tradinglinkshadbeenbuiltupwiththeUnitedStates. These were now cut off, and American privateers plundered some of the outer islands. The war lasted two and a half years and achieved nothing except to teach Britain that it was not worthwhile making war on the United States. Several of the West India Regiments were involved in the fighting which took place, particularly in the attack on New Orleans SEA ISLAND COTTON This is the name given to a variety of the cotton plantwhichwasfoundgrowingintheCaribbean islands at the time of their settlement by Europeans. It had a long, fine and silky staple with a lustre not found in the varieties already known in Europe. It acquired the name in the nineteenth century when it became a successful commercial crop on the Sea Islands off the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. It was first grown there in 1790, probably from seeds taken from the Bahamas.
- 40. 31 which, because ofthe slow speed of communication between Britain and the Americas, was carried out after peace had been signed. Spanish American independence During the first decade of the nineteenth century the Spanish mainland colonies became increasingly restive. The prosperity they had enjoyed during the previous century had begun to fade, and many of their inhabitants wanted to follow the precedent set by the United States in breaking free of a European power and establishing independence. Attempts to achieve this began in 1810 and continued for another sixteen years. The Monroe Doctrine The United States, being a republic made up of ex-colonies, supported colonial uprisings in Latin America. In 1818 several revolutionary governments, including that of Venezuela, asked for, and expected to receive, American recognition. However, the United States was trying to obtain Florida from Spain and did not want to upset her, so she remained neutral during the uprisings. By 1822 Peru and Mexico had become independent of Spain, and Brazil had become independent of Portugal. The European powers began to consider restoring the Latin American colonies to their former masters. This threat of European intervention made the United States act as if she had already recognised the independence of most of these new countries. Britain was interested in trade with Latin America andconsideredshehadaclaimonitsincemostofthe money for the revolutions had come from Britain. In 1823 George Canning, the British Foreign Minister, proposed that the United States and Britain should cooperate to stop the re-colonisation of Latin America. Many people in the United States favoured this, but John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, felt that Canning’s proposal would allow Britain to stop the United States expanding into any territory once held by Spain, particularly Cuba. He advised the rejection of cooperation and President Monroe (in office 1817–25) followed his advice. These words from his Presidential Address became known as the Monroe Doctrine: Weshouldconsideranyattemptontheir [European powers] part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have acknowledged, we could not view any interposition by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. New Orleans at the beginning of the nineteenth century
- 41. 32 Later he added:‘The American continents are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonisation by any European powers.’ President Monroe was telling Europe to keep its handsoffAmerica.Thedoctrinehadlittleimmediate effect,butEuropeancountriesconsidereditwasvery arrogant. Since all the Caribbean islands belonged to colonial powers, the doctrine applied there. The United States and Cuba Once the United States had reached the Gulf of Mexico,hernearestneighbourtothesouthwasCuba which was ruled by Spain. Its strategic importance to the United States was obvious. Cuba, a long island straddling the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, could effectively block American outlets to the south. It also commanded the Florida Strait which was the passage from the Gulf to the Atlantic. The port of Havana at the entrance to the Gulf was the key port in the Spanish trade system in the Caribbean. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Spain was weak and was finding it increasingly difficult to control her American empire. The United States could have conquered Cuba at any time from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards. However, she could not justify conquest while championing the ideas of self-determination and anti-colonialism. The importance of Cuba to the United States was first stressed by President Jefferson in 1809. He felt that if Cuba was not strong enough to stand by herself once she had obtained her freedom from Spain, her independence could be maintained in some kind of federation of West Indian islands. As was suggested later, the obvious federation would be with Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Such a federation would then naturally turn towards the United States for protection. American Presidents and statesmen looked for ways to hasten this process. Map 5 The strategic importance of Cuba to the United States 0 200 400 600 km 0 100 200 300 400 miles BAHAMAS Florida TEXAS Galveston New Orleans LOUISIANA Mouth of River Mississippi Gulf of Mexico Vera Cruz Havana CUBA Yucatan Channel W indward Passage F l o r i d a S t r a i t
- 42. TheControlandTreatmentof Slaves Slavery and thelaw Between 1665 and 1833 the slave population of the Caribbean rose from under 50 000 to well over 1 100 000. Around the middle of this period in 1770, a year for which reasonably accurate figures are available, some 950 000 slaves were distributed among the possessions of five European powers: Everywhere, except in the Spanish islands, slaves formed the bulk of the population, and everywhere their lives were governed by stringent legal codes. The relatively small white populations were only too well aware that their societies depended entirely on forced labour, and could only survive through the operation of repressive laws. White domination was based on power. This operated at an institutional level, over the legal and economic aspects of slavery, as well as over the slaves themselves. Any honour or esteem attached to being a slave-owner arose only fromthepowerthathecouldexerciseoverthebodies of his slaves, and this had to be sanctioned by slave laws. Such laws meant that white men and women could exercise intimate power through punishment, torture and control of all a slave’s physical needs. In drawing up and enforcing such laws the slave- owners in the Caribbean, like those in the rest of the New World, created their own version of slavery. They invented from scratch all the ideological and legal underpinnings of a totally new slave system. Punishment of slaves Total population Slaves British 500 000 428 000 French 430 000 379 000 Dutch 90 000 75 000 Spanish 144 000 50 000 Danish 20 000 18 000
- 43. 34 In the eighteenthcentury about 90 per cent of all slaves worked. Only the invalids, very young children and the infirm, who made up the other 10 per cent, were exempt. The vast majority worked on plantations. There, when they were not having to carry out hard manual labour, they were subjected to, or threatened with, flogging and mutilation for a wide and constantly increasing variety of offences. Slave women were abused by white men, and all – men, women and children – were more or less abandoned to under-nourishment and disease. The non-plantation slaves, the logwood cutters in Central America, and those in places like the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, Barbuda and the Grenadines, had slightly better lives but were still subject to very similar slave codes. These codes ran very much to a pattern, regardless of the nationality of those who operated them, but those enforced in the British islands were undoubtedly the most severe. Slave laws and codes in the British Caribbean Although slavery was not a condition recognised under English law, there was little or no opposition in England before the 1780s to either the slave trade or the institution of slavery in the Caribbean colonies. As a result, the life of a slave in such a colony was dominated by laws drawn up by the local Assembly, most of whose members were slave- owners. These were men concerned primarily with the protection of property and the control of an unwilling workforce, fully aware that such a system could not survive without a repressive legal code. To such men, slaves were chattels, private possess- ions like animals or furniture acquired by purchase orinheritance.AsafundamentalprincipleofEnglish law was the security of property, allowing an owner to do what he liked with his possessions, this took the slave out of the law’s jurisdiction. The owner of a chair could destroy it if he wanted to, just as he could slaughter a cow he might possess. It therefore followed that how he treated his slaves was entirely his own affair. Slaves were private property and, like animals, could be sold to meet debts or disposed of in accordance with the laws of inheritance of real estate. This definition of slaves under British West Indian law denied them any protection under Englishlaw.Slave-ownersweregivenwidediscretion in enforcing control, and until late in the eighteenth century the slave codes allowed them to do very much as they liked with regard to every aspect of their slaves’ lives. Among many other things, the Inspecting slaves
- 44. 35 law ignored completelythe existence of family ties, gave no protection to women against overwork, sexual abuse, or ill treatment during pregnancy, and laid down no limits to the punishments that could be inflicted on either males or females. In the words of one historian of slave society, ‘The slave laws legitimised a state of war between blacks and whites, sanctified rigid segregation, and institutionalised an early warning system against slave revolts.’ The origin of the slave codes Such laws began to be passed in the middle of the seventeenth century. By 1661 Barbados had a comprehensive slave code. Although this accorded both masters and slaves carefully differentiated rights and obligations, it left the masters with almost total authority over the life and death of their slaves. The code saw slaves as ‘heathenish’ and ‘brutish’, and unfittobegovernedbyEnglishlaw.Eachslave-owner was required to act as a policeman, to suppress any humanitarian feelings he may have had, and to deal with his slaves with a whip constantly to hand. The BarbadoscodewascopiedbytheJamaicanAssembly three years later, and later formed the basis of all the others enacted in the British Caribbean. Punitive and coercive clauses formed a major part of all the slave codes, and very little attention was paid to the welfare of either men or women. The features of the slave codes Theeffectofthelawswastodeprivetheslavesofeven the smallest and most inconsequential of freedoms, and at the same time to restrict their owners from granting even the slightest concession. Among the most important common features of the slave codes were laws designed to prohibit and suppress unauthorised movement and the congregation of large numbers. Slaves were also banned from possessing weapons, horses and mules, from sounding horns or beating drums, and from the practice of secret rituals. Special slave-trial courts could dispense summary ‘justice’, but slave-owners were given very wide discretion in punishing their slaves. The courts usually dealt with slaves who were recaptured after running away, or who were accused of crimes such as theft. Punishment for actual or threatened violence against any white person was very severe. Although the various slave codes ran to a pattern, they all contained individual provisions reflecting theconditionofthesocietyinwhichtheyweredrawn up.IntheBahamasslavescouldbefloggedforselling such things as liquor, eggs, fruit or vegetables, or if found gambling. In Bermuda they were not allowed to wear bright clothes or ornaments, nor even to carry a stick unless they were decrepit or lame. A Montserrat Act of 1693 permitted any white man to kill a slave who was caught stealing provisions, and if a slave stole anything of value he or she was liable to be flogged and have both ears cut off. Under an Act passed in the Virgin Islands in 1783, if a slave struck or opposed any white person the punishment was not only flogging but having the nose slit and ‘any member cut off’. Such provisions for mutilation were commonplace. The penal code developed in Jamaica was the most savage of them all, and attempts to modify it were constantly thwarted by the power of the planters in the legislature. Punishments The punishments dealt out both by the courts and by individual slave-owners were very severe. Their aim was to deter and humiliate, not to ‘make the Owners with new acquisitions
- 45. punishment fit thecrime’. The way that owners ruled their slaves varied from owner to owner, and from one society to the next, but there were common features. The most important and most common form of punishment was flogging, and personal coercion using the whip must be seen as the defining characteristic of slavery. On any plantation, floggings were totally unchecked by any outside authority. Brutality and sadism could be found anywhere. Severe floggings were often accompanied by some form of mutilation. Less severe whippings and beatings were frequently carried out in conjunction with making those being punished commit humiliating or disgusting acts. For urban slaves not only the whip, but structures such as the stocks and the pillory which were found in every town, were ever-present reminders of what awaited those who failed to work hard or show proper respect. The death penalty was awarded for what would now be considered relatively minor offences. An extreme example of this was a Barbados law of 1688, which made the theft of items worth more than 12 pence punishable by death. The penalty was carried out in a number of barbarous ways, all designed to prolong the agony involved as long as possible, and to present other slaves with the clearest demonstration of the power their owners held over their lives. A slave could be hanged, or beaten to death while lashed to a cart-wheel, or he could be hung up in an iron cage until he died from hunger and thirst. Alternatively, he could be hanged until he was near to death, and then revived in order to be disembowelled before being cut into four pieces. Or he could simply be burnt to death, which in Jamaica in 1740 was laid down as the punishment that a slave would incur for striking a white person. All of these methods of capital punishment were in use in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but not as a punishment for such minor crimes as running away from work, or for hitting another person. Manumission Whether a slave could be given his freedom or not was entirely dependent on his owner. The manumission laws were more stringent than in the French or Spanish possessions, and owners were CORPORAL PUNISHMENTS Although the punishments inflicted on slaves were inhumane and barbarous, it is worth remembering that all of them were in use on white offenders in Europe before the discovery of the New World, and many of them remained in use there until well after the majority of West Indian slaves had been emancipated. With regard to the death penalty in England, the last person to be hanged, drawn and quartered died in 1782; burning at the stake was abolished in 1790, but hanging in chains in a gibbet not until 1834; children continued to be executed until 1833; and the last public execution took place in 1868. The terrible death occasioned by being broken on the wheel was confined to the army and was still being carried out in the 1770s. With regard to lesser punishments, branding ceased towards the end of the eighteenth century, except in the army where it was not abolished until 1871; the pillory disappeared in 1834 but the treadmill not until 1902; public flogging ended in 1862 but the punishment was not abolished completely until 1948. Public Whipping in London Sessions House Yard, from the Malefactor’s Register, 1754 reluctant to give freedom, as a large sum had to be deposited at the local vestry to ensure the newly freed man or woman did not become a burden on the parish. A figure similar to that of the £100 which was required in St Vincent in 1767 was common.
- 46. 37 In Jamaica, bya law passed in 1717, manumitted slaves were required not only to carry written proof of their freedom, a precious document which all the newly freed needed, but to wear an identification badge. The manumission of slaves too old and feeble to work was illegal, but it did take place, and was one reason why the vestry deposits were required. By law, owners were required to maintain their slaves when too old to work. It was only in the manumission content of slave law that female slaves were in a more favourable position than males. This came about because of the unions formed with white men. A slave woman who had had a long-standing relationship with such a man sometimes benefited under his will by being given her freedom, but more usually it was the children of such a union who were freed. The number of women who gained their freedom in this way was small, and very much restricted to those who had had particularly privileged household positions, or who were themselves light-skinned mulattoes. As the eighteenth century progressed, more such women, regardless of the colour of their skin, received manumission or bequests, as did their children. This so upset white society in Jamaica that in 1762 a law was passed to prevent sums of more than £2000 being left to mulatto children. All in all, until well into the nineteenth century, women were twice as likely as men to be manumitted. Marriage and divorce Although there was no legal form of marriage for slavesbefore1789,thisdoesnotmeanthatmarriages did not take place before that date. From the earliest days of slavery, marital and family links were valued by the slaves. This was recognised by the planters, who soon saw that if the plantations were to be run efficiently they needed to buy women in proportion to men. The slave marriages which then took place, using the form of ceremony or agreement brought with them from Africa, did not correspond to anything with which the planters were familiar. Marriage in Europe was very much concerned with the transfer of wealth and property, and in European society divorce was very rare. Among Africans it was no more than common sense to end an unsatisfactory relationship with a simple divorce rite such as that which came to be used by the slaves in Jamaica. This involved the cutting in half of a cotta, the pad used for carrying head loads, as a symbol of the severance of mutual affection. Such a rite also reflected on the independence, autonomy and relative equality of African women with men – all of which were missing from white society. Unfortunately, because slaves did not marry in church, and divorce was so uncommon in European society, the whites considered slave unions to be immoral as well as shallow and unstable. Religion Unlike the Catholic clergy in the Spanish and French Caribbean, who were officially committed to converting slaves to Christianity from the beginning, the Anglican Church took no interest in the slaves of the British Caribbean until the final decades of slavery. In the early days some slaves in Jamaica, Barbados and one or two of the Leeward islands came into contact with Christianity either through working alongside Catholic servants, or as a result of the activities of Quakers. The attempts by Quakers in these islands to convert slaves met with great hostility from the slave-owners, and their meeting-houses were all closed down long before the end of the seventeenth century. After that no interest was taken by anyone in the spiritual welfare of the slaves until around the middle of the next century. All non-Christian beliefs and practices were outlawed under the slave codes, but the slaves were able to adapt and disguise the ways they worshipped. Many of the dances and ceremonies which the whites thought their slaves took part in merely to amuse themselves often had considerable religious significance. Christianity was brought to the slaves in the eighteenth century, first of all by lay people, both black and white. These ranged from the odd pious planter or white artisan to free blacks who had all in some way been inspired by a religious revival in Britain. The first full-time missionaries, belonging to the Moravian Church, arrived in Jamaica in 1754 and the Leeward Islands two years later. They were soon followed by the Methodists and Baptists. All had to establish a right to preach to the slaves in the face of enormous hostility. This they eventually did, but mainly through preaching that obedience
- 47. 8 and docility wereprime virtues, and that all earthly efforts needed to be directed towards achieving an immortal afterlife. Bythebeginningofthenineteenthcenturyperhaps 25percentofallslaveshadbeenconverted.Thisthen stirred the Anglican Church into some sort of action. This was not very great, as the Church considered the slaves had no morals. In the eyes of the Anglican clergy the fact that many slave couples lived together andproducedchildren,withouthavingbeenmarried in a church by a priest, made them fornicators who were unworthy of much consideration. Taking into account the numbers who had already joined the Nonconformist Churches, this left the Anglican Church with only a limited number of slaves they could make any real effort to convert. Education Other than being taught how to carry out the labour required of them, slaves were denied any education whatsoever. The vast majority of slave-owners were opposed to any suggestion that their slaves might be taught to read and write. It was not until the first missionaries arrived in the Caribbean in the middle of the eighteenth century that slaves received instruction in anything other than how to work. It took a long time for the missionaries to overcome the opposition of the slave-owners to their instructing slaves in the doctrines of Christianity. By the time they had been generally accepted, Bible reading, which had become a widespread habit in Britain due to a religious revival, formed an important aspect of missionary activity. This led to the missionaries becoming involved, to the dismay of slave-owners, in teaching slaves how to read. Where laws did not already exist forbidding the teaching of slaves to read and write, they were soon passed, as happened in Barbados in 1797. An Act passed that year made it the duty of every Anglican priest to try to convert the slaves, but made it illegal to teach them reading and writing. In Demerara twenty years later the Reverend John Smith of the London Missionary Society was warned by the Governor of the colony that he would be banished if he attempted to teach any slave to read. In spite of such laws, some slaves did manage to become literate, or at least able to read, and probably more women than men. This was because of the intimate relationships some female slaves had with white men, and because more women than men were employed as domestics in situations where the opportunities to learn were greater. One such was Nanny Grig, a slave on an estate in Barbados who, because she could read, was partly responsible for starting an insurrection there in 1816 (see Chapter 5). However, right up until the end of slavery, there was no official attempt anywhere to give the slaves even the most elementary education. Forces of law and order With slaves forming the bulk of the population, the slave-owners everywhere lived in fear of an uprising or revolt, and security was a prime concern. This was provided in a number of ways. The Militia All able-bodied white males were required to enrol in the Militia, and turn out regularly for the drills and parades which were intended to prepare them for military duties. The various Militia laws and regulations were rarely observed in full. The more prominent citizens usually refused to serve except as officers, and the planters resented allowing their THE QUAKERS The Quakers belonged to an organisation called the Religious Society of Friends, founded in England in 1648 by people who were dissatisfied with the way the Anglican Church was then organised and run. Those who joined the breakaway group believed that direct experience of God was available to anyone, and did not require sacraments or clergymen to act as intermediaries. The basic tenets of their belief were in the equality of men and women, and in the benefits of universal education. They practised plainness of dress and manners, and refused to bear arms, swear oaths or bow to people of title and rank. They acquired the name of ‘Quakers’ in 1650 as a result of being seen to shake with passion while listening to the Bible being read, something they explained as ‘trembling at the word of God’.
- 48. 39 white employees timeoff to train. In most islands this resulted in a Militia which was top-heavy with captains and colonels, grossly undermanned and poorly trained. As time went by, in some islands coloureds and even free blacks were brought into the Militia, but only to make up numbers and to do the most humdrum tasks. British troops Garrisons of regular British troops began to be stationed in Jamaica, Barbados and the Leeward Islands from late in the seventeenth century. These provided the slave-owning communities with added reassurance. That they must also have acted as a deterrent to any slave uprising was demonstrated in Barbados in 1692 and in Antigua in 1736, where conspiracies took place as soon as their garrisons were withdrawn. British troops played an active part in putting down the insurrection in Barbados in 1816. Constables In addition to the regular troops and militiamen providing security from both internal and external threats, the whites also depended on constables to help exercise control over the slaves, particularly those who lived in the towns. Urban slaves were employed in less restricted ways than those on the plantations, and had more freedom of movement. They worked not only as domestics, artisans, boatmen and fishermen, but in a wide range of other occupations connected with the retail and distributive trades. As such they moved around a great deal, and were generally far less amenable to discipline from their owners than plantation workers. Constables were appointed to provide greater control. These patrolled the streets, checking ontheslaves’activitiesandatnightenforcedacurfew system. Later in the eighteenth century places of correction, called workhouses, were established in the main towns. In these, urban slaves caught breaking any of the numerous laws which bound their lives could be detained and punished. The constables also acted as freelance slave whippers, who would flog any slave for a fee. They were called ‘Jumpers’ in Barbados. Their services were often used by owners who did not want their errant slaves sent to the workhouse. Other forms of slave control Throughout the colonies unwritten laws brought about patterns of behaviour which made the slave- owners’ control over their slaves even stronger. Everywhere custom was just as important as the law in shaping the lives of the slaves. The determined efforts of the whites to make blacks feel racially inferior served to strengthen their domination. It was instilled into slaves that all white people, no matter how lowly or uncouth, were above non- whites everywhere, and as time went by the division of society by colour became more and more pronounced. Slaves were denied any recognition or symbol of achievement, and a black skin was automatically equated with slavery and social inferiority. African culture was always described as being inferior, while African customs were ridiculed and suppressed. At the same time European values, systems and culture were presented as being superior. Constant efforts were made to undermine the blacks’ self-worth and to foster dependence on whites. Even Christianity was used to promote black submissiveness, and to try to persuade slaves that their condition was ordained as part of the natural way of life for black people. The Scriptures were censored and interpreted to this end, and religious instruction was designed to encourage meekness and acceptance. Slaves were taught that God was opposed to insolence and bad behaviour, and that slavery was a divine punishment for past conduct. Pro-slavery alliances In places where they were greatly outnumbered, the whites found it expedient to enter into alliances with free non-white groups in order to increase their control over the slaves. These were the social groups who stood to benefit from the continued existence of a subservient and well-controlled slave community. As well as the free coloureds and the free blacks they also included Maroon bands and Amerindians. The nature of the relationship between the whites and these groups depended very much on how heavily the whites were outnumbered by the slaves. In the middle of the eighteenth century in Jamaica, where the ratio was ten to one, the coloureds were
- 49. 40 granted significant civilrights in return for their loyalty, and independent Maroon communities (see Chapter 5) were allowed to remain in existence in return for their help in hunting down runaway slaves. Where the ratio of blacks to whites was not so uneven, as in Barbados where it was about four to one, such liberal relations were not considered essential. This did not prevent the free coloured community from giving the Barbados whites their full support in times of emergency such as, for instance, in 1816 when coloured militiamen were conspicuous in helping to put down the slave insurrection of that year. Free blacks, if not so welcome as militiamen, were used as slave-hunters and constables. Many had to take these jobs because they were unable to find any other employment, and such work offered the only alternative to starvation. Early in the eighteenth century Amerindian trackers from the Moskito Coast of Central America were used to hunt down runaway slaves in Jamaica. Towards the end of the same century South American Amerindians were used in the same way in the Guianas. The use of the free blacks and Amerindians in this way was by no means intended to give either group additional statusoranentryintotheworldofthewhites.Rather it can be seen both as a means of getting unpleasant jobs done on the cheap, and of discouraging non- whites from seeking a common cause under which they could unite against the whites. Amelioration The slave codes were all revised many times, with changes in the law only taking place in response to economic conditions and outside pressures. All such changes only made the life of the slaves worse. It was nearly the end of the eighteenth century before the distress caused by the constant mutilation and murder of fellow human beings compelled the local legislatures reluctantly to pass Acts restraining the powers of slave-owners, and to make the murder of a slave a capital offence. At the same time ameliorative laws, designed to better the general condition of the slaves, were introduced. All came about because of the growing threat, as the planters saw it, of abolition of the slave trade, accompanied by uncertain economic conditions and a price rise in slaves brought about by war. From the 1780s onwards individual colonies amendedtheirlawstoimprovethematerialexistence of slaves, to reduce mortality, and to promote a healthy natural increase among them. Many of the new laws were intended to protect pregnant women, encourage motherhood and promote stable unions by offering cash incentives to slave parents. Fines were also laid down for whites who ‘interfered’ with married female slaves. Other reforming laws followed. In 1787 Antigua passed an Act which allowed slaves the right to trial by jury in serious cases. The 1792 Consolidated Slave Act of Jamaica imposed a fine of £100 for anyone found guilty of mutilating or dismembering a slave. FouryearslaterthelegislatureoftheBahamaspassed laws which regulated the minimum amount of food and clothing which had to be given to the slaves, laid down the maximum amount of punishment which could be inflicted, and gave them the right to marry. In 1798 a similar Slave Amelioration Act was passed in the Leeward Islands. The Barbados legislature delayed even longer in passing such an Act, and a law which laid down a fine of £15 for the murder of a slave was not repealed until 1805. The Amelioration Laws, although widely welcomed by the slaves, in the end made their lives THE MOSKITO INDIANS The Amerindian inhabitants of the Caribbean coast lands (now Nicaragua), the Moskito Indians, had a close alliance with the English for nearly 200 years. It began in the mid-1600s following contacts made during the short life of the Providence Island colony. By the end of the 1600s the Moskito people acknowledged the authority of the governor of Jamaica and considered themselves subjects of the English sovereign. Their own leader eventually assumed the title of king, but always sought approval of his authority from the governor of Jamaica or the senior officer of the Bay Settlement. Three coronations of Moskito kings took place in the Anglican church in Belize town, the last in 1845. The protectorate ended in 1850 after the signing of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty.
- 50. 41 only marginally better.The strict enforcement of the slave laws was considered essential to the efficient running of a plantation economy, and owners continued to exercise absolute control over their human property until the very last years of slavery. Although owners no longer legally had the power of life and death over their slaves, many considered this anunfairinterferencewithpropertyrights.They could not accept that killing a slave had become a capital offence, and it was still possible to get away with murder. The Huggins and Hodge cases In 1810 a planter in Nevis named Edward Huggins marched twenty of his slaves to the market-place in Charlestown, and had them flogged by two freelance whippers in the presence of his two sons. One slave received 365 lashes, and another 292 lashes. One female died and several other slaves were badly mutilated. Huggins was brought to trial, but as fellow planters made up the jury he was acquitted. Five magistrates who had been present during the flogging were deprived of their offices. The case caused such an uproar, both in the West Indies and in Britain, that when in 1811 a planter in Tortola was accused of murdering a slave, the Governor-in-Chief of the Leeward Islands stepped in to see justice done. The planter, Arthur Hodge, was notorious for the ill treatment of his slaves, and had probably caused several deaths. He was tried in the presence of the Governor, Hugh Elliot, for one particularly gruesome murder. The jury, made up of his fellow planters, reluctantly and after twelve hours of deliberation found him guilty, but recommended him to Elliot for mercy. The Governor refused, proclaimed martial law, and ordered Hodge to be executed. He was hanged a few days later, becoming the first West Indian slave-owner to lose his life for having taken that of a slave. Slave codes in the non-British Caribbean The European perception of blacks as an inferior race can be seen in all the slave codes used in the Caribbean, regardless of how and where they were drawnup.However,therewereimportantdifferences, both in their content and structure, and in the way they were conceived. The Spanish and French codes, unlike those of the British, were drawn up and enacted in Europe and were similar to each other. Both tried to disguise racism and the exploitation of slaves by concentrating on paternalism, and by suggesting that if the slaves were obedient and accepted their condition this somehow legitimised the slave-owners’ rights. Each attempted to balance the need for repression with protection, and made it plain that the owners were entitled to exploit their slaves in return for guarding, instructing and guiding them. The Dutch and Danish slave codes resembled the French more than either the British or Spanish, but both concentrated on suppression rather than protection of the slaves. The Spanish Code The Spanish had a slave code for their European territories before they acquired possessions in the New World and they simply transferred this code to the Indies. It was drawn up in the thirteenth century and was called Las Siete Partidas. The basic difference between the Spanish slave code and other slave laws was that the Spanish acknowledged that slavery was contrary to natural justice and that it was an evil, but a necessary evil for the economic development of the colonies. This admission caused endless trouble in the Spanish colonies, as it implied that freedom was the natural state of man and gave the slaves their justification for revolting. The first slave revolt was recorded in Hispaniola as early as 1522, and thereafter there was a steady stream of revolts in Spanish territories. The authorities recognised the right of slaves to seek their freedom, so they tried to remove the danger of revolt by other means than repressive legislation. Charles I attempted to enforce a ratio of three to one or four to one of slaves to freemen. He also tried to enforce a minimum proportion of female slaves and, by encouraging marriage, to create a settled family life for the slaves and make them less inclined to revolt. The Spanish slave laws promoted more humane treatment for slaves and led to a far larger proportion of free blacks and mulattoes. For example, in Puerto Rico by the end of the eighteenth century free coloureds outnumbered slaves, and in Cuba they were nearly equal in numbers. A slave could appeal to the courts against ill treatment. He could purchase his freedom without
- 51. 42 the consent ofhis owner merely by repaying his purchase price, if necessary by periodic repayments. Theslavehadarighttohisprovisiongroundwiththe consent of his owner. He had the right to marriage without the consent of his owner. The master had to instruct the slave in the Christian faith and to set aside certain days for this purpose. Slaves had to be given Sundays and Holy Days free from work. The master had to provide clothing and food, and care for the slave in his or her old age. The owner could not kill his slave or ill-treat him to the point of suffering. Specifically, he could not overwork or underfeed his slaves. Finally, the Spanish code required all judges to promote liberty because liberty was natural. In Spanish possessions, consequently, the slaves could find the courts on their side. This could never be the case in the British islands. The French Code The control and treatment of slaves in the French Caribbean was laid down in the Code Noir (Black Code), which was drawn up in France in 1685. It remained in force until 1804, when it was replaced by the Code Napoléon, the basis for the French legal system. The Code Noir was meant to be strictly applied, but in practice the milder measures among its sixty articles were disregarded, and many modifications were made during the eighteenth century. Its provisions can be summarised as follows: 1 All slaves to be baptised. 2 Slaves not to be worked on Sundays or Holy Days. 3 Slave marriage to be encouraged, the owner’s consent having been obtained. 4 Sexual intercourse between master and his slave to be punished by the confiscation of the slave. If between another man and the slave, a fine to be imposed. Children of such unions would take the status of the mother. 5 Rations and clothes to be provided. Old and sick slaves to be fed and maintained. 6 Slaves to be forbidden to own property and anything they acquired to belong to their owners. 7 Promises, contracts and gifts made by slaves to be null and void. 8 Slaves to be forbidden to sell sugar, or any other produce, without their owner’s permission. 9 Death penalty to be inflicted for striking master or mistress, and in some cases any free person. 10 Absenteeism lasting over a month to be punished by cutting off ears and branding on the shoulder. The second such absence to be punished by cutting off the buttock and branding on the other shoulder. A third such absence to be punished by death. 11 Owner to be compensated if slave executed on owner’s own denunciation. 12 Torture and mutilation to be prohibited under penalty of confiscation of the slave. 13 Slaves to be regarded as movable property, and liable to be sold apart from the rest of their family. 14 The plantation and the slaves to be regarded as one. 15 Owners and drivers to treat slaves humanely. 16 Owners to have the right to free a slave after twenty years’ service. 17 Manumitted slaves to have the same rights as free persons. Thus, in theory, the Code Noir was more humane thanBritishlaw.Forexample,Christianity,marriage, manumission and humane treatment were expressly ordered. Rations and clothing were precisely fixed. Mutilation was expressly forbidden. However, punishments were equally harsh, and in many other ways French laws were similar to those in the British colonies, although the slaves were not so much at the mercy of their owner because the rules of treatment were more clearly prescribed. The Dutch and Danish Codes The legal provisions designed to control the slaves in the Dutch Caribbean possessions were drawn up by the Dutch West India Company (see Book 1, chapter 6). These were intended to suppress the slaves, but at the same time to show that the owners had social, religious and educational obligations towards them. As in the French colonies, however, the laws concerning these obligations were soon
- 52. 43 largely unobserved, whilethe policing laws were expanded and rigidly enforced. As a result the Dutch acquired the reputation of being the cruellest of all the European slave-owners. In the Danish islands the sole purpose of the slave code was to maintain order. The welfare of the slaves was left entirely to the discretion of individual owners until 1755, when the Danish Crown passed an Act laying down their responsibilities. As this was intended to form the basis for local laws, a conflict then arose between the need to repress the slaves for security reasons, and the requirement to protect them as human beings. The conflict was resolved by concentrating on repression, and the local laws became ever more severe as the ratio of blacks to whites increased. Conclusion Slavery throughout the Caribbean was brutal to a greater or lesser degree, but the British form was particularly ferocious. The essential function of the laws devised in the British possessions, throughout the time slavery existed, was to control the slaves and not to promote their welfare. The treatment of the slaves that resulted was characterised from the beginning by explicit race prejudice. The slave-owners’ control depended on an ability to combine the rest of the whites with the coloured and free black sections of society in defence of the slave regime. As long as these groups believed that universal freedom for blacks would be harmful to theirintereststheywerewillingtosupporteachother. An anti-slavery print of the early nineteenth century
- 53. 44 In this wayanti-black racism was institutionalised, barriers were erected between blacks, coloureds and whites, and slaves were reduced to the lowest levels of social status and material wellbeing. Not all the owners were inherently inhumane like Arthur Hodge and Edward Huggins, but all considered it was necessary to suppress their slaves to protect their interests. All slave-owners worked to make their slaves submissive and deferential. HadBritainfollowedSpainandFranceinallowing the law and religion to provide some amelioration of the condition of slavery, the British slave codes might well have been less severe. But both the state and the Anglican Church remained indifferent, and preferred to stand aloof until the very last years of slavery. Unchecked in this way, the British approach toslavecontrol,anditsaccompanyingraceprejudice, eventually spread to the French, Dutch and Danish possessions throughout the Caribbean. P A R A L L E L L I V E S Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George (1745–1799) JOSEPH BOULOGNE AND JULIUS SOUBISE Amidst all the horror and grief attached to slavery in the eighteenth century, it is still possible to detect here and there acts of redemption. The lives of two men born to slave women on different islands in the eastern Caribbean provide good examples. Joseph Boulogne, who was born on Guadeloupe in 1745, was the son of a minor French aristocrat, the Chevalier de Saint-George (also spelled Saint-Georges). He was taken to France to be educated and by the age of 19 had become such a skilled horseman, swordsman and musician that he began to be known by the same title as his father. Under the name ChevalierdeSaint-Georgehedevotedhislifetomusic,apartfor a period during the French Revolution when he commanded a corps of black troops known as the Légion Saint-George. By the time of his death in 1799 he had written several operas, nine symphonies, 14 violin concertos and 18 string quartets and some of his music is still played today. Another son of a slave mother and white father was born in St Kitts in 1754 and given the name Othello. He was taken to England at the age of ten and became a servant to the Duchess of Queensbury. He made such an impression that the duchess had him educated, taught music, and tutored in fencing and riding. He was then renamed by the duchess as Julius Soubise, after a prominent French man of fashion, and in 1777 he was sent to India to establish himself as a riding and fencing instructor. He prospered there until 1798 when he died after falling from a horse.
- 54. 45 ResistanceandRevolt Response to slavery Resistancewas a constant feature of slavery, but to define it only by the number of plots and revolts which took place is very misleading. The slaves’ resistance to their condition was an everyday feature of their lives, ranging from working or obeying orders as slowly as possible to full-scale rebellion involving murder and the destruction of property. This shaped the form of plantation society and turned slavery into an inefficient economic system. The slave-owners were forced to accept that maximum effort out of their slaves could only be achieved by a balance between force and reward, and white society as a whole lived in constant fear of a slave uprising. By the early years of the nineteenth century such prolonged and continuous resistance had made it obvious that slaves would never become efficient or willing workers, nor be ruled without ever-increasing repression. Their perseverance played a great part in bringing an end to chattel slavery as an institution. Passive resistance In order to defeat the slave system the slaves used various kinds of passive resistance. Examples of such methods are: 1 Slow working and malingering. 2 Pretending ignorance. 3 Deliberate carelessness, or carelessness result- ing from a casual attitude which usually went undetected but caused trouble later. 4 Pretending to be ill. 5 Telling lies to avoid doing something or to create confusion. 6 Carelessness with the owner’s property. 7 Refusal to work, which was much more serious. This was not often attempted by individuals, but by groups of slaves, or the whole labour Slave hunt
- 55. 46 force in theform of a ‘strike’. However, the consequences of such a strike could be dire if it was construed as a conspiracy or plot to rebel for which the punishment would be mutilation or execution. LegallyintheBritishWestIndiesaslavecould not complain about his treatment. However, as a form of passive resistance which was really a strike in disguise, the slaves would make a mass protest to a magistrate. In Spanish and French islands complaints were allowed in law and were a frequently used device for disrupting the slave system. 8 Runningaway,whichwastheonlywaytoescape slavery. This could only be attempted with any hope of success in the large or mountainous territories like Cuba, Hispaniola, Guiana, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Trinidad, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Dominica, and even here the chances of remaining free were very slim indeed. 9 Slave suicide, which was common from the beginning. The most famous example of slave suicide was that of 400 slaves on Guadeloupe who, in 1802, put themselves in a fort and blew it up rather than submit to the reintroduction of slavery. Slaves most prone to commit suicide were reputed to be the Ibos from the Eastern Region of Nigeria. 10 Any crime committed by a slave against a slave law was a form of resistance. Slaves did not reject law and morality, but they were only prepared to obey legal and moral codes which had been drawn up by their own leaders and which did not expect servility or lead to de- humanisation. Amerindian influence on resistance The African slaves’ resistance to their condition was similar to, and influenced by, the response of the Amerindians to being enslaved by the Spanish. The Taino resisted, not only by refusing to co- operate and work, but also by revolting, running away or even joining up with their hated enemies, the Caribs. In the end they were prepared to accept death or assimilation rather than a life in bondage. The Amerindians of Central and South America and the Kalinago in the eastern Caribbean were able to put up far greater resistance, and Africans ran away to join them from the earliest days of slavery. The Windward Maroon communities of Jamaica, the Bush Negroes of Surinam and the Black Caribs of St Vincent (see Chapter 4) all stemmed from such mixing. Resistance through African culture The size of most plantations favoured the survival of African culture and did much to diminish the impact that the culture of the white slave-owners might have had on the life of the slaves. Resistance to slavery was found in the retention of African languages and religious beliefs, in maintaining African customs, music and dance, and in retaining skills in traditional African crafts. As time went by, the most significant informal resistance to slavery was brought about by what historians have begun to call the slaves’ ‘proto- peasantry’ activities. In every island or territory, by growing most of their own food in family groups using traditional methods, and in selling their surpluses in widespread market networks, they became an essential part of the local economy. This mocked their status as chattels or non-persons, particularly as happened in some islands where they ended up in possession of most of the coin in circulation. In this way, and by retaining their languages and religious beliefs, they presented a significant challenge to the dominance of the whites. Active resistance Major acts of active resistance were rare because of the penalties, but there were many major acts of sabotage. 1 Damaging and destroying the owner’s property by acts ranging from breaking farm machinery, to burning the mill and the ripe cane. It was difficult to detect the culprit unless he was actually observed. 2 Maiming and killing of livestock. Again, a slave could easily get away with this. 3 Petty stealing of estate property caused inconvenience and expense to the owner as well as personal gain to the slave.
- 56. 47 4 The maimingor murdering of other slaves was not so common, but it did take place. To prevent this, and to guard against even more serious offences, slaves were not allowed to carry offensive weapons, even large sticks, except under close supervision. 5 Murdering the whites on the estate. Many slaves wanted to do this but their chances of getting away with it were very remote and they could expect no mercy if even suspected of such a crime. Marronage The mass running away of slaves, called grand marronage by the French, was nearly as much of a threat to the whites as a general uprising. The word ‘maroon’ is a corruption of the French word ‘marron’, which in turn comes from the Spanish cimarrón (dweller on a mountain top). Maroons originated in Hispaniola. Very early on, slaves ran away to the mountains and forests, intermarried with Taino women and allied with the Indians against the Spaniards. From then on they were a constant problem to the Spanish authorities. A typical example was the Taino cacique, Henriques, who rebelled in 1519 and took refuge in the mountainsofHispaniola.Hedefeatedseveralparties of Spaniards sent out to capture him. Soon other Indians and runaway slaves joined him. Finally, in 1533, the Spanish authorities made a treaty with Henriques which gave him a grant of land and a guarantee of freedom. In return he promised to surrender escaped slaves. Thereafter, the Maroons in Hispaniola were strong enough to maintain their freedom. As early as 1545 their numbers had reached 7000 and outside Santo Domingo they were a considerable force to be reckoned with. The early history of the Maroons in Hispaniola is interesting because it established both the pattern of Maroon settlements in Jamaica and Surinam and the response of the authorities to them. MaroonsoverrantheSpanishislandofPuertoRico after the emigration of whites to the mainland in the 1520s and 30s. The escaped slaves intermarried with Carib women from the smaller islands to the east. Again, they became a formidable force in the island. TherewereMarooncommunitiesinalltheislands, large or small, in the early days, but not many survived until slavery ended. Those in Barbados lasted no longer than the 1650s, those in Antigua, Martinique and Guadeloupe until the 1730s, and those in St Croix until around 1770. The Maroons of Dominica were hunted down and their community destroyed in 1814. In the Bahamas one small group managed to hold out on New Providence until as late as 1823. Only the communities in Hispaniola, Cuba and Jamaica managed to outlast slavery. The Maroons in Jamaica When the British invaded in 1655 Isasi, the Spanish commander, made an alliance with the Maroons in which they agreed to help him against the British. Totallinglessthan1000,theywereledbyJuanLubolo (Juan de Bolas) and Juan de Serras from a base in the centre of the island. They attacked Spanish Town, burned houses and killed British soldiers in their quarters. Then in 1658, they stopped the British forces reaching the north coast near the Rio Nuevo, where Isasi had landed, by holding the overland route. Even after the Spanish had left Jamaica, the Maroons did not surrender and, although few in number, continued to menace the British. Juan de Serras, who led the Maroons after Lubolo’s death, is now considered the father-figure of the Maroon movement. This traditional defiance of the British continued into the eighteenth century. There was not only danger from the Maroons, but also from the slaves who were encouraged to revolt by their presence. Moreover, Jamaica’s failure to keep a regular militia encouraged defiance. Jamaica was excused the 4½ per cent export tax (see Book 1, chapter 8) but still expected Britain to make arrangements for her defence. Further friction was caused as British plantations extended into the traditional Maroon areas. It was easier for slaves to escape and for the Maroons to raid these outlying plantations. Parties of armed whites found it very difficult to operate in Maroon areas. In 1720 the king of the Moskito Indians of Central America was asked to send fifty Indians to hunt them down, but they had little success. There was peace for a few years but
- 57. 48 then raids beganagain and the Governor reported in 1726 that he could not raise men to serve against the Maroons as the Militia Act had expired. By 1730 the position was again very serious. The Maroons were bold enough to raid a plantation in March and carry off six women slaves; they defeated several successive forces sent to apprehend them. The authorities believed that the Spanish were supplying the Maroons with arms in preparation for a Spanish invasion. They did not trust the Militia which was composed of white indentured servants, including many Irish who were, themselves, suspected of encouraging revolt. Therefore, the Jamaica Assembly asked for armed assistance from Britain and two regiments were sent. Their living conditions were very poor and they suffered a high death toll from disease. The remainder were withdrawn when the authorities considered that the danger had passed. The First Maroon War There was no clear-cut beginning to the First Maroon War. In March 1732 the Militia captured the three chief Maroon settlements, but in 1733 further armed parties were defeated and the captured towns had to be abandoned. An appeal was made to the British admiral in command of Jamaican waters, who sent 200 sailors to assist the Militia. They were led into an ambush and defeated. There was clearly a war now. At last the Assembly voted the money to raise a force to tackle the Maroons. Two hundred Moskito Indians and companies of free blacks and coloureds were recruited. The Maroons were much more aggressive because of their recent successes, but gradually the superior forces of the government worethemdownbypersistentattacksandascorched earth policy, and forced them to seek peace. On 1 March 1739, Articles of Pacification were signed with the Maroon Chief, Cudjoe, and other leaders from Trelawney Town in the west. The Maroons were given freedom and the possession of all the lands lying between Trelawney Town and Cockpit Country, amounting to about 1500 acres (600 hectares (ha)), for ever. In return, they promised not to attack white planters, to give assistancetothegovernmentagainstexternalenemies or internal revolt, and to return all runaway slaves for a reward. Two white superintendents would live with them ‘to maintain a friendly correspondence’. Similar agreements were made with other Maroons at Accompong, and at Crawford Town and Nanny Town in the east. This agreement formally acknowledged the areas the Maroons had been using for years. St James in the north-west was their principal parish, but they spread into neighbouring Trelawney in Cockpit Country, especially when it was necessary to avoid the authorities, and southwards into St Elizabeth, north of the Black River. The Maroons of Crawford Town and Nanny Town, although referred to as ‘wild negroes’, did not give the authorities so much trouble as they were too cut off from the main body in the north-west. In fact, the Maroons of the east cooperated in handing over runaway slaves in 1760 and afterwards were distrusted by the slaves for this. The 1500 acres allotted to the Maroons was typical of the system of ‘reserves’ which the British employed in their colonies throughout the world. The amount of land was very small in the case of the Maroons, and took no account of population increase, thus there was bound to be trouble later. The Second Maroon War Two thousand Maroons were expected to subsist in the area designated by the land grant of 1739, and by 1795theywerefeelingrestricted.Asecondgrievance was the replacement of a white superintendent, Captain Thomas Craskell. The spark that set off the trouble could probably havebeenextinguishedpeacefullyiftheMaroonshad not already been dissatisfied with the government’s attitude. In July 1795 two young Maroons from Trelawney Town were convicted of stealing pigs from a white planter and sentenced to thirty-nine lashes. The Maroons did not object to the sentence, but to the fact that the whipping was given by the black overseer of a slave prison in front of runaway slaves whom the Maroons themselves had handed over to the authorities. The onlookers jeered and the insult to the Maroons was more than they could bear. They threatened to kill Captain Craskell and attack other whites. The government replied by mobilising the Militia and sending mounted troops to the area. They could have calmed the Maroons by replacing Craskell and compensating them for
- 58. 49 the insult sustained.However, in view of the black revolution in St Domingue, the government decided to show firmness. On 20 July a meeting between some prominent whites and Maroons was called to discuss grievances. Three hundred armed Maroons came in a belligerent mood and demanded the removal of Craskell and the redress of the indignity suffered by the two whipped men. The whites promised to lay their requests before the Governor. The Maroons then tried to incite the slaves to rebel, but luckily for the whites they had little success. Jamaica was poorly defended because most of the troops had been sent to Hispaniola and the remaining regiment was under orders to sail. There is no doubt that the Maroons knew this and were waiting for the regiment to sail from Port Royal, which it did on 29 July. They began mobilising and the slaves were restless and on the point of revolt. A boat was sent to intercept the regiment at sea and it was brought back to Montego Bay, 20 miles (32 km) from Trelawney Town, on 4 August. The whites were very relieved. The arrival of the troops quietened the slaves, but could not stop the Maroon War. Lord Balcarres, the Governor, proclaimed martial law and sent a message to Trelawney Town warning the Maroons that they were surrounded. He summoned them to meet him at Montego Bay on 12 August and to submit to His Majesty’s mercy. If they did not do so, their town would be destroyed and a price would be set on their heads. On 11 August some of the older Maroons surrendered, but the young ones decided to fight and began by burning their town themselves. On 12 August they attacked the outposts of the troops and inflicted a severe defeat on mounted troops and Militia, actually killing the colonel in command. Then they drew back into Cockpit Country and began raiding white plantations and killing all the whites they could find: men, women and children. On 12 September they ambushed another force, again inflicting heavy casualties. The government decided to send for large hunting dogs from Cuba, which arrived on 14 December. The dogs were never used, but their very presence may have had an effect on the Maroons. A new commander, Major-General George Walpole, adopted the policy of starving the Maroons out. They were forced to raid slave grounds which made them very unpopular. It is not certain whether it was the arrival of the dogs or the cutting off of supplies which made the Maroons surrender. General Walpole said that if they gave themselves up within ten days from 21 December, together with all the runaway slaves, they would not be executed or deported. Only twenty-one surrendered in time, Map 6 Jamaica and the Maroon Wars ST ELIZABETH caribbean history book 2 Map 6 same size Kingston 0 40 km 0 25 miles 20 Port Royal Spanish Town Maroon settlements Parish boundaries Cockpit Country Moore Town Nanny Town New Crawford Old Crawford Montego Bay Furrys Town Trelawney Town Accompong Town
- 59. 50 but General Walpoleextended the period to the whole of January as he considered that the original ten days was too short. The troops then moved in to take the remainder, most of whom surrendered, but some held out until mid-March. The government betrayed General Walpole’s promise to the Maroons. The legislature voted twenty-one to thirteen that those who had not actually surrendered by the end of the year 1795 should be deported. So in June 1796 a total of 556 Trelawney Town Maroons were sent to Nova Scotia. After four years there, it was decided that the climate was unsuitable and they were transferred to Sierra Leone. General Walpole was bitterly disappointed and refused to accept the sword of honour which the legislature voted him. Thereafter, the Maroons of Trelawney Town lived peacefully and remained free. Most of their young men had been deported and the rest felt that they could not hope for any improvement in their conditions. The Bush Negroes of Surinam In the Dutch colonies on the Wild Coast it was easy for escaped slaves to keep their freedom in the forests of the interior. The Dutch tried to ally with the Amerindians to outflank them and sometimes the Indians cooperated, but the Bush Negroes survived in Surinam and even, on a much smaller scale, in Berbice. They did not like being driven into the interior, but preferred to stay on the fringe of European settlements, as part of their way of life consisted of raiding the plantations. Some of the Bush Negroes were African-born slaves who had revolted and moved into the bush to resume the subsistence living they had known in Africa. They subsisted on plantains, yams and eddoes. However, others were much more revengeful. They were rebels who moved to the bush to plot the murder of the whites and to raid the plantations. They were organised under leaders in a quasi-military life, with the lowest ranks performing the menial tasks of subsistence and plundering the plantations by night. The Bush Negroes of Surinam lived in circular clearings in the forest with their dwellings in the middle and their crops surrounding them. Nearest the huts were the lowest growing crops, rising to the banana trees at the outside of the circle. This was to give them cover as well as food. A more permanent settlementwouldbesurroundedbyamoatconcealed by grass and reeds, with sharp stakes in the sides and bottom below the water level. However, their greatest protection came from the thick forest of the interior which could only be penetrated by use of the rivers. Further into the interior these rivers had rapids, and beyond them the Bush Negroes felt safe. After several expeditions into the interior had failed,theDutchmadeatreatywiththeBushNegroes granting them freedom and the right to occupy the interior, provided that they would not stir up slave revolts or raid plantations. The Bush Negroes kept the peace for thirty years, but in 1795 they were stirred up by the agents of the republican Victor Hugues, who was preaching freedom amongst the slaves of the eastern Caribbean. Taking advantage of the disruption caused by the Revolutionary Wars, they moved against the European plantations in West Demerara in April 1795. Their night raids continued until September and put considerable strain on the finances of the colony. The Dutch failed to bring them under control until they used Indian guides to help the white soldiers track them down. Finally, a large party of soldiers, slaves and Indians brought in the ringleaders for execution, but groups still remained in the forests in West Demerara and were still there when the free villages began to be created after emancipation. Slave rebellions Slave rebellions or violent uprisings of one sort or another took place throughout the time of slavery. They affected nearly all the islands and mainland territories. Because such a revolt threatened the whole of a white community, and not just the slave- owners, it was the expression of slave resistance that was most feared. It was also the one most savagely suppressed. Only one rebellion, that which took place in the French colony of St Domingue in 1791, ever turned into a successful revolution. The following list, which is far from exhaustive, gives some idea of the spread of slave revolts throughout the Caribbean region during the years of slavery.
- 60. 51 1522 Hispaniola This wasthe first slave revolt in the West Indies. The number of slaves to whites had exceeded the recommended ratio, and the Spaniards were expecting trouble. The slaves were quickly brought under control, but not before several Spaniards had been killed. 1639 Providence Island This was the first slave revolt in a British colony. The revoltmusthavebeenanactofcompletedesperation as there were no more than about 90 slaves to 500 whites on the island. 1649 Barbados This revolt could have been serious. The slave population of Barbados had been allowed to grow without check. There were serious difficulties in supplying such large numbers and slave conditions, generally, were poor. 1685 Jamaica This was a serious slave revolt in which several white settlers were killed. Some slaves, who had escaped into the mountains, defied the Militia. Martial law was proclaimed and kept in force for several months. 1687 Antigua Although this involved only one or two dozen slaves its suppression was brutal, as the slaves were hunted down on horseback and taken dead or alive. 1725 Nevis A plot for a slave rising was discovered and two slaves were executed. 1733 St John This was a very serious rising in a Danish island, where conditions were particularly bad. Forty whites were killed. English volunteers from Tortola and St Kitts failed to put down the rising. Eventually, a strong French force from Martinique succeeded and many slaves were executed. 1760 Jamaica Tacky’s Rebellion. This was the most serious revolt in Jamaican history to date. It broke out in St Mary and spread throughout the island. Tacky was formerly an Asante chief. He planned the rising carefully with some of his fellow Asante, and oaths were taken. They killed about sixty whites, mainly at the beginning of the rebellion. Then they faced the Militia bravely, encouraged by the obeahmen, their religious leaders, who gave them a powder which they said would make them immune to injury. When it did not work many slaves surrendered, but Tacky and twenty-five others took to the hills where they were hunted down by Maroons. This caused ill feeling in the future between slaves and Maroons. About 400 slaves lost their lives in the various risings in Jamaica at this time. About 600 slaves were deported to the Bay of Honduras and sold to the mahogany cutters of the Honduras Settlement, who were known as the Baymen. 1773 The Honduras Settlement Two white men were murdered on the Belize River in May 1773, beginning a revolt which was not put down for another six months. About fifty armed slaves were involved. They killed another six whites and captured five small settlements. 1770, 1771, 1774 Tobago This series of slave risings ended only after the ringleaders had been captured and executed. The temptation for the slaves to revolt stemmed from the slave to white ratio being more than twenty to one. 1763, 1772 Surinam The first of these two revolts in this Dutch colony had links with a far more serious uprising which took place in the adjoining colony of Berbice. The 1763 rebellion in Berbice The causes of the slave uprising in Berbice in 1763 are very confused because different groups had different reasons for rebelling, and even the man who became leader of the rebels, Kofi, said later that he had not wanted to rebel in the first place! Some slaves desired revenge because of their terrible treatmentandinjustice.TheBerbiceAssociation,the private company which ran the colony, economised on the imports of foodstuffs, the planters did not grow enough provisions on the estates and some slaves were underfed. The estates were often left in the hands of managers and overseers who did not give a thought for the welfare of the slaves. Kofi himself, in a letter to the Governor, gave this as a cause of the rebellion. He blamed a few evil planters
- 61. 52 and managers, includinghis owner, Barkey of the Plantation Lilienburg. However, many of the leading rebel slaves were well treated and were domestic and artisan slaves like Kofi. Their motive for rebelling seems to have been to gain permanent freedom. This group was subdivided into those who would have settled for a black reserve in the interior, like the Bush Negroes of Surinam, with a treaty guaranteeing freedom, and those who wanted to exterminate all the whites and take over the colony themselves and make an independent black state. The Governor of Berbice, van Hoogenheim, sympathised with the plight of the slaves before the rebellion. However, as soon as it started on 23 February 1763, at the Plantation Magdelenenburg on the Canje River, he lost sympathy with the slaves and was determined not to give in, even though the cause of the whites seemed hopeless and many of them wanted to evacuate the colony. He had only twelve soldiers at his disposal, so he recruited twelve sailors from a ship in the harbour and sent them to defend the Canje plantations, but to no avail, and the rebellion spread. The spread of the rebellion By March the rebellion had spread to the Berbice River, and two plantations close to Fort Nassau had been raided. Fort Nassau was the key to the colony and the extremists amongst the slaves were anxious to attack the Fort. But Kofi, whose aims were more moderate, had become the leader and the attack on Fort Nassau was put off. Kofi wanted a partition of Berbice with the whites on the coast and the blacks in the interior, on the lines of Surinam. He referred to himself as ‘Governor of the Slaves’. Plantation Peerboom, where some whites were taking refuge, was attacked by 600 slaves. Food and water were running out and they accepted a guarantee of safe conduct to the river from Cosala, the slave leader, if they would surrender the estate. In spite of his promise many whites were killed. The morale of the whites was very low and they forced van Hoogenheim to agree that the colony should be abandoned. Here Kofi made his mistake – if he had really wanted a black takeover. Van Hoogenheim, his most resolute opponent, had been overruled and was on the point of abandoning Fort Nassau which Kofi could have taken with ease. But he hesitated and allowed van Hoogenheim to outmanoeuvre him, by stalling him until reinforcements arrived. Kofi realised van Hoogenheim’s strategy too late. His hesitation may have been influenced by the behaviour of some of the slaves. After their initial successes, they were unwilling to accept the discipline and hard work which he realised was necessary for the new black colony to succeed. His position was further weakened because some of the Creole slaves were ready to surrender. The arrival of troops A British ship from Surinam landed 100 soldiers at Fort Andries and van Hoogenheim was able to attack for the first time. He left a small force at Fort Andries, sent twenty-five soldiers up the Canje to defend his position from that side, and he himself led the main party up the Berbice to Plantation Dageraad, which he had wanted previously to make thekeytohisdefence.Hefortifiedtheplantationand had ships in the river train their guns on the possible line of attack. Akara, Kofi’s second-in-command, realised that the longer the delay the stronger the whites would become, so he attacked Dageraad, but his three attacks were all beaten back. Kofi sent a letter to van Hoogenheim suggesting a partition of Berbice. Van Hoogenheim asked him to wait two months for a reply from Holland. Van Hoogenheim’s motive was to delay until more troops could arrive. He did not want a partition, but wanted to defeat the slaves once and for all. Kofi waited all through April 1763. Gravesande, the Governor of Essequibo, not wantingtheslaverevolttospreadtoDemerarawhich he was trying to open up, evacuated most of the women and children from Demerara to St Eustatius. He then planned a three-pronged relief of Berbice. HeorderedtheCommanderofDemeraratoorganise the Indians to attack the slaves in the rear from the upper reaches of the Demerara River. Secondly, he secured help from Barbados: an eighteen-gun ship, two armed brigantines, 100 marines and arms and ammunition. Thirdly, he asked for help from the Zeeland Chamber, the Berbice Association and St Eustatius. Two well-armed ships with 158 soldiers arrived from Holland.
- 62. 53 The death ofKofi At the beginning of May, Kofi realised his mistake and began an all-out attack on Dageraad. On 13 May a force of 2000 slaves attacked the 150 whites who were defending the plantation. The fighting lasted five hours and eight whites and fifty-eight slaves were killed. Kofi failed to take Dageraad. He was also troubled by the serious divisions in his own ranks between African slaves and Creoles, and especially by the challenge to his leadership from a man called Atta who was an extremist. Atta took over, forcing Kofi to commit suicide after he had killed his close followers. However, Atta was now leading a lost cause as the whites were recovering and more help was coming. In December a large force arrived by ship up the Berbice River to coincide with an attack on the slaves to the rear from Upper Demerara. Most of the slaves ran away into the forests and the rest were hunted down and killed. The rebellion had lasted for ten months. If an immediate attack had been made on Fort Nassau in March1763theslavesprobablywouldhavesucceeded in driving the whites out of the colony, although the success could only have been temporary as the Dutch would not have given up Berbice. Sooner or later a strong force would have been sent to retake it. This is evident from the determination shown by officials like van Hoogenheim and Gravesande. It is unlikely that Kofi and the slaves could have held off an attempt at re-colonisation because revolutionary spirit was waning. The Creole slaves were not enthusiastic and some remained loyal to their former masters. Other slaves had turned their attention to looting and pleasure instead of securing their position. Finally, the leaders of the slaves were divided in their aims, and power struggles amongst the leaders weakened their cause. Therefore, we can conclude that the rebellion had little hope of success inthelongterm,butwasaremarkabledemonstration of the desire of the blacks for freedom and even for their own independent country. A National Hero When Guyana became a Republic on 23 February 1970, that day was chosen because it marked the anniversary of the Berbice Slave Rebellion, and Kofi was chosen as a National Hero. Kofi had been born in Africa and brought to Guiana at an early age. In the rebellion he was realistic, not trying to achieve too much too soon, and not making demands which he knew would not be met. This showed his wisdom and statesmanship, as did his attempt to organise the blacks to lay the foundations of their country by hard work and the readiness to defend their land. His mistake lay in thinking that he could negotiate with van Hoogenheim and in allowing himself to be tricked into waiting. Kofi became a martyr in the independence struggle and an inspiration for the future. The late slave rebellions in the British West Indies Revolts became more frequent throughout the British West Indies in the nineteenth century as emancipation approached. Many slaves mistook the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 for emancipation. Others thought that their freedom had been granted by the King, but was being withheld by their owners. Risings took place mainly for these reasons in Jamaica in 1803 and 1807, and in Barbados in 1804. In addition, there were three other major slave revolts. These succeeded each other in Barbados, Demerara and Jamaica, with each one being more far-reaching, ruinous and influential than the one before. The 1816 revolt in Barbados A slave registration bill, similar to ones which had been introduced in Trinidad in 1812 and St Lucia in 1814, was passed for all the British colonies in 1815. This merely required all owners to list and register their slaves, but its reception in the West Indies was startling. The owners were infuriated by what they saw as interference in their domestic affairs, and many slaves misinterpreted this as being anger about a plan for their emancipation. This was one of the causes of the slave revolt of 1816. When the British Parliament realised this reaction they asked the Prince Regent to issue a proclamation announcing His Royal Highness’s highest displeasure at the daring insurrection which has taken place in the island of Barbados; (and declaring) in the most public manner, His Royal Highness’s concern and
- 63. 54 surprise at thefalse and mischievous opinion which appears to have prevailed in certain of the British colonies, that His Royal Highness has sent orders for the emancipation of the negroes. The whites in Barbados attributed the revolt to the Nonconformist missionaries, especially the Wesleyan Methodists, the Baptists and the London Missionary Society. They had been very strong in Barbados and had preached the ideas of freedom, equality and brotherhood, although they had always urged the slaves to refrain from violence and to wait for freedom to come from England. Some slaves wanted independence. The com- mander of the troops who put down the rebellion believed that this was its cause, and he wrote to the Governor, ‘they stoutly maintained, however, that the island belonged to them, and not to white men’. It was possible in Barbados, more than in any other colony, for the slaves to think of the island as a black man’s land. The preponderance of blacks in the community was so marked and its history so long that it seemed to many to be their island. The revolt began on 14 April when some slaves in St Philip’s parish, led by a slave named Bussa, started destroying the planters’ property. It quickly spread to the parishes of St John and St George. Sixty estate buildings were destroyed and canefields set on fire. The revolt was crushed on the second day when Colonel Edward Codd in command of the Barbados Militia and some regular British troops mobilised quickly and rounded up the rebels. Some accounts say that no whites lost their lives, others that one died. It seems, therefore, that no violence against the whites was intended and that the slaves were just trying to secure their own emancipation which they believed was legally theirs. As usual, the vengeance of the authorities was terrible. A hundred slaves including Bussa were killed by the soldiers and another 44 were executed afterwards. Bussa, about whom nothing is known but his name, and his occupation as a head driver, was made a National Hero of Barbados in 1998. The whites turned against the missionaries in Barbados, chapels were damaged and ministers threatened. The most famous, a Methodist named William Shrewsbury, was forced to leave and take refuge in St Vincent. The 1823 revolt in Demerara Demerara, along with neighbouring Berbice and Essequibo, had become a British colony in 1803. By 1823 the planters and slave-owners of Demerara, like those of Barbados, were united in opposition to what they saw as interference from the British government about ameliorating the condition of their slaves. In June news of some reforms ordered by London was interpreted by the slaves as emancipation, and when this had not been granted by August a revolt broke out. This began on Le Resouvenir and Success estates, a few miles to the east of Georgetown. The former was the site of a chapel belonging to the Reverend John Smith of the London Missionary Society. The revolt quickly spread to more than fifty estates along the same stretch of coast. Its leaders were the chief deacon in Smith’s chapel, a man named Quamina, and his son Jack. It is probable that some 30 000 slaves were involved. No violence was offered to any of the whites, but once martial law had been declared the rebels were hunteddownbyarmedtroopswithmuchbloodshed. Well over 100 slaves were killed or executed, many others were flogged or sentenced to hard labour in chains for life, and numerous slave houses were burnt down. Quamina was tracked down by Indians and dogs and shot on 20 September. Jack got off with being deported after turning King’s evidence. The Reverend John Smith was arrested and tried for complicity, under military law, in October. Three months after being found guilty and condemned to death he died from illness in prison. Although his death caused outrage in Britain it did little for the cause of emancipation. The British Parliament was appalled by the Demerara revolt which, very mistakenly, was thought to have taken place in response to measures intended to better the condition of the slaves. In this way the revolt proved detrimental to the cause of the emancipationists. The 1831 revolt in Jamaica, the ‘Western Liberation Uprising’ In Jamaica, white public opinion was opposed to amelioration in any form, but the British government was prepared to put financial pressure on the Jamaican Legislature to pass it. By the end
- 64. 55 of 1831 evenJamaica accepted that emancipation was inevitable and the Assembly concentrated on the question of compensation. There is no doubt that the slaves knew roughly what was going on, but they did not know the precise details. One slave in Montego Bay, Samuel Sharpe, could read and write, and from his master’s newspapers he learnt that emancipation was very near and that wage labour would come to Jamaica. He spread the word amongst his fellow slaves. The Christmas holiday was approaching and he told the slaves not to return to work after Christmas unless they were paid. This strike began on 27 December, as most slaves were not required to work on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The masters and the authorities realised that someone well acquainted with political developments in England and Jamaica had incited the slaves, and they blamed Sharpe. He was also a prominent member of the Baptist Church, another cause of suspicion. However, Samuel Sharpe was not responsible for the rebellion that followed. He had not planned it and was opposed to violence. The situation in the north-west of Jamaica was explosive. When a husband was forced to watch the brutal flogging of his wife, he struck the whipper. The overseer ordered the slave to be arrested, but the other slaves refused. Thus the revolt began. The first plantation to be attacked was the Kensington Estate in St James. Quickly the revolt spread to other plantations in the neighbourhood and soon the parishes of St Elizabeth and Manchester were involved. By January, 50 000 slaves were in revolt because they believed that their masters were withholding their rightful freedom. Another name for this revolt is the ‘Baptist War’ because the whites felt that the Nonconformist missionaries had encouraged the slaves. This was not true. William Knibb of the Baptist Church knew about the strike and revolt beforehand and tried to stop it. However sympathetic a white missionary was, the slaves believed that when loyalty was put to the test he would side with the whites, therefore they did not heed Knibb, nor Bleby, a Methodist missionary, who warned the slaves that the authorities would win. The slaves did not set out to kill the whites, but to destroy property. In all, only fifteen whites were killed, which was not many in such a large rebellion. Many whites evacuated the estates until the authorities had regained control. Retaliation by the authorities had begun before the end of December 1831, when a Militia company of coloureds defeated some of the rebels but then, instead of putting down the rebellion, they retreated to Montego Bay, leaving The 1823 revolt in Demerara
- 65. 56 the slaves incontrol of St James and Trelawney. On 1 January the Governor Sir Willoughby Cotton, in command of regular troops, arrived in the area. He offered a free pardon to all slaves who would surrender, except the ringleaders. Most of the slaves gave themselves up, but there was severe fighting in the wild bush country of St James and Trelawney before the revolt was finally crushed. In the fighting 400 slaves were killed, 100 others were executed, and another 100 were flogged. This was the most serious rebellion ever experienced in Jamaica, but it never had any chance of success and was confined to the north-west. The revolt did not reach Spanish Town or Kingston, where the authorities had troops stationed and ships standing by. After the revolt the British government gave £200 000 compensation to estate owners. The whites felt that this was ‘conscience money’, as the Assembly reported in 1832 that the interference of the British government in local laws, and the irresponsible expressions of British ministers and individuals in the House of Commons, were to blame for the revolt. They maintained that ‘false and wicked reports of the Anti-Slavery Society were being circulated throughout the island’. The whites turned their vengeance against the missionaries, especially the Baptists, Methodists and Moravians. William Knibb was arrested on a charge ofincitingtherebellion.Severalotherministerswere assaulted. In January 1832 some whites formed the Colonial Church Union, a so-called religious body, to prevent the dissemination of any other doctrines apart from those of the Churches of England and Scotland. In a few weeks they destroyed fourteen Baptist and Wesleyan chapels. Later in the year, the Colonial Church Union was dissolved by royal proclamation. The 1831–32 revolt in Jamaica was a very ill- advised attempt by the slaves to try to better their conditions. It failed, but at the same time it aroused the conscience of the British and further encouraged a government already determined to enforce emancipation throughout the colonies. The Jamaican Legislature was already trying to get the best terms it could for the slave-owners. The revolt was a sad event, costly in human lives, and it embittered the already bad relations between whites and blacks. Conclusion With the exception of that which took place in St Domingue in 1791, none of the many West Indian slave revolts ever turned into a revolution. This was due to a variety of reasons: 1 Slave revolts were often acts of desperation undertaken by slaves who knew that they had little chance of success. This is particularly true of many risings in Jamaica, such as that which took place in 1754 in Crawford Town. 2 Slaves took advantage of times of war, or times when the authorities had other difficulties on their hands, to revolt, but when conditions returned to normal the revolts were easily suppressed. Examples of such revolts are Tacky’s Rebellion of 1760 and the Second Maroon War of 1795. 3 Inadequate preparation on the part of the slaves was a frequent cause of failure. Many slave revolts were spontaneous, perhaps arising from an act of brutality in the fields, and can hardly be called revolts. But they often spread. The rising in St John in the Virgin Islands in 1733 was one in which the slaves achieved their immediate objectives and even enjoyed a short time of freedom before the inevitable force arrived to suppress them. 4 Frequently, revolts failed because a slave remain- ed loyal to his master, perhaps to ingratiate himself and be rewarded. The two famous examples of this are Tacky’s Rebellion in Jamaica in 1760, and the 1823 rebellion in Demerara. The former began successfully, but was sabotaged by a slave from the Esher Estate warning the authorities. The Demerara rebellion was betrayed at the outset by Joseph Packer, a house slave who informed his master who informed the Governor. House slaves were the least likely to take part in rebellion and consequently the most likely to betray the other slaves. 5 Often the ringleaders of the rebellions could not agree amongst themselves. Frequently, the split was between extremists and moderates.
- 66. 57 P A RA L L E L L I V E S SAMUEL SHARPE AND WILLIAM KNIBB Samuel Sharpe (1801–1832) and William Knibb (1803–1845) are the two men whose names are most closely associated with the so-called ‘Baptist War’ of Jamaica. Although Sharpe was born and died a slave, he was a literate man who, well before the ‘war’ began, had become a deacon of the Baptist church established at Montego Bay in 1824. Although his leadership of the rebellion is not disputed, at no time did he advocate violence, but rather tried to organise a movement of passive resistance and a refusal to work among all the slaves of the western parishes. He was the last of those hanged as a result of the rebellion, his execution taking place in what is now Samuel Sharpe Square in Montego Bay. His body was recovered from its first interment and now lies in a vault of the Burchell Memorial church, of which he was a deacon. He is now remembered as a National Hero. Samuel Sharpe William Knibb (1803–1845), an Englishman, arrived in Jamaica in 1824 as a Baptist missionary and teacher. After some time teaching and preach- ing in Kingston and Savanna-la-Mar, he moved to Falmouth in 1830 and built a chapel. Along with other Baptist missionaries, he was arrested soon after the rebellion began. His subsequent court appearance resulted in his being acquitted of any involvement, but this did not prevent his chapel from being destroyed by the Militia. He was then sent back to England by the other missionaries to defend them from the slanders of the members of the West India Interest, vowing ‘Now I’ll have slavery down. I will never rest, day or night, till I see it destroyed, root and branch.’ He returned to Jamaica after slavery had ended in 1834. His name is now forever linked with that of Sharpe, even though it seems most unlikely that they ever met or even knew of each other before the rebellion took place. William Knibb
- 67. 58 The extremists wantedthe extermination of the whites,blackstotakeoverthepropertiesandeven completeindependenceunderblackgovernment. The moderates wanted non-violence (an almost impossible hope in a slave rising) and pressure on the authorities to introduce better conditions. Moderates were out of place in slave risings. The authorities certainly would not compromise or show mercy to slaves in rebellion, and they were not interested in distinguishing motives and aims. The two rebellions in Guiana illustrate this. In 1763 Kofi only wanted the partition of Berbice, probably on the lines of Surinam where the blacks held the interior and the whites the coastal lands. Akara realised that no compromise with the whites was possible and wanted to inflict total military defeat on them. Again, in the 1823 rebellion, Quamina was a moderate who wanted non-violence. Many of the slaves of John Smith’s mission followed him, but others were more realistic and saw that there could be no half measures. This division made the rebellion lack strength and direction and it was suppressed. 6 The main reason why revolts did not succeed was simply that the authorities had superior arms and forces. Slaves had no military training and many could not use firearms even if available. Sooner or later the rebel slaves would come up against a disciplined, well-armed force which could easily put them to flight. The Haitian Revolution succeeded partly because Toussaint trained his black troops in the Spanisharmy;hissuppliesofweaponscamefrom outside and could always be renewed (at one time he received 30 000 guns from the United States) and the slaves had enough time and fought long enough to develop into seasoned troops. The struggle for freedom has been well summed up by the Barbadian historian, Hilary Beckles: Throughout the Caribbean the slaves were saying to their masters, ‘we want to be free, and will pursue that freedom by all means necessary.’ This was the essential stream of thought that ran through the region, from colony to colony, from plantation to plantation. Indeed, it was anti-slavery rather than sugar production which stamped the most prominent unifying marks upon the region. In this sense, then, black-led anti-slavery resided at the root of the Caribbean experience, and represented a critical element of the core of what was perhaps the first international political movement of the modern era – transatlantic abolitionism.
- 68. 59 SlaveryChallenged Attitudes towards slavery Pre-eighteenth-centuryattitudes Slavery has, in the past, been part of the normal order of society in most countries. In some ancient and feudal societies, it was very difficult to draw the line between ‘slave’ and ‘free’ in the lowest ranks of society. There were slaves, but there were also free peasants who were tied to the soil. In Russia, until the mid-nineteenth century, the term ‘serf’ would have seemed to an outsider to embrace both classes. Slaves could be acquired legally, either in war or as a penalty for a crime. It was considered just to enslave a man who had taken up arms against you, and a person who had committed an offence had to pay for it by loss of freedom, giving his labour in compensation. Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Turks, Africans and Europeans took slaves in this way. Even in the nineteenth century, enslavement as a punishment for a crime was considered just in some countries. But people were having doubts about the justice of the enslavement of captives. Acquisition and justification African slaves were acquired in three ways: in war; as a punishment for a crime; and by purchase. Europeans entering the West African slave trade regarded the first method as just if it really was ‘in war’, but later doubts were cast on this. However, these moral problems did not trouble Europeans until the seventeenth century. Then an English philosopher, John Locke, said that this method of acquiring slaves was justified only if the war was just. Some Catholics, before the eighteenth century, questioned whether slavery was right, but they still practised it. They argued that slavery, although wrong and contrary to the natural rights of man, Thomas Clarkson
- 69. 60 was a ‘necessaryevil’. Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain tolerated slavery because they believed that the empire could not be developed without it. To mitigate this ‘necessary evil’, the Spanish made the conversion of slaves compulsory. They also acknowledged the right of slaves to seek their freedom. Among the English before the eighteenth century, there were only rare examples of the condemnation of slavery. According to their doctrines the Puritans should have been against slavery, but Puritan congregations in Bermuda and Providence Island practised slavery. However, anti-slavery feelings were common amongst the Quakers. They were very unpopular in the West Indies because they would not bear arms in the Militia, and also because they sometimes freed their slaves and always converted them to Christianity. There was the genuine conviction that it was better for an African to be a Christian slave than a free pagan. In the case of the Catholics, this was sincere as they did attempt to convert their slaves to Christianity.Protestantsalsousedthisargument,but did nothing about making their slaves Christians. Another justification given for enslaving Africans was that the slave’s life was being saved by being brought to the West Indies. This was a very artificial argument to satisfy a guilty conscience. Racial attitudes The unpleasant racial attitude that Africans were a degraded race and so deserved their slavery was widespread in Britain and France, but not so common in Spain. Gross misconceptions of Africans as ‘cannibals all’ or ‘dirty stinking animals’, and references to ‘the baseness of their condition’, were common. Europeans with this attitude thought that they were helping the Africans they enslaved by raising them from their natural degraded condition. A completely contradictory attitude had arisen before the eighteenth century, but it was widely held only amongst intellectuals. This was the idea of the ‘noble savage’. This varied from embracing all Africansasbeingnoblebecausetheylivedinaperfect state of nature uncorrupted by any government or laws, to applying only to certain Africans who had to be carefully distinguished from the others who were not noble. Different attitudes towards slavery arose because the usual authority on all moral issues in those days – the Bible – was ambiguous on this subject, and it was used to support views for and against slavery. Those who supported slavery cited the Old Testament, and the passage about the curse on Ham and his descendants, and their ‘blackness’ giving them inferiority and making them slaves for ever. Even in the New Testament, justification for slavery was found by Bishop Bossuet, the French orator and writer, who said that the Holy Ghost, speaking through St Paul, was telling slaves to accept their status. On the other hand, the idea of Christian brotherhood made Christians condemn slavery. Du Tertre, the seventeenth-century French missionary in St Kitts, held that Christians could not be slaves. They were all children of God and, if baptised, they were the brothers of the whites. The Quakers held that if slaves were men they had immortal souls which were as capable of salvation as the souls of whites. From the Bible the planters took the doctrine of ‘obedience’ and used it to reconcile slavery with Christianity. Men owed obedience to the commandments of God; a subject owed obedience to his king; children owed obedience to their father; a slave owed obedience to his master – this was how they argued. A man could be a good Christian and a good slave if he practised ‘obedience’. Eighteenth-century attitudes Many of the old attitudes remained in the eighteenth century, but there was also a great increase in anti-slavery feeling, especially in the second half of the century in Britain and France. Even in the West Indies and North America, there were slave- owners who were prepared to admit that slavery was wrong. Nevertheless, as soon as their way of life was threatened by the anti-slavery movement, the planters closed their ranks and defended slavery. In France anti-slavery was a secular movement, not based on the revealed work of God in the Bible, butonman’sreason.ItculminatedintheDeclaration
- 70. 61 of the Rightsof Man in August 1789, when ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ was the slogan. In Britain, on the other hand, anti-slavery was founded in the evangelical movement. The evangelicals and Nonconformists believed the Gospels’ teaching that salvation came from faith and good works, and one of the good works they took up was to rid the world of the evil of slavery. The decline in the prosperity of the British sugar islands caused some people to question the economic necessity of slavery. If sugar produced by free labour from the East could compete favourably, perhaps slavery was wrong for economic as well as moral reasons. Many industrialists felt that if the slave economies changed into wage economies, the workers would have money to buy British goods. Much controversy was aroused by the attitude that blacks were slaves because they were inferior to whites. The supporters of this view held that blacks were inferior because they had achieved little in thought, word or deed. Thomas Jefferson, the President of the United States in 1801, found himself in a terrible dilemma over this. His attitude was that blacks were inferior because of their lack of achievement, but he had to speak against slavery because he thought that it was morally wrong and contravened the ‘inalienable rights of man’ as stated in the Declaration of Independence. However, he did not want the mixing of free blacks with whites in American society, nor did he want the creation of a ‘black belt’ in the South. His solution to these conflicting attitudes was to propose the return of all blacks to Africa, once freed from slavery. Othersdeniedthatblackswereinferior,andargued that they had not reached eminence in arts, sciences and ideas because they had not had the opportunity. Adam Smith, the great English economist, insisted that great qualities existed in blacks which would be realised when they were freed from the domination of their masters. Another attitude to slavery which could not be resolved, but was debated vigorously, was the view that slavery was economically unsound. The defenders of slavery and the slave trade argued that the economies of the West Indies would collapse without slaves. They showed that the initial costs of buying the slaves were high, but thereafter, because there were no wages, the costs were low. Their opponents held that the costs of slave labour were always high because mortality was high and replacement expensive. Sickness, carelessness and wilful damage also made costs high. It was not pos sibletoprovethatslavelabourwascheaperthanwage labour or that it was more productive. On balance, the attitude of most writers was that the cost of slave labour was lower, but so was productivity. The French thinkers of the eighteenth century strongly condemned slavery. Probably the strongest condemnation of all came from the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He held that man was born free and, according to natural law, could never be enslaved. Very similar views existed in Britain, but they were not based purely on reason. They were held by men like the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, who said in 1774, ‘Liberty is the right of every human creature, as soon as he breathes the vital air; and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature.’ There was also the attitude in France that although all men were equal and it could never be legal for one man to own another even as a prisoner of war, slavery was necessary for the plantation islands, which could not function unless white masters could rule black slaves. Planters and slave-traders in the late eighteenth century were on the defensive against these well reasoned attacks from philosophers, economists and evangelicals.TwoWestIndianplanters,EdwardLong and Bryan Edwards, were historians who tried to convince the outside world that the blacks deserved to be slaves. They pictured blacks as dishonest, immoral, lazy, cowardly, lustful, cruel, superstitious, in fact possessing every vice imaginable. The planters also followed the theory that ‘the best means of defence is attack’. In particular they attacked the British government. They said that if slavery was morally wrong, it was not just wrong at the end of the eighteenth century, but had always been wrong. Yet it had been approved by governments in the past, and through all changes of administrations. Secondly, they pointed to the Englishman’s right to property, which it was the duty of the government to uphold. They said that the abolition of slavery was a denial of this right.
- 71. 62 Thirdly, they attackedthe British government for the transportation of criminals to Australia; for the conditions for sailors in the British navy; for prison conditions in Britain; even for the standard of living of the workers in British industrial towns. They claimed that West Indian slaves lived in blissful conditions by comparison. They maintained that slave laws were the concern of colonial legislatures, not of the British Parliament. The planters and their supporters were helped by two events that changed people’s attitudes to slavery and turned them against abolition. These were the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. At first, the French Revolution was enthusiastic- ally received by abolitionists because it proclaimed liberty and equality, but when it turned to violence and bloodshed many changed their minds or at least withdrew their support temporarily from abolition. TheHaitianRevolutionhadanevengreaterimpact on abolition in the West Indies and the Southern United States. Chateaubriand, a famous French writer who had previously supported abolition, said in 1802 ‘Who would dare still to plead the cause of the Negroes after the crimes they have committed’. He was referring to St Domingue. Many people in Britain and France, however, regarded the Haitian Revolution as a great achievement. Arguments used to condone slavery 1 Slavery was supported by the Scriptures and was not incompatible with Christianity. 2 Blacks were unprepared for freedom and would be harmed by it. When free they would be more abused and discriminated against than when slaves. 3 Men were not born ‘free and equal’. It was nonsense to talk of ‘inalienable rights’ for slaves because they were from a degraded race. Negroid Africans were considered a different species to whites and could be treated like animals. 4 Slavery was a kind of benevolent socialism in which the blissful plantation slave was nurtured from the cradle to the grave. In a capitalist society without slavery, the blacks would be poor and downtrodden and this would lead to revolution. 5 There was a paternalism in a slave society which benefited the slave. Slave-owners valued their slaves highly and wanted to look after them well. 6 The temperament of blacks enabled them to adjust to their life of drudgery and menial work and be happy in it. 7 Sugar, cotton and certain other tropical crops had to be grown on plantations which were worked with slave labour. Slavery might be wrong, but it was necessary for the production of these crops. 8 Slavery provided the basis for a superior culture. There had to be a class of slaves to perform the menial duties so that the white, leisured class could confine itself to government and culture. 9 Slavery already existed in Africa, so Europeans were not introducing a new evil. New World slavery was better than African slavery. 10 Slavery might be wrong, but it gave the opportunity for conversion to Christianity. 11 Slavery provided a cheaper labour force than wage labour. Also, slaves were cheaper than machines, or even sometimes than animals, as a means of production. 12 Slavery was not necessarily suitable only for a plantation economy. It could be adapted to a manufacturing economy. 13 Slavery could lead to diversification in agriculture. Slaves were as capable of producing food crops as plantation crops. They were also capable of handling cattle and other animals. 14 Slaverydidnotnecessarilyleadtosoilexhaustion. It was the small size of the plantations and the limited size of the islands in the British West Indies that caused this. 15 If the slaves were freed, the whites would become a minority. 16 Successful planters could make huge profits and become the leaders of society economically, politically, socially and culturally. 17 Slavery was the means by which small planters could rise in the world and emulate the big planters. 18 Poor whites were committed to slavery and racial-superiority theories in order to preserve the little status they had. The threat of free
- 72. 63 blacks to whiteprivilege made the poor whites hate the blacks more than anyone else. Arguments used to condemn slavery 1 Slavery was contrary to reason, justice, nature, the principles of law and government, the whole doctrine of natural religion and the revealed voice of God. (This was the general argument on moral grounds which was used by Thomas Clarkson, the abolitionist.) 2 It was morally wrong for Christians to traffic in, or keep, slaves. 3 If people bore in mind the maxim ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’, they would condemn slavery. 4 Slavery was a denial of civilisation. In a slave society a minority might appear civilised, but it was impossible for them to be really so while denying civilisation to others. ‘Civilisation’ and ‘slavery’ were contradictory terms. 5 Freedom is the true, natural state of man. Only with freedom can man attain true greatness. 6 It was admitted that in free societies the poor suffered,andiffreetheblackswouldprobablybe poor, but the horrors of slavery far outweighed the horrors of poverty. 7 Slavery made the whites lazy and ignorant. William Byrd II, a wealthy Virginia planter, said ‘Blow up the pride and ruin the industry of the white people, who, seeing a rank of poor creatures below them, detest work for fear it should make them look like slaves’. 8 Slaveryledtoeconomicinstabilityandheldback technological improvements in agriculture. 9 Slavery led to monoculture which was dangerous to the economy. 10 Intensive cultivation by slaves led to soil exhaustion. 11 Slavery prevented the development of a manufacturing industry. 12 Slavery limited the size of markets and the flow of goods and circulation of money. 13 Slavery led to the exodus of white yeomanry from the community. 14 The profits of plantation owners were not reinvested in the local economy, but spent abroad. 15 The slave system was inefficient, wasteful and unproductive. There was always the problem of a high rate of mortality, wilful or careless damage, the maintenance of very young and old slaves and ever-rising replacement costs. 16 Slavery made slaves a reluctant labour force. Slaves felt that their labour was useless as all the profits went to the masters. 17 Slavery brought fear and insecurity. The danger of slave revolt and massacre was ever present. 18 Life in a slave society was unpleasant and uncomfortable for whites, surrounded by cruelty and suffering. 19 Some whites had a ‘guilty conscience’ about slavery and preferred to live in a free society. 20 Inevitably a slave society was socially restric- tive. The British anti-slavery movement The movement in Britain to end both the slave trade and slavery was a long-drawn-out affair which began around the middle of the eighteenth century. The man who is generally considered to be the father of the movement was Granville Sharp (1735– 1813), a well-connected Englishman who devoted most of his life to the cause. He was joined by other individuals and various groups, not all of whom worked together or even coordinated their efforts, except on rare occasions. The Quakers The Quakers (see page 38) acted as a pressure group in the movement for the abolition of slavery. Until 1755 Quakers could legally own slaves, but it was against the principles of many to do so. In 1755 they were forbidden to do so by the rules of their society, and they were required to use all their force to bring about abolition. Their strategy was to win over public opinion by carrying the arguments for abolition into every home in Britain through pamphlets, the Press and the pulpit every Sunday. When public opinion had been won over they would then introduce abolition into Parliament. In the second half of the eighteenth century, abolitionbecameareligiouscrusadefortheQuakers. When the ‘Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade’ was founded in 1787, eleven out
- 73. 64 of twelve ofits committee members were Quakers. The Society was later joined by members of other denominations, but the Quakers were always the leading force in the movement outside Parliament. The Clapham Sect, or ‘The Saints’ The Church of England was the Established Church in Britain and her colonies. In Britain it was associated with the landowning gentry and the Tory Party, and in the West Indies it was the Church of the planters. In both Britain and the West Indies, it kept aloof from the abolition movement. In the eighteenth century an evangelical move- ment grew up within the Church of England. The memberswantedlessemphasisonsalvationthrough the sacraments and more on salvation through good works and morality. One group in this movement was known as ‘The Clapham Sect’, or ‘The Saints’, because they worshipped at the church of the Reverend John Venn in Clapham in south London between 1792 and 1813. Among them were William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, James Ramsay, James Stephen and Zachary Macaulay, all famous names in abolition. Three of these men had considerable first-hand experience of the evils of slavery: Ramsay had been a clergyman in St Kitts for nineteen years; Stephen a lawyer in St Kitts for ten years; and Zachary Macaulay the under-manager on a Jamaican sugar estate for four years. They gave practical, supporting evidence to the other members of the sect, especially those in Parliament,whohadconsiderableinfluenceinpublic affairs. In Parliament the contribution of the Saints to abolition was great, and they complemented the Quakers who had done so much to arouse public opinion in the same cause. However, the Saints were mainly concerned with the abolition of the slave trade. Some of them did not want to interfere with slavery on the plantations and left the movement before emancipation. Indeed, some of them did not want emancipation. Industrialists The abolition movement coincided with the Indust- rial Revolution in Britain. The new industrialists were producing textiles, pottery, iron and steel goods more cheaply and in greater quantities. They were primarily interested in getting cheap raw materials, and they turned from British West Indian sugar to other sources which were cheaper. The flood of cheap manufactured goods they produced needed wider markets and, although the slave-populated islands of the West Indies did not provide a good market, the industrialists thought that after abolition they would do so. Whereas the commercial interests in Britain had strongly supported slavery in 1760, by 1800 they were becoming indifferent, and later were actively against it. Historians who want to play down the humani- tarian motive for the abolition movement in Britain emphasise the economic reasons for it. They argue thatabolitionwaspassedsothatBritishindustrialists and merchants could sell more goods and make more money, a purely self-interested motive. How- ever, the humanitarian motive was present in many industrialists. Many were members of the new Nonconformist Churches and their evangelicalism was strong. In the reformed Parliament of 1832 their representatives voted for emancipation. Humanity and economics for once went hand in hand. The campaign for the abolition of the slave trade The campaign outside Parliament The general public in Britain was indifferent to slavery, and the first task of the abolitionists was to win them over to support for abolition of the slave trade. Moreover, upper-class people had to be persuaded that slavery was not respectable. For example, even after all the propaganda against slavery, William Ewart Gladstone, later Prime Minister and renowned for his uprightness, spoke in support of slavery in his maiden speech in the House of Commons in 1832. WestIndianplantersonleaveinBritain,orretiring there, often brought slaves with them and there were a few thousand black slaves in Britain when the Law Officers of the Crown assured the planters that slavery was allowed in Britain in 1729. In 1749 the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, ruled that a runaway slave could be legally recovered in Britain. In 1765 a Barbadian slave, Joseph Strong, had been abandoned in England as being unfit to work. Granville Sharp’s brother, a doctor, helped Strong to
- 74. 65 recover, whereupon hismaster David Lisle, claimed back his ‘property’ and sold him to a Jamaican who put him on board ship for Jamaica. Granville Sharp rescued the slave and secured his release. By 1770 it was calculated that there were about 15 000 black slaves in Britain valued at around £700 000. Sharp wanted to establish that slavery was illegalinEnglandandsettheseslavesfree.Hisvictory came with the case of James Somerset, a Jamaican slave who had been ill treated and abandoned by his master. When he had recovered, his master claimed him back and Sharp took the master to court. The case was heard by Lord Mansfield, who had become Lord Chief Justice of England in 1756 and dominated the legal profession until his death in 1793. On 22 June 1772 Lord Mansfield made the decision which is commonly known as ‘Mansfield’s Judgement’, that slavery was illegal in England, in these words: The state of slavery is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconvenience may therefore follow from this decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged. THE PROVINCE OF FREEDOM Sierra Leone began in 1791 as an attempt by Granville Sharp to found a ‘Province of Freedom’ on the West African coast which could provide a home for Britain’s ‘Black Poor’. By resettling them there he hoped to create a new type of black Englishman who would then be able to help ‘civilise’ the whole of West Africa. Because of disease and quarrels with the local tribesmen the initial settlement on the south bank of the Sierra Leone River, carried out by about 400 people (of whom nearly a quarter were white), failed miserably. Another attempt with more of the ‘Black Poor’, made in 1791 after the formation of the Sierra Leone Company, was only saved from the same fate by the arrival of 1200 free blacks from Nova Scotia. They were joined in 1800 by the Maroons who had been deported from Jamaica four years earlier. The Sierra Leone Company found that it could not function profitably and in 1802 the British Parliament was asked to take over the running of the settlement. Sierra Leone became a Crown Colony on 1 January 1808. Over the next fifty years some 84 000 ‘liberated Africans’, seized from slavers by the British West Africa Squadron, were released in the colony. Not all remained there, but enough did to ensure the country’s continuing existence. Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the early nineteenth century
- 75. 66 Mansfield was rightabout inconvenience. As a result of this decision there were over 15 000 ex- slaves in England without means of support. This led Granville Sharp to start his scheme for resettling the ‘Black Poor’ as they were called in Africa, and the colony of Sierra Leone was founded in 1787. In 1778 the Scottish judges faced a similar case with a slave, Joseph Knight, and followed the decision of Lord Mansfield. These victories led Granville Sharp and the abolitionists to press for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire, but later they realised that emancipation was too big a step to expect and they settled for the abolition of the slave trade instead. This was a much more widely accepted cause and one for which public opinion was prepared. The campaign in Parliament The main task of the ‘Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade’ was to bring about the abolition of slavery. Some of its members were Members of Parliament who could introduce the abolition issue into debates in the House of Commons; the most famous of these was William Wilberforce. William Wilberforce (1759–1833) entered the House of Commons as member for Hull in 1780 at the age of twenty-one. Early in his career, he was converted to evangelical Christianity and joined the Clapham Sect. He even considered taking Holy Orders, but was persuaded to do his good works in Parliament instead. In 1787 he was approached by the philanthropist Thomas Clarkson to take up the cause of abolition, and he held Abolitionist Society meetings at his home in London. Clarkson furnished Wilberforce with evidence against the slave trade and Wilberforce canvassed other Members of Parliament to support abolition. He had many useful connections in Parliament, including friendship with William Pitt, the future Prime Minister. Wilberforce’s influence in Parliament and his speechmaking were his great contributions to abolition. He spoke so regularly on abolition that it became known as ‘the perennial resolution’. Abolition became his life’s work. The first motion against the slave trade came beforetheHouseofCommonsin1776andwaseasily THE SOCIETY FOR EFFECTING THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE This Society, which was founded in 1787, used leaflets and books as well as lectures and talks as means of communicating their aims to the public, but two visual aids were probably just as effective in the furtherance of their cause. The first was a drawing of the slave ship Brookes, made by a Royal Navy captain. It showed how 450 slaves were packed, lying down, into every availableinchofspace.Copiesofthiswerewidely circulated in France and the United States as well as in Britain. Even more potent was the Abolition Society’s seal,showingablackslaveinchainswithmotto‘Am I Not a Man and a Brother?’ Josiah Wedgewood, the wealthy potter and philanthropist, who was an early member of the Society, reproduced the design at his pottery in the form of a cameo, to coincide with the 1788 parliamentary investigation into the slave trade. He donated hundreds to the Society for distribution and they were sent all over the country in parcels of 500. Sympathisers set them on snuff boxes and bracelets, and many women mounted them on pins to stick in their hair. As Thomas Clarkson recorded, ‘thus fashion, which usually confines itself to worthless things, was seen for once in the honourable office of promoting the cause of justice, humanity and freedom.’ Seal of the Abolition Society
- 76. 67 defeated. This madeit clear to the abolitionists that much more preparation had to be done. In 1787 and 1788 a total of 100 petitions against the slave trade reached Parliament and an impartial report by the TradeCommitteeofthePrivyCouncil‘onthepresent state of the African trade’ was published, which helped the cause by providing valuable evidence for Wilberforce. Thomas Clarkson provided more evidence in a pamphlet, ‘A Summary View of the Slave Trade and the Probable Consequence of its Abolition’. On 9 May 1788 William Pitt introduced a resolution against the slave trade in the House of Commons. Charles James Fox and Edmund Burke, two other great statesmen, spoke in favour of abolition. A resolution to consider the slave trade in the next session was carried. In the meantime, a law was passed to limit the number of slaves carried according to the size of the ship. Most of the evidence against the slave trade was supplied by Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846), who could be called ‘the eyes and ears’ of Wilberforce. In 1785 he won a Latin Essay Prize at Cambridge with ‘Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?’ (Should men be given into slavery against their will?), in which he showed that there was no justification for slavery. In 1786 he published this essay in English and circulated it among influential people. From then on he devoted his life to abolition, to collecting evidence against the slave trade, and to urging people to take action against what was morally wrong. Clarkson was the one non-Quaker on the first committee of the Abolition Society, and he worked closely with the Quakers to abolish slavery. In 1788 he visited Liverpool, Bristol and Lancaster, collecting evidence, and he continued to travel extensively until 1792 when his health failed and he had to retire. On 12 May 1789 Wilberforce condemned the slave trade in a masterly three-hour speech, but the resolution was defeated. On 18 April 1791 he introduced a bill abolishing the slave trade. Again it was easily defeated. In 1792 around 500 petitions poured into Parliament and the abolitionists had partial success when the House of Commons passed a resolution, ‘ThattheslaveTradeoughttobegraduallyabolished’. In1792also,abillwaspassedinDenmarkabolishing the slave trade from 1802. This was a great boost for the abolitionists. However, the House of Lords blocked the bill for gradual abolition. In 1792 the abolitionists’ campaign suffered two checks. The first was caused by the French Revolution, followed by the Revolutionary Wars. Pitt and the government devoted all their energies to the war with France, and abolition was dropped. Wilberforce kept up his speeches in the Commons, and Pitt introduced a bill to abolish the slave trade in 1797, but support for abolition was half-hearted andproposalsforabolitionhadnochanceofsuccess. This disillusionment with reform and abolition lasted until the horrors of the French Revolution had been forgotten. The campaign also suffered at the hands of the West India Interest. William Wilberforce The West India Interest London merchants and English landowners with interests in the West Indies had always had considerableinfluenceatCourtandwiththeCouncil for Trade and Plantations. At first their interest was not concerned with slavery, but with such matters as the selection of colonial governors and colonial policy. During the first half of the eighteenth century the West India Interest became a growing force in
- 77. 68 British politics. SomeWest Indians, or Englishmen withplantationsintheWestIndies,wereMembersof Parliament. Others could control votes in the House ofCommonsthroughthesystemofpatronagewhich existed in British politics in the eighteenth century. In 1766 there were forty Members of Parliament who were either West Indian planters themselves, or were related to planters, or had concerns in the West Indies. Later in the century they could count directly on fifty votes and, with influence over other members, they made up the single most powerful interest group in British politics. The strength of the movement against slavery took them by surprise. As late as 1783, they were chiefly concerned with the resumption of trade between the West Indian colonies and the newly independent United States, and won concessions from the government to partially reopen this trade. In the same year Lord North, the ex-Prime Minister, said, ‘it would be impossible to abolish the slave trade for it was a trade which had in some measure become necessary to every nation in Europe’. When the West India Interest realised the threat presented by the abolitionists they made slavery their chief concern and managed to defer abolition until 1807. They began with a campaign of serious counter- propaganda in 1792. Its members organised their own opposition in Parliament and printed their own pamphlets for circulation. They found it difficult to attack Wilberforce, as he was such a respected figure, and concentrated their attack on people like the Reverend James Ramsay, who had just published an essay on ‘The Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the Sugar Colonies’. They spread tales, accusing Ramsay of depravity in St Kitts, and poured scorn on his part in the abolitionist campaign. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, though, they realised that the battle was lost in the House of Commons. After that they relied on the House of Lords to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. The abolition of the slave trade When the abolitionists’ parliamentary campaign began again after 1802, they were strengthened by three new members from the Clapham Sect: James Stephen, Zachary Macaulay and Henry Brougham. The first two brought their West Indian experience, and the third his cleverness and influence. Surprisingly Pitt was now almost a handicap to the movement because there were some members in his government who were against abolition. He could not adopt abolition as his policy because it would split his government and bring about his downfall. In 1804 Wilberforce introduced a bill for the abolition of the slave trade in the House of Commons. The bill was carried in the Commons, but defeated this time in the Lords. An Order- in-Council was issued in September 1805 which prohibited the slave trade in the newly occupied colonies of Trinidad, St Lucia and in what from 1831 would be British Guiana. This measure showed the supportoftheCrownforabolition.WhenPittdiedin 1806 his successor, Charles James Fox, was prepared to commit the new government to abolition. A new Abolition Act was passed by the Commons in 1806, and by the Lords in 1807, with substantial majorities in both Houses. The Act received the Royal Assent on 25 March 1807. The abolitionists had won their first great victory. Difficulties in enforcing the abolition of the slave trade The Act of 1807 declared all trading in African slaves tobe‘utterlyabolished,prohibitedanddeclaredtobe unlawful’ from 1 January 1808. Once it was in force the British West Africa Squadron was formed, and ships of the Royal Navy were sent to patrol the Gulf of Guinea in an attempt to prevent illegal trading from taking place. This had some success, but after 1811 the greater deterrent was the punishment – transportation or even death instead of merely fines – that a British slave-trader would incur. A loophole in the law of 1807 allowed slave- owners moving from one colony to take with them two ‘domestic’ slaves. In this way field slaves were moved, chiefly to Trinidad and the Guiana colonies where slaves were in short supply, and were sold there for high prices. Therefore in 1812 an Order- in-Council was issued which made it compulsory for all slave-owners in Trinidad to register their slaves by a certain date. Any blacks not registered would be declared free. This Order was ineffective. The 1807 Act only applied to British nationals and to the British Empire but, as Britain was the
- 78. 69 major slave-trader, itcaused the Atlantic slave trade to decline. Denmark was the only other European country to have abolished the slave trade. The British government could only use diplomacy and persuasion to make other countries give up the trade. In 1813 Sweden, and in 1814 Holland also, abolished the slave trade, but like Denmark these countries were only small carriers of slaves. The United States made the slave trade illegal in 1808. At the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15, all countries attending agreed to a British motion to stop the slave trade, but they did little to carry it out. France asked for a five-year interval before abolishing the trade so that she could restock her colonies! In 1818 France, and in 1820 Spain, made slave-trading illegal, but in practice they did nothing to stop their nationals continuing to trade. The British government then introduced the idea of ‘Reciprocal Search Treaties’, whereby the British navy had the right to search foreign ships, and foreign naval ships had the same right to search British ships. Reciprocal Search Treaties between THE BRITISH WEST AFRICA SQUADRON This was established to try to ensure that once the abolition act came into force in 1808 no British ships traded slaves anywhere along the African coast. To begin with it consisted of only two ships. It was increased to four in 1811, following the signing of an Anglo-PortuguesetreatywhichallowedtheSquadron to stop and search Portuguese and Brazilian vessels. By 1823 there were six ships, carrying out regular patrols of the Gulf of Guinea, but concentrating on the Bights of Benin and Biafra. About 35 000 slaves were liberated during the 1830s. The number of ships was gradually increased and the Squadron was 13 strong by 1841. These caught an average of 70 slavers a year and another 38 000 slaves had been freed by 1848. The Squadron was withdrawn in 1870, by which time a total of at least 160 000 slaves had been liberated. Ships of the British West Africa Squadron in the early nineteenth century
- 79. 70 Britain and Spainwere signed in 1817 and 1835. However, the main Spanish slave trade was to Cuba and it was almost impossible for the British navy to search even the 1800 miles (3000 km) of the coast of Cuba, let alone the rest of the Atlantic. In any case Spanish ships could evade detection by flying the flag of the United States, with which country there was no Reciprocal Search Treaty. The slave trade would not stop without the goodwill of all countries, and this could not be obtained. The only way in which it could be stopped was by an end to the demand for slaves through the abolition of slavery. Thus the slave trade continued until the abolition of slavery in the United States, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Better days for the free coloureds The economic position of the coloureds improved towards the end of the eighteenth century and in the first half of the nineteenth. This was due to their own efforts. Outside forces like abolition and emancipation campaigns also helped them, althoughtheshortageofslavesasaresultofabolition endangered their position. If their title to freedom was at all doubtful they could be taken back into slavery. Asthepriceofsugarfell,thecolouredswithmoney had no wish to go into sugar even if they had been allowed to. They owned pimento and coffee estates, and estates growing other crops which required less capital and labour than sugar. Consequently, the coloured farmers did not suffer from abolition and emancipation, unlike the white planters. Moreover, therestrictionsintheamountoflandtheycouldhold had made them turn their attention to other ways of making money such as innkeeping, shopkeeping and owning and hiring out skilled slaves. In the price rises from 1790 to 1815 due to shortages as a result of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the Plantation slaves attending a religious meeting
- 80. 71 coloureds prospered. Afterthese wars, restrictions on landowning were lifted and the coloureds were able to put their money into land that the whites were giving up, though in Jamaica the whites made this difficult by not allowing their estates to be broken up into smaller, and cheaper, parcels of land. Also, as the whites left, there were vacancies in ‘white’ jobs and the coloureds began to enter the public service and the professions. In the British islands the relaxing and ending of restrictive laws against coloureds started in Grenada in 1821, where the coloureds gained almost full citizenship. In Jamaica the coloureds sought the help of the missionaries and also fought their case through their own newspaper, The Watchman, owned by Edward Jordan, himself a coloured. Eventually, in 1830 all legal discrimination on the grounds of colour was abolished in Jamaica. In 1831 Barbados, Dominica and Tobago followed suit. In the 1830s throughout the British West Indies the coloureds moved nearer to equality with the whites when they took over property that the whites had abandoned and moved into their jobs. A JAMAICAN PATRIOT Edward Jordan (1800–1869), together with anothercolouredJamaican,foundedTheWatchman newspaper in 1829 and then used it to campaign for the abolition of slavery and the extension of civil liberties to the coloured population. In 1832 he was arrested and charged with sedition and treason. He was acquitted after a sensational trial, during which a warship was stationed in Kingston harbour, but immediately brought to trial again and found guilty on a charge of libel. He eventually won an appeal against the verdict, but not until after he had spent six months in jail. He later became a much respected public figure, being at various times Mayor of Kingston, a magistrate, Speaker of the House of Assembly and Island Secretary. Edward Jordan
- 81. 72 TheEmancipationofSlaves Amelioration The abolitionists hadthought that the ending of the slave trade would ensure that the slaves already in the West Indies would receive better treatment from their owners. This turned out not to be the case. The psychology of the planters seemed to be exactly the opposite of that postulated by the abolitionists. Many worked their slaves much harder, and looked after them less well, than ever before. In fact, some of the worst treatment of slaves took place during the last few decades before emancipation. After the slave trade had ended, many of the Clapham Sect left the abolition movement because they did not support the move towards emancipation. Those who remained were reluctant to press for it immediately, feeling that the next step ought to be amelioration. This view was supported by the West India Interest, hoping that the better treatment of slaves would persuade the abolitionists to end their demands for emancipation altogether. By 1815 the British government, too, was in favour of this policy. In the British West Indies there was a distinction between the new or Crown Colonies – Trinidad, St Lucia and the Guiana colonies – and the old colonies, sometimes called the ‘Legislative islands’ of Barbados, Jamaica and the Leewards, which were almost self-governing. The British government, by Orders-in-Council, could pass slave amelioration measures for the Crown Colonies, but only the local legislatures could pass such measures for the other islands. The Registration of Slaves The Registration of Slaves or Registry Bill, which was intended to stop excessive punishment as well as prevent the illegal sale of slaves, was passed for Trinidad in 1812 and for St Lucia in 1814. In Thomas Fowell Buxton
- 82. 73 1815 the abolitionistsbegan their new campaign against slavery. Wilberforce introduced a bill for the compulsory registration of slaves in all colonies, but it was met by protests from the colonial legislatures that the British government had no right to interfere withtheirslavelaws.Wilberforceagreedtowithdraw his bill when the Colonial Secretary promised to write a circular letter to colonial governors urging them to ameliorate their slave laws, and especially to pass registration bills. But this letter had little effect. The colonies regarded the dropping of the bill as a victory over the abolitionists. In 1823 the ‘Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery’ was formed, aimed at making amelioration part of government policy. Its members campaigned for its immediate enforcement by law, followed by abolition ‘at an early date’. In its first year the Society formed 200 branches in England which sent 750 petitions to Parliament. The most famous one was entitled, ‘An Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies’. A publication called the ‘Anti-Slavery Monthly Reporter’ also appeared in 1823. Another philanthropic Member of Parliament, Thomas Buxton (1786–1845), had taken over from William Wilberforce as the chief parliamentary spokesman for abolition. In 1823 Buxton introduced his famous resolution in the House: ‘That the state of slavery is repugnant to the principles of the British Constitution and of the Christian religion and that it ought to be gradually abolished throughout the British colonies.’ The Amelioration Bill Meanwhile, however, the West India Interest was working hard to try to stop abolition. A committee of fifteen, including ten Members of Parliament, was formed to plan their campaign. They decided to ‘take the wind out of the sails’ of the abolitionists by proposing their own amelioration measures. Of course, the success of this policy depended on the West Indian planters carrying out the measures if they were passed. The West India Interest put their own detailed amelioration proposals before the Secretary of State, Lord Bathurst, who accepted them. In the face of these seemingly reasonable proposals and good intentions, Buxton agreed to withdraw his resolution. The Foreign Secretary then put forward an amelioration bill based on the West India Committee’s proposals. The suggestions for reform sent to the colonies of Trinidad, St Lucia and Demerara were largely ignored.Forexample,GovernorMurrayofDemerara received his instructions and did not publish them. The slaves got the idea that their freedom was being withheld and they revolted in 1823 (see Chapter 5). Although the Reverend John Smith had told the slaves that the rumour about freedom was false, and urged them not to use violence, he was blamed for inciting the revolt, imprisoned for seven weeks, tried and condemned. He died of tuberculosis in prison before the news of his reprieve arrived. A circular letter was sent to the Legislative islands urging them to adopt and effect positive measures for amelioration rather than have the British government force a law on them. In detail, the measures suggested were: (a) no flogging of women; (b) a day should be allowed to elapse between the offence and the flogging; (c) records of all floggings of over three lashes should be presented to the magistrates at the quarter sessions; (d) slave families should not be divided; (e) slaves should not be sold in payment of debts; (f) adequate religious instruction should be given to slaves; (g) slaves should be allowed to give evidence in court if a minister would vouch for the slave’s character; (h) savings banks for slaves should be set up to encourage thrift and enable slaves to buy personal possessions. The failure of amelioration Although the amelioration measures were the proposals of the West India Committee, once again theLegislaturesofJamaica,Barbados,Dominicaand St Vincent ignored them. In 1826 the revised Slave Code in Jamaica forbade slaves to receive religious instruction, and also said that no church services could be held between sunrise and sunset. Slaves could be whipped or imprisoned for preaching
- 83. 74 without their owners’consent. These laws were directly contradictory to the Colonial Secretary’s request, and he protested to the Jamaican Assembly, saying ‘I cannot too distinctly impress upon you that it is the settled purpose of His Majesty’s Government to sanction no colonial law which needlessly infringes on the religious liberty of any class of His Majesty’s subjects’. The reaction of the West Indian planters, together with the ill treatment of William Shrewsbury in Barbados and John Smith in Demerara, and the harassmentofothermissionarieselsewhere,angered the abolitionists in England and turned public opinion decisively against the planters. Wilberforce called for an inquiry into the Smith case and much publicity was given to Shrewsbury, a Wesleyan minister, who was driven out of Barbados after his home and church had been destroyed. It was finally recognised in England that the planters had no intention of ameliorating their slave laws. The policy of amelioration was deemed a failure after about 1826, and in 1830 was definitely abandoned in favour of complete emancipation. Missionaries in the British West Indies It is hard to assess the contribution of the missionaries in bringing about emancipation. Their reports in the last few years before emancipation wereinfluential,andthetreatmentthattheyreceived turned public opinion against the planters. But most of the missionaries did not belong to the Established Church, to which most Members of Parliament belonged, and they had little direct influence. The Church of England was the church of the plantersanditdidverylittletohelptheslaves.Infact, it acted against them in denying them religion. Its mosteffectiveactivityinhelpingslavescamefromthe ‘Society for the Propagation of the Gospel’, founded in 1699. Christopher Codrington the Younger left this Society money in 1710 to found a college in Barbados, now known as Codrington College. Apart from this, there was little missionary activity by the Anglican Church. Nearer emancipation, when the British government insisted on religious instruction for slaves, the Anglicans concentrated on the idea that it was possible to be a good slave and a good Christian. Bowing to public pressure from Britain, the ‘Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies’ was set up in 1794, but by comparison with the Nonconformist societies it did little to help the slaves. In the Spanish islands the Roman Catholic Church was active in converting and instructing slaves. The planters had to allow Catholic slave schools and give the slaves time to attend. The Code Noir contained similar provisions for the French islands, but in practice the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church there was the same as that of the Anglican Church in the British islands. The French government demanded the conversion of slaves but, by the time of emancipation in 1848, few slaves had been converted. Prior to emancipation the West Indies were generally irreligious. There were too few ministers or priests for the population. If they were conscientious theywereoverworked,butmostofthemwereofpoor calibre and there was little respect for the clergy. In 1799 a Methodist missionary in Antigua summed up the situation thus: ‘I am in an enemy’s country; women and drink bear down all before them’. The slaves had come not to expect religious instruction, and it is far from certain that they wanted it. In most cases they continued with their own beliefs and rituals when they were denied conversion to Christianity. These un-Christian beliefs were a serious challenge to the missionaries. Nonconformist missions Eventually, the slaves found their religious guidance from the Protestant Nonconformist missions, most of which were established towards the end of the eighteenth century as the result of religious revivals in Europe. These were evangelical movements, placing emphasis on the study of the Bible, morality and good works, and giving little emphasis to the sacraments apart from baptism. The United Brethren or Moravians, founded in Germany, were the first to establish missions for slaves in the West Indies. The first was in St Thomas in 1732; followed by St Kitts in 1756 and Antigua in 1774, and by 1800 there were over 10 000 Moravian converts in the West Indies, 7000 in Antigua alone. Their missions practised self-sufficiency, so that a
- 84. 75 close Moravian communitydeveloped when they took over a plantation ‘lock, stock and barrel’. Their missionaries were expected to labour, and this presented problems in West Indian society. The Baptist mission was the most important for its work amongst slaves in the British West Indies. It was founded in Jamaica by two blacks, George Lisle and Moses Baker, in 1784. They had been brought from America, via the Bahamas, by Loyalists who left America after Independence. They built a large, brick church in Kingston and sent out preachers on horseback to reach the slaves in the fields who could notattendthemainchurch.Theirsuccesswassogreat that in 1813 they applied to the Baptist Missionary Society in Britain for help, and missionaries who were to achieve some fame, like William Knibb and Thomas Burchell, arrived in the West Indies. The Methodists began their work in Antigua in 1770 and spread through the eastern Caribbean, where they were attacked by the planters. In 1789 the Methodist Meeting House in Barbados was stoned and the slaves who attended were flogged. After a visit to Jamaica in 1789 by Dr Thomas Coke, a leading Methodist, twelve other missionaries were sent out from England. After the Napoleonic Wars had ended in 1815, missionary work in the West Indies intensified. More Baptists arrived and the other denominations also stepped up their preaching and teaching to slaves. The persecution of missionaries The chief obstacle faced by the Nonconformist missionaries, especially the Baptists and Methodists, was the hostility of the planters. Most planters were convinced that it was impossible to be a good slave andagoodChristian.Moreover,theNonconformists preachedotherdoctrines,likeChristianbrotherhood and equality before God, which the planters found unacceptable. Such doctrines were inflammatory in the planters’ opinion, and in teaching them the missionaries were inciting the slaves to rebellion. The missionaries often insisted that the slaves be taught to read and write, so that they could have private Bible readings and prayers between Sunday services. The planters were very strongly against educating slaves, and so were the authorities. They felt that education would encourage disobedience to authority, and lead to deep discontent and rebellion. The missionaries did not incite the slaves to rebellion, but they did have deep sympathy for the slaves and they did not like the existence of slavery. Unfortunately for the missionaries, their period of greatest activity amongst the slaves, 1815 to 1833, coincided with the anti-slavery movement, and the planters simply blamed the missionaries whenever there was unrest or rebellion. So the missionaries were persecuted. In fact, they advised restraint and always preached ‘non-violence’ to the slaves. They told slaves to wait patiently and their freedom would come. Unfortunately, by doing so, the missionaries often lost the confidence of the slaves who thought that they were taking the side of the planters because of their colour. The missionaries then found themselves hated by both sides. In the Jamaica rebellion of 1831, William Knibb was in a dilemma. He could not openly support emancipation as that would be encouraging slaves to break the law. He wrote to the Baptist headquarters in London for instructions, asking: ‘While you are exerting all your energies at home, ought we to sit here idle all day?’ However, in spite of his urging restraint, the planters blamed him for the rebellion and he was arrested. He was acquitted and left for England to make his report, which contributed greatly to the passing of the Emancipation Bill a year after his arrival. Other obstacles faced by the missionaries 1 The law was used to make things difficult for the missionaries. For example, the St Vincent legislature passed a law in 1793 which required a minister to reside in the island for one year before he could preach. The Consolidated Slave Act of 1808 in Jamaica forbade Methodists to instruct slaves or have them in their chapels. The 1826 Act in Jamaica forbade missionaries to take fees from slaves for religious instruction. 2 Right up to 1833, there were too few missionaries for the work they had to perform. They had to teach the slaves on the estates, which necessitated travelling long distances on horseback in the hot sun. The death toll was high. William Knibb’s
- 85. 76 brother died withinfive months of coming to Jamaica.WilliamKnibbhimselfhadtotravelover 90 miles (145 km) between the extremities of his mission, and he had to minister to congregations of 5000 at some stations. There was just too much work to do. 3 Instruction of the slaves in English presented problems. Amongst themselves, the slaves were accustomed to use a ‘patois’. The language they heard from the whites was often in the form of commands and abuse. The missionaries could not reach every slave with oral instruction, and they expected some slaves to learn to read and write so that they could instruct others. But education in reading and writing independent of religious education was not allowed, and so the slaves had no formal coaching in the English language. 4 What the missionaries perceived to be irreligion and immorality were widespread amongst the slaves. To counteract this, each denomination applied strict rules and accepted no slave as a full member of the Church before he or she had passed certain tests. To remain a member, every quarter the slave had to satisfy the Church of his or her good behaviour. A slave who showed an interest was known as an ‘inquirer’. In the Baptist Church a male would be questioned as to how many wives he had, and asked if he believed in God, and if he was sorry for his sins. Finally, if he answered some catechism questions satisfactorily, he would be baptised in a nearby river. 5 The slaves had religious beliefs and rituals of their own, which the missionaries mistook for superstitious, ungodly cults which had grown up only because they had been denied Christianity. When the missionaries tried to superimpose Christianity they were often less successful than they thought. Most slaves were happy to reshape what they received from the missionaries, accepting only those elements of Christianity which accorded with African structures of belief and provided them with some sort of solace. 6 The Sunday Market was a special obstacle missionaries had to overcome. As it was the Lord’s Day, the missionaries had to have Sunday for their services, but the slaves were reluctant to give up their beloved market. In Demerara the slaves suggested a Saturday Market so that they could keep the Lord’s Day, but the planters interpreted this as a trick on the part of the slaves to get two free days per week. 7 In Jamaica in the last year before emancipation there arose a group known as the Colonial Church Union. It was organised to resist the missionaries after the 1831–32 rising. Before this group was banned by the Governor in January 1833, fourteen Baptist and six Methodist Chapels were destroyed and many missionaries were beaten up. Conclusion In spite of all these difficulties many slaves were converted and gave thanks to God on emancipation. Once freed, they turned to the Nonconformist churches, especially the Baptists and Methodists, who had done so much for them before 1833. The Anglican Church continued as the Established Church until it was disestablished in most islands Emancipation in Barbados
- 86. 77 between 1868 and1870, but it failed to appeal to many ex-slaves. In all the islands except Barbados, where the Anglican Church was strong, the ratio of Nonconformists to Anglicans became about two to one after emancipation. The emancipation of slaves Immediate causes Amelioration had been rejected as being unwork- able, and evidence of planter brutality came not only from the West Indies but also from other colonies such as Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. In May 1830, at a public meeting in London, a resolution was adopted for the immediate emancipation of slaves in the British colonies, and an intensive campaign began in 1831. InBritain‘reform’wasintheair;emancipationwas just part of it. There was a strong movement to give more people the vote and increase parliamentary representation of the new industrial towns. These political reforms would help emancipation by increasing the parliamentary influence of the evangelicals and the new industrialists who were already changing their ideas about slave-produced sugar. Extra impetus was given by the following: 1 The publication of a pamphlet by a man named Whiteley with his observations on the treatment of slaves in Jamaica; 2 The 1831–32 slave revolt in Jamaica and its brutal suppression by the authorities, especially the treatment of Samuel Sharp and William Knibb; 3 The arrival in Britain of William Knibb and Thomas Burchell who reported that to maintain slavery would promote a racial war; 4 A crowded meeting at Exeter Hall in London which sent a deputation to the Prime Minister demanding emancipation. However, it was finally the attitude of the Jamaican planters which showed the British government that there could be no compromise with slavery. In 1831 the government offered lower duties on sugar in return for amendments to slave laws by the colonial legislatures. Then they put forward the idea of compensation to the slave-owners for freeing their slaves. This proved to be the incentive that the planters needed to accept emancipation. By 1831 even the Jamaican planters faced the fact that emancipation was inevitable. The Emancipation Act, 1833 Thomas Buxton introduced the Emancipation Bill in 1833. Wilberforce, its former champion, was approaching his death. By the time he died on 29 July 1833 he was assured that emancipation would go through, as it had already passed its second reading. The Act stated that: ‘Slavery shall be and is hereby utterly and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British colonies and possessions abroad’. However, in 1833 emancipation was not as complete as these words would suggest, because therewereclausesintheActaboutanapprenticeship system which delayed complete emancipation until 1838. The Bill originally proposed a loan of £15 000 000 to slave-owners from the British government, and an apprenticeship period of twelve years. This meant that most slaves in 1833 were likely to die in slavery. These two clauses were amended and the final Act was basically as follows: 1 Slave children under six years old were to be freed immediately. 2 Slaves over six would have to serve an apprentice- ship of six years in the case of field slaves, and four years in the case of all others. 3 Apprentices should work for not more than forty-five hours per week without pay, and any additional hours with pay. 4 Apprentices should be provided with food and clothing by the master. 5 Compensation in the form of a free gift of £20 000 000 should be paid to slave-owners throughout the British empire on condition that the local legislatures passed laws to bring emancipation. 6 The apprenticeship period could be shortened, but no alternative to apprenticeship would be allowed. On 29 August 1833 the Act received Royal Assent. Emancipation was to come into effect on 1 August 1834. Orders-in-Council enforced it on the Crown Colonies. In the other colonies, the local legislatures were expected to follow suit, and since they wanted
- 87. 78 their compensation, theyenacted emancipation laws quickly. The Jamaican planters had been very worried when they first heard that compensation was to be in the form of a loan, but after this was changed to a free gift by the persuasive efforts of the West India Committee and the amount increased, they, too, passed emancipation quickly. The legislatures of Antigua and Bermuda decided to do without apprenticeship, so there the slaves had complete freedom on 1 August 1834. The other islands accepted apprenticeship, though it seemed hard for the slaves of St Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat when their neighbours in Antigua were free. Complete freedom for all was scheduled for 1 August 1840, but in the event it was brought forward to 1 August 1838, when it was decided to end apprenticeship two years early. On 1 August 1834 around 668 000 slaves were set free, or partially free because of apprenticeship. The slaves disliked the apprenticeship system, but the majority accepted it with resignation. At midnight on 31 July 1838 complete freedom was received with great rejoicing, but with little or no excessive exuberance in the form of drunkenness or violence as the whites feared. Indeed, many of the freed slaves went to church in thanksgiving. Compensation Of the total compensation of £20 000 000 for all the British empire, the British West Indies received £16 500 000. Most of the planters who received it used it to pay off their debts. Compensation to individual planters was worked out for each island from the ratio of the quantity of exports to the number of slaves; that is, a sort of assessment of the slaves’ productivity in each island. In colonies where there were few slaves the ratio was high and compensation was equally high. For example, in Trinidad and British Guiana there were few slaves and output was relatively high. Compensation for a skilled artisan in British Guiana was as high as £230. On the other hand, in a place like Antigua, where the output was low in relation to the number of slaves, compensation for a slave of similar ability was less than half as much. The first of August, 1834
- 88. 79 The apprenticeship system Antiguawas the only British West Indian island not to have apprenticeship. Within two months, two- thirds of the ex-slaves there were working as free labourers on the plantations. This was because there was practically no unoccupied land for the freed blacks. Antigua’s experience seemed a justification for the argument that free labour was more efficient than slave labour because within ten years fewer labourers were producing nearly twice as much sugar. Also, the immediate granting of complete emancipation made for better relations between blacks and whites. The table below shows the amount of compensation paid throughout the British West Indies. A BAHAMIAN EMANCIPATION EPISODE The island of Great Exuma was first settled by a group of Loyalists in 1784 following the American War of Independence. The richest among them, Denys Rolle, obtained land at either end of the island, and divided his 150 or so slaves between the two holdings. In time, these settlements became Rolle Town and Rolleville, names they bear to this day. After Rolle died in 1791 his land and slaves passed into the hands of his son, John, an absentee landlord who probably never set foot on the island. This lack of interest on the part of John Rolle, together with the general infertility of the land which prevented the creation of plantations, combined to allow the slaves to develop a high degree of independence and to increase rapidly in number. By 1830, when they were 350-strong, they were independent enough to threaten to revolt if Rolle ever considered removing them from the island. Emancipation must have meant little to them when it arrived four years later. Their owner, who by this time had long been elevated to the peerage as Baron Rolle of Stevenstone, had no interest in the apprenticeship system, preferring instead to leave his former slaves to their own devices while he pocketed the £7200 he received in compensation. He ended all connection with the island in 1838 by deeding all his land in perpetual commonage to those who used to be his slaves, whereupon 350 men, women and children all adopted his name. As a result of this, today some 2000 Bahamians named Rolle remain entitled to claim free land on Great Exuma on which to work or build a house. Colony No. of Total Average slaves compensation compensation (£) per slave (to nearest £) Jamaica 311 070 6 149 955 20 British Guiana 82 824 4 295 989 52 Barbados 83 150 1 719 980 21 Trinidad 20 657 1 033 992 51 Grenada 23 638 616 255 26 St Vincent 22 266 550 777 27 Antigua 29 121 425 547 15 St Lucia 13 291 334 495 25 St Kitts 19 780 329 393 17 Dominica 14 175 275 547 19 Tobago 11 589 233 875 23 Nevis 8 815 151 006 17 Bahamas 10 086 128 296 13 Montserrat 6 401 103 556 16 Honduras Sett. 1 901 101 399 53 Virgin Islands 5 135 72 638 14 Bermuda 4 026 50 409 13 Reasons for apprenticeship There were many justifications given for apprentice- ship. Probably in the mind of its originator, the Colonial Under-Secretary, James Stephen, and his associates, they were sincere beliefs. However, in practice there was only one real reason – apprentice- ship was used to soften the blow of emancipation by giving the planters a few more years of free labour, while conceding to the slaves their right to freedom. The earlier proposals of an apprenticeship period of twelve years show clearly that it was designed to appease the planters and ‘trick’ the slaves into thinking that they were free. Humanitarians had accepted that apprenticeship was justified on the grounds that the ex-slaves would need time to adjust to looking after themselves, handling money and supporting their families. However, it was soon apparent that apprenticeship was not designed to do this because food and clothes were still provided by the master, and the slaves’ opportunity for earning money was very limited.
- 89. 80 It was alsoargued that the planters needed time to adjust to wage labour, and there was certainly more foundation for this argument. There were no banks in Jamaica and planters were not used to transactions in cash. However, the planters did not use the apprenticeship period to adjust to a cash economy. Apprenticeship was over before the Planters’ Bank in Jamaica, and the West India Bank in Barbados and the other islands, were established. Evenbythe1860s,theplantershadnotfullyadjusted to wage labour. Apprenticeship at work There were two drawbacks to apprenticeship: firstly, that the planters would behave as if they still had slave labour and, secondly, that the labourers would think that they were completely free and refuse to work. The planters tried to exact as much work as possible from the ex-slaves. They were unwilling to pay for labour beyond the forty-five hours’ free labour per week and tried to bring cases against labourers so that they could be forced back into conditions of slavery. The ex-slaves often played into the planters’ hands by refusing to work. Thus they were breaking the law and could be put in the workhouse or ‘House of Correction’, where they were treated as plantation slaves again. In the apprenticeship period the treadmill, a new form of punishment for the West Indies, was introduced into the workhouses. Probably the Marquess of Sligo introduced it during his governorshipofJamaica,1834–36,asahumanitarian punishment but, in practice, it was just the opposite. The ex-slaves were strapped by their wrists to a high bar with their legs working a revolving drum by continuous stepping on the steps. If they stopped, the boards would come round and hit their shins a painful blow, so they just had to keep walking. A man with a whip stood by to keep them toiling. Special magistrates The job of seeing that the apprenticeship system was not abused could not be entrusted to the justices of the peace, because they came from the planter class. New magistrates, called ‘stipendiary’ or ‘special’ magistrates, were appointed. Soon there were 150 The treadmill
- 90. 81 throughout the BritishWest Indies, including sixty in Jamaica. Usually, retired army or navy officers from Britain were appointed to ensure impartiality, but some West Indians had to be appointed to make up the numbers. For example, Richard Hill, a Jamaican of mixed race, was head of the special magistrates in Jamaica until his death in 1872. Part of their job was to answer appeals from labourers who complained of ill treatment, although sometimes it was the planters who complained that the ex-slaves would not work. This entailed visiting the estates on horseback. In one month in Jamaica fifty-six magistrates visited 3440 estates, and covered over 14 000 miles (22 500 km). With this sort of hard work it is not surprising that twenty special magistrates died in the first two years. Moreover, their salaries were low: £300 per year in 1834, rising to £450 per year later, out of which they had to pay for their own accommodation and horses. Because of their work, and the fact that most of them had previously had no contact with the West Indies, they found themselves friendless, in a hostile environment. No new laws were enacted for apprenticeship. Plantationdisciplineandpunishmentstillcontinued, and the special magistrates had no jurisdiction in the plantations. It was up to a labourer to complain about his treatment, and there must have been many cases of cruelty which never came to light. Special magistrates were unpopular with the planters because they listened to the appeals of the labourers and frequently upheld them. But they could also be unpopular with the workers for agreeing that the planter’s punishment was justified. If the ex-slave broke the law, for example, by refusing to work, he passed out of the jurisdiction of the special magistrate into the hands of the old magistrates from whom he could expect no mercy, and usually ended up on the treadmill. However, special magistrates probably favoured the labourers because they felt that they were appointed to protect them. The special magistrates were praised for their work by colonial governors, especially the Marquess of Sligo. They did a very good job under the most difficult conditions. They worked on two-year contracts and, therefore, could be dismissed if the authorities were not satisfied. Some were dismissed, but most continued in their jobs until their deaths, which shows how well the authorities were satisfied with them. Indeed, special magistrates were still at work in the West Indies long after the apprenticeship period had ended, even as late as the 1870s. The end of apprenticeship The apprenticeship system was judged a failure and brought to an early end. To the ex-slaves, apprenticeship seemed just a continuation of slavery and it was unpopular with the planters, even though it was designed to help them. They often tried to make things worse for the labourers by making them work on Friday afternoons and Saturdays, the traditional free times, or by taking away the ‘grounds’ they had worked when slaves, or by removing other privileges. In 1836 a Quaker humanitarian, Joseph Sturge, visited Jamaica and reported on the apprenticeship system. He emphasised the cruelty, especially in the workhouses,andevenaccusedthespecialmagistrates of corruption and siding with the planters against the labourers. In spite of its falsifications, his report had a very considerable influence on public opinion in Britain and on Parliament. The West Indies in 1837 by Joseph Sturge and Thomas Hardy helped to bring apprenticeship to an early end. In 1838 the British Parliament amended the Abolition of Slavery Act by forbidding the flogging of females or punishment on the treadmill, and by allowing colonial governors to supervise the treatment of apprentices in workhouses. However, they were still willing to keep apprenticeship, regarding it as an additional compensation to slave- owners for the loss of their slaves. They would not agree to an early end to the system unless the colonial legislatures wanted it. The legal question of the status of artisan slaves finally decided the matter. Those who had been domestic slaves were to receive complete freedom in 1838. Those who had been artisan slaves, who maintained the machinery on the estates and did other specialised jobs, insisted that they should be classed as domestic slaves. However, without the labour of artisans, the plantations could not keep running and so, when it was decided that artisans could not be forced to work after 1838, complete freedom had to be given to all on the plantations, and apprenticeship came to an end.
- 91. 82 Everyone was pleasedexcept those labourers who had struggled hard to save enough money to buy their manumission, only to find that freedom would have been theirs without payment if they had waited a little longer. One historian has stated that ‘apprenticeship was the only practical way in which a great social reform could be effected’. This is doubtful. It was an experiment which the French and the Spanish chose not to repeat in emancipating their slaves. The French abolitionist Victor Schoelcher condemned it both in its idea and its practice. Abolition and emancipation in the non- British Caribbean The French islands Although slavery had been abolished throughout the French empire by the French Revolution, this was only lastingly effective in St Domingue. In 1803 Napoleon re-established slavery, and when the Bourbon kings were restored in 1815 it was retained. In 1818 the French government promised to abolish the slave trade, but in practice made little effort to prevent it. The trade continued illegally, and over 100 000 new slaves were shipped to the French colonies between 1818 and 1831. The traffic did not end until after 1833 when the Anglo-French Right of Search agreement was extended and reinforced. Like the British, the French had slave revolts demonstrating the resistance to slavery, particularly in Martinique where there were serious plots and disturbances in 1822, 1824, 1831 and 1834. The French,too,decidedtoadoptapolicyofamelioration before considering emancipation. However, many of the laws passed in Paris did not become effective in the colonies due to local resistance by planters and officials. In 1832 the tax on manumission was abolished and the manumission process simplified, and a year later the registration of all slaves was made compulsory. At the same time the mutilation and branding of slaves was made illegal. However,publicopinioninFrancewasnotsatisfied with amelioration, and complete emancipation was demanded. It was influenced by Victor Schoelcher, a businessman who had observed slavery at first- hand while he was travelling in the Caribbean. After visiting the French West Indies in 1840 he was convinced that immediate emancipation was necessary. In France La Société pour l’Abolition de l’Esclavage was formed in 1834. Unlike the British abolition movement this was a rationalist and secular movement, not connected to any religious group. It achieved a minor victory in 1836 when it was decreed that any slave setting foot in France must be set free. In 1838 the Society drafted an emancipation bill, but the opposition from the West India Interest in the French Assembly was even greater than that in the British Parliament. The French West India Interest defended slavery as economically essential, as well as being socially desirable on account of what was stated to be the savagery and idleness of the slaves. Meanwhile, the situation in the Caribbean was becoming desperate, as after 1838 thousands of French slaves made their escape to the neighbouring British islands. In France the call for emancipation became even louder in the early 1840s as many industrial workers began to join the abolition movement. In 1847 a national petition from the Society called for immediate emancipation, and the following year Schoelcher was appointed the President of a Commission on Slavery. On 27 April 1848 he drew up a bill proposing the abolition of slavery throughout the French empire. This incorporated the idea of compensation, and some 126 million francs were paid to the owners of 258 000 slaves in the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the colony of Cayenne next to Surinam on the South American mainland, and the island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. This worked out at an average of just under 50 francs a slave, and less than the average paid for each slave in the British islands. Schoelcher insisted that there could be no halfway stage between slavery and freedom, like apprenticeship. All who were emancipated immediately received full freedom and full French citizenship. The Spanish islands Inthelasttwenty-fiveyearsoftheeighteenthcentury therewasaslumpintobaccoproductioninCubaand a boom in sugar. With increased sugar production, slavery grew and, at first, the Cuban planters could not obtain enough slaves due to trade restrictions.
- 92. 83 Therefore, in 1791,the Cuban slave trade was declared open and duties on slaves were reduced. Traders from any country who imported slaves into Cuba were allowed to export any commodity without duty. By 1817 the number of slaves in Cuba had risen to 224 000, over a third of the population. The authorities became worried about the ratio of slave to free. They became even more worried after 1834 when the Spanish slaves knew that blacks in the British islands were now free and the danger of slave revolts increased. AttheCongressofVienna,1815,Spainpromisedto stop the slave trade and, in 1817, signed a Reciprocal Search Treaty with Britain. However, the Spanish had no intention of enforcing these measures, which they interpreted as attempts by Britain to remove Cuban competition in the sugar trade. In 1820 the Spanish again formally agreed to stop the slave trade, but slaves continued to be imported into Cuba, at the rate of 10 000 a year. The ships which wereusedbyAnglo-SpanishCommissionCourtsset up in Havana and Sierra Leone found it impossible to patrol the Atlantic, or even the coast of Cuba effectively. Spanish traders flew the United States’ flag if they thought they were going to be searched. It has been estimated that between 1811 and 1870 a total of 606 000 slaves were imported into Cuba and Puerto Rico, although for most of this time the Spanish slave trade was officially illegal! However, in 1865, the Spanish did finally abolish the slave trade effectively. Outside pressure had always been strong, but there was a growing abolition movement in Spain. In Cuba itself, the Creole Spaniards were worried about the great numbers of slaves and wanted the slave trade, which was in the hands of Spanish-born traders, suppressed. There was increasing pressure from Britain, then nearing the height of her imperial power, to free slaves. Moreover, the Spanish slaves knew the British slaves were free and the danger of slave revolts increased. In Cuba, by 1840, the majority of slaves were legally entitled to their freedom if they could prove to the Anglo-Spanish Commission at Havana that they had been imported after 1820, but as this was difficult all but a few remained slaves. In 1843 there was a series of revolts in the Matanzas region by slaves who thought that their freedom was being withheld. They were encouraged by some VICTOR SCHOELCHER Victor Schoelcher (1804–1893) was born to a wealthyfamilyinParis.Hebeganhiscareerasan abolitionist afer a long visit he made to the USA, Mexico and Cuba in 1829–30. He wrote many critical books and articles about slavery and formed La Société pour l’Abolition de l’Esclavage in 1834. During the 1840s he spent several years gaining first-hand information on the subject in the West Indies and West Africa. In 1848 he was made an Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Marine and Colonies, with responsibility for drafting the emancipation decree under which the French slaves were freed later in the year. He went into exile after Napoleon III seized power in 1851 and did not return to France until 1870. In 1871 he was elected to the National Assembly as a deputy for Martinique, and four years later was elected to the senate for life. After his death, much of his estate was left to Martinique, where his name now adorns a library, a school and a village near Fort-de-France. There is also a Victor Schoelcher Museum in Guadeloupe. In 1949 his remains were interred in the Panthéon, the temple in Paris which honours the country’s illustrious dead. Victor Schoelcher
- 93. 84 mulattoes. The brutalsuppression of these revolts, including the execution of mulattoes, made more people in Cuba want to end slavery. The fortunes of abolition in Cuba and Puerto Rico were linked to the independence movement. Many Creole Spaniards wanted independence, but while there was the danger of slave revolts they were dependent on Spain for protection. Cuban and Puerto Rican slave-owners clung to Spain and were despisedforthisbytheliberalsinSpain.Manyfeared emancipation because they thought it would lead to black republics like Haiti when independence came. Others feared that, without slavery, there would be a decline in the sugar industry, as in Jamaica. The extreme pro-slavery group in Cuba even considered annexation by the United States if Spain could not protect them from slave revolts or was going to bring emancipation. The British were urging emancipation in the Spanish empire for humanitarian and economic reasons. Slave-produced sugar from the Spanish islands was underselling the sugar produced in the British islands. Britain also wanted emancipation to keep Cuba out of the hands of the United States. If slaves were freed, there would be no more looking to the United States for protection. The United States had offered to buy Cuba in 1848. The British Prime Minister, Palmerston, thought that emancipation was essential to stop this happening. The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 brought emancipationtoslavesthroughouttheUnitedStates, andendedanythoughtamongstCubanslave-owners of annexation. In 1868 the monarchy in Spain was overthrown and the country became a republic, with a new government which included a number of anti-slavery sympathisers. This encouraged those struggling for independence in Cuba and Puerto Rico to include emancipation in their goals. In 1870 the Spanish government passed a law that freed all slaves over sixty years old, together with all those born after September 1868. Three years later all the slaves in Puerto Rico were set free, and 35 million pesetas were paid to their former owners. Similar action was not taken in Cuba because of the independence struggle known as the Ten Years’ War which had broken out in 1868. Within two years of the end of this war the Spanish government passed a measure for the gradual emancipation of the island’s 200 000 slaves. No compensation to the owners was offered in view of the cost of the war. This process was abandoned six years later, with all remaining slaves being set free on 7 October 1886. AN ILLEGAL CROSSING OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE Details of the sort of profit which could be made from one transit of the Middle Passage after 1807 are to be found in a book published in 1854, called Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Twenty Years of an African Slaver They concern a round voyage made from Havana to a port in what is now the Republic of Guinea, which involved the shipping of 220 slaves, of whom three died on passage. The figures are in US dollars. EXPENSES OUT Buying and fitting out a 90-ton schooner 6200 Provisions for crew and slaves 1115 Cargo (to be exchanged for slaves) 10900 Advance on wages 1340 Hush money 200 19755 Commission on this at 5% 987 Total Expenses OUT 20742 EXPENSES BACK Head money on slaves (for officers of ship) 3492 Wages for officers and crew 2938 Total Expenses BACK 6430 EXPENSES IN HAVANA Bribes to Government officers 1736 Factor’s commission 5565 Consignee’s commission 3873 Clothing for 217 slaves at $2 each 434 Extra expenses of all kinds 1200 Total Expenses in HAVANA 12808 TOTAL OF ALL EXPENSES 39980 RETURNS Vessel sold at auction 3950 Proceeds of 217 slaves 77469 Total Returns 81419 Total Expenses 39980 NET PROFIT ON VOYAGE $ 41439
- 94. 85 The Dutch colonies TheDutch retained slavery in Surinam and their island colonies of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, St Martin, St Eustatius and Saba until 1 July 1863. Compensation of over 16 million florins was paid to the owners, but at vastly different rates between those in Surinam and those in the islands. The abolition law ordered state supervision of the slaves emancipated on the mainland, in order to ensure that labour remained available for the Surinam sugar ST BARTHÉLEMY Gustavia, St Barthélemy This tiny island about 25 miles (40 km) north of St Kitts was transferred to the ownership of Sweden by France in 1785. The reason this took place was because Sweden wanted to establish it as a free port, in order to take advantage of the increased trade flowing through the Caribbean as a result of the end of the American War of Independence. In exchange, the French were given trading rights at Goteburg at the entrance to the Baltic Sea. At the time, the island was inhabited by less than 1000 people, of whom 280 were slaves. The main town was renamed Gustavia after King Gustav III, and it operated as a free port very successfully until the end of the Napoleonic War period. Thereafter, the economy declined rapidly, as did the population which had reached 5000 by 1815. The proportion of slaves was always small, and in 1847 when Sweden finally abolished slavery there were only 520 to be set free. By 1870 the island with its 2400 inhabitants had become a useless financial liability to Sweden. After unsuccessful attempts had been made to sell it to the USA and Italy, an agreement wasreachedwithFrancetoholdareferendumwhich would allow the inhabitants to decide whether they wished the island to remain Swedish or be returned to French control. When this took place only 352 people were eligible or bothered to vote, and only one of these remained loyal to the Swedish flag. St Barthélemy became a French possession again in 1878, and is now a commune of the département d’outremer of Guadeloupe.
- 95. 86 estates. Their ownersreceived an average of 700 florins for domestic workers, 500 florins for sugar workers, and 325 florins for those who laboured on coffee or cocoa plantations. These figures bore little relation to the value placed on slaves in the islands, where compensation ranged from 50 to 500 florins. The Swedish and Danish islands The small number of slaves on the tiny island of St Barthélemy, which had been a Swedish possession since 1785, were set free in 1846. The slaves in the Danish Virgin Islands had to wait a little longer. Following the emancipation of the slaves in the British islands in 1834, the Danish Governor, Peter von Scholten, had proposed that the slaves of St Thomas, St Croix and St John be allowed to buy their freedom over a six-year period, during which they would be given an ever-increasing amount of time each year to earn the money needed. This was rejected by both the planters and the Danish government. A second proposal, to give the slaves one full day off work every week and to let them earn money which could be used to buy their freedom, was made in 1840, but was rejected by the planters. This intransigence on the part of the slave-owners was frowned upon in Denmark, where responsible opinion was in favour of emancipation, and in 1847 a royal decree was issued. This provided for all children born to slaves after 28 July of that year to be set free, and for all other slaves to be emancipated after a twelve-year apprenticeship period. This proved to be totally unacceptable to the slaves on the largest island, St Croix. On 2 July 1848 a general uprising took place, led by two slaves, one known as ‘General’ Buddoe and the other named Martin King. Following a general refusal to work, Buddoe and King led a large number of slaves in a march on the town of Frederiksted, where a few houses were plundered and demolished. The following day, in order to avoid bloodshed and any further destruction, Governor van Scholten on his own authorityissuedadecreeofimmediateemancipation for all slaves. Unfortunately, the decree also stated that as free men and women they would be allowed to retain their houses and provision grounds for only three months. This had the effect of causing the disturbances to escalate, and rioting continued until a large contingent of Spanish troops arrived from Puerto Rico on 8 July. Van Scholten returned to Denmark and persuaded the King to endorse his decree on 22 September. Buddoe was then deported, while Martin King and other leaders of the uprising were imprisoned. In 1849 harsh labour contracts were imposed on all the ex-slaves who wanted to keep their houses and provision grounds. Four years later generous compensation was paid to those who had been slave-owners. Conclusion There is no longer any agreement among historians on why slavery in the West Indies ended when it did during the nineteenth century. It used to be thought that the abolition movement in Britain began as a magnanimous gesture of goodwill, but this is a view which has long since lost its validity. It is impossible to believe that humanitarian arguments by themselves could have persuaded Parliament to give away some £20 million pounds in order to set free the slaves. Very strong and compelling economic factors must also have been involved, but these are not easily recognised. Some historians argue that slavery and the slave trade generated the capital base needed to bring about the Industrial Revolution in Britain, which then rendered slavery no longer necessary. Others disagree entirely, or argue that emancipation was brought about by varying mixtures of humanitarian and economic factors at work both in Britain and the Caribbean. Whatever the reason or reasons slavery ended when it did, it is no longer possible for any historian to write about emancipation, as Eric Williams argued British historians had done in the past, ‘almost as if Britain had introduced Negro slaverysolelyforthesatisfactionofabolishingit.’Itis, however, generally agreed that a compelling mixture of economic, humanitarian and social factors all contributed to the end of slavery throughout the West Indies.
- 96. 87 Post-Emancipation Adjustments The immediate post-emancipationperiod Before emancipation, all of the British West Indian colonies were alike in having economies based on slave labour. After emancipation, because of differences in such things as size, geography, population density and land use, each began to develop along separate lines. The distinctiveness of each island, island group or territory, which increased as time went by, produced varying degrees of parochialism and pride, and led eventually to the present array of separate, independent states. Some care is needed in stressing this separate development. To an outsider it must have appeared after 1838 that all the colonies were facing the same problems, finding much the same solutions, and developing along similar lines. For the first decade or so after emancipation the majority of the colonies were still sugar producers with very little diversification of crops. The differences between some, Barbados and Antigua for example, would hardly have been discernible to a visitor. Nevertheless, differences in economic development and social structure did begin to appear in this period. These became magnified over the years and are now apparent in the great dissimilarities which exist today between, say, Antigua and St Kitts, or Barbados and St Vincent. The most important influence on separate development was geography. Basically, the larger islands, because they had more land available, had greater labour problems than the smaller ones. There was also the interaction between geography and other important factors, like the size of the free labouring population, the attitudes of planters and their workers and the policies of the island governments. A free village
- 97. 88 Let us comparethe problems of Trinidad and Jamaica. Trinidad was large in area with a very small labouring population, so it faced a grave labour problem, but the government was prepared to meet this with a policy of large-scale immigration. Jamaica was also large in area, but had a very large labouring population which shunned plantation work. The Jamaican government was not prepared to meet its labour problem with immigration on the Trinidad scale. The territories that solved their labour problems with large-scale immigration had vastly different social and cultural development from the other colonies. Even amongst the indigenous labouring populations the patterns for social development were set in this period, for example, the village cooperativeness and town versus country rivalry which are features of West Indian life. The new labouring class in 1838 In the British West Indies the choices facing the labourers were: (a) wage labour on the plantation; (b) small-scale farming for subsistence; (c) a combination of wage labour and subsistence farming; (d) small-scale trading (‘huckstering’, or ‘higgling’ in Jamaica); (e) wage labour as artisans, e.g. in carpentry; (f) wage labour on the wharf or roads; (g) growing cash crops like coconuts, coffee, arrowroot, etc; (h) fishing for subsistence; (i) drifting into towns in the hope of work; (j) emigration. They wanted to turn their backs on plantation labour, but in a small, densely populated island like Antigua which had complete freedom without apprenticeship in 1834, there was little alternative but to accept wage labour on the plantations. Within two months of emancipation, two-thirds of the ex- slaves in Antigua were back on the plantations. Even in Jamaica, where the hatred of plantation labour was strongest, some found they had no alternative. Pure subsistence living was possible in places like British Guiana and Trinidad. Amerindian crops, like cassava, maize, sweet potato, pineapple and paw-paw, were ideal for subsistence living. Added to these was the banana, which had become a very important subsistence crop. There were also the ‘new’ crops which had been introduced to feed the slaves in the second half of the eighteenth century, notably ackee which came from West Africa in 1778, breadfruit which was brought by Captain Bligh of the famous Bounty in 1793, and mango which came to the French West Indies in 1782, and was ‘captured’ by the British. Subsistence was possible on a diet of these crops, but the labourers also required protein in the form of fresh meat or salt-fish and salt-meat. Money was necessary to obtain these and thus the pure subsistence lifestyle was modified, and a combination of subsistence with some cash income was adopted. The cash was obtained either from sale of produce, or by hiring out one’s labour. In British Guiana and Trinidad labourers made up gangs for task work, going round the plantations contracting for work when it was most in demand. Some began growing cash crops, for example, coffee in Dominica and arrowroot in St Vincent. The increase in cash incomes meant that there were new markets to be supplied, and increased imports after emancipation provide evidence of this. Therefore, many labourers set themselves up as small traders, buying at low prices and selling at a profit. They served as the distributors between the ports and the new communities. Many had acquired skills when they were slaves and decided to exploit their skills, becoming carpenters, mechanics and general handymen. There was a drift to the towns like St John’s in Antigua and Port of Spain in Trinidad, lured by the prospect of employment. Some labourers, but not as many as contemporary writers suggested, turned to crime. The apparent rise in crime is correctly explained by the fact that criminals were no longer dealt with on the plantations but in the public courts. A more stable family life was possible after emancipation. Members of a family often pooled their labour resources and shared the proceeds, thus achieving self-sufficiency and independence from the plantations.
- 98. 89 The attitude ofthe labourers Thefirstthoughtoftheex-plantationslaves,nowfree labourers, was to turn their backs on plantation life completely. At the same time they had to recognise that care of those members of their families who could not work, the young, old or incurably sick, was no longer the responsibility of anyone but themselves. If they were to avoid having to continue to work on the plantation, land of their own for subsistence farming was a necessity. The desire for education, although not so strong or pressing as that for land, was also present. Many parents were aware of its importance, but few were in a position to be able to forgo the wages that children of school age could earn. The few schools, teaching no more than the very basics of reading, writing and numeracy, which had been established by the Nonconformist Churches before emancipation, provided all the educational facilities that were available. The percentage of the children who could attend regularly was very small. The attitude of the planters Almost universally the planters feared that they would be faced with no labour force, or be ruined by having to pay excessively high wages. Many gave up their plantations before 1838. Those who remained urged their legislatures to adopt measures to ensure a cheap, adequate labour force. The planters knew that the workforce hated plantation labour and would try at all costs to avoid it. Only a few planters were enlightened enough to try to make life and work on the plantations attractive and rewarding enough for free labour, and they faced very high labour costs. Most planters saw the availability of land as the greatest danger to their labour supply. One Jamaican planter said, ‘If the lands in the interior get into the possession of the Negro, goodbye to lowland cultivation and to any cultivation.’ But their pleas to the government met with little success and the blacks managed to get land in some way; the planters just made it more difficult. In some islands like Antigua, Barbados and St Kitts, there was almost no land available, so the question of stopping the labourers acquiring land was irrelevant. Nevertheless, in Barbados the planter HUCKSTERING The presence of the female street vendors known as hucksters or higglers had probably become a recognised feature of West Indian town life before the end of the seventeenth century. In traditional African societies women had always made a major contribution to food production, andinWestAfricaparticularlytheyhadachieved a high degree of economic independence from menthroughthedevelopmentoftheirmarketing activities. Female slaves brought these skills with them to the Caribbean, where they not only often formed the majority of the field workers, but always predominated in the activities of the Sunday markets. In such a market, most individuals were content to merely sell their own produce. But there would always be others, inevitably urban slaves with more free time, ready to sell the crop surplus of other slaves, or to trade in other products. Restrictions on what could be bought and sold, and more importantly on when and where trading could take place, ended with emancipation in 1834. From then on for many women, both town and country dwellers, the life of an itinerant vendor – a huckster – became a very acceptable alternative to that of a plantation worker. Market traders
- 99. 90 government considered destroyingall provision grounds, so that the workers would be entirely dependent on their wages. In the larger colonies such as British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad, the planters also tried to stop the labourers acquiring land. They tried, unsuccessfully, to get the British government to ban the sale of Crown Land to blacks. They tried to preventsquattingonCrownLandandimposedheavy fines for doing so. For example, in British Guiana, squatting was punishable by three months hard labour. They imposed heavy taxes on land and would not allow the breaking up of large estates into small parcels. All territories insisted on cash sales only. Nevertheless, blacks did acquire land. In Jamaica, by 1860, nearly 40 per cent of the cultivable land was in the hands of blacks. In St Vincent, by 1857, some 1200 acres (485 ha) were owned by blacks. Even in Barbados where there was almost no available land, 3500 blacks had managed to buy estate land by 1859. They succeeded because: (a) the British government was willing, here and there, to make Crown Land available; (b) there were always some planters who would sell their land to blacks; (c) squatting became an accepted, if illegal, method of acquiring land; (d) cooperation amongst blacks enabled them to pool their resources and buy whole estates if small parcels were not available; (e) the missions bought land if individuals or groups could not afford to; (f) land speculators bought large amounts of land, broke them up and sold them in small parcels. Theplantersthentriedtokeeptheblackslabouring on the plantations by making life impossible if they did otherwise. The measures taken in Jamaica were typical of those throughout the British West Indies. 1 The planters gave the labourers notice to quit the plantations, but they could stay on if they worked. The Jamaican Assembly passed the Ejection Act to evict labourers from their homes at a week’s notice, and the Trespass Act, by which a labourer could be imprisoned for reappearing on his home estate. 2 Labourers were allowed to remain on the estate, but they lost their grounds and had to pay rent for their cottages. If they did not work on the estate the rent was very high. 3 Some planters paid high wages at first to keep their plantation labour, but later many found that they just could not afford to do this. A wage bill that was about two-thirds of the plantation’s running costs was the maximum. Having neither stopped the local labourers acquiring land nor found other means of keeping them as a reliable, permanent labour force, some planters turned to immigrant labour as the solution to their problems. In Antigua, Barbados and St Kitts it was almost impossible for the labourers to acquire land, so they had to work for wages on the plantations. Usually, they were allowed to keep their ‘grounds’, but due to the high density of population these were small, not more than about 300 square feet (28 square metres) – not enough for subsistence independent of wages. In British Guiana and Trinidad, where it was relatively easy for the workers to find land, either by buying Crown Land or by squatting on it, there was a desperate labour problem. Consequently, British Guiana and Trinidad adopted the policy of large- scale foreign immigration. Jamaica was a separate case. There was land available, but not so much Crown Land as in British Guiana and Trinidad, and it was not fertile. Planters were very reluctant to sell land to their workers. Therefore, there was a very large population wanting land, but good land was scarce and all land was hard to obtain. Nevertheless, the labour problem was serious because hatred of plantation labour was strongest in Jamaica, and many workers were prepared to make do with poor land well away from the estates. They were encouraged to do this by the missionaries. The Jamaican government did not turn to large-scale, non-white immigration to the same extent as Trinidad and British Guiana and, therefore, Jamaica’s labour problem persisted throughout the nineteenth century. The effect on sugar production The small islands overcame their labour problems quicklyandtheirsugarindustriessurvived.Thelarge territories suffered enormous labour problems in the short run, and their sugar industries threatened
- 100. 91 to collapse. Thefollowing table shows how some of the small islands actually increased their sugar production in the decade after emancipation, 1838 to 1848, while the large territories suffered drastic declines. The two extremes cases illustrate the point very well. In Barbados, where they had no trouble keeping the labour on the estates, sugar production increased nearly two and a half times. In Jamaica, where there was an acute labour shortage, sugar production dropped to a third of its former level. Trinidad, where there was plenty of land available, actually increased production slightly, because high wages kept labour on the estates and even attracted labour from neighbouring islands. EMIGRATION FROM THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN Peasants at work in the late nineteenth century The much higher level of wages offered after emancipation by plantation owners in British Guiana and Trinidad because of an acute shortage of workers proved an irresistible attraction to many of the ex-slaves in the islands of the Eastern Caribbean.Evenbeforetheendoftheapprenticeship period, over 5000 people from the Leeward and Windward Islands had gone to British Guiana, and another 1000 to Trinidad. By 1838, both of the larger colonies had recruiting agents travelling around the smaller islands, and in 1842 there were at least four ships plying between these islands and Trinidad with workers. The scale of this migration began to tail off in the middle of the decade and had ended by 1849. By then it is thought some 10 000 people from the Eastern Caribbean were living in Trinidad and another 8000 in British Guiana. These figures include at least 3000 who left from the small islands of St Kitts and Nevis, and another 4000 who went mostly to British Guiana from Barbados. Approx yearly average in tons Colony Pre-emancipation Post-emancipation Antigua 10 000 13 000 Barbados 16 000 39 000 St Kitts 6 000 5 000 British Guiana 45 000 25 000 Jamaica 90 000 30 000 Trinidad 6 000 7 000
- 101. 92 Wages and fringebenefits The factors of supply and demand set the level of wages in most of the colonies, but sometimes other forces were influential. In the small islands, the plentiful supply of labour made wages low and fringe benefits small. In the large territories, the supply of labour was scarce and wages were high with generous fringe benefits. In the British West Indies, a plantation labourer was expected to work nine hours per day, five days per week. This consisted of working from sunrise to sunset with an hour’s break about 9 am and a two-hour break at midday. The table on p. 93 shows the range of wages that were paid. Thus the average money wage in the small islands was under 1s per day, and in the large territories it was 2s. On the whole, the planters set the wages too low at first and found that they had to increase them. Before emancipation, planters had to provide food, clothing and shelter. After emancipation, there was no obligation for the employer to provide these, but the labourers still expected them and their labour often depended on them. Thus cottage and grounds were usually provided throughout the British West Indies, but whether rent was charged depended on the island. In Antigua, if a labourer took a rent-free cottage, he was under contract to labour for a year according to law. If he wanted a shorter contract and a rent-free cottage, he had to sign a written contract. Antigua also offered free medical attention. In Barbados a rent-free cottage and grounds were provided, but the grounds were small. If more land was wanted, rent had to be paid. In St Kitts usually no cottage was provided and even if it was, the labourer was liable to sudden eviction. Poor labour conditions account for the decline in sugar production in St Kitts, even though there was little alternative to plantation labour. Peasant’s cottage
- 102. 93 In the largerterritories the fringe benefits had to be much greater to attract and keep labour. In Jamaica it was the usual practice to charge rent for the cottage if high wages were paid, although it was rent-free if wages were 1s per day. However, grounds were large enough for the labourer to be able to supplement his wage with the sale of some produce. In Trinidad, wages were the highest in the British West Indies and also the fringe benefits were the most generous. In addition to cottage and grounds, fish, flour and free medical attention were provided. Contracts were hated by the labourers as they reminded them of slavery, but they were sometimes accepted as security against eviction. Of course, the planters wanted contracts to guarantee a reliable, permanent labour force. It was partly the resistance to contracts that made planters turn to immigrant labour which could be contracted. British Guiana: for example, in 1839, six freed slaves raised £1400 as a deposit on Plantation Northbrook. They soon paid off the remaining £700 and thus owned a going concern. Later, a much larger group from adjacent estates, about 150 blacks in all, bought the Orange Nassau Plantation for over £10 000. The cooperative spirit which had formerly existed amongst slaves was strengthened by these business ventures in which they pooled not only their money, but also their labour. 2 By the system of métayage, or share-cropping, by which the labourer worked in the fields and in the mill and took a share of the profits. This system was found in St Lucia and Tobago, but was more common in the French islands. The share-croppers’ usual share was between half and two-thirds of the profits, and the planter accepted this because wages made up about two- thirds of the running costs. 3 By growing cane on grounds, or small parcels of land, or on the disused parts of the plantation. In many islands the labourers were allowed to do this in their own time. After growing the cane, they took it to the mill where it was made into sugar at the planter’s expense. Again, two-thirds of the profit was the usual reward. This system was especially common in Barbados where the labourers rented extra land on which to grow their own cane. Thismadelittlecontributiontothetotalsugaroutput in any territory except British Guiana. There, by 1848, one in four blacks was a landowner. Métayage had little success in the British West Indies. It was still felt that sugar had to be produced on large, undivided estates under individual ownership, with each estate having its own mill. The ‘free village’ movement During and after the apprenticeship period cooperative communities of ex-slaves were founded, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes at the instigation of the missionaries. Some writers have said that this movement laid the foundation for an ‘independent peasantry’ and a class of ‘yeoman farmers’ which became the backbone of agriculture in the British West Indies. This is more true of Sugar cultivation by independent blacks After emancipation, the labourers were encouraged to grow sugar-cane in most territories, because most governments were worried about the decline in sugar production. There were three ways in which blacks produced sugar. 1 By buying a sugar plantation and continuing its production. Some labourers had managed to save their earnings under apprenticeship, and they bought estates by pooling their money in a cooperative venture. This happened chiefly in Territory Wages per day Antigua 1s (1834) rising to 1s 6d (1839) (Planter/labourer relations were better than elsewhere) Small Barbados 9d (1838) rising to 10d (to combat threat of emigration to Trinidad) St Kitts 6d (1838) rising to 9d (1839) British 2s (seven-and-a-half-hour Guiana day) Large Jamaica 1s rising quickly to 1s 6d (7½ d was actually offered at first) Trinidad 2s to 2s 6d
- 103. 94 Jamaica at thistime than of the small islands of the eastern Caribbean. The free village movement, properly speaking, was confined to Jamaica, British Guiana and, to a lesser extent, Trinidad. Free villages had existed in the West Indies before emancipation, for example, the isolated Maroon settlements in Jamaica and Bush Negro settlements in British Guiana were ‘free villages’. Usually, pre- emancipation settlements were illegal, but after emancipation they were legal, provided the land was properly purchased. Free villages were not always isolated. Frequently, they were on the fringes of the plantations, so that work was available for the villagers if they wanted it. Sometimes they were on the outskirts of towns, like those around Port of Spain in Trinidad. Only a few were completely self-sufficient communities like those in the interior of Jamaica or Dominica where the desire to move as far from the estates as possible was strong. Free villages in Jamaica Maroon settlements were the models for the free villages in Jamaica, which were usually sited away from the estates. Even before emancipation William Knibb of the Baptist Mission had urged apprentices to leave the estates and set up free villages. He wanted them to own their own plots of land as part of a movement to found an independent black peasantry. In Jamaica land was available for purchase, but it was usually inferior Crown Land or the unused land on the fringes of the estates. If the labourers could not raise enough money for better land, Knibb advised them to settle on Crown Land. In Jamaica, many free villages were financed and directed by the Baptist Mission, bringing it, once again, into disfavour with the planters. The first free village was Sligoville, built north of Spanish Town on land bought by the Reverend James Phillippo, a Baptist minister, in 1835. When emancipation came, 100 families were sent to settle in ‘the first town to arise in the ruins of slavery’. Then in 1838 William Knibb obtained £1000 from the parent Church in England to buy land near the north coast on which to build Sturge Town, ‘our little Birmingham’ as he called it. Seventy families settled around a church and a school – a real English-style village. Other Baptist missionaries sent more families to this village and it soon grew to 3000 inhabitants. The free village movement, under the influence of Knibb, Phillippo, Burchell and other Baptist ministers, grew fast. Knibb estimated that there were nearly 8000 cottages in 200 villages by 1840. By 1845 there were 19 000 people in such villages, and according to one report, there were 50 000 black cottage-holders in 1859. By that time about 40 per cent of the cultivable land in Jamaica was held by blacks in smallholdings of between a third of an acre and 40 acres. The free village movement in Jamaica was successful in establishing an independent yeoman class. A typical family in a Jamaican village would be growing starchy crops for subsistence, keeping a few goats, chickens and perhaps a pig, cultivating some cash crops and drawing water for irrigation in the dry season from the communal tank which became a feature of the village scene. Humanitarians and missionaries, as well as governors, were remembered in the names of these villages: for example, Wilberforce, Clarkson, Buxton, Sturge and Sligo. Biblical names were also chosen, such as Bethesda and Bethany. According to Knibb, by 1845, most of these free villages were sited in Trelawney in the north-west, but there were also others in parishes further to the east. Free villages in other colonies In British Guiana, the usual term for free villages was ‘Negro Colonies’; there was plenty of fertile land, and the blacks themselves took the initiative, pooled their resources and set up communities on the estates they bought. Frequently, the labourers from as many as fifteen neighbouring estates combined in this way. Sometimes they did not buy unused estates, but settled up the rivers as the Bush Negroes had done, but there was not the same desire to move away from the estates as in Jamaica. Some free villages grew out of squatters’ settlement on Crown Land, though this was really illegal. By 1848 there were almost 10 000 cottage-holders independent of white-owned plantations in British Guiana. Even with an average family of four, this meant that half the former slave population was living on its own land.
- 104. 95 In Trinidad thefree village movement was not so strong, but in the Montserrat Ward in the centre of the island there were ‘Negro Colonies’ similar to those of British Guiana. Around Port of Spain there were also settlements of freed slaves. Of course, the free village movement was not possible to any great extent in the small, densely populated islands of the eastern Caribbean, especially in St Kitts and Barbados. However, in the mountainous islands like Dominica and St Lucia, freed slave settlements in the interior did occur, but the cottages were often scattered and not grouped so that they could be termed ‘villages’. Territory Land available Plantation Wages and Sugar Free Crown Land Unused labour fringe benefits production villages estate land Antigua Practically none Readily 1s Cottage, 25% Some available grounds, free increase around medical service, St John’s schools Barbados Practically none Readily 10d Cottage, More than available grounds doubled Dominica Much inferior Unreliable 9d to 1s Same Settlements land Cash crops, in interior fishing, cottage, grounds Grenada Available for Irregular 9d Sale of 50% Scattered purchase in Emigration produce to decrease small- small parcels to Trinidad Trinidad holdings Nevis Much Hard to Profit-sharing Very small Scattered available obtain decrease cottages St Kitts None Unreliable 9d Tenuous Very small Very few available hold on cottage. increase Allowed to grow food on estate St Lucia Inferior land Available, 1s 6d 25% Small, bush available irregular Some métayage, increase settlements cottage, grounds St Vincent Available in Unreliable 9d Sale of 25% Plantation small parcels Emigration produce, cottage, decrease cottages to Trinidad grounds abandoned, scattered cottages British Much fertile Much for Very 2s Legal limit 40% Many large Guiana and infertile purchase scarce of 7½ hours decrease ‘Negro Colonies’ Jamaica Inferior Hard to Scarce and 1s 6d Rent for Decreased Up to 200 land only obtain unreliable cottage by 3 times free villages Trinidad Much fertile Very 2s to 2s 6d 20% Settlements land scarce Cottage, grounds, increase around fish, flour and Port of Spain medical services Post-emancipation problems in some of the British sugar-producing colonies
- 105. 96 The labour situationafter emancipation Emancipation ended the days of the permanent, unpaid labour force on the plantations. After emancipation many of the labourers were not prepared to go back to the plantations, however good the conditions, unless there was absolutely no alternative. But those who re-engaged as plantation labour proved that they would work hard for wages. In Barbados, the output per worker increased dramatically after emancipation. However, except when the island was small with no available land, the planter could not rely on a permanent labour force made up of ex-slaves. Even in Barbados there was the possibility of labourers migrating to Trinidad. Long-term contracts of a year or more could have secured a labour force to satisfy the plan- ters. However, both the labourers and the British government were fiercely opposed to contracts. Only in a few islands were they permitted, and only in one, Antigua, could they be for as long as a year. Among both planters and labourers there were psychological forces at work. Some planters found it hard to accept the idea of a free, black, wage-earning labour force because they had been used to blacks as slaves, while others believed that blacks would not work without the constraint of slavery. Some blacks, on the other hand, would never work voluntarily for an old slave master. Thus planters in most colonies, especially British Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica where the labour problems were desperate, looked elsewhere for labour. They turned to contracted immigrant labour to supply them with a plentiful source of cheap labour. After experimenting with many schemes, labour from India seemed the solution to their needs. Once again Jamaica was a special case. The Jamaican government was worried about the black/ white ratio in the island which was about fifteen to one after emancipation. Other colonies were also worried about their black/white ratios, but they did not let this stop them following large-scale, non- white immigration policies.
- 106. 97 ImmigrantLabour Official reaction toimmigration Whereas the planters were very enthusiastic about immigrant labour schemes, the governments, both imperial and colonial, were hesitant. West Indian blacks had already migrated from colony to colony in search of higher wages and land, much to the distress of the small island planters, so the prospect of obtaining labourers from other parts of the world was very appealing. The British government was in a dilemma because it had to support the sugar economies of its West Indian colonies and maintain sugar imports into Britain. The West India Interest, still active in London, urged acceptance of immigrant labour. But the government was also under pressure from the Anti-Slavery Society which regarded immigration as another form of slavery. Moreover, it did not want to be accused of hypocrisy by foreign governments in allowing a new slave trade while persuading other countries to stop theirs. So in 1838 James Stephen, a Colonial Office official, humanitarian and drafter of the 1833 Emancipation Act, was appointed to draw up conditions for immigrant labour schemes which would make it clear that no new slave trade was being established. Island governments were under even greater pressurefromtheplanterstoparticipateinimmigrant labour schemes. In principle they supported them, but did not want to finance the schemes out of public funds. Of course, the planters hoped that their governments would pay for the importing of immigrants and argued that they would be repaid by greatly increased revenue from sugar exports. In the end the island governments partially gave way and agreed to pay one-third of the cost, provided that the planters paid two-thirds. East Indians at work in Trinidad
- 107. 98 Immigration schemes There werea number of different, often overlapping, immigration schemes. For example, in the 1840s Africans, Madeirans and Indians were all entering British Guiana under different schemes. Individual governments had absolute control over their own immigration policies. European labour European labour was imported chiefly by Jamaica in order to increase its white population, while at the same time providing plantation labour. It was a hopeless experiment. Between 1834 and 1838, thousands of Scots and Irish and a few hundred Germans came to Jamaica. Most of them soon died, as they lacked immunity to tropical diseases. Others refused to work when they saw what they were expected to do and understood that it was regarded as the work of blacks. They either sought other employment or asked to be repatriated. Yet the Jamaican government tried again in 1841 and imported more whites from Britain. Some also went to St Kitts and Antigua. Again, after most of themdiedoraskedforrepatriation,thegovernments were finally convinced that plantation labour from northern Europe was a hopeless prospect. Madeirans and Maltese Madeira is a Portuguese island in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco. The labourers there were paid only three to four pence per day and were attracted by prospects of higher wages in the West Indies. Private importations of Madeirans began in 1835, but were suspended in 1839 while the British government examined the conduct and the morality of the schemes. In 1841 Madeiran immigration was reopened on an official basis again and large numbers went to British Guiana until 1848 when the scheme was suspended again. It was resumed in 1850, but never again on such a large scale. The whole period of Madeiran immigration into the British West Indies lasted from 1835 to 1882. In this period 36 000 came: 30 000 to British Guiana, 2000 to Antigua, nearly 1000 to Trinidad and only 100 to Jamaica. The rest were dispersed among Grenada, St Vincent, St Kitts and Nevis. It was an unsatisfactory scheme as it was irregular, the death rate of the new arrivals was high, and most of the Madeirans, especially in British Guiana, went into trading as soon as possible. In the years before 1840 a few hundred people from the Mediterranean island of Malta entered the British West Indies, chiefly British Guiana and Grenada. The Maltese did not like the conditions and asked to be repatriated. Malta could never have provided enough immigrants to solve the labour problem on West Indian sugar estates. Free African immigration In 1841 the importation of Africans from Sierra Leone, the Kru Coast (just south-east of Sierra Leone) and the Atlantic island of St Helena, and Africans rescued from slave ships, began. Most of those imported were freed slaves or descendants of MADEIRA Madeira is the largest of an archipelago of four islands (only two of which are inhabited) about 350 miles (560 km) off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It was known to the Romans but rediscovered by the Portuguese in the fourteenth century. It was claimed by Portugal in 1419 and sugar-cane was planted when the first settlement was established about twenty years later. By the end of the fifteenth century it was probably the world’s largest sugar producer, and remained so until Brazil took over around 1570. Columbus had some association with the island. He called there in 1478 to buy sugar, and it was also the birthplace of his wife. Sugar productionwassucceededbythatofMadeira,the fortified wine which was extremely popular in the past, particularly in the eighteenth century. The demand for the wine fell dramatically in the next century, and by the 1840s the island faced famine, brought about by a combination of overcrowding, soil exhaustion, land erosion, and a ruined economy. The prospect of being able to earn four or five times as much for a day’s work in British Guiana or on a West Indian island then led to the massive emigration which took place. By the time this ended in the 1880s the island’s population had been reduced by a third.
- 108. 99 freed slaves, mostnotably of the Jamaican Maroons deported in 1796. The scheme lasted from 1841 to about 1862. It was very popular at first, but declined after 1850 for two reasons. Firstly, private ships were chartered at the beginning to carry the emigrants from Africa, and this made the Africans think that it was slavery all over again. Secondly, the agents in West Africa undoubtedly lured the Africans with false promises of money and land. As soon as the news of the true conditions in the West Indies leaked back, it was hard to attract more Africans. In all, about 36 000 free Africans came to the West Indies under this scheme: 14 000 to British Guiana, 10 000 to Jamaica, 8000 to Trinidad, and the rest to Grenada, St Vincent, St Lucia and St Kitts. Chinese immigration Chinese immigration schemes lasted for a long period, but very large numbers did not come to the British West Indies. Far more went to Cuba. Early in the century there were two abortive schemes to obtain Chinese labour. In 1806, with the threat of abolition, Trinidad attempted to import some Chinese. Very few arrived and they either refused to work or were found entirely unsuitable for the labour required. Then in 1844 British Guiana tried to attract Chinese who had previously emigrated to Malacca, Singapore and Penang. However, these Chinese were happy where they were and were unwilling to come to the West Indies. Large-scale Chinese immigration began in 1852 from the Portuguese colony of Maçao. The immigrants were convicts or prisoners of war and there were no women amongst them, which had unhappy consequences for the scheme in British Guiana. Therefore, in 1859 a ‘family’ immigration scheme was started. In 1860 British Guiana sent an agent to Canton to recruit Chinese families from the rural areas of Fukien and Kwangtung. In 1864 Trinidad joined the scheme and shared the cost of the agency. This scheme was more successful, but the agents undoubtedly practised some deception in recruiting because they did not tell the Chinese the nature of the work they were going to, and they made false promises about repatriation. The Chinese recruits were small farmers and market gardeners, not plantation labourers. There were many problems as a result of Chinese immigration. 1 The Chinese government was opposed to it as it hurt Chinese pride, but having suffered a succession of defeats by the European powers since 1839, they were forced to accept it. 2 The immigrants would have settled more happily if Chinese women had been allowed to immigrate. The shortage of women caused jealousy and resentment between the Chinese and the black populations. 3 Chinese immigration was more expensive than other schemes because of the distance from China to the West Indies. It cost £25 to import a Chinese from Canton, but only £15 for an Indian from Calcutta. 4 China was not a British colony and the British government could only try to persuade the Chinese government to allow emigration. The Chinese, even when they allowed it, enforced all sorts of restrictions and conditions, such as the use of only certain ports for embarkation. 5 When the Chinese immigrants found that they had been misled about the kind of work, they frequently refused to work. As soon as they could they tried to obtain land of their own, or they asked to be repatriated, a very expensive business. Thus the Chinese proved to be unsatisfactory and unreliable as a permanent labour force on sugar plantations. It is hard to assess the total numbers of Chinese immigrants into the British West Indies, but a round figure of 20 000 in the period 1852 to 1893 is suggested. About 12 000 entered British Guiana up to 1879. Jamaica took nearly 5000 up to 1893. Trinidad imported just over 2500 between 1852 and 1872. Indian immigration In 1837 John Gladstone, father of the British Prime Minister W. E. Gladstone and the owner of two plantations in British Guiana, applied to the Secretary of State for the Colonies for permission to import Indian labourers. In 1838, with the arrival of 396 Indians, the great flood of Indian immigration had begun. It was immediately proclaimed a success in British Guiana, but investigations by
- 109. 100 the Anti-Slavery Societyrevealed that many of the immigrantshaddiedquickly.Somehadbeenflogged and wrongly imprisoned, while others had not been paid what they had been promised. Therefore, in July 1838, the Indian government suspended emigration to the West Indies while a Commission of Enquiry made a thorough investigation into conditions in British Guiana. Immigration resumed officially in 1844, and it lasted until 1917. In the 1840s the planters’ demand for Indian immigrant labour was very strong, especially in British Guiana where the government was spending £50 000 per year on immigration, mostly Indian. The British Guiana government was nearly bankrupt in 1848 because of this. However, a loan of £200 000 from the British government was puttowardsimmigration,andtheschemecontinued. Trinidad and Jamaica were also importing Indians on a large scale, but the Jamaican government was unwilling to finance the scheme to the same extent as British Guiana and Trinidad. Consequently, Jamaica took far fewer immigrants than the other two. Up to 1848 the Indian immigrants, known as ‘East Indians’todifferentiatethemfromtheAmerindians, were drawn from the poor on the streets of the cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. These cities always remained the ports of embarkation. After 1848 they were drawn from the provinces of Agra, Oudh and Bihar which always suffered terribly in the frequent famines. Many of these emigrants were peasant farmers. India was a British possession and Britain felt a keen responsibility for her part in the scheme. In 1848, after giving loans to the governments of British Guiana, Trinidad and Jamaica, she wanted much stricter supervision over immigration. Britain was also allowing Indian immigrants to go to non- British colonies, the French, Dutch and Danish possessions in the West Indies. In these territories it was not possible to oversee the treatment of the immigrants and it was decided in 1876 to stop the transportation of Indians into all non- British colonies except Surinam, Guadeloupe and Martinique. In 1886 Guadeloupe and Martinique were also banned, and only Surinam continued importing Indians until 1917. By 1917, around 416 000 Indian immigrants had entered the British West Indies. British Guiana Chinese immigrants
- 110. 101 received 239 000,Trinidad 144 000 and Jamaica 37 000. Another 10 000 went to the islands of the eastern Caribbean, St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent and St Kitts. Although the scheme appears to have been successful, in many ways it did not live up to expectations. From the moral point of view it had many failings: the indentured servant system deprived human beings of freedom for long periods of their lives; there was great mortality and suffering among the immigrants; grave social problems were caused in West Indian territories. Many people of Indian descent in the West Indies today, however, would not look back on the scheme as a failure. They now form half the population of Guyana and well over one-third of the population of Trinidad. The contracts Some of these conditions apply to all immigration schemes, but chiefly they concern Indian schemes. At first black West Indian labourers moved from one island to another without contracts. When planters started paying the cost of the passage they insisted on contracts. However, as these contracts were signed on arrival, there was little a planter could do if the terms were refused. This frequently happened in British Guiana and Trinidad, where the workers had come for land. For most of the 1840s, the British government would only permit contracts signed on arrival in the colony. When the immigrants were confronted with the hard conditions of plantation labour, they sometimes refused to sign. In 1848 the British government gave way to planters and permitted contracts to be signed at the port of embarkation. This was better from the planters’ point of view, but worse for the immigrants who had no protection against false promises. The conditions of the contracts varied according to the scheme and the colony involved. With Indian immigrants, the British government would allow contracts of only one year. In 1848 this was extended to three years and in 1863 the planters got what they had been pressing for from the beginning – five- year contracts signed at the port of embarkation. The contracts stipulated the number of days to be worked, the number of working hours in a day, the daily wages and conditions about return passages. For example, a labour contract in British Guiana would run for five years from the day of arrival in the colony. Work was required on every day of the ANOTHER VERSION OF THE MIDDLE PASSAGE The conditions under which Indians were transported to the Caribbean were by no means as dreadful as those endured by slaves during the Middle Passage, but they were still bad enough to produce a great deal of suffering. Before boarding the ship the immigrants were held for up to three weeks in a depot, where they were medically inspected in order to reject anyone with a disease or obvious malformity, and given additional clothing. The clothes served to keep them warm while on passage in the colder latitudes around South Africa and consisted, for men, of shoes, a red woollen hat, a pair of woollen trousers and a woollen jacket which was often a cast-off soldier’s scarlet tunic. Each woman received a sari together with two flannel jackets, a woollen petticoat, shoes and worsted stockings. On board the ship, single men, single women, and married couples were all berthed separately. The voyage under sail lasted for anything up to 190 days, and for around 60 days after the introduction of steamships in the late 1880s. It was very rare for a voyage to be completed without loss of life. The average mortality rate on board was about 4 per cent until the 1850s, when it went as high as 17 per cent. On one ship in 1856 no fewer than 120 of the 385 immigrants on board died before it reached British Guiana. The mortality rate declined again in the 1860s and was under 2 per cent by 1880. The indignities suffered on passage did not end once the surviving immigrants had landed and been set to work. Their warm clothing was of little further use, and nothing more suitable for wear in the tropics was issued. As a result, those who had left India with nothing more than they stood up in (and the majority were extremely poor) were obliged to work in makeshift outfits made from gunny bags, or in any old material or cast- off clothes they could scrounge.
- 111. 102 year except Sundaysand public holidays, and days spent in prison had to be made up at the end of the contract. A field labourer on a plantation had to work seven hours per day, and a factory labourer, ten hours. The wages were 1s per day (later 1s 6d) for a man over sixteen, provided that he was healthy, and 8d per day for a woman or boy under sixteen. For the first three months after arrival, food would be supplied to the immigrant and 4d per day could be deducted from his wages for this. The labourers were to be housed in ‘barracks’ rent-free, and would receive free medicine and hospitalisation. (Note that contracts did not specify that work would be on sugar plantations.) The clause about free return passages was the most controversial. The planters and colonial governments did not want repatriation terms, which were insisted on by the governments of the countries of origin and by the British government. At first, immigrants were promised free return passages on completion of their contract. In 1854 they could claim repatriation only after living for ten years in one colony. This was to encourage ‘reindenture’. In 1869 British Guiana had 30 000 Indians eligible for repatriation and, if they had all claimed it, the government would not have been able to pay. The government adopted the alternative of offering free land instead of return passages. In 1870 Trinidad adopted a similar measure. The government offered 5-acre (2 ha) lots of Crown Land to immigrants on the expiry of their contract. In 1895 the British Guiana government modified the clause about return passages to require the immigrant to pay a quarter of the cost himself. In 1898 this was raised to a half. The British Guiana Labour Laws of 1864 greatly favoured the planter at the expense of the immig- rant. A breach of the labour laws was regarded as a criminal offence and the immigrant could not, therefore, give evidence in his own defence when charged under them. For minor offences such as the failure to answer one’s name at the muster roll in the morning, harsh fines of up to £5 could be imposed. Other minor offences were punishable by up to three months in prison. If a planter broke his side of the contract, such as the failure to pay full wages, the immigrant had no recourse to the court, but could only go to the Petty Debts Department. Organisation of Asian immigration schemes Neither the Indian nor the Chinese government supported emigration or gave help in recruiting. With more government supervision in the Indian Immigrants landing at Guadeloupe
- 112. 103 scheme after 1848,and in the Chinese scheme after 1859, recruiting agents responsible for contracts were appointed by colonial governments in the ports of embarkation. Sub-agents, paid by the West Indian governments, were employed in the districts, and recruiters, paid according to the number recruited, worked in the fields. They were known as ‘coolie- catchers’ and were unpopular figures in the Indian village scene. Sometimes they were beaten up. They lured away the young and healthy, often with false promises, and they were particularly resented when they tried to attract women emigrants. The emigrants were usually transported to the ports where they were kept in ‘depots’. In Maçao, a Portuguese colony in China, the term ‘barracoon’ was used as in the days of the Portuguese slave trade in West Africa. The emigrants were medically examined before being embarked on the ships, although many cases of disease went undetected. The ships left India between October and February, in the days of sail, to catch the favourable monsoons blowing off the land mass of Asia. They sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, calling at Cape Town or St Helena for water, fruit and vegetables. The whole voyage from India to the West Indies took between eleven and eighteen weeks by sailing ship, and the voyage from China considerably longer. In the early days of the scheme, many did not survive the voyage. Improved conditions resulted from closer government supervision after 1848. Good ventilation, adequate food and medical attention, and warm clothing for southerly latitudes were required. Two-thirds of the costs of the scheme were paid by the planters and the remaining third by the island government concerned. The actual handing over of the money to shipping agents and recruiting agents was done by the government, but the planters paid the wages of the immigrants and the costs of the medical services. The planters’ share consisted of the costs of recruiting, the passage costs, wages and medical services. The government’s share was the cost of the Immigration Department and return passages. The money for this was raised by a fee levied on the planter for each immigrant, and through export duties on all crops. Between1838and1917,WestIndiangovernments spentatotalof£20000000onimmigrationschemes, an average of a quarter of a million pounds per year. By far the greatest share of this was paid by British Guiana. ‘The New Slavery’ By definition, immigrant labour was not slavery because it was entered into voluntarily. The contract gave rights to the immigrant who was paid for his labour. There was a fixed limit to the period of indenture, and when it was over, the immigrant was free. However, Joseph Beaumont, at one time Chief Justice of British Guiana, published a pamphlet in England in 1871 entitled ‘The New Slavery’, because he saw that, in practice, immigrant labour schemes were slavery under a different name. Although the emigrant from India entered into the contract voluntarily, he was often deceived about the conditions he was agreeing to. In the West Indian colonies, conditions similar to those in the days of slavery existed. Workers were denied the natural freedoms of human beings outside their hours of labour. They were confined to their estates. Free Indians found it advisable to carry ‘Certificates of Exemption from Labour’ which allowed them free movement. In British Guiana, indentured labourers could be fined if found off their estates. Some colonies had strict vagrancy laws with harsh penalties. If a worker was absent from his estate for seven consecutive days he could be charged with desertion. Immigrant labourers were certainly deprived of women. The root of the problem lay in India, where women were not emancipated because of the religious and social systems. The proportion of Indian women imported was only 3 per 100 men before the mid-1840s, rising to 18 per 100 in 1845, 32 per 100 by 1870, and a legal minimum of 40 per 100 men thereafter. Up to 1870, immigrants had been denied the chance to lead normal family lives, and the problem of finding women in a strange country had caused many problems. In cases where Indian immigrants were married, their wives were sometimes taken away to be the mistresses of the plantation bosses as in the days of slavery. Immigrants were also subject to arbitrary treatment by their employers. This sometimes
- 113. 104 involved flogging andimprisonment for trivial matters, and the immigrant dared not complain. To a certain extent this was checked by closer government supervision after 1848. Then the planters resorted to the tactic of ‘summonses’. In two years, 1906 to 1907, nearly 40 per cent of the immigrant labourers in British Guiana received summonses for breach of the labour laws. Pressure from the Indian government ended this abuse and the proportion fell to 13 per cent in 1915, and the maximum fine for breach of the labour laws fell from £5 to 10s. Planters hoped for ‘reindenture’; that is, after the five-year contract had expired the labourer would sign on for another five years. Various inducements were tried to persuade the immigrant to extend his bond, but after five years in ‘quasi-slavery’ most wanted their freedom. At first the prospect of freedom in a West Indian colony was not appealing and, before 1848, most immigrants asked for repatriation. As governments enforced better conditions, the proportion asking for repatriation fell. After 1884 the proportion asking to be repatriated from British Guiana was one in four, but by then the immigrant had a definite promise of land at the end of his contract, and there were more Indian women in the colony. The trend was roughly the same in Trinidad. One of the most powerful condemnations of the scheme for Indian immigration in British Guiana came from William Des Voeux, an ex- stipendiary magistrate. When he was in St Lucia as Administrator, he heard of trouble amongst the Indian workers on the Plantation Leonora in his old district of West Demerara in 1869. He wrote the famous ‘Des Voeux’ letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. His theme was that the whole ‘establishment’ – governors, agents-general, sub- agents, magistrates, medical officers, and, of course, the planters – were against the immigrant. The officials who should have helped the immigrants were under the influence of the plantocracy, just as in the days of slavery when everything was against the slave. The system depended on the officials in charge. They could check the abuses, and there were cases of colonial officials who did their utmost to secure fairness for the immigrants. Sir John Peter Grant in Jamaica and Sir Arthur Gordon in Trinidad worked on behalf of the immigrants during their governorships. In British Guiana there was a trio of officials, Joseph Beaumont, William Des Voeux and James Crosby, the Agent-General, who during the 1860s fought for the rights of the immigrants in spite of the obstacles placed in their way by the Governor, Sir Francis Hincks. In general, however, there was a lack of goodwill on the part of the planters and authorities towards immigrants. Immigration to non-British colonies The French, Spanish and Dutch colonies began schemes of immigrant labour before their emancipation acts had been passed. This was because the abolition of the slave trade had made it harder to obtain African slaves. Even Cuba, which was supplied with slaves by American traders after Territory Europeans Madeirans Africans Chinese Indians (1834–1841) (1835–1882) (1841–1862) (1852–1893) (1838–1917) British Guiana 30 000 14 000 12 000 238 000 Jamaica 5 000 100 10 000 5 000 37 000 Trinidad 2 000 8 000 3 000 143 900 Grenada 800 1 500 3 200 St Vincent 500 1 000 2 500 St Lucia 500 500 4 300 St Kitts 200 200 500 300 Antigua 2 000 British Honduras 200 Totals 5 200 36 100 35 500 20 000 429 400 Summary chart of immigrant labour brought to the British West Indies between 1834 and 1917
- 114. 105 50 $1 0'(00% )01 */%0/4*/4 50463*/. 4 V N B U S B .BÉBP NPZ ' V L J F O , V B O H 5VOH DBSJCCFBOIJTUPSZCPPL 'JH TBNFTJ[F LN NJMFT 3PVUFGSPN'BSBTUUP$BQFPG(PPE)PQF 3VSBMBSFBTPGFNJHSBUJPO #PNCBZ 5P 5P .BESBT1PSUPGFNCBSLBUJPO 1POEJDIFSSZ 'SFODI 0VEI #JIBS $BMDVUUB $IBOEFSOBHPSF 'SFODI G U F S GUFS $BOUPO HSB Map 7 The principal sources of Asian immigrants
- 115. 106 the Spanish hadpromised to abolish the slave trade, turned to immigrant labour to expand her sugar industry. As new markets opened to them with the passing of the Sugar Equalisation Act in 1846 (see Chapter 10), every territory wanted to expand production. Non-British colonies, apart from Cuba, had their own sources of immigrant labour in the East. The Dutch colonies had the Dutch East Indies, and the French had Chandernagore and Pondicherry, small enclaves in British India which they had been allowed to keep by the Peace of Paris, 1756. Although Cuba had no source in the East, she did have the Spanish Canary Islands. Nevertheless, the French and the Dutch came to rely heavily on British India as the source of labour for their sugar colonies. Cuba relied on the help of British agents in the Chinese ports of Canton and Amoy before turning to the Portuguese in Maçao. The British not only held the most plentiful source of immigrant labour in the East, they were also the best able to organise recruitment and transportation. The Dutch colonies The Dutch colonies, in particular Dutch Guiana or Surinam, began to import labourers from Indonesia in the 1850s. At that time Dutch East Indian sugar plantations were at a disadvantage because of their distance from the European market. However, when the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 this distance was shortened by over 3000 miles (5000 km), and Java became a powerful competitor to Surinam. Emancipation had come to Surinam in 1863 and the freed blacks were reluctant to work on the plantations. Surinam thus faced a threefold problem: lack of cheap labour; competition from the East Indies; and the need to take her share of the expandingsugarmarket.Thedemandforimmigrant labour was great. The Javanese who were imported were usually allowed to become small farmers and were lost to the sugar industry. In 1870, therefore, the Dutch made an agreement with Britain for Indian immigrants. Britain was willing to allow Surinam to use this source as it arranged its immigrant labour scheme in much the same way as the British West Indian colonies. In Surinam there was an Immigration Department under an agent-general and the contracts were similar. Therefore, when Britain banned Indian emigration to French Guiana in 1876, she allowed it to continue in Surinam until immigration ceased in 1917. A total of about 32 000 Indonesians entered Surinamupto1938,andover34 000Indiansbetween 1871 and 1917. About one in four Indonesians and one in three Indians asked for repatriation after their contracts had expired. Over half the population of modern Suriname (in the English-speaking world the name only acquired the final ‘e’ after the country became independent in 1975) is descended from immigrants from Asia. The French colonies The French also tried to meet their labour needs with an African immigration scheme. This was a disguised continuation of the slave trade and lasted from 1830 to 1859. It was not a successful scheme and only about 17 000 Africans came to the French colonies under it. After the French emancipation laws were passed in 1848, an immigrant labour scheme began from their trading stations of Pondicherry and Chandernagore in India. These two places were very small and supplied only about 10 000 immigrants to Guadeloupe and Martinique in ten years. This was not satisfactory, and in 1861 the French made an agreement with Britain to begin recruiting in British India. Nearly 68 000 Indians from British India came to Guadeloupe and Martinique between 1861 and 1886, and about 8500 went to French Guiana up to 1876. However, the British government was not satisfied with the French treatment of immigrants. There was a high mortality rate and little govern ment supervision. Therefore, they banned the importation of Indians to French Guiana in 1876, and to Guadeloupe and Martinique in 1886. Cuba Although claiming to have abolished the slave trade in 1820, the Spanish authorities turned a blind eye to the continued shipment of slaves into Cuba by American traders. Moreover, the cargoes of slave ships caught by anti-slave patrols were landed in Cuba and allowed to be resold into slavery.
- 116. 107 In 1835 thenew Reciprocal Agreement between Britain and Spain put an end to this practice by allowing a British Superintendent to reside in Havana to oversee the liberation of rescued slaves. The American slave trade into Cuba continued, but it was not adequate to supply the labour needs of the expanding Cuban sugar industry. The Spanish Cubans were worried about the increasing black/ white ratio and they wanted another source of labour. Therefore, Cuba began a Chinese immigrant labour scheme in 1847 which, through British agents in Amoy and Canton, involved the purchase of kidnapped Chinese or prisoners of war. The INDIAN IMMIGRANTS TO THE CARIBBEAN Indian immigrants to the Caribbean in the nineteenth century Between 1838 and 1917 a total of over 540 000 indentured Indians were transported to the Caribbean. The majority were brought to work in British Guiana and Trinidad, with the rest divided betweentheDutchandFrenchcoloniesonthenorth coast of South America, various British, French and Danish island colonies, and the Central American colony of British Honduras. Their distribution was as follows: British Guiana 238 909 Trinidad 143 939 Guadeloupe 42 326 Jamaica 37 027 Surinam 34 404 Martinique 25 404 French Guiana 8 500 St Lucia 4 300 Grenada 3 200 St Vincent 2 472 St Kitts 337 St Croix 300 British Honduras 200
- 117. 108 Chinese signed acontract before embarkation to give eight years labour, twelve hours per day, with pay of 4 pesos per month. It was really slavery, and when the base for the scheme was changed to Maçao, it was much the same. When the Chinese government sent inspectors to Cuba they found so much evidence of cruelty that they discouraged further emigration to Cuba, but it was hard to prevent it as Maçao was a Portuguese colony. In 1874 the Cuban government was persuaded to stop the scheme. Between 1847 and 1874 Cuba imported 125 000 Chinese. They were the mainstay of the expanding Cuban sugar industry until the great mechanisation of the 1880s. The effects of immigration in the British colonies On the sugar industry There is much controversy about whether immigrants helped the sugar industry or not. The figures for sugar production seem to suggest that, in those territories that imported labour, they helped the industry. In the decade after emancipation, sugar production in British Guiana slumped to nearly 40 per cent of its pre-emancipation level. By the end of the nineteenth century, its sugar production was 250 per cent greater than the pre-emancipation level. As British Guiana relied heavily on immigrant labour, it is tempting to conclude that the immigrants were responsible for this increased production. However, there were other factors at work at the same time. More land was brought under sugar cultivation and more mechanisation was introduced into the sugar industry in British Guiana. In Trinidad it was nearly the same story. High wages and good conditions had prevented a slump in production after emancipation, but Trinidad’s sugar output was still very low. By the end of the century it was four times greater than the pre- emancipation level. Again, the credit is given to immigrant labour. However, the only fair conclusion to draw about BritishGuianaandTrinidadisthatimmigrantlabour was accompanied by increased sugar production; it was not necessarily the cause of it. Contemporary planters certainly attributed the rise in output to the introduction of immigrant labour. Modern writers have differed about the right conclusion. Barbados, an island with no immigrant labour, had experienced an initial increase in output of 250 per cent over its pre-emancipation level by 1848. But by the end of the century it had decreased by nearly 20 per cent of its pre-emancipation level. One is tempted to conclude that the decline in production was due to the absence of immigrant labour. This is a false conclusion because Barbados, more than any other island, suffered from soil exhaustion and lack of mechanisation. Grenada and St Vincent present an even more baffling case. Both had substantial Indian immigration relative to their total population: Grenada 3200 and St Vincent 2472. In Grenada the export of sugar stopped completely before the end of the century, and in St Vincent it was five and a half times less than its pre-emancipation level. The overall conclusion must be that while immigration caused increased sugar production Chinese immigrants in Cuba
- 118. 109 in British Guianaand Trinidad, elsewhere there were many other factors that could have been responsible. On culture and society The immigration of Indians into the British colonies involved the introduction of completely different cultures and religions. They were Hindus or Muslims and the proportions, in the late nineteenth century, were roughly 86 per cent Hindu and 14 per cent Muslim. The Indians were remarkable for their cultural segregation and, indeed, remain very much a separate entity within West Indian society up to the present day. The main reasons for this were: 1 The Indians were linked by a strong common bond of family friendship. 2 The immigration schemes by which they came to the West Indies isolated them on plantations and set them apart from the other inhabitants. 3 Even when free of indenture, many Indians remained in agriculture. Between 1885 and 1912, over 90 000 acres (37 000 ha) of Crown Land in Trinidad were sold or granted to Indians and 78 per cent of the Indian population worked in agriculture. These free Indians established villages of their own and grew rice, cocoa and sugar-cane. They re-established their Indian heritage, maintaining their separateness and giving Trinidad and Guyana an active peasant class in the early twentieth century. 4 Indians and Africans tended to despise each other in the nineteenth century. This did not bring them into conflict but rather tended to keep them apart. There was a great cultural void between East Indians and the West Indians. The latter regarded the former as inferior, partly because of their clothes, partly because they were not Christian and partly because they did the lowest-paid jobs and occupied the lowest position in society. They were particularly despised by the blacks for accepting what the latter considered to be slavery. Many of the Indians on the plantations and in free villages were unaware of this low social valuation but those who were aware of it did not accept it. They had little regard for Africans and disliked what they viewed as the low standards of morality in the West Indies, with its strong tradition of concubinage, preferring their own traditions of marital fidelity, especially on the part of the wife. 5 Most of the immigrants spoke Hindi and continued to do so. Thus language was a real barrier which was only very slowly overcome. There was little association with other West Indians, except by those Indians who became shopkeepers and traders. The Indians were unwilling to send their children to school because they feared conversion to Christianity. It was not until the late 1870s when separate schools for Indian children were established, mainly by the Canadian Presbyterian Mission to the Indians, that the majority of Indian children went to school and language barriers began to crumble. To begin with, the immigrants had little family life, partly due to the way they were housed and partly due to the lack of women. But the traditional Indian idea of family re-emerged around 1870, with the establishment of free Indian villages. There were, however, notable changes. Although caste remained important, there were not enough women to maintain it and inter-caste marriages were not uncommon. New links between those who had come on the same ship or lived in the same village developed. The idea of the extended family, including several generations and with a corporate identity, was very strong. This was one of the reasons why the Indian business and agricultural classes were so strong. A family council, of which every male over sixteen was a member, made all decisions on weddings, religious ceremonies and anything involving major expenditure. The eldest male was the head of the family and everyone contributed to a common financial pool. In the mixed African/Western cultures found in theWestIndies,religionwasaseparatecompartment of life for most people. In Indian cultures, both Hinduism and Islam affected every aspect of life. Again, this contributed strongly to segregation. Relations between the two Indian religions were good on the whole, but this was not so with the Christian Church. Christianity was the only socially
- 119. 110 acceptable religion inthe West Indies and Hindu and Muslim religious practices were despised. For example, Hindu and Muslim marriages were not legal unless registered with the District Registrar, and Indians were unwilling to do this. Thus many Indian children were considered illegitimate and this often made it difficult for them to inherit property and land. Many Hindu temples and Islamic mosques were built and their festivals became part of the West Indian way of life. Among the most popular Hindu festivals was Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated in October or November in honour of the goddess of wealth. In music, drama and dance, the Indians brought their own art forms to the Caribbean and these have had their influence on the culture of Guyana and Trinidad. The failure of Indians to integrate quickly with the local peoples made them unpopular for a long time in the West Indies. There was a great lack of understanding on both sides, but West Indian society was such that eventually it was able to absorb this huge Indian immigration without conflict.
- 120. 111 ProblemsoftheCaribbean SugarIndustry British West Indiansugar before 1846 During the Napoleonic Wars, the British West Indies had enjoyed a near monopoly of sugar production and had charged increasingly high prices. It proved to be their only prosperous period throughout the nineteenth century. After the war, with the emergence of new sugar-producing countries and the expansion of the older ones, their position became increasingly difficult. The problems they faced were many, and among them was the labour problem caused by abolition. Because of this, the price of slaves on the internal market rose, and the only way they could combat increased prices was to raise the price of sugar. Emancipation made their labour problems even worse. AnotherproblemwascompetitionfromIndiaand Mauritius. Hitherto, the West Indian planters alone had enjoyed low rates of duty on sugar. Pressure from the Indian planters and a growing feeling in Britain against slavery, led to the extension of these low rates of duty to Mauritius in 1825 and India in 1836. This meant that Indian and Mauritian sugar were very real competitors. Adjustment to a cash economy produced another very real problem. Before emancipation there had been relatively little circulation of money in the British West Indies. Planters obtained their needs, from machinery and slaves for the plantation down to personal and domestic requirements, from merchants in exchange for their sugar crop. In theory, the apprenticeship period should have given the planters time to adjust to a cash economy. But they made little effort to do so and there was not enough money in circulation to pay the wages bills which were presented after 1838. A Cuban sugar plantation
- 121. 112 The level ofwages, ranging roughly from 9d per day in Barbados to 2s 6d per day in Trinidad, meant that planters could face a wage bill of just under £20 per week for 100 labourers in Barbados, or just over £60 per week for 100 labourers in Trinidad. These wage bills led to the foundation of the Planters Bank in Jamaica in 1837 and the West India Bank in Barbados in 1840, with branches in many islands. These banks were founded with capital put up by Liverpool and London merchants. They were still supplying credit to the planters on the strength of their crops but this was being done on the spot. Although this was good business in times of expansion and rising prices, it was ruinous in the 1840s because of falling prices. The collapse of the West Indian banks in 1849 had much to do with complications arising from the Sugar Equalisation Act of 1846. Sugar prices Yet another problem was the fall in sugar prices because of world expansion in production. Foreign countries reduced their production costs so much that they could still undercut the British West Indian price of 22s 6d per cwt in 1848. For example, Cuba could put raw sugar free on board at Havana at 12s per cwt, and Louisiana could put raw sugar free on board at New Orleans at 15s per cwt. In the British West Indies, particularly in British Guiana, the acreage under sugar was increased after the Napoleonic Wars. This increased the supply of sugar which, in turn, depressed the price. The planters were aware of the effect of limiting acreage to maintain prices, but in the early nineteenth century each territory was competing against the others to maximise its revenue from sugar. With falling prices, the planters should have tried to reduce their production costs by modernisation and mechanisation, thus reducing dependence on labour. But mechanisation needed capital and the merchant-owned banks were not interested in financing developments in an industry which seemed to be facing terrible difficulties. Another problem faced by West Indian planters was that they had to pay the 4½ per cent export duty on sugar, first imposed by the Plantation Duties Act BITS AND QUATTIES Following emancipation, life for both the planters and their labourers, and the changes in the economy of each colony which had to take place, were all made more difficult by the absence of a uniform system of currency. In 1834 each island or mainland territory used a variety – and no two the same – of coins which had been introduced from Spain, France and Holland as well as Britain. Jamaica and Trinidad still used the Spanish gold doubloons and pistoles and silver reals, as well as British gold, silver and copper coins. The islands which had once been French used livres, louis d’ors, and deniers mixed in with British coins. Barbados had more British coins in circulation, but among them were lots of doubloons from various South American countries. In British Guiana most of the coinage consisted of Dutch guilders, stivers and pennings. The values of all these foreign coins were fixed from time to time by the British government. In view of this, and recognising that many more coins of small denomination were needed to pay wages after the end of the apprenticeship period, in 1836 special silver and copper coins were struck in Britain and shipped out to the Caribbean. The two most popular of these were two silver coins worth four pence (4d) and one and a half pence (1½d). The former became known as a ‘bit’ or ‘joey’, and the latter as a ‘quattie’ (often as a ‘Christian quattie’ as it was the coin most often found on church collection plates). Although British coins were made the only legal tender throughout the British West Indiesafter1840,alltheforeigncoinscontinued to circulate until well into the second half of the nineteenth century. of 1673. They protested repeatedly to the British government, but not until the extreme distress of 1838 was this duty removed. They also had to pay higher prices for their imports than in a free market, although in 1825 they were given some relief when manufactured goods from foreign countries were allowed to be imported directly to the colonies.
- 122. 113 The Sugar EqualisationAct, 1846 Free trade In 1776 free trade ideas had been put forward by Adam Smith, the economist. These ideas were not widespread at first but the Industrial Revolution converted many people, especially merchants and industrialists, to free trade. They wanted cheap raw materials for their industries and saw the system of protective duties as an evil. Another economist, David Ricardo, wrote Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in 1817, supporting free trade, and this work dominated British economic thinking until the 1850s. The political grouping known as the Manchester School, led by Richard Cobden and John Bright, two radical politicians of the 1840s, also supported free trade. They were strongly against the West Indies and used the slogan, ‘Jamaica to the bottom of the sea and the Antilles after it, rather than the interests of the people should be sacrificed’. It was calculated that the British people, because of the high cost of their sugar, were subsidising the British West Indian planters by £2 500 000 to £4 500 000 per year. By the 1830s and 1840s there were large numbers of workers in the British towns, earning low wages and wanting cheap food. The politicians of the Manchester School convinced them that duties, especially those on North American corn, were keeping up the price of food. Eventually, even the Tory government under Robert Peel, usually the party in favour of protection for English farmers and West Indian planters alike, was persuaded to adopt free trade policies. In 1846 the Corn Laws, allowing duties on foreign corn, were repealed to prevent further starvation, especially in Ireland. In the same year duties on foreign sugar were removed by the Sugar Equalisation Act. Finally, after 200 years, the Navigation Acts were repealed in 1849 and the British Empire entered an era of free trade which lasted well into the twentieth century. Many planters regarded this Act as the final straw and prophesied the end of the sugar industry. The period 1846 to 1854 was a critical one for the sugar industry, but it survived. There was some opposition to the Act in England by humanitarians who argued that slave-grown sugar should be kept out of England by continued duties. In particular, this would have affected Cuba, the lowest-cost producer of the time. However, the demand for cheap raw materials overrode humanitarian considerations and any sugar, slave- grown or otherwise, was allowed to enter freely. The Sugar Equalisation Act did not remove all the protective duties immediately. The British West Indies were given time in which to adjust to foreign competition by lowering their costs. Initially, this period was for five years, but the West Indian governments protested so strongly that its application was put off until 1854. Results of the 1846 Act 1 The inevitable fall in sugar prices led to more plantations going out of business. Some planters could not produce sugar below the London price, which in 1848 was 22s 6d per cwt. Sugar from Cuba and Brazil could easily sell for 2s per cwt below that. British Guiana, Jamaica and Trinidad all complained that they could not produce sugar below the market price and wanted duties on foreign sugar brought back. 2 The only way most British planters could reduce cost was to reduce wages, and workers in the easternCaribbeanwereforcedtoacceptwagecuts of up to 50 per cent. Sometimes planters faced strikes and riots, as in British Guiana, while in Jamaica many workers gave up plantation work becauseoflowerwages.Generally,however,wage reductions of about one-third were accepted. This gives support to the belief that wages for plantation labour had been set too high. 3 In a few cases, chiefly in the larger colonies of Trinidad, British Guiana and Jamaica, new tools were introduced to economise on labour and reduce production costs. Planters could not afford large-scale mechanisation, but ploughs and harrows appeared. In British Guiana and Trinidad steam engines and vacuum pans were introduced, and these two territories became the most progressive in the British West Indies. 4 Between 1847 and 1848 there was a financial crisis in Britain which spread to the West Indies. Several Liverpool and London merchants who supplied credit to West Indian planters went
- 123. 114 bankrupt and thePlanters Bank and the West India Bank called in loans, but repayment was not forthcoming. Thirteen firms of merchants in the British West Indies went bankrupt during this period. 5 There was a revival of the old clashes between governor and assembly. The worst trouble was in Jamaica, where the Assembly demanded the restoration of duties in 1849 and 1853. Sir Henry Barkly, who had dealt with similar problems in British Guiana, came to Jamaica as governor to try to win them over. In 1849 and 1853 they refusedtovoteanytaxesandtheGovernorwasso short of money that he had to give unconditional pardons to 100 prisoners for whom there was no food. The British government offered a loan of £500 000 to the West Indies to help them over the crisis. The Jamaican Assembly was worried about accepting its share of this loan because it did not think it would be able to repay it when the sugar industry was declining so fast. At one time the Assembly even talked of asking for annexation by the United States. There was trouble, too, in British Guiana in 1848 when that part of the legislature called the Combined Court, in protest against the Sugar Equalisation Act, insisted on a 25 per cent reduction in salaries of the colony’s officials. A settlement was reached when the British government promised a loan of over £200 000 to assist with immigration schemes. 6 There was a mistaken belief that the British West Indies would rise to the challenge of foreign, slave-grown sugar and produce free-grown sugar more cheaply. But free-grown sugar could never compete with the slave-grown sugar of Cuba and Louisiana. Surviving the crisis The British government refused to bow to the pressure from the West Indian assemblies to restore duties and, therefore, the colonies were forced to compete. By the late 1850s the sugar prices began to rise, reaching 37s 5d per cwt in 1857. By the 1860s, conditions in the sugar industry had improved although this improvement was only temporary. The loans offered by the British government in 1848 and 1853 were accepted by British Guiana and Trinidad, who put them towards the financing of immigration schemes which helped their sugar industry to survive. Barbados put its share into estate improvement, thus helping to maintain its relatively low cost of production. By the 1860s the sugar industry had survived except in Jamaica where it continued to decline. Antigua, Barbados, British Guiana, St Kitts and Trinidad all survived the equalisation crisis. British Guiana’s production figures provide the best example of this. 1846 23 000 tons 1851 38 000 tons 1861 62 000 tons (just passing the pre-emancipation level) 1871 93 000 tons Jamaica’s figures show a sugar industry which failed to survive. 1832 71 000 tons 1852 25 000 tons 1888 13 000 tons The Encumbered Estates Act, 1854 In the 1830s many planters either sold their estates at a fraction of their former value or abandoned them to bush, unable to make a profit but unwilling to sell them. This process was most apparent in Jamaica where sugar production dropped by two-thirds in the twenty years after 1833. By the 1830s the price of estate land was about one-fifth of its 1815 level throughout the British West Indies. In Jamaica it fell even lower and some plantersevenacceptedone-twentiethoftheirestates’ former value. By the mid-nineteenth century, about 500 estates had been sold or abandoned in Jamaica. Even British Guiana, which had been increasing its sugar output before emancipation, temporarily sufferedthesameproblemsinthe1830s,althoughon a minor scale compared with Jamaica. About twenty estates were sold in the ten years after emancipation in British Guiana, due to labour problems rather than other difficulties. Many estates were abandoned because they were mortgaged and so heavily in debt that no buyer could be found. By law, the buyer of such an estate had to take over the mortgage and the debts.
- 124. 115 St Lucia, in1833, was the first island to pass a law which allowed the government to seize abandoned estates and sell them without ‘encumbrances’. This appealed to the British government as a cheap and easy way of bringing sugar estates into production again. In 1854 they passed the Encumbered Estates Act, but left it to each colony to decide whether to apply the Act. The only colonies which did not do so in the 1850s were Barbados, British Guiana and Trinidad. The Act was a very short-sighted measure with disastrous long-term effects. It gave the merchant creditors (merchants consignées) first claim on the estate to recover their debts ahead of mortgages and other claims. Thus many of the estates passed into the hands of the Liverpool and London merchants. In charge of them were put attorneys, concerned not with the good running of the estate, but with the quickest possible sale of the sugar crop. If the estate passed into the hands of another owner, the consignée had first claim on the crop and could buy it in London at the lowest price and sell it at a profit. The new owner had to send his crop in the consignée’s ships and on his terms. All this made it very hard for the new owner to make a profit. Moreover, the merchants only wanted to deal in sugar, and this discouraged experimentation and crop diversification in the islands. However, the most serious effect of the 1854 Act was that it discouraged investment in the sugar industry. Nobody was willing to invest in plantations when the industry was declining and there was no hope of recovering debts. A Royal Commission of 1882–83 under Colonel William Crossman recognised the ill effects of the Encumbered Estates Act and recommended its repeal. West Indian governments repealed their individual Acts in 1886, but by that time they had been in operation for thirty years and the damage had been done. Foreign competition Foreign producers were quick to take advantage of equal terms on the London market. Cuba, Louisiana and Brazil all produced slave-grown sugar very cheaply. Cuba’s production was especially cheap and could undercut Antigua and Barbados which produced sugar at about 17s per cwt, the lowest British price. Moreover, after equalisation, beet sugar became an even more dangerous competitor. Cuba The importation of 10 000 slaves into Cuba by the British in 1762 began the expansion of the island’s sugar industry. Thereafter, it was stimulated by A sugar plantation
- 125. 116 the Spanish governmentwhich allowed foreigners to import slaves freely into Cuba. The Haitian Revolution also helped, because French planters fled to Cuba with their slaves. The Napoleonic Wars enabled Cuba to trade freely with foreign countries when the demand for sugar was high. In 1762 sugar was equal with tobacco and hides as Cuba’s leading export, although even by 1815 it only reached about half of Jamaica’s production. By 1828 sugar production equalled that of Jamaica, and by 1848 equalled the output of the entire British West Indies. By 1894 Cuba had become the first country in the world to pass the million ton mark in annual sugar production. Before the Sugar Equalisation Act, Cuba had sold only about 10 000 tons of sugar in Britain, but by 1864 she was selling just under 150 000 tons. The natural advantages of Cuba 1 Size Cuba was ten times larger than Jamaica and could expand her sugar production easily just by putting more acres under sugar. Sugar-cane could be grown in every province, although the heaviest concentration was in the Camagüey- Maniabon region in the middle of the island. 2 Virgin land There were wide plains of virgin land in Cuba whose fertility gave a very high yield compared with that of the British West Indies. 3 Water power Fast-flowing streams from the central mountains of Cuba provided a readily available source of power for the mills. The man-made advantages of Cuba 1 Slave labour Cuba had slave labour until 1886, fifty years after the British West Indies had emancipated their slaves. This was no cheaper than the immigrant labour in British Guiana and Trinidad, but it provided a regular permanent labourforce.In1850theslavepopulationofCuba was about 350 000, a little more than the slave population of Jamaica had been at emancipation (312 000). The Cuban sugar industry was labour- intensive but the output per slave, at between three and six tons per slave compared with just over one ton per slave in the British West Indies, was far higher. 2 Immigrant labour Cuba expanded the industry between 1852 and 1874, relying on Chinese immigrant labour. They worked very long hours on eight-year contracts and were well suited to the more mechanised industry of Cuba. In this period 124 000 Chinese immigrants entered Cuba. 3 Mechanisation The great revolution in the Cuban sugar industry did not occur until the 1880s, but for long before this, it was more mechanised than the British West Indies. The first steam mills were in operation from 1819. French sugar experts from Haiti had introduced the more efficient enclosed furnaces early in the nineteenth century. Cuba had vacuum pans in which the juice could be boiled at a lower temperature. The same heat that supplied the steam engine could be used for the vacuum pans. In the 1840s the best machinery from France was imported into Cuba. Steam engines for the mills were imported from the United States, together with American expertise in machinery. 4 Economies of scale In Cuba, unlike the eastern Caribbean, there was enough land for sugar to be grown while tobacco was still a major industry. Therefore, the sugar-cane industry avoided the ‘teething problems’ of the British West Indies. Sugar planters bought land cheaply from the old cattle grants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which had never been taken up. Estates were,therefore,largeandcouldachieveeconomies of scale, thus making them more efficient. They could support large mills run at full capacity and could afford to introduce new machines. 5 Refined sugar As early as the Napoleonic Wars, sugar refineries had been developed in Cuba, and in 1864 Cuba put over 3000 tons of refined sugar on the British market. 6 Markets Cuba’s sugar industry was closely tied up with its American trade. North American foodstuffs were imported to feed slaves and in return sugar was sold to North America, especially when the crop in Louisiana was not successful. Even if the Louisiana crop was good and little Cuban sugar could be sold in America, it could be sold in Europe, although the profit was lower due to protective duties and competition from beet sugar.
- 126. 117 The sugar revolutionin Cuba The Ten Years’ War, 1868–1878, in which the Cubans sought freedom from Spain, caused much destruction, but in the long run made possible the changes known as the ‘Cuban Sugar Revolution’. During the war, pressure from inside and outside Cuba made the government stop Chinese immigration, and in 1886 slavery was abolished. Cuban sugar output could only continue at its high level if it switched from labour-intensive to capital-intensive methods or, in other words, to mechanisation. In the 1880s and 1890s world sugar prices were falling, and Cuba, as a sugar economy, was forced to reorganise sugar production in order to compete successfully. Smaller producers went out of production and the ‘Latifundia’ were created. These were monster estates able to take advantage of economies of scale. The ‘colono’ system survived, but its nature changed. Whereas before, small growers had cultivated their canes on their own land and brought them to a central mill, in the 1880s they still grew cane in the outlyingareasbutthelandwasownedbythecentrals which developed an increasingly strong hold over them. The centrals grew even larger, serving many plantations all linked by railways. Their capacity was immense, one central producing 20 000 tons of sugar in 1890 which was more than Jamaica’s total sugar crop of 1888. Between 1880 and 1900, the number of sugar factories in Cuba fell by two- thirds. At the same time sugar production roughly doubled, indicating that the capacity of each factory must have increased fivefold. Most of the estates were still Cuban owned, even if much of the capital came from American banks. Americanownershipofover60percentoftheestates came after May 1920, in the period which Cubans refer to as ‘The Dance of the Millions’. Between 1918 and 1920 the price of sugar rocketed. It had been fixed at 5½ cents per lb by the United States Sugar Equalisation Board, but after accusations of excessive profiteering from the sale of the 1919 crop inside the United States, the 1920 crop was put on the world market, where it realised 23 cents per lb. Immediately, the investors and distributors of sugar in the United States wanted to secure their source of THE CUBAN RAILWAY Cubawastheseventhcountry in the world to build a railway system. The initial incentive came from the planters who were anxious to reduce the cost of transporting their sugar, rum and molasses to the ports for shipment abroad. It was authorised by the Spanish authorities in 1835 and the first line, between Havana and the estates to the south of the city, opened two years later. After the railway was sold into private hands in 1842, the track was gradually extended until within twenty years the whole island except the most isolated areas had access to rail transport. In 1863 there were 700 miles (1300 km) of track with trains operated by 21 railway companies. By the twentieth century Cuba had nearly 2000 miles (3200 km) of track of varying gauges. The Cuban railway in the nineteenth century
- 127. 118 supply in Cuba,so they poured millions of dollars into Cuba and bought land at inflated prices. TheCubansalsodiscoveredthatalargepermanent labour force was not necessary on a sugar estate. The work was seasonal, and most of the labour was needed at crop time. Therefore, Cuba changed to gang labour which moved about from estate to estate to harvest the crop. This cut costs for the planters considerably and helped Cuba to continue as a cheap producer. Much of this labour was provided by men from Jamaica from 1886 onwards. By the end of the nineteenth century Cuba had developed a one-crop economy, totally dependent on the world price of sugar. This was shown in 1895 when the price of sugar fell to 2 cents per lb, and again in 1921 when the price of sugar fell so low that sugar producers could not pay their debts. More estates fell into American hands, and most of Havana’s banks went bankrupt. The Dominican Republic The American investment in the Cuban sugar industry which began in the late nineteenth century was followed very quickly by similar investment in the Dominican Republic. The south-eastern region was found ideal for growing sugar-cane and vast estates were created on the plain to the north of the port of San Pedro de Macoris. By 1911 one estate alone, La Romana, covered 225 square miles (583 sq km). As in Cuba, a large amount of seasonable labour was needed at harvest time, and this was obtained from Haiti and also from the Eastern Caribbean. At the beginning of each year from about 1890 until 1929 thousands of cane-cutters from the Leeward Islands, the Danish West Indies, and the three northern islands of the Netherlands Antilles sailed each year to San Pedro de Macoris. From there they were taken to the various estates where they would work until the harvest ended in July. They, like the Jamaicans doing the same work in Cuba, were well satisfied at being paid far more than if they had stayed at home, and they were equally unconscious of the role they were playing in the production of sugar in direct competition to that of the British West Indies. Louisiana and Brazil Two other American sugar competitors were Louisiana in North America and Brazil in South America. Their climatic conditions were similar to the West Indies and their maturing time for cane roughly the same, about seven to nine months. However, they also possessed advantages over the British West Indies. Louisiana had the flat, fertile lands of the Mississippi Delta, and Brazil had almost unlimited fertile lands in the Bahia and Pernambuço regions.TheproductioncostsofLouisianaandBrazil were below even those of Barbados. Both countries had the advantage of slave labour, Louisiana until 1865, and Brazil until 1888. Louisiana’s cane sugar production was about half that of the British West Indies in 1844, but it was produced more cheaply and more efficiently, coming as it did from about 750 mills and only 100 000 slaves. Steam engines had been introduced as early as 1822. Undoubtedly, Louisiana and the United States could have expanded sugar production many times over, but with the availability of cheap Cuban sugar they did not bother. In the nineteenth century, the United States protected Louisiana and Cuba from competition from beet sugar by protective duties, but these were abandoned in 1900. When the United States started its own beet sugar industry, the Louisiana planters protested in vain and, by that time, Cuba was a foreign country at the mercy of the United States importers. Grinding cane in Cuba
- 128. 119 Competition from Braziliansugar in the mid- nineteenth century was partly the result of British investment. In the 1830s Brazil was producing under half the total British West Indian output. When duties were removed, Brazil’s sugar produc- tion expanded threefold, from 1833 to 1882, and it survived emancipation in 1888 because the industry was relatively modernised, with large-scale production on big estates in the north-east. The sugar industry was subsidised by the government who guaranteed a fixed return of not less than 7 per cent on investment, in order to encourage the building of large factories. By the end of the century, Brazil’s output was well over a quarter of a million tons annually, larger than the total output of the British West Indies. European beet sugar In 1747 Andreas Marggraf, a German chemist, extracted sugar crystals from some kinds of beet root, but his discovery was not exploited commercially until 1786. Then Franz Karl Achard, another chemist, planted beets on his Caulsdorf estate near Berlin. Frederick William III, King of Prussia, was interested and financed the world’s first beet sugar factory in 1802 in Silesia. By 1810 it was clear that a beet sugar industry could be successful. Other European countries started beet sugar industries because: 1 It would make them independent of imported sugar. 2 It would provide employment. 3 It would suit the rotation of crops then practised in Europe. Napoleon encouraged the development of beet sugar in France during the Napoleonic Wars when cane sugar from Guadeloupe and Martinique was cut off. Soon Austria, Belgium, Holland and Russia were producing beet sugar as well as Germany and France. Beet sugar was expensive to produce, about 24s per cwt, and could not have competed with Caribbean sugar in a free market. However, because of the advantages of having their own sources of sugar, European countries subsidised their beet sugar industries. This competition was felt most keenly in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Barbados saw the threat from beet sugar as early as 1876. The Ten Years’ War in Cuba had helped the export of British West Indian sugar, but then came the impact of subsidised European beet sugar and prices fell. Cuba was the only Caribbean sugar producer to compete successfully. Britain, following her policy of free trade, imported more and more European beet sugar. By 1902 she was taking only 2½ per cent of her sugar from the British West Indies. When considering the hardships of the British West Indies a Royal Commission in 1896 pointed to ‘competition of beet sugar produced under a system of bounties’. Between 1882 and 1892, British imports of European beet sugar had increased from 400 000 to 1 000 000 tons a year. The situation was equally serious for the French islands. By 1902 the price of cane sugar from Guadeloupe and Martinique had fallen to 16 francs per kilo (from over 80 francs two years previously). Sugar beet
- 129. 120 Therefore, in 1903,European beet-sugar produc- ing countries agreed to a conference – the Brussels Convention – at which they promised ‘to suppress the direct and indirect bounties by which the production and exportation of sugar may profit’. However,Europeanbeetsugarcontinuedtocompete with Caribbean sugar on the world market. During the First World War, the European beet sugar industry collapsed. Sugar prices rose and continued to rise until 1920. Cuba expanded her production to over 4 000 000 tons per year and stockpiled sugar, thinking that the European beet production would take a long time to recover and prices would remain high, but in fact European sugar production recovered very quickly and in the 1920s the European sugar market was glutted. By 1929 the price of sugar had dropped to 8s per cwt. The backwardness of the British West Indian sugar industry Causes Theindustrywasusingseventeenth-centurymethods in the nineteenth century. The labour-intensive methods which slavery had encouraged continued, whereas other countries had adopted new methods to reduce labour and production costs. 1 Typical labour-intensive methods were the use of hoes instead of ploughs, and the carrying of heavy loads on their heads by gangs of men. Antigua was renowned for its backwardness, and there was not a pitchfork or a wheelbarrow on the island in 1846. Until very modern times there was no labour- saving method for topping and cutting the canes in crop time. It was not until after 1846 that attempts were made to cut labour costs by using the system of ‘task gangs’, in which large gangs of labourers moved from plantation to plantation in crop time, and then only in Antigua and St Kitts. 2 British West Indian plantations were not large enough to make economical use of the new machinery, such as the vacuum pan, the centrifugaldrierorthesteammill,exceptpossibly in Trinidad and British Guiana. The ‘central’ factory was the answer to this problem, but it was not acceptable in the British West Indies. 3 Planters were held back by lack of capital. The new machinery, the huge centrals and associated railwaysystems,requiredlargeamountsofcapital which were not available to the British planter who depended for his finance on his merchant consignée. The sugar industry in the British Indies did not attract British capital as did that of Cuba or Brazil. Even the French islands had capital available for the sugar industry through La Société de Crédit Colonial founded in 1860. All these foreign territories developed centrals or usines before the British islands. Two usines were built in Martinique in 1862 and many plantations stopped crushing their own cane and took it to the usine. The first centrals in the British West Indies were the Usine Sainte Madeleine in Trinidad in 1871 and the Grand Cul de Sac Usine in St Lucia in 1874. For the most part, centrals were a twentieth century development in the British West Indies. Even then they were not universal because to work really well they required a system of ‘feeder’ railways. Most of the British islands are not large enough for this. 4 Planters were very conservative, for example, many would not change to steam power because they did not want to cut down their timber for fuel. They refused to share factories or machinery because they feared loss of independence. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Barbados, where sugar estates had been in the same families since the middle of the seventeenth century and 400 factories were being used to produce the same amount of sugar that came out of twenty Cuban factories. 5 British planters knew that refined sugar would sell more easily in Europe and at a far higher price, but they were unable to produce it because of the opposition of merchants and industrialists in Britain. However, they must be blamed for not obtaining more sucrose from the cane. British mills only used a single crushing process, obtaining only 75 per cent of the juice from the cane. Cuban mills were regularly using triple crushing with dilution in the process and obtaining over 90 per cent of juice from the cane.
- 130. 121 Trinidad and BritishGuiana were exceptions to most of these failings. Their plantations were larger than those elsewhere and could support up-to- date machinery. Their planters were not usually conservative as they had only acquired their plantations in the nineteenth century. Finally, due to their special labour problems they adopted labour- saving methods early in the century. Towards the end of the century, the sugar industry was in such a distressed state that two Royal Commissions were appointed to investigate it and make recommendations for its improvement. The Royal Commission of 1882–83 The immediate reason for the appointment of the 1882–83 Commission, under the Member of Parliament Colonel William Crossman, was that most of the British West Indian colonies could not repay the loans they had contracted many years earlier, between 1848 and 1853. It was set up to enquire into the revenues and expenditure of the colonies, but it also concerned itself with the state of the sugar industry. Its report of 1884 concluded that sugar was still the principal source of income, but, except in St Lucia where exports have trebled in value in the last thirty years, it is generally carried on under all the disadvantages of old-fashioned and faulty systems of cultivation and manufacture. The Report encouraged small farmers in these words: It is said that thirty days labour on an acre of good soil in Jamaica will, in addition to providing a family with necessary food for a year, yield a surplus saleable in the market of from £10 to £30. It is to the possession of provision grounds that the industrious Negro turns with the greatest liking, and there exists in Jamaica a substantial and happily numerous population of the peasant proprietor class, which easily obtains a livelihood by the growth of minor tropical products of fruit and spices, cocoa and coffee, and so contributes to the general prosperity. Sugar works on a Jamaican sugar estate in the late nineteenth century
- 131. 122 Thiswasveryover-optimisticaboutthefertilityofthe land,butbasicallytheReportwasrecommendingthe diversification of cropsto the small farmer because sugar was in decline. Already Jamaica was exporting bananas, which was a favourite smallholder crop. Apart from suggesting a few improvements in cultivation and marketing, the Commission could suggest little to help the British West Indian sugar industry compete with the beet sugar producers. The Norman Commission of 1896 The Royal Commission of 1896 under Sir Henry Normanwassentoutfirstlybecausethepriceofsugar had fallen from 21s per cwt in 1881 to 11s per cwt in 1896, and secondly, because Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, believed in the development of the colonies for the mutual benefit of themselves and the mother country. He believed that the economy of the British West Indies could be improved by science and technology and that marketing of their products could be helped by the concept called Imperial Preference. The Norman Commission was very pessimistic about the sugar industry in the British West Indies. It recommended that only in Antigua, Barbados and St Kitts should sugar remain the staple crop. The other islands should diversify. Its more specific recommendations were as follows: 1 The encouragement of small farming, suggesting a land settlement scheme and the creation of banks to help with finances; 2 Government loans to help modernise the sugar industry, especially by building central factories; 3 Agricultural departments in the islands to help with scientific cultivation and agricultural education in schools; 4 Diversification of crops, especially in fruit; 5 Improvement of communications, in particular, the steamer service to New York. The members of the Commission disagreed among themselves about whether beet sugar was the principal cause of the distress of the British West Indies. However, it did recommend the abolition of bounties for beet sugar paid by European governments. The Norman Commission is an example of one Royal Commission whose advice and recommenda- tions were acted upon. The need for alternative crops Before the Norman Commission Most of the crops which provided alternatives to sugar after 1850 were not new to the West Indies. Some were indigenous and had been used by the Amerindians, while others had been export crops from the earliest colonial times. In some islands they had even pre-dated sugar as commercial crops. Wild cotton of very good quality with a long staple was exported from Barbados from its earliest days. It was placed on the list of enumerated goods in the 1660 Navigation Act. By 1724 Antigua, Montserrat, Nevis and St Kitts, as well as Barbados, were all recording exports of cotton. Apart from the early twentieth century, the period 1784–1802 was the most prosperous for the cotton industry. It was of the utmost importance to Barbados when sugar declined in 1787. A stimulus to cotton-growing came from the American Loyalists who had settled in the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. At one time during the Napoleonic Wars, 70 per cent of the cotton imported into Britain came from the West Indies. However, when production in the southern states of North America began to expand after the invention of Eli Whitney’s saw-gin in 1793, production in the British West Indies declined sharply. It revived again briefly during the American Civil War of 1861–65, and was an obvious choice as an export crop in the early twentieth century when the sugar industry was struggling. Coffee had been introduced into the West Indies by the Spanish and has been grown continuously in Jamaica from the sixteenth century to the present day. In 1791 the Jamaican Assembly mentioned coffee as an alternative export crop and it became important as a second crop during the French Wars. In Dominica, St Vincent, Grenada and St Lucia, coffee was cultivated as an alternative export crop in the late eighteenth century, because sugar prices were low. Consequently, these islands were always more diversified in their crops than Barbados and the Leewards. When the British took over Trinidad
- 132. 123 in 1797, theyfound 130 coffee plantations in production there. The cacao plant was native to South America and wasintroducedintotheWestIndiesbytheSpaniards. It was always a minor export crop, especially in the eighteenth century. When the sugar industry declined, in the 1830s and 1840s, cacao was one of the products given priority by local agricultural societies. The British West Indies, particularly Barbados, suffered from sugar monoculture, but cacao, coffee, cotton, arrowroot, ginger, indigo, pimento and tobacco were all known as possible alternative exportsbefore1896.Jamaicahadthemostdiversified economy of the British islands. By 1870 other crops including coffee, pimento, ginger, logwood and cinchona trees made up 55 per cent of her exports. Small farming and alternative crops Emancipation provided a reason for turning to alternative crops. The best the ex-slaves could hope for were smallholdings. They had to grow subsistence crops to keep themselves alive, but for cash crops they wanted something that would give a high yield from a small acreage. The ideal crops were spices, although competition from Asia and Zanzibar was very fierce. Spices, chiefly nutmegs, were tried in Grenada. Ginger and pimento became relatively important in Jamaica. Arrowroot became very important in St Vincent where the government divided up unused estates into small lots of between 5 and 10 acres (2–4 ha) to encourage small farming. This policy was also followed in Trinidad in the 1860s to persuade the immigrants to stay. Cacao, which had always been grown by the Spanish and later the French, became an important crop there. In Dominica, the ex-slaves went into the hilly interior and grew coffee on their smallholdings. Limes were introduced in about 1850 by Dr John Imray, and were ideally suited to small farming. Montserrat also began to grow limes in 1852. The importance of the Norman Commission One of the most important recommendations of the Norman Commission was diversification. Because of this, the Imperial Department of Agriculture for the West Indies tried to discover which crops were best suited to which islands. It aimed at introducing ‘new’ crops in areas where sugar-cane was not the best crop. Most of them had been tried before, but there were some new suggestions for export crops, for example, oranges, rice, sisal, pineapples and rubber. The Agricultural Department in Barbados was to coordinate the work of the Experimental Stations in Trinidad and Jamaica and the Botanical Gardens in most of the islands. By 1908 separate Departments of Agriculture had been set up in Jamaica, Trinidad and British Guiana to deal with the problems within their own territories. Even in the small islands like Antigua, Barbados and St Kitts, where sugar made up over 90 per cent of the exports, there were experiments with alternative crops. The Department was particularly hopeful for the Windward Islands, which had a history of alternative export crops and active small farming. TheImperialGovernmentpaidfortheDepartment in Barbados and subsidised the Experimental Stations and Botanical Gardens. In Trinidad in 1922 the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture took over the work of the Department and, in 1960, this became the Faculty of Agriculture in the University College of the West Indies.
- 133. 124 ConstitutionalDevelopments intheBritishCaribbeaninthe NineteenthCentury Breakdown of therepresentative system of government The representative system This was adopted in British colonial government in the North American colonies and the West Indies, but it was not applied to British colonies elsewhere until very modern times. It developed in the Americas because many of the colonies started off as proprietary colonies. In their original charters, the king gave the proprietor the right to summon the freemen of the colony to meet in an assembly. Early colonies in the Americas also differed from later British colonies in that they had a large proportion of free English settlers. They wanted representation in the government of their colony, just as the landed classeshadrepresentationintheHouseofCommons in England. Apart from Barbados, which had its Assembly in 1639, most of the West Indian Assemblies developed in the Civil War period and the Commonwealth, 1642 to 1653, when the English Parliament was asserting itself successfully. On the restoration of Charles II these Assemblies were given formal recognition. The St Kitts’ Assembly is first mentioned in 1650. Probably Antigua’s Assembly dates from the same time. By 1663 there were six colonial Assemblies and this remained the number until the eighteenth century. After the Seven Years’ War, George III granted Constitutions to the conquered islands which authorised the calling of local Assemblies. The Assemblies of Grenada and St Vincent date from 1766 and Dominica’s from 1775. Conditions had changed in that black slaves made up the majority of the population in each island, Paul Bogle
- 134. 125 but the representativeprinciple was an established part of West Indian government. The first Assemblies were summoned from amongst the freemen of the island. Indentured servants and slaves had no political rights. The sugar revolution led to a great decline in the number of freemen and an increase in the number of slaves, which made the Assemblies even more unrepresentative than they had been before. Even among the free whites, membership of the Assemblies was exclusive and the franchise was qualitative, depending on property or education. The Legislative Council was even more exclusive. Colonies were governed by oligarchies – a few relatively prosperous free white landowners. Probably when an Assembly was first summoned, all the freemen attended, but as the population grew this became impossible. The freemen then chose some of their number to represent them. This is how the ‘representative’ idea arose. Choosing was probably by acclamation at first, then by a show of hands. Choosing representatives in public made it more likely that the most prominent citizens would become members of the Assemblies. The richest planters would probably be nominated by the governor to the Legislative Council. The less wealthy, but still relatively prosperous, would be elected to the Assembly. So the government would be an oligarchy of wealth as well as number. When a merchant class arose, they were represented in the Assembly, but not in the Legislative Council, where for a long time the possession of land seemed to be an unwritten qualification. After emancipation it was ridiculous to apply the term ‘representative’ to the Assemblies. They representedunderonepercentofthetotalpopulation in most colonies. Out of a total population of about 20 000 in St Kitts in 1850, only 160 were qualified to vote. This was an average of about eighteen voters per parish. At the same time the members of the Antigua Assembly were representing on average only seventeen voters each. Jamaica was even worse, for under half of one per cent of the population could vote. When the Assemblies had become so obviously unrepresentative, they were serving no useful purpose for the colony as a whole. They were just serving the selfish interests of a minority. The British government saw how unfair and out of date the Assemblies were, but did not want to extend representation to masses of illiterate blacks. It was thought that British governors and officials could represent the majority of the people within the Crown Colony system. Non-cooperative Assemblies Lack of cooperation from the Assemblies and their frequent conflicts with the governors encouraged the British government to abolish them. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the tendency towards conflict with the metropolitan government grew.Thegovernoralwayshadtheultimateauthority, but if he could work with the cooperation of the Assembly, it appeared that he was ruling according to the wishes of the people. The Assemblies, on the other hand, wanted to control the administration themselves and make the governor a figurehead. The metropolitan government would not let this happen and the governor frequently had to insist on very unpopular legislation such as the Navigation Acts. This caused conflict in the seventeenth century. The Assemblies wanted control over taxation and expenditure. Because an island’s revenue came from taxes on the freemen, it was felt that their representatives should control it. This principle had been established in the first parliament in England in the thirteenth century, Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbetur (That which concerns everyone ought to be approved by everyone). In wartime, colonial Assemblies voted money readily, but in peacetime this was not so. The governor was dependent on the Assembly for money to carry on his administration. By threatening to withhold money, or by actually withholding it, the Assemblies could force the governors to do what they wanted. The conflict between the Assembly and the Governor in Jamaica was long and bitter. In 1791 the Assembly had used its ‘power of the purse’ to force the Governor to send a force to St Domingue to assist the royalists. Further conflict arose over the abolition of the slave trade which caused great bitterness in the Assembly. In 1811 there were rumours of a party in the Jamaican Assembly that wanted political separation from Britain. The conflict grew deeper over amelioration. In 1823 the House of Assembly protested against ‘interference
- 135. 126 in their internallegislation’. Therefore, by the 1820s, the British government was considering ending the representative system in Jamaica. The Jamaican Assembly became increasingly uncooperative in voting money. It was clear that it would do nothing to help the freed slaves. The West Indian Prisons Act of 1838 brought into the open all the bitterness which the Jamaican Assembly had been nurturing against the British government over abolition and emancipation. By this Act colonial governors were empowered to take control of the regulation and management of prisons. The Jamaican Assembly refused to pass the Act on the grounds that it was an interference in its internal affairs. The Governor dissolved the Assembly and wanted to suspend the Jamaican Constitution. In 1839 he introduced a bill to put all legislative power in the hands of the Governor and Council for five years. However, his successor made a compromise with the Assembly which saved it for the time being. This was short-lived, because the Sugar Duties Equalisation Act renewed the conflict. The Assembly wanted the British government to repeal the measure, but the latter refused. From 1849 to 1853 the Jamaican Assembly refused to renew the Revenue Acts or to vote other monies. In 1853 Sir Henry Barkly, who had found a solution to a similar problem in British Guiana, was sent to Jamaica. He saved the Jamaican Assembly for another ten years by persuading it to agree to an amendment to the Constitution in 1856. An Executive Committee consisting of three members of the Assembly and one member of the Legislative Council would carry out the administration with the Governor. The Executive Committee was a device to bypass the Assembly in the control of finance, leaving it with only the control of local government, social services and the Militia. Barkly was able to ‘persuade’ the Assembly to accept this reform by offering a loan of £500 000 to tide Jamaica over the difficulties caused by the equalisation of sugar duties. Executive Committees were established in other islands but were soon abandoned. It was obvious that a more radical constitutional change was necessary to counteract the obstructiveness of the Assemblies. The irresponsible attitude of the Assemblies did not help their cause. By the mid-nineteenth century themajorityofthepopulationeverywherewasblack. Therecouldbenoprogressuntiltheywereallowedto participate in economic and political development. The Assemblies still wanted to suppress the blacks. Sir Lionel Smith, an earlier Governor of Jamaica, wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1838 as follows: It is impossible for anyone to answer for the conduct of the House of Assembly. Many are there in the island who would be delighted to get up an insurrection for the pleasure of destroying the negroes and missionaries. They are, in fact, mad. The irresponsibility of the few towards the many prevented progress. The judiciary In the British islands the organisation and conduct of the judiciary was the most neglected part of the Constitution until long after emancipation. For the majority of the population before 1834, the slaves, justice was administered on the plantation by the overseer. The public courts dealt with only the free, and only the white population came under their jurisdiction. Thekeynoteofthejudicialsystemwasamateurism. Very few magistrates and judges were trained in the law. At the lowest level the British West Indies copied the English amateur magistracy of justices of the peace, though they were usually referred to as ‘magistrates’. They were invariably members of the rich planter class because they were not paid for their services. Even at the level of judge, non-professional menwerechosen;agoodsocialandfinancialstanding was the usual qualification governors looked for in appointing judges. For example, in Barbados in 1700 there were thirty-nine judges, a ridiculously high number considering that there were only about 18 000 people under their jurisdiction. Not one of these judges was trained in the law. The white community in Barbados was divided into cliques, and the administration of justice was far from impartial. The poor whites had little hope of favourable decisions. Even the Chief Justice was often untrained. A report from Jamaica in 1774 said that probably only two trained barristers had ever held the post
- 136. 127 AN ADVOCATE OFFRANCHISE REFORM Samuel Jackman Prescod (1806–1871), who was the illegitimate son of a free coloured woman and a white planter, was born in Barbados. Not much is known of his life before the late 1820s, when he began to make a name for himself in a campaign for extending the rights of the island’s free coloured population. He had a variety of jobs as a young man, but eventually found his niche as the editor of the Liberal, a newspaper in which for the next quarter of a century he pressed for franchise reform and the granting of civil rights to the labouring population. In 1843 he became the first non-white man ever to be elected to the Barbados Assembly. During the twenty years he spent in the Assembly he continued to press for a widening of the franchise, arguing that the working class could only make real progress if given the vote. Although he failed to move the ruling oligarchy, and retired from the Assembly some years before his death as Assembly Building, Nassau Samuel Jackman Prescod a disappointed man, he is still remembered for his efforts and was made a National Hero of Barbados in 1998.
- 137. 128 of Chief Justice.Social standing and wealth seemed more important qualifications for the post. The younger Christopher Codrington lamented this situation in Barbados in 1701 and asked for an Attorney General to be appointed to help the Governor deal with appeals, but the Colonial Office seemed to dislike professionalism as much as the islands. In the eighteenth century every parish usually had a court. In the larger islands there were precinct courts as well. These minor courts could deal with cases up to £20 if they were under a judge, and up to £2 under a justice of the peace. In Jamaica all the magistratesinaparishcameunderthechairmanship of a ‘Custos’ who acted as the ‘guardian’ of the law in that parish. The larger islands, like Jamaica, had their own Supreme Courts, but the smaller islands, like the Leewards, shared a Supreme Court. Within an island, appeal could be made from a minor court to a higher court, and from the Supreme Court to the Governor who then sat with his Council as a court of appeal. Outside an island, an appeal went to the Privy Council in England but the case had to be serious, like a murder in a criminal case, or a sum of over £500 in a civil case. It is not surprising that many appeals from the West Indies were successful in view of the amateurish state of their judiciaries. Local government The system of local government in the West Indies was even older than that of the Assemblies. In 1629 Sir William Tufton, Governor of Barbados, divided the island into parishes. Each parish came under the local Vestry, a church body originally, but adapted to carry out local government. On the Vestry was the vicar or minister, and prominent citizens of the parish who by the eighteenth century were elected. The justices of the peace sat on the Vestry ex officio. The functions of the Vestry were to maintain the courts and the prisons, register births, deaths and marriages, look after the poor and orphans, and sometimes provide sanitary and health services. Status of Trinidad, St Lucia and British Guiana The three territories acquired in the Napoleonic Wars were not given the same status as the existing colonies. Where their government institutions were well established, as in the case of Trinidad and British Guiana, they were allowed to keep them. Trinidad Trinidad, captured in 1797 and formally handed over by Spain in 1802, became a Crown Colony. By an Order-in-Council of 1815 the Crown retained the right to legislate for Trinidad. The British residents in Trinidad wanted an Assembly, but in 1815 they were very much in a minority. If they had been given an assembly, they would have taken control of the island because the Spanish and French, both more numerous, would have been excluded from the government as foreigners. The British govern- ment refused to allow such unfairness. Another important consideration in adopting Crown Colony government was that the Spanish system had been by direct rule of the Crown. However, perhaps most important was the fact that the British government had some unpopular legislation to pass, namely abolition and emancipation. It would be easy to enforce these measures in Trinidad by Order-in- Council, but difficult if an Assembly existed. As few constitutional changes as possible were made. The policy was to let the changes come about gradually when the island was ready. The Spanish language and laws continued and the English language was not used in the courts until 1814, seventeen years after the takeover. A non-elective legislative council was established in Trinidad in 1831. Major constitutional change did not take place in central government for over 100 years. St Lucia France formally ceded St Lucia to Britain in 1815. It was not given an Assembly, but was ruled as a Crown Colony until 1838, when it was placed under the authority of the Governor of Barbados. This lasted until 1885, when St Lucia became part of the Windward Islands Colony under a governor based in Grenada. British Guiana Britain took over Berbice, Demerara and Essequibo from the Dutch in 1814. In 1831 they were united to formBritishGuiana.Itwasnotgivenarepresentative
- 138. 129 Assembly because italready had two representative bodies, the Court of Policy and the Combined Court, which consisted of the Court of Policy and six Financial Representatives. The Combined Court was the equivalent of an Assembly in the old islands except for the method of election. The two courts were indirectly elected. In a primary election the planterschoseanelectoralcollege,theKiezers.Inthe secondary election the Kiezers chose the members of the Court of Policy and the Combined Court. Under the terms of the capitulation in 1803, the British promised to keep this rather complicated Constitution. As with Trinidad, the British wanted the transfer of power to be as smooth as possible and to let changes come about gradually. In the first half of the nineteenth century the Combined Court proved just as uncooperative as the Assemblies. It used the power of the purse to try to make the government pass the laws it wanted. For example, in 1840 it would not vote supply unless an immigration act was passed because the planters wanted East Indian indentured labour at the government’s expense. In 1848 the Combined Court wanted the Sugar Duties Equalisation Act repealed and insisted on a 25 per cent cut in officials’ salaries. They said that they would not vote supply unless the Governor accepted these measures. Sir Henry Barkly persuaded the Combined Court to give way without reducing the salaries on the Civil List by offering a loan which was spent on immigrant labour schemes. Therefore, by 1865 all British territories except Trinidad had their own Assemblies, or participated in a ‘federal’ Assembly, as in the case of the Windwards. British Guiana had a sort of Assembly in the Combined Court. Ten years later most of these colonial Assemblies had disappeared. Their survival was doubtful anyway, but it was the influence of events that took place in Jamaica in 1865 which brought most of them to an end between 1866 and 1875. The Morant Bay Rebellion The hardships of the 1850s and 1860s In the mid-nineteenth century, conditions in the British West Indies were mostly bad, and nowhere more so than in Jamaica. The sugar industry was in decline due to high costs and out-of-date methods. These economic problems were made worse by the Sugar Duties Equalisation Act 1846 which reduced the price of sugar by up to 10 shillings per cwt. Planters were giving up, thus throwing thousands of labourers out of work. Those who were still employed had been forced to accept a reduction in wages and were being paid between 9d and 1s per day by 1860. Most people were dependent on cash income for food, but the price of food was rising due to the American Civil War, 1861–65. Supplies of the popular, traditional foods were cut. On top of these man-made difficulties came a succession of calamities. In 1850 to 1854 a cholera THE LOUISA CALDERON CASE The transition from Spanish to British rule in Trinidad was long and far from easy. After the island was captured in 1797 a British general, Thomas Picton, was appointed as the military governor with instructions to govern in accordancewiththeexistingSpanishlaws.Soon after being made the civil governor in 1801, he was faced with a case in which evidence was required from a young girl, Louisa Calderon, who was accused of being an accessory to a robbery in Port of Spain. As under Spanish law a mild form of torture was permitted to obtain such evidence Picton, obeying his instructions from London about the continued use of the Spanish system, had no option but to allow the interrogation to take place. In the event Calderon suffered very little, but as a result of her evidence the robber was found, tried, fined and banished from the island. Picton, on the other hand, was then made out to be a monster of depravity, and in 1803 brought to trial in England accused of ‘unheard-of-cruelties’. He was found guilty to begin with, but a re-trial in 1806 cleared his name when the court found That by the Law of Spain torture existed in Trinidad at the time of the cession of the Island to Great Britain and that no malice existed against Louisa Calderon independent of the illegality of the act.
- 139. 130 epidemic swept throughthe Caribbean. It struck Jamaica in 1851 and 40 000 deaths were recorded. In the next year a smallpox epidemic killed thousands more. Thousands were left destitute when the money-earners in the family died. The British government thought it was the concern of the Jamaican Assembly to provide relief, but the latter did little to help. On top of all these troubles came three years of extraordinary drought up to 1865, reducing the peasants to a state of desperation. The key personalities There were three men whose names will for ever be remembered in connection with the rebellion: those of the white English Governor, Edward Eyre; a coloured Jamaican Assemblyman, George Gordon; and a black Jamaican peasant, Paul Bogle. Edward John Eyre (1815–1901), who had had some twenty years of experience as a colonial administrator in Australia and New Zealand as well as in the Windward and Leeward Islands, was made Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica in 1862. He soon fell out with the Assembly, but the moves made to have him removed the following year all failed and he took over as Governor in 1864. This infuriated the Assembly and from then on he and that part of the legislature were mostly at loggerheads. As Governor, Eyre either failed to appreciate the distress of the black population or he turned a blind eye. He was supported by those planters who were far removed from any suffering themselves, who regarded compassion as a sign of weakness, and who in any case had little time for the complaints of the peasantry. George William Gordon (1815–1865) was the son of a Scottish estate owner and one of his slaves, who was freed by his father and set up in business. At the same time as achieving success as a businessman he developed a passionate interest in religion and politics, and soon became a vocal champion of the poor black population. He became a member of the Native Baptist sect in 1860 and preached in the chapelshebuiltinKingstonandintheeasternparish of St Thomas. After his election to the Assembly for St Thomas-in-the-East in 1863 his advocacy for the rights of the blacks, combined with his adherence to what was considered a ‘native’, lower-class religion, alienated him from both the white and coloured sections of society. Paul Bogle, whose place and year of birth, like everything else about his life before 1865, remain unknown, was by that year a peasant farmer in the village of Stony Gut, a few miles from Morant Bay in St Thomas parish. He was also deacon of a Native Baptist chapel he had established there, having some years earlier been ordained as such by Gordon. Morant Bay Town in the mid-nineteenth century
- 140. 131 Events leading tothe rebellion 1 Underhill meetings In April 1863, Dr Edward Underhill, secretary of the Baptist Mission Council in England, visited Jamaica and stayed until January 1865. During this period he kept a notebook about life and conditions in Jamaica, noting especially the hardships caused by the drought and the rising prices resulting from the American Civil War. At the end of his visit he wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies about the distress of the peasants. The Secretary of State asked Eyre for his comments. Eyre said that the report was an exaggeration. The Established Church and government officials agreed with Eyre. Throughout Jamaica meetings were held by the poor to complain about their conditions and to ask for relief. These meetings were early signs that the poor were preparing to act themselves because there was no help forthcoming from the government. Gordon addressed one particular stormy, crowded meeting in Kingston in May 1865 which was later used as evidence that he was stirring up the people to rebel. 2 The Queen’s advice Early in 1865 some people from the northern parish of St Ann sent a petition to Queen Victoria giving details of their poverty, requesting help and asking, in particular, to be allowed to cultivate Crown Land. They had faith in Queen Victoria because they believed that she had been responsible for their emancipation. Perhaps because of Eyre’s response to the Underhill report, the Secretary of State drafted an unsympathetic reply on behalf of the Queen, which was sent to Jamaica in June 1865. It stated that the peasants could find their own remedy by working for wages, not uncertainly or capriciously, but steadily and continuously at the times when their labour is wanted, and for so long as it is wanted ... from their own industry and prudence and not from any such schemes as have been suggested to them, that they must look for an improvement in their conditions. Governor Eyre had 50 000 copies of the reply published and displayed throughout the island. The peasants were shocked at its heartlessness and thought that Eyre had forged it. With no help from the government and a feeling of being let down by the Queen, the people were on the verge of rebellion. 3 The march to Spanish Town In the east in St Thomas by August 1865, Bogle was beginning to differ from Gordon about what course of action the people should take to alleviate their distress. Gordon favoured constitutional action through further petitions to the British Parliament. Bogle made an attempt to petition Governor Eyre by leading a march from Stony Gut to Spanish Town, but Eyre refused to see him. Bogle and his followers walked the 40 miles (65 km) back to Stony Gut planning what they would do next. Then Bogle seems to have decided that violence was the only way. He started to hold secret meetings in Stony Gut, and began to train and arm his followers. The rebellion On 7 October 1865, Paul Bogle led 200 armed men to Morant Bay Court House. When the magistrate ordered a man’s arrest for contempt of court, Bogle’s Edward John Eyre
- 141. 132 men rescued himfrom the police and fled to Stony Gut. Two days later the police came with warrants to arrest Bogle and others, but they were beaten off. Eyre ordered troops to be sent into the area. On 11 October the rebellion began. The Vestry was meeting on that day and in view of the situation the whites went to the meeting in force and armed. They also told the local volunteer Militia to be in attendance. Seeing such a show of force, the blacks were inflamed. They thronged into Morant Bay, attacking a police station on their way and taking arms. Because of the seriousness of the situation, the CustosorderedtheRiotActtoberead.Thisprovoked stone-throwing and the Militia opened fire, killing a number of blacks. Thereafter, pandemonium broke out. The mob charged the Militia and drove them into the court house. Then they set the court house on fire and killed those magistrates and Militiamen who tried to flee. In all about thirty-five people were killed, eighteen of them white. Lawlessness prevailed in town and there was violence and looting. Bogle returned to Stony Gut to prepare for the coming of the troops. Some irresponsible people took advantage of the breakdown of law and order to raid the nearby plantations. From 11 to 15 October more whites were murdered and their property damaged. The troops that Eyre had ordered on 9 October arrived on 12 October. First they went into Morant Bay and buried the dead. By this time Morant Bay was quiet, but the rebellion was widespread in St Thomas. Governor Eyre ordered more troops to this area and arranged for others to be stationed in the west of the island to stop the revolt spreading. He also called up two warships. At this stage the key to the success or failure of the rebellion depended on the attitude of the Maroons. Bogle thought that they would join their black brothers, but they did not. They joined the government side and were in fact just as brutal as the local Militia in suppressing the rebellion. Eyre proclaimed martial law throughout the whole of the eastern end of the island. From 15 to 23 October the troops swept the countryside, putting an end to all resistance. However, even after the capture of Paul Bogle by the Maroons in Stony Gut .BODIJPOFBM 4633: 1PSU.BSJB 45.3: 45(03( 45/%38 45%7*% 1035-/% 455)0.4*/ 5)45 4QBOJTI5PXO (PSEPO5PXO ,JOHTUPO SOUVMMZ(BQ 4UPOZ(VU :BMMBIT .PSBOU#BZ #PHMFTNBSDIUPBOEGSPN4QBOJTI5PXO 1PSU.PSBOU LN NJMFT 4UPLFT)BMM Map 8 Eastern Jamaica at the time of the Morant Bay Rebellion
- 142. 133 on 23 October,martial law continued. It was ended on 13 November, much later than was necessary. The repression The horror of the Indian Mutiny of 1857 is often put forward as the excuse for Eyre’s ordering of the brutality that accompanied the suppressing of the rebellion. In the Indian Mutiny native Indian troops sadistically murdered white men, women, children and even babies. The retaliation by the British was equally atrocious. Governor Eyre acted as if the Morant Bay Rebellion was a miniature Indian Mutiny. The worst acts were committed by the Militia, some men of the First West India Regiment and the Maroons. The troops and sailors landed from the Onyx and Wolverine, the two warships which Eyre had ordered, behaved more responsibly. The Militia and the West India Regiment killed about fifty rebels without trial, and the Maroons killed twenty-five. Any person suspected of having been in the rebellion was shot. About 1000 homes were deliberately and unnecessarily set fire to, leaving many of the poorest people homeless. Many people were executed by sentence of the courts martial. The presiding officers were inexperienced and lacked instruction on how to proceed. They accepted any kind of evidence in capital charges and hanged 354 people. Others were flogged on no evidence at all. The total casualty list for the Morant Bay Rebellion was 608 killed in the fighting or by execution, about 600 flogged and 1000 homes destroyed. WhentheMorantBayRebellionoccurred,George William Gordon was in Kingston which was outside the martial law area. Gordon gave himself up as he knew Eyre would blame him for the rebellion. This was on 17 October. He was taken to Port Morant so that he could be tried by court martial. He faced the court on 21 October and was found guilty of high treason. He was hanged on 23 October on gallows erected on the site of the Morant Bay Court House. Later the same day, Bogle, too, was hanged there. Judgement on Eyre The opinion of whites and coloureds, as expressed in the Assembly and the newspapers, was that Eyre had acted legally and correctly in his repression of the rebellion. They felt that he had stopped a racial war in Jamaica by his firm action. Eyre had acted legally because there was martial law at the time. However, there is a vast difference between the letter of the law and a reasonable and humane application of it. In the case of Gordon there are grounds for saying that Eyre acted illegally. There is no doubt that Eyre over-reacted to the dangers at Morant Bay. Modern opinion considers that it was just a local revolt and would not have led to a racial war in Jamaica. The proclamation of martial law was necessary, but Eyre allowed it to go on for too long. He also allowed the troops and the courts martial to behave in an unnecessarily harsh way. About Gordon, Eyre said a year later: I can only repeat my conviction that however defective it may have been in a strictly legal point of view, Mr Gordon was the proximate occasion of the insurrection, and of the cruel massacre of particular individuals whom he regarded as his personal enemies, and that, therefore, he suffered justly. However, Gordon denied that he had stirred up the violence. After his sentence he wrote to his wife: All I ever did was to recommend the people who complained to seek redress in a legitimate way. I did not expect that, not being a rebel, I should have been tried and disposed of in this way. Paul Bogle told his accusers in his court martial that Gordon had never told him to use violence. It is very doubtful that Gordon wanted anything like the rebellion to happen. Eyre acted illegally in bringing Gordon from Kingston into a martial law area in order to secure his conviction. There is absolutely no evidence that Gordon told the mob to murder anyone. People in the West Indies and in England were uneasy about Eyre’s conduct and did not want him to escape justice. A Royal Commission under Sir HenryStorks,hissuccessorasGovernor,investigated the complaints while Eyre was still on the island. It praised Eyre for his prompt action in suppressing the rebellion and justified his proclamation of martial law. It considered that there had been a danger of rebellion spreading throughout the island
- 143. 134 and even furtherafield into other islands. It did not comment on Eyre’s treatment of Gordon. However, it remarked unfavourably on the excessive number of death sentences, the brutality of the floggings and the wanton destruction of houses. The British Parliament took almost the same view. However, the Secretary of State was harder on Eyre and accused him of a lack of ‘sound judgement’. Therefore, Eyre was suspended from office and retired to England. He maintained silence about the Morant Bay Rebellion for the rest of his life and died in 1901 at the age of eighty-six. Gordon and Bogle were declared National Heroes of Jamaica when the Order was established in 1969. The change to Crown Colony government The Morant Bay Rebellion brought a swift end to the representative system of government in Jamaica and thereafter in nearly all the other colonies. The Britishgovernmentdidnothavetoorderthechange: the colonial Assemblies abolished themselves. Four considerations influenced their actions: 1 Governor Eyre had convinced the white ruling classes in Jamaica that the Morant Bay Rebellion was just a forerunner of a racial war. He argued that strong government was necessary so that decisions could be made quickly and carried out with all the power of the metropolitan government. The Crown Colony system would mean direct rule by Britain without the delays and conflicts caused by an Assembly. 2 The Assembly also feared that, as more people acquired the vote, the blacks would swamp the whites in the Assembly. The whites, mistakenly, thought that Crown Colony government would protect their privileged position. 3 There would be the relief from the constant conflicts over taxation and expenditure. The Assembly had frequently tried to deny the government the money it needed for administration. The Morant Bay Rebellion had demonstrated what resources the government commanded, the extra troops and warships which could be summoned so promptly. There would still be taxation under Crown Colony government but its necessity would no longer be questioned. 4 Promptness of action was achieved at Morant Bay because the Governor had proclaimed martial law and could legislate by decree. Crown Colony government would allow the Governor to operate with a free hand and no delays. Crown Colony government in Jamaica The local Assembly handed over all responsibility for making a new Constitution to the British government which then issued an Order-in-Council setting up the Crown Colony. Thereafter, the British government always had the right to legislate by Order-in-Council for the island in constitutional and other matters. In December 1865 the Jamaican Assembly passed an Act dissolving itself. Then they proposed a single Legislative Chamber in which there would be twelve nominated and twelve elected members. However, the Secretary of State would not accept the elective principle because it would perpetuate all the faults of the old representative system. He insisted on a single, completely nominated chamber. Therefore, the Jamaican Legislative Council pass- ed a second Act which said: In place of the Legislative abolished by the first section of the recent Act, it shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen to create and constitute a government for this island, in such form, and with such powers as to Her Majesty may seem best fitting, and from time to time to alter or amend such government. This shows clearly how all constitution-making power was handed over to Britain. Following this, in June 1866, by Order of the Queen in Council, a Legislative Council consisting of six officials and any number of nominated members (six in practice) was called for October 1866. By this time Jamaica had a number of dependen- cies: 1 Turks and Caicos Islands These were separated from the Bahamas in 1848, and made a colony subordinate to Jamaica. The colony was estab- lished with a single-chamber legislature under a president, with four nominated and four elected members. In 1873, at the request of the legislature, the islands were annexed to Jamaica and placed under a commissioner.
- 144. 135 2 British HondurasThe Honduras Settlement was finally created a British Colony in 1862, with a Lieutenant-Governor subordinate to the Governor of Jamaica. In 1871 the Legislative Assemblyvotedtoendrepresentativegovernment and become a Crown Colony. British Honduras was freed from all connection with Jamaica in 1884. 3 Cayman Islands These islands, which had long been under the titular control of the Governor of Jamaica, were formally annexed to Jamaica in 1863. Crown Colony government in the Windward Islands The islands of St Vincent, Grenada and Tobago made their own constitutional changes through votes in their own legislatures. In 1867 St Vincent established a single-chamber legislature with six nominated and six elected members. In 1875 Grenada did the same thing, but with nine nominated and only eight elected members. Tobago was different again, in setting up a single-chamber legislature in 1874 with a majority of members being elected. In 1876 all three islands surrendered their Constitutions, and a year later became Crown Colonies, each with an all-nominated Legislative Council. In 1889 Tobago was amalgamated with Trinidad, and ten years later became a ward of the unified colony of Trinidad and Tobago. Crown Colony government in the Leeward Islands In 1854 the Virgin Islands established a single- chamber legislature with three nominated and six elected members. In 1861 Montserrat followed suit, with a legislature of four nominated and eight elected members. Two years later a single-chamber legislature was set up in Dominica with nine nominated and nineteen elected members. In 1866 they all joined Antigua, St Kitts and Nevis in voting for chambers consisting of a majority of nominated members or, in the case of the Virgin Islands and Montserrat, for an entirely nominated legislature. As their Constitutions were changed in this way the British government was not given power to legislate for them by Order-in-Council. In 1878 St Kitts and Nevis amended their Constitutions to bring in completely nominated chambers, and in 1898 Antigua and Dominica did the same. Bahamas, Bermuda and Barbados These colonies retained their old Constitutions without change in this period. Therefore, their Assemblies survived. Barbados, for example, felt that there was no reason to give up its old Constitution. There was little racial tension so that they had no fear of the Morant Bay Rebellion influencing the blacks in Barbados. The planter class was almost completely white but the island was so small and so much a one- crop economy that this mattered less than in other islands. Barbadians had a very strong attachment to their Assembly. It was the oldest in the British West Indies and had served the island well. The coloureds were as proud of the Assembly as the whites. In 1843 a coloured man named Samuel Prescod had become a member of the Assembly and he saw it as the way to reform what was wrong in the island. He hoped that more people would be given the vote so that coloureds and blacks could win greater representation in the Assembly. In 1876 Barbados nearly lost its Assembly because of the conflict between the Governor, John Pope- Hennessy, and the Assembly over the proposed Windward Islands Federation. Barbados did not wanttojoin,partlybecausetheFederationwasunder Crown Colony government. Pope-Hennessy wanted the Assembly abolished because of its opposition, buttheSolicitor-General,ConradReeves,andothers fought to save it. After serious riots in Barbados, Pope-Hennessy was withdrawn and posted to Hong Kong. The Barbados Assembly survived. In 1881 the Assembly amended the Constitution and set up an Executive Committee with financial control. This was to stop possible conflicts between Governor and Assembly over money matters. It was known that the British government favoured executive committees, although they had not been successful in other colonies. Crown Colony government at work Contrary to white expectations, the British gov- ernment and the Colonial Office intended Crown
- 145. 136 Colony government towork in any colony in the interests of the community as a whole. It was felt that its introduction gave the Crown a mandate to look after the needs of the majority of the people, which had been long neglected under the repre- sentative system it replaced. If the local government was serving the interests of a minority and neglect- ing those of the majority, machinery existed to put things right under the Crown Colony system. Any maladministration could be reported to the British Parliament. The Secretary of State for the Colonies was responsible to Parliament and would commu- nicate its orders or complaints direct to the appro- priate governor. The planter-dominated governments of the British West Indies had neglected public works and social services which would have benefited the people as a whole. Crown Colony government made such reforms a priority in order to fulfil its mandate of representing the people. For example, in Jamaica, Sir John Peter Grant, Governor from 1866 to 1874, did his utmost to repair the neglect of the past governments. First he put the island’s finances in order. Then he tackled long overdue reforms to benefit the common people. He set up new district courts throughout Jamaica and established a police force to take the place of the local volunteers. He created a Public Works Department which constructed many new roads serving peasant communities. He began a Health Service. Near the capital, the Rio Cobre irrigation scheme was undertaken on the Governor’s own initiative. This opened up new lands for the common people. In education, payment by results was introduced. The schoolswhichprovedtheirefficiencybythistestwere given higher grants. The money for education came from the funds released by the disestablishment of the Church of England, which Grant realised was not the church of the people. Under Crown Colony government, similar public works and social services were begun in other territories. Conclusion According to the usual process of constitutional development, Crown Colony government was a backwardstep.WestIndiannationalistshadaccepted Crown Colony government between 1866 and 1875 in the aftermath of the Morant Bay Rebellion. However, by about 1880, some nationalists were lamenting their loss of independence. They wanted the return of the elective principle and a majority of elected members in the legislature. The British government pointed out that the local Assemblies had voted the changes voluntarily. Once a colony had decided to accept Crown Colony government there was no point in half measures such as allowing some elected members in the Legislative Council. The Crown could only legislate effectively if the Governor was supported by the Legislative Council. Three classes could always be relied upon for support: the ex-officio members like the Attorney General, the Colonial (Chief) Secretary and the Financial Secretary; the nominated officials such as the Secretary for Health or the Secretary for Agriculture – any civil servants whom the Governor chose; and the nominated un- officials, those from the island society whom the Governor trusted for their loyal support. Colonies which started off with elected members in their single-chamber legislatures went over to completely nominated chambers so that the Crown would have no opposition in government.
- 146. 137 ReligionintheBritish CaribbeanintheNineteenth Century The Anglican Church TheAnglican Church is an episcopal organisation in which bishops are the key figures. It was involved in the British West Indian colonies from the beginning, but had an extremely poor record in any of them before 1800, neglecting the slaves until it was too late. Some reforms came at the approach of emancipation, but by then the Nonconformist Churches were active in converting the slaves. Consequently, after emancipation, most of the freed slaves rejected any connection with a Church which had previously rejected them. Church of England missions The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, founded by Royal Charter in 1701, did try to do something about converting the slaves, although it did not achieve very much in the face of white vested interests in the British islands. In 1794 the Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West Indian Islands was founded as a counterweight to the evangelical work of the Nonconformist Churches. The Church Missionary Society (1799) and the British and Foreign Bible Society (1803) were primarily directed at Africa, the East and the Pacific, but did some work in the West Indies. These organisations were not concerned with changing society, and in any case only the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had any real presence in the West Indies. The slaves themselves certainly felt little impact from the Church of England missions. The ruling classes would not cooperate with evangelicals, and the local Anglican clergy Dr Thomas Coke
- 147. 138 were more interestedin preserving the existing social order. Reforms in the Anglican Church InresponsetocompetitionfromtheNonconformists, early in the nineteenth century the Anglican Church attempted to improve its organisation in the West Indies. It tried to ensure that every parish had a church building in good repair and a resident clergyman. This was easier said than done. In 1800 Bishop Porteus of London set up a Commissary Court of five rectors in Jamaica to discipline the clergy. However, this achieved very little, and the first Bishop of Jamaica, Christopher Lipscomb, concluded in 1824 that it was necessary to wait for the old clergy to die before standards could be improved. Bishop Porteus also tried to encourage Sunday Schools in the West Indies but it was almost impossible to find teachers. The most valuable reform before 1824 was the reduction in fees for baptism from over twenty shillings to two shillings and sixpence. Later, in 1824, no fees were charged to slaves for baptism. The creation of two dioceses In 1824 an Act was passed which proposed the creation of two full dioceses in the British West Indies, paid for by the British Treasury. The Diocese of Jamaica, including British Honduras and the Bahamas, and the Diocese of Barbados, including St Vincent, Grenada, the Leewards, Trinidad and British Guiana, were established. It was hoped that this would improve the organisation of the church. The first two bishops were Christopher Lipscomb in Jamaica and William Hart Coleridge in Barbados. Their instructions were to instruct and discipline the clergy and report on what had been done for the slaves. Thiswasaccompaniedbyotherreforms.Thegrant to the West Indian Church was increased to about £20 000 per year, which enabled the two bishops to appoint more clergy. In the Diocese of Jamaica the number of clergy was increased to forty-five, and in Barbados to twenty-seven. However, it was difficult to raise the numbers and standard of the clergy immediately. The Church was still dependent on English-trained clergy. The first locally ordained clergy graduated from Codrington College in 1834. Most of them remained in Barbados, and Jamaica continued to rely heavily on English recruits. By 1833 Bishop Coleridge was able to report an increase in the number of church buildings, clergy, congregations and those taking the sacraments. The number of Anglican schools also increased. However, the reforms of 1824 came too late to attract the slaves to the Anglican Church, except in Barbados. Post-emancipation period The same trends were followed in the post- emancipation period. From 1834 the Negro Education Grant paid £30 000 per year (later £40 000) for schools in the British West Indies. The Church of England’s share of this was channelled through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The Society was also authorised to take collections in church to help towards its missionary work. In the decade following emancipation it had funds totalling nearly £200 000 at its disposal, most of which went on education. Money from England was matched by local grants. The local vestries voted so much for the recruitment of new clergy that the bishops were at a loss to find the men. The island governments also increased their grants to the Established Church. In 1841 the Jamaican Assembly voted it £66 000. The number of Anglican clergy in the post- emancipation decade more than doubled. In the Diocese of Jamaica there were about ninety clergy by 1845 and about seventy in the Diocese of Barbados. Spread over such a vast area as the Caribbean they could not be effectively supervised by only two bishops, even though the size of the flock was very small by English standards. Inevitably more bishops and new dioceses had to be created. In 1842 the Diocese of Antigua and the Diocese of Guiana were created; in 1861 the Diocese of Nassau (Bahamas); in 1872, the Diocese of Trinidad; in 1879, the Diocese of the Windward Islands; and four years later, the Diocese of British Honduras. In 1883 the Archdiocese of the West Indies was also established. Thus, by the end of the nineteenth century, there was better supervision of the clergy and some improvement of standards.
- 148. 139 The disestablishment ofthe Church of England The Church of England as the ‘official’ Church enjoyed a privileged position in the British islands. It was the Church of the ruling classes. However, establishment did not interfere with freedom of choiceinreligion.Therewasnolegaldisabilityfornot being a member of the Established Church, except that occasionally a Nonconformist was excluded from Vestry membership. A Nonconformist could vote, sit in the legislature, hold government office and serve in the armed forces. Often a person aspiring to rise in society would transfer from being a Nonconformist to being an Anglican, but this was for social reasons only. The proposals to disestablish the Church of England came from the British government, but the final decision was left to the island governments. It met with no open opposition, except in Barbados, and therefore disestablishment took place between 1868 and 1870. Disestablishment was not only confined to the British West Indies. The reasons which prompted it applied in a world-wide context: 1 The British government wanted to stop paying grants to the Church in the colonies. 2 It was felt that local Churches could, and should, pay for themselves. 3 The theory of ‘one state, one church’ had been an essential in the days of absolute monarchy but had no validity in democratic times. Freedom of religion was almost universally accepted. 4 Establishment caused unwanted social and racial divisions. 5 (Without doubt the strongest reason) In many parts of the empire, the Church of England, although the state Church, was a minority Church. In 1870, in the British West Indies as a whole, the Church of England had the support of about one-third of the population; in Jamaica, just over one-quarter. Only in Barbados was the Church of England the Church of the majority. In the early 1860s, governors were sent out to the British West Indies with instructions to assess local feelings on disestablishment. The reaction was favourable, and in 1868 the British government stopped the £20 000 per year grant to the Church in the West Indies. This measure was called ‘disendowment’. It was pointed out that disendowment would amount to disestablishment and it was opposed in the House of Lords until the colonies themselves said that the grant was no longer needed. Then the island governments passed their own Disestablishment Acts. In Jamaica, when the government withdrew support from the Church of England, the property of the Church was not nationalised, but still belonged to the Church. To enable it to hold property legally it had to be made a corporation. By the Jamaica Disestablishment Act of 1870, all churches, rectories, vicarages and schools were transferred to the new corporation. Other islands followed, with St Vincent, in 1883, the last to do so because the Church there could not support itself as easily as the others. Disestablishment brought little change to the Church, except financially. Stipends were paid by the governments while the incumbents were alive, but as they died the parishes had to find the money for the new clergy themselves. Therefore, the death of a rector cost each parish between £300 and £400 a year and many parishes then found it difficult to support a rector. In spite of disestablishment, the Anglican Church continued to be the Church of the ruling classes, the upper classes and the whites. Barbados The exception in the West Indies was Barbados, where disestablishment was resisted for the follow- ing reasons: 1 The Anglican Church was the Church of the majority. About 70 per cent of the population belonged to it. 2 There was little social division on the grounds of religion. 3 There were so many blacks in the Established Church that it could not be called ‘the Church of the whites’. 4 Codrington College was in Barbados. The Anglican clergy there were locally born and locally trained. The Barbados government wanted to support its Church. 5 The influence of the early bishops, Coleridge and his successor, Thomas Parry, and the principal
- 149. 140 of Codrington College,the Reverend Richard Rawle, ensured that the Church was well founded and popular. 6 BarbadoshadsuccessfullyresistedCrownColony government. This gave it the independence and strength of mind to resist disestablishment, which it considered Britain was trying to force on it. 7 State endowment ensured that absentee proprietors contributed to the upkeep of the Church, which they would not do if it became a voluntary matter. Therefore, in 1872, the Barbados Legislature con- firmed the Church of England as the Established Church by passing an Act which fixed the appoint- ments and stipends of a bishop, an archdeacon and clergy. Stipends would be paid by the government monthly. The parish vestries would continue to be responsible for the maintenance of churches, rectories,vicaragesandschools,andfortheexpenses of church services. The Anglican Church remained the Established Church in Barbados until 1969. Nonconformist Churches The Moravians Moravianism began in Bohemia in central Europe in about 1467, and the movement was renewed in 1722 at Herrnhut in Saxony, Germany. It was founded on the belief that the Bible was the authority for all conduct in life. Its members sought to imitate Christ in gentleness, poverty, patience and love of one’s enemies. They aimed at extending Christianity to the ends of the earth, so missionary work was of the utmost importance to them. Their first missions arrived at St Thomas in the Danish West Indies in 1732. They lived in close- knit communities which aimed at self-sufficiency, and their piety was very obvious. In fact, because of this, they aroused little opposition. The British Parliament passed an Act in 1749 encouraging Moravian missions in the British islands. Following this, a Moravian mission was established in Antigua in 1754. The Moravians remained numerically small and their ideas were confined to their communities. Only in Antigua did the Moravians form a significant proportion of the population, reaching 9000 by 1800. They were also active in Jamaica and Barbados. Their importance lies in the impact that they had onthemissionarymovementinotherChurches.The reports from their world-wide missions stimulated Protestant Churches to send out their own missions. Moravian missionaries were leaving Herrnhut throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, by the end of the period, other Churches had begun to follow them, firstly the Nonconformist Churches and later the Church of England. The Wesleyan Methodists ‘Methodists’ was a nickname given to a group of students led by John Wesley at Oxford University in 1729 because they were so earnest about their worship. They attended church regularly, studied the Bible in groups and put their Christianity into practice by visiting the Oxford prisons. Methodists simplified worship and insisted on a personal relationship with God. They stressed the power of the Holy Spirit to help a person believe in God. They had a ministry, but not an aloof hierarchy like the Church of England ministry. Methodist ministers worked in partnership with the laity. They also laid emphasis on good works, which consisted of helping the poor and underprivileged and on improving social conditions. Missionary activity was very important in Methodism. John Wesley and his brother, Charles, preached countless sermons on both sides of the Atlantic to people in all walks of life, but chiefly to the underprivileged who felt rejected by the Church of England. John Wesley himself kept the move- ment, theoretically, within the Church of England until 1784, but others had broken from the Church well before that. Methodism proved very attractive to the slaves. It had missionary emphasis, concern for the oppressed, refusal to be held down by the social system,relegationofthestatusoftheclergy,informal meetings as well as formal services and emphasis was placed on the personal relationship between the believer and God. Therefore, it is not surprising that it took root in the British West Indies. Methodism was introduced in Antigua in 1760 after Nathaniel
- 150. 141 Gilbert, the Speakerof the Assembly, had met John Wesley in England. It had spread to other islands by 1789 when Thomas Coke, the founder of the Methodist Missions, visited the West Indies. This led to the Methodist Missionary Society sending out twelve more missionaries. By 1800 there were about 7000 Methodists in Antigua, nearly all of whom were slaves. By 1838 the Methodists were next in number to the Roman Catholics and Anglicans in the West Indies, in spite of being persecuted for teaching Christianity to the slaves. The Baptists The Baptist Church had its origins in the Puritan movement in seventeenth-century England. Their churches were based on the New Testament churches. Each church had to be a self-governing body composed of believers only, not based on a territorial parish which included non-believers. Within the early Baptist movement, there was a split. The Particular Baptists felt that Christ died only for an elect, ‘The Chosen’, and only these were predestined for salvation. This belief was strongly Calvinist. The General Baptists felt that Christ died for all men. It was associated with Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch theologian, who emphasised man’s free will and salvation by good works. Therefore, these Baptists were sometimes called Arminians. Some Particular Baptist groups went to North America, but the American Loyalists who brought the Baptist Church to the British West Indies in 1776 were General Baptists. The following beliefs still form the basis of Baptist worship: 1 The Bible is the supreme authority for all conduct and belief. 2 The baptism of infants is not favoured. A person must be a believer before he can be baptised. 3 A church is composed of believers only, all those who place their trust in Christ. 4 All believers have an equal part in the life of the church. 5 Each church is self-governing and does not have to look to any outside authority. 6 The church and state are separate. Religion is a matter for each man’s conscience and there must be no outside interference. Baptist worship is distinguished by: 1 Plain, simple chapels; 2 A sermon based on the scriptures as the central part of the service; 3 Little ritual and very few set prayers; 4 Prayers are extemporaneous and often consist of different words each time; 5 The importance of hymn singing; 6 Monthly communion which takes place in the pews, not at an altar; 7 The baptism of believers by total immersion, usually in a river or the sea. The first Baptists settled in the Bahamas and Jamaica. George Lisle, a coloured Baptist deacon from Virginia, was given a licence in 1782 to preach in Kingston and built a huge chapel. He suffered imprisonment for preaching to slaves, not just in his chapel, but in the fields also. He converted another American, Moses Baker, and together they built up the Native Baptist Church in Jamaica. They were not helpedbytheBaptistChurchinBritainortheUnited States for many years. However, their success was so great they could not be ignored and the Baptist Missionary Society of Britain sent out missionaries in 1814. The Baptist Church became easily the most popular Church in Jamaica for the ex-slaves. Nonconformist missions Nonconformist Churches were basically evangelical because they were against the excessive emphasis placed on church government, liturgy and ritual by the Church of England. Their early goals were to help the oppressed and spread the Gospel to the underprivileged. They appealed to the lower classes and attracted their support because they were prepared to go among them. In 1792 the Baptist Missionary Society was founded. The Methodists had no formal missionary society at this stage (the Wesleyan Mission was founded in the nineteenth century), but John Wesley sent out individual missionaries across the Atlantic in 1771, of whom Francis Asbury was the most famous. Later Thomas Coke,thegreatestMethodistmissionary,joinedhim. The Nonconformist missionary efforts to reach the masses had begun to have an impact on the slaves before the end of the eighteenth century.
- 151. 142 Persecution of NonconformistChurches Nonconformists were regarded with suspicion by the ruling classes in the British West Indies. This was basically because they taught slaves the Christian doctrines of equality and brotherhood, which the planters considered would undermine the slave system. At first, Nonconformist preachers were issued with licences fairly easily, but as feelings against them grew, the licences were hedged about with conditions which rendered them useless. For example: 1 Preachers could not preach on estates unless invited by the owners or attorneys. 2 Preachers could not preach between the hours of sunrise and sunset. This effectively meant they could not reach the slaves. 3 Baptism could only take place with the permission of the parish authorities after prior notice had been given. 4 Licences would not be issued unless the preacher had been resident in the island for a certain length of time. These restrictions reflected the worry of the plantocracy at the success of Nonconformist missionaries. Towards the end of the eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century, the planters’ attitude hardened into violence, due to the abolition and emancipation campaigns. The planters blamed the missionaries for the end of the slave system. Violent persecution was most common in the large islands. In Barbados the Methodist chapel in Bridgetown was stoned and the meetings stopped in 1789. The slaves who attended were flogged. Methodist and Baptist ministers were beaten up in Jamaica. With the approach of emancipation the Nonconformist Churches made genuine efforts to better the conditions of the slaves and end slavery. Their position was difficult because they were preaching equality and the brotherhood of all men while the law was denying these Christian principles. When passions were at breaking point they had to restrain the slaves from violence in order to keep within the law. It was not until 1815 Baptist chapel meeting
- 152. 143 that the JamaicanAssembly acknowledged the right of the slaves to receive Christian instruction. Before that the missionaries had really been acting illegally. The demands for baptism and marriage from the slaves gave them a tremendous amount of work to do and many died from overwork. They were constantly persecuted by the ruling classes and, most disheartening of all, they were accused by the slaves themselves of being on the side of the whites when riots broke out. In 1815 opposition to the Nonconformist mis- sionaries diminished as some islands agreed to operate parts of the amelioration policy. Methodist chapels were reopened in Antigua and Jamaica and there was a sharp rise in the number of slave baptisms and marriages. However, there was a reaction against this in 1823 and persecution of Nonconformists was renewed in Barbados and British Guiana. By doing this, the plantocracy was acting against its own interests because public opinion in Britain became convinced that complete emancipation was the only solution. The death of John Smith in prison in British Guiana in 1824 (see Chapter 5) caused a great outcry in England. The ruling classes in Jamaica made a last effort to suppress the Nonconformist missions between 1828 and 1833. In 1828 the Assembly made a bitter attack on the Methodists and Baptists, saying that their only object in converting the slaves was to make money. The violence of the Colonial Church Union increased so much in 1832 that it had to be outlawed early the next year. Once again the efforts of the persecutors were counter-productive. William Knibb, Thomas Burchell and the Reverend J.M. Phillippo, who had all suffered in violent incidents, led a Baptist delegation to England. Their reports brought evangelicals together in their denunciation of the slave system. This formidable body of public opinion ensured that Buxton would carry the Emancipation Bill (see Chapter 7). The Church of England did very little to bring about emancipation. Typical Anglican preaching stressed the obedience of man to God, sons to fathers and slaves to masters. In answer to their Slaves being baptised
- 153. 144 critics who accusedthem of doing nothing to bring about emancipation, Anglican ministers said that their work had been to prepare all classes to accept the changes peacefully. The Nonconformists, on the other hand, were openly in favour of emancipation and agitated for it at home and in the West Indies. The slaves understood the different attitudes taken by the Anglicans and the Nonconformists and it influenced their choice of denomination in the emancipation and post-emancipation period. Post-emancipation For most of the pre-emancipation period the Anglican Church had a monopoly of respectability. It was only the ordained ministers of the Established Church who were authorised to baptise, marry or give Christian burial to the slaves. As emancipation approached, these privileges were extended to those Nonconformist ministers who were properly ordained and licensed. This had the effect of reinforcing the hold that respectability came to have over society once slavery had ended. The Non- conformist chapelsoftheMoraviansandMethodists after 1838 became very nearly as conventional, proper and strait-laced as the Anglican churches. Like the Anglican Church, they made little effort to recruit and train non-white ministers even for totally non-white congregations. Codrington College in Barbados began to train students for the Anglican ministry from the 1820s, but these were inevitably drawn from among the sons of the white Barbadian gentry. It was not until some time in the 1850s that one or two coloured boys managed to gain entry. The first institution set up to train young West Indian men for the Methodist ministry, York Castle School in Jamaica, was not opened until 1876. Among the Baptists all were not quite so gripped by the urge to acquire ‘respectability’, and the Church continued during the nineteenth century to have a flourishing ‘primitive’ or ‘native’ wing, run by black or coloured ministers who were neither ordained nor licensed. The Roman Catholic Church After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Roman Catholic Church was only of any consequence in those British islands which previously had been under French or Spanish rule. These were Trinidad, Grenada, St Lucia, Dominica and, to a lesser extent, St Vincent. In the last three islands, once they had become British, as elsewhere in the British West Indies, Roman Catholics could only practise their religion subject to the approval of the local legislature. The baptism of slaves, which the Church encouraged, was not recognised. The situation changed in 1829, when the Catholic Emancipation (Relief) Act was passed by the British Parliament. This brought an end to the civil disabilities under which Catholics had lived until that time in the United Kingdom and the colonies. After that, in the West Indies, Catholics became eligible for all public offices and also to sit in the House of Assembly. The passing of the Act also meant that slaves who had been baptised by Roman Catholic priests in the past were now recognised as being members of the Church. After Trinidad became British in 1797 the island’s Catholics came under the ecclesiastical authority of the Roman Catholic Bishop of London. In 1820 he appointed a Vicar General to act on his behalf over Trinidad and the rest of the British islands in the eastern Caribbean. In 1837 a similar appointment was made in Jamaica, as the authority for the Church in the western Caribbean. Two years later British Guiana also became a Vicariate Apostolic, in consequence of the Portuguese immigration which had begun in 1835. The first Archbishop of Port of Spain was appointed in 1850, with jurisdiction over Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and Tobago, as well as Trinidad. At the same time the Bishopric of Roseau was established, with jurisdiction over Dominica and the rest of the Leeward Islands. The number of Roman Catholics in British Honduras rose dramatically after a war in the neighbouring Mexican province of Yucatan broke out in 1847, and drove many refugees into the colony. By 1856 Catholics were second in number to Anglicans, and were to become a majority by the beginning of the twentieth century. A Vicariate Apostolic was created in British Honduras in 1893. After emancipation, in all the colonies where Catholics were in the majority, the Roman Catholic Church embarked on a more systematic policy of conversion than any other Church. As a result, nearly everywhere Catholicism became very much
- 154. 145 the religion ofthe working class. At the same time, the Church made no effort to attract or inspire non- white West Indian men of any class to seek Holy Orders. All the Caribbean islands and territories were treated as mission stations and staffed with clergy drawn from Irish, French, Belgian or Canadian orders. Immigrant religions All the above Christian denominations were well established in the British West Indian colonies beforeemancipation.Twootherreligions,Hinduism and Islam, became equally well established in British Guiana and Trinidad before the end of the nineteenth century. These were the religions of the immigrants brought to these colonies from India after emancipation. Hinduism Hinduism is not simply a religion. It is a set of social customs and a structuring of society as well as being a body of religious belief. It is much older than Christianity, having its origins in the sixth century BCE. Originally, there were three equal and identical gods in the Hindu Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. In the ninth century CE, Brahma declined in importance and Vishnu and Siva became the chief deities. All Hindus hold one of these two as the highest form of existence and worship him with supreme devotion. Siva is the god of destruction, THE JEWISH CARIBBEAN There has been a Jewish presence in the Caribbean since early in the sixteenth century, but the first Jews who were able to openly profess their religion were a group whoarrivedinSurinamin1639.Thesewere Sephardim, descendants of the Spanish or Portuguese Jews who had been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in 1492. Others followed and within a hundred years there were thriving communities in all the Dutch possessions, with that in Curaçao, 2000-strong, being the largest Jewish community in the whole of the New World throughout the eighteenth century. There were also communities in Jamaica, Barbados, Nevis, St Domingue, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Thomas and St Croix. All of them were greatly affected by the wars of the eighteenth century, and by the mid-nineteenth century all had shrunk and several, like those in Haiti, Nevis and St Eustatius, had disappeared altogether. Those who now live in present- day Suriname are representative of the oldest permanent Jewish community in the western hemisphere. The synagogue in Curaçao
- 155. 146 THE JHANDI but alsoof creation because everything must be created before it can be destroyed. He is regarded as a bloodthirsty god who inspires fear and wonder. He can work miracles. His followers, called ‘Sivaites’, come from the extremes of society, from the highest casteBrahminsandthelowestcasteHarijans.Vishnu is the Protector and Preserver who upholds order in the world. His followers are called ‘Vishnuites’. Both these gods are pantheistic. Their followers believe that god is everything, and everything is god. Hinduism is also polytheistic. There are many gods. Some of them are Vishnu and Siva in other forms, others are minor gods. Perhaps the best known of the others are Rama, Krishna and Lakshmi. Hinduism affects social life through its mysticism. Devout Hindus do not consider material things, especially money, important. The caste system is extremely important and has resisted all attempts to Prayer flags being flown outside a Hindu temple A very conspicuous symbol of the Hindu religion is the little prayer flag, the jhandi, flown from a long bamboo pole and planted after the ritual of puja. Its use is believed to have started a long time in the past in India, when a horse was sacrificed to proclaim lordship of a particular region. It was later extended to indicate that the spiritual rule over an area was being asserted by a god, or that such a god was being propitiated by a sacrifice. The use of the jhandi was largely discontinued in India under the Raj because of British objections to flag-waving. Although common in all parts of the Caribbean inhabited by Indians, it is now hardly found any more in India or in any other part of the Indian diaspora. A red jhandi is flown for the Hanuman (monkey god) puja, white for Satnaryn (god of truth) puja, and yellow for the Lakshmi (goddess of prosperity) puja.
- 156. 147 break it downin India. It is not so rigidly practised outside India, but it is still apparent when it comes to occupation and marriage. Bound up with caste are the Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and the transmigration of souls. Hindus believe that the soul does not die but passes from one form of life to another in its earthly cycle. A soul can pass from an animal to a human and up through the castes. Eventually, if its life on earth has been lived in a godly and moral way, the soul can pass into ‘Nirvana’, or ‘Everlasting Bliss’. This belief reinforces the sanctity of all forms of life and accounts for vegetarianism, the non-taking of life and other Hindu principles. In the midst of Christian communities the most conspicuous evidence of Hinduism are the festivals. In the Commonwealth Caribbean only some of the festivals can take place because others involve pilgrimages to shrines which are in India itself. The following are ones which are well known in Guyana and Trinidad: 1 Diwali takes place in late October. This is a celebration chiefly for the merchant community in which Laksmi, the goddess of wealth, is honoured. Lighted earthenware oil lamps line the parapets and balconies of houses, shops and temples, or float on rivers and ponds, in memory of the return of the god, Rama. A new financial yearstartsasmerchantsopennewaccountbooks. Everyone wears new clothes, decorates their houses, feasts and gives presents. Westerners call Diwali ‘the Hindu Christmas’. 2 Holi is the Hindu Spring Festival in February or March. It is a joyous festival in which coloured waters and powders are thrown at people, and there are bonfires, fireworks and special songs. Images of the gods are carried in processions. Worshippers of the god Krishna recall when he played with the wives and daughters of the cowherds. On the day of this festival, caste divisions are forgotten. 3 Mahasivarati or the ‘Great Night of Siva’ falls in the first three months of the Christian calendar. It is a solemn festival for the first day of fasting and night of vigil, but the following day is joyous with feasting and exchanging presents. It is the major festival for Sivaites. The authorities in colonial times tried to confine these festivals and celebrations to Indian villages at first, because there was rioting on one occasion when they were held in the public streets. However, more understanding of Hinduism has helped the masses to be tolerant of the festivities and they can now be enjoyed in the towns and cities of Guyana and Trinidad. Islam Islam is the religion that was preached by Muhammad. It is summed up in the belief. ‘There Hindu temple in Trinidad
- 157. 148 is no godbut Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.’ Muhammad laid down the five pillars of Islam which are the compulsory doctrine of Muslims throughout the world. 1 Belief in one God In Islam Allah is the only God, and must be obeyed. Muhammad was entrusted to teach and explain God’s message and he is the greatest prophet. 2 Prayer There are five prayers a day which can be said in a mosque or wherever a believer finds himself. A prayer mat is placed towards Mecca for the delivery of the prayer. The midday prayer on Friday in the mosque is the most important service of the week. 3 Alms-giving This is like a religious tax. It is scaled according to the wealth of the believer. 4 Pilgrimage ‘Haj’ is the Islamic word for the pilgrimage to Mecca which every believer should make once in his lifetime. Then he is entitled to place ‘Haji’ before his name. 5 Fasting in Ramadan A Muslim must undergo a month-long period of atonement in which he makes peace with Allah and begs forgiveness for all his sins. Like Hinduism, Islam is more than just a religion. It is a system of law and social conduct. Muslims living in Western societies have to observe the laws of the land, but in Muslim countries Islamic laws prevail except in the case of commercial law which involves international transactions. According to the Koran, Muslim men may marry up to four wives, provided they can treat them equally, and women remain subject to their husbands. Legally, a woman can only inherit half as much as a man. Apart from the mosques and other outward symbols of Islamic architecture, Muslims are not so conspicuous in their way of life as Hindus in a Western society. The Muslim festivals are not as many nor as riotously gay as the Hindu ones, with the exception of Ramadan. This is a month of fasting fixedbythemoon,socalendardatescannotbegiven. During this month Muslims are not permitted to eat, drink or have sexual intercourse between dawn and dusk. This abstention is for atonement. It is an extremely solemn period. The twenty-seventh day of Ramadan is known as the Night of the Decree, to commemorate the time when the Koran was given as guidance to believers. Ramadan ends with a joyous festival, Id-el-Fitr (the breaking of the fast). This can be called the Muslim ‘Christmas’ as people exchange presents, visit friends and decorate themselves and their houses. Hinduism and Islam in the West Indies Each of these religions is just as much a social system as a faith. In the nineteenth century the British government and the Christian Churches accepted this, and all immigrants were allowed complete religious freedom. Once in the Caribbean the immigrants were discriminated against more on racial than on religious grounds, but they were still made to suffer for not being Christians. Marriage ceremonies carried out in accordance with their own rituals were not recognised, and as any children resulting from such unions were considered illegitimate this affected property inheritance. In the early years their children were also denied education because they did not belong to any of the Christian denominations then running the schools. The Anglican and Nonconformist Churches viewed conversion of the immigrants as a challenge. In British Guiana various missions among the East Indians were opened in the 1860s, but the immigrants’ deep sense of cultural and national identity, combined with their strongly held religious beliefs, was too great for the missions to make much headway. One Methodist missionary made only sixteen converts during six years of preaching and teaching. Christian missions were also set up in Trinidad, where they had rather more success. Two Brahmin priests were baptised in 1871 by a minister of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, and by 1878 he had 70 converts. By the end of the century several hundred Hindus had converted to Christianity, with numbers reaching the thousands during the twentieth century. The followers of Islam, who formed a minority of the East Indian population in both British Guiana and Trinidad, were far less tolerant of Christianity than the Hindus. This set them apart from the rest of West Indian society, and from the proselytising activities of the Christian missions.
- 158. 149 InspiteofsuchattemptsbyChristianmissionaries, Hinduism and Islamremained the predominant religions of the East Indian communities in Trinidad and British Guiana throughout the entire period of immigration. However, neither religion survived even until the beginning of the twentieth century without a great degree of ‘creolisation’. For the Hindus, religious compromise began with the ocean voyage, from which they would have to obtain ritual purification if they were ever to return to India, and continued with all the difficulties of maintaining the practice of the caste system in West Indian society. In time Hinduism became a simpler and more uniform creed than in India, with some aspects of its structure and function very much resembling Christianity. Some Hindus were even able to regard Christ as a reincarnation (an avatar) of Lord Krishna. Among the Muslims, as time went by, Islam began to lose its proselytising force, and they became divided by factionalism. Those who did not subscribe to either the traditional or reformist version of their religion tended to drift into a purely nominal affiliation. None of this made much difference to the way in which the East Indians viewed the rest of West Indian society. Regardless of what effect moving to the West Indies may have had on their culture, they made some parts of both British Guiana and Trinidad exclusively their own. In purely East Indian communities they preserved their own way of life, largely untouched by the rest of society, until well into the twentieth century. This major division in Trinidadian or Guianese society was perpetuated by a general unwillingness, once education was secularised, to send their children to schools attended by children of the other races and cultures which made up the society.
- 159. 150 SocialLifeandChanges, 1838–1914 After emancipation The structureof society in the British West Indies did not change radically during the nineteenth century. Emancipation effected a great legal change by setting free the major part of the population in every colony, but after 1838 the lifestyle of the great majority of black people changed very little. Society altered only in minor ways, with modifications taking place slowly and gradually. Even so, it is possible to see that the basis for the major social changes of the middle of the twentieth century lies in changes which began to take place over a hundred years earlier. For example: (a) Blacks acquired land and formed a peasant clan. (b) In some islands immigrants became labourers on the sugar estates. (c) Educational opportunities for blacks and coloureds improved. (d) A few blacks and more coloureds became teachers, lawyers and journalists, etc., thus improving their social status. (e) The black and coloured populations increased while the white population declined. (f) Alternative sources of wealth to sugar were developed. (g) Communications improved and this, together with the opportunities for emigration, brought a new consciousness to the West Indies towards the end of the period. Divisions in society However, the basic form of West Indian society, with whites on top and the blacks at the bottom, remained unchanged. Before emancipation there had been one basic division in society: that between the The Panama Canal
- 160. 151 bonded and thefree. Once the slaves had been freed the division was based on nothing but skin colour and, as there were innumerable shades of colour, social distinctions became less clear. This was made even more complicated once Portuguese and Asian immigrants began to arrive in the Caribbean. Between whites and blacks came the intermediate group of coloureds. Before emancipation, for reasons of security and economic self-interest, whites and coloureds had tended to support each other, and both had despised the blacks. After emancipation the whites despised the coloureds because having ‘colour’ became a taint; a coloured had some ‘blackness’ in him which grouped him with the blacks. On the other hand, the blacks felt the coloureds had some ‘whiteness’ in them which kept them apart from the blacks. Inthenineteenthcenturythedivisionofsocietyby colour began to coincide with the division of society by occupation and political status, as illustrated in the diagram below. There were very few places in the Caribbean where society was not mixed. As skin colour and racial identity increased in importance, so did racial prejudice. Whites Planters Coloureds Small business Black Labourers Colour Occupation Rulers Upper class Partially represented Middle class Disenfranchised Working class Political status Social position The resulting divisions in society were bad enough in the older plantation colonies such as Barbados, Jamaica or Antigua where, by the end of the nineteenth century, the populations were predominantly black. They were even worse in British Guiana and Trinidad, because of the large- scale immigration which took place during the century. This became very evident in British Guiana in 1856. The anti-Portuguese riot in British Guiana In British Guiana before emancipation, retailing of imported goods to the slaves had been carried out by free blacks and coloureds going around the estates. After 1838 there was an urgent need for more such retailers, and many ex-slaves entered the trade, buying their stock from the merchants in Georgetown. All was well until the Portuguese immigrants moved into the retail trade after completing their indentureships. The Georgetown merchants then discriminated against the black and coloured retailers by withdrawing their credit and giving it to the Portuguese. Within less than twenty years of emancipation Portuguese shopkeepers had a monopoly of the retail trade and were able to set their own prices on foodstuffs. In 1855 a coloured man, James Sayers Orr, who was so violently opposed to Roman Catholicism as to be deranged, began to hold meetings in Georgetown. At these he attacked the Catholic Church, and accused black people of being inherently lazy in not forcing the Portuguese shopkeepers to lower food prices. In February 1856, after he had defied an order issued by the Governor forbidding him from holding any further meetings, Orr was arrested. This started a riot among the black population of Georgetown. Portuguese citizens were attacked and their shops looted. The rioting soon spread along the east coast and up the Demerara River, and a number of people were killed. The Governor had no option but to declare martial law and ask for outside assistance in restoringorder.DetachmentsoftheFirstandSecond West India Regiments, with auxiliaries from Dutch Guiana and French Guiana, were used to bring the situation under control and peace was restored by the end of March. Over 100 rioters were later fined and jailed, while Orr was given three years’ hard labour in a penal settlement.
- 161. 152 Religious and culturaldivisions In both British Guiana and Trinidad the population contained large numbers of Chinese and Indian as well as Portuguese immigrants. To the Asian sections of the population, skin colour was of little importance compared with the preservation of their own cultural traditions, but this produced equally wide divisions in society. This was particularly so among the Indians, who were either Hindus or Muslims, belonging to religions which exerted a powerful influence on the everyday lives of their followers. A further division in society was created by the caste system the Hindus brought with them from India. Because of this, the mixing of classes within the Hindu community, through cross-caste relationships, was impossible. Caste determined everything, and men and women belonging to as many as fifty caste affiliations could arrive in a single shipload of immigrants. However, estate work made the caste structure very difficult to maintain, and as the nineteenth century progressed the distinctions between the castes became increasingly blurred. In India,the traditionalmajor unitof casteorganisation was called the jati. This defined status, organised religious ritual and determined marriage. In the West Indies the jati eventually came to serve none of these functions. It was undermined from the beginning by the scarcity of women. As three or four times as many men as women were brought from India, marriage could take little account of caste. The occupational specialisation which existed within the caste system was impossible to maintain, and this too began to disappear. Eventually, except for the priesthood remaining a preserve of the Brahmins, the highest caste, it disappeared altogether. This major division in society was perpetuated by a general unwillingness in these communities to send their children to schools attended by black West Indian children. As a result of slavery, plantation society, emancipation and immigration, the West Indies was a society where the races rarely mixed and did not combine. This had advantages, but it also had disadvantages. Friction, both dormant and evident, existed and indeed increased. The answer was integration, but little attempt to achieve this was made by either the British government or any of the individual groups. Towns are usually great melting pots where integration often happens. This was not so in the WestIndies,wheretownswerequarteredbyrace.For example, in the nineteenth century West Kingston became black, North Kingston was white. In Port of Spain, the whites lived in the hills behind the city; the blacks lived ‘across the bridge’. Little attempt was made to integrate immigrants. On the contrary, they were often deliberately kept apart. For example, the East Indian immigrants were isolated on the sugar estates to increase the chance of reindenture. The absence of social mobility There was little or no social mobility. Administrative posts were held by whites. Later, coloureds of light skin could aspire to a high position, but definitely not a black. There was no law against it, but it simply did not happen. Social forces were too strong. Blacks did menial jobs. No matter how lowly, illiterate or unsuited for any other job a white might be, social forces would not let him labour in the nineteenth century. Some writers have argued that the island governments positively discouraged integration so that it would be easier for the whites to retain control. Certainly, white domination would have ended if the opposition to it had ever united. Even in the days of slavery, in the British West Indies and in St Domingue, the planters feared the possibility of an alliance of free coloureds and slaves. It is true that the divided society enabled the whites to keep their dominant position, but it is not clear that it was deliberately engineered by the whites. Non-integration in the nineteenth century seemed natural to both the upper and the lower classes. The example of British Honduras makes this clear. British Honduras had never been a plantocracy, but it was a very small forestocracy. Relationships between slaves and masters were very good by British West Indies standards. Throughout the nineteenth century it remained very small in spite of attempts to attract immigrants. However, society there was made up of more distinct groups than practically anywhere else in the British West
- 162. 153 Indies. There wasno conflict between the groups, but by choice they never integrated. As the whites only numbered between 200 and 400, any alliance could have ended their dominant position, but society was so conservative, and so politically naive, that integration did not take place. British Guiana was much larger. It had a very mixed society in which there was a legacy of hatred between blacks and whites. Here there is a real case for saying that the policy of ‘divide and rule’ was a deliberate one. In the days of slavery the whites had played off the Amerindians against the blacks by means of a white/Amerindian alliance. After emancipation, this policy was continued. One racial group was played off against another to prevent integration: East Indians against blacks, Portuguese against coloureds and blacks. The emergence of a diverse culture Regardless of such policies, or of the failure of the different communities to integrate, the various groups of immigrants, through their diverse cul- tures, contributed to West Indian development in many ways. They added to the present rich cultural heritage, and provided a middle strand between black and white in society. As we have seen, they enabled the sugar estates to continue and increased the growing number of small farmers producing new export crops. The East Indians were responsible for the growth of the rice industry in Trinidad and Guyana. They also brought with them knowledge of irrigation which was useful in growing not just rice, but also sugar and other crops. The Chinese became shopkeepers, traders and businessmen. All the immigrants who succeeded in making a little money were aware of the importance of educating their children and thus provided many future leaders. In 1909, a spokesman from the Trinidad Immigration Department said: We have now, in practice and at work here, cler- gymen, lawyers, solicitors, merchants, shopkeep- ers, proprietors, managers, overseers, bookkeepers and tradesmen, some of whom came to Trinidad under indenture, the rest of whom had indentured fathers. West Indian soldiers One section of the black working class which was divided from the rest of society after emancipation was made up of the soldiers of the West India regiments. After 1825 six of the eight regiments which had taken part in the Napoleonic Wars (see Chapter 3) were disbanded, but the First and Second Regiments remained in existence until 1927. The Third was reformed between 1840 and 1870, and the Fourth between 1862 and 1869. From 1819 until the outbreak of the First World War they were employed on garrison duties throughout the West Indian colonies, and also in the British colonies of Sierra Leone, Gambia and the Gold Coast in West Africa. After 1870 the First and Second Regiments alternated on three-year tours of duty between the West Indies and West Africa. Depending on the number of regiments in exis- tence, anything between 1600 and 3000 men were serving at any one time. They were recruited from among all the British West Indies, as well as in Africa for some years, but increasingly from Jamaica and Barbados. Serving as regular troops, and as part of the British Army, gave the soldiers a status which wasdeniedtothegreatmajorityoftheblackworking class, and set them apart from the rest of society in whichever colony they served. This dissociation was reinforced by episodes such as the use of the Second West India Regiment in British Guiana during the anti-Portuguese riots of 1856, and the role played by the First West India Regiment during the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica. Such difficult policing activities conducted against fellow West Indians formed a very small part of the life of the soldiers. Those serving in West Africa were often in action, engaged in many of the numerous small wars conducted there throughout the nineteenth century. Two of the soldiers were awarded the highest British decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross, for outstanding bravery. Private Samuel Hodge of the Fourth West India Regiment, who was born in Tortola, won his in the Gambia in 1866. He was the first non-white soldier ever to receive the medal. In 1888 the First and Second regiments were amalgamated into a single regiment of two battalions. Four years later, a Jamaican, Lance- Corporal William Gordon of the First Battalion,
- 163. 154 also received theVictoria Cross for the heroism he displayed during another action in the Gambia. Social patterns Marriage Economic considerations made formal marriage among the poor uncommon. A man could not marry because he did not have the money to buy or build a house, support a non-working wife and raise a family. Often a couple would have a common-law marriage, i.e. one recognised by society, not by the Church, for most of their lives and only formalise it at a very late stage. Apart from economic considerations, there were other reasons for such a late marriage: to legitimise children, often under pressure from the children themselves; desire on the part of the partners to honour each other by a formal marriage; and the desire to satisfy the Church Sergeant William Gordon, who won the VC as a Lance Corporal in 1888 WEST INDIA REGIMENT BATTLE HONOURS The award of battle honours in the British Army is a system by which the contribution made by a regiment to success in a particular battle is honoured by the sovereign. The regiment is then entitled to have the name given to the battle described on its Colours. The Colours consist of two elaborately embroidered standards; one which symbolises loyalty to the sovereign and called the King’s (or Queen’s) Colour, and one which symbolises loyalty to the regiment called the Regimental Colour. The battle honours inscribed on the Colours of the West India Regiment are: Dominica 1805 Martinique 1809 Guadeloupe 1810 Ashantee 1873–74 West Africa 1887 Sierra Leone 1898–99 Cameroons 1914–18 East Africa 1914–18 Palestine 1917–18 The Colours are now preserved in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, where they have been kept since the regiment was disbanded in 1927. beforedeath.Formalmarriagewasmorecommonin small communities or where the Church, especially the Catholic Church, was a strong force. Socially, if not legally, common-law marriages were just as binding as formal ones. The children were ‘legitimate’ in a social sense and grew up with obligations of support from their parents, and obligations to support their parents in old age. They owed their first allegiance to the mother but, if the union had been permanent or very long-lasting, there was also a natural allegiance to the father. Illegitimate births varied from a low figure of two out of three to a high figure of four out of five. Perhaps three-quarters of the children were born illegitimate. This is an important distinction because many were legitimised later. Legally, a man was not obliged to support his illegitimate children, but socially and historically
- 164. 155 he was. Anillegitimate child could not inherit in most islands, unless his father had willed him property. This had been common during slavery and continued after emancipation. Matrifocal families Among many manual workers and, to some extent, the middle class, West Indian families were matrifocal, that is, centred around the mother or grandmother. This was not the case among most of the upper classes, because economic considerations of property and inheritance made for patriarchal families, controlled by the father. Because of historical and social developments within the West Indies, the mother often took the place assumed by the father in Western and West African societies. This had begun during slavery, and social forces after emancipation encouraged its continuation: 1 Irregular unions, as in the days of slavery, left women with children of fathers unknown, or unwilling to contribute to their support. 2 Economic considerations prevented marriage. 3 Serial monogamy meant that the father might leave the children dependent on their mother. 4 Migrant labour forced the husband to leave home. 5 A woman who had passed through two or more regular, or semi-regular unions, would want to keep all her children. 6 A daughter who worked for the support of her family home would leave her children in the care of her own mother. Segregation of the sexes In the West Indies the poorer men and women may have lived together, but they spent much time apart. This was due, firstly, to the fact that both men and women had to work to survive. Secondly, with so little formal and permanent marriage, both sexes preferred the freedom this allowed. Therefore, in leisure activities the men usually kept together. They drank, played dominoes, played cricket or just talked together. Women’s activities took place in the home, or in connection with the church. Even at mixed gatherings, church meetings or more formal social functions like weddings, the men and women segregated themselves soon after arrival. Thistendedtobringaboutalackofcompanionship and even affection between men and women, compared with the affection felt between children and their parents, especially their mother. Kinship Large family groups developed because of ties of kinship. However, if support was received under this system, the recipient was expected to contribute his share either at the time, or in the future. It seemed a very loose system, but it was not. Who could receive benefits, and what obligations each member owed, were clearly defined. The ‘yard’ This was a larger group than the family and arose out of the slave quarters or the ‘barracks’ of the indenture system. Because of the lack of means to alter the situation it was transferred from the rural communities to the towns to become a common pattern for West Indian living among the poor. Houses, huts, shacks, whatever the form of dwelling, were clustered round a yard. The yard gave social security, mutual service and benefit to all its members. It prevented loneliness, cared for the sick and aged, and gave recreation to children and adults. The spirit of cooperation engendered by the yard served the community well. In the nineteenth century, if a church, village hall or school had to be built, the labour was done in common. Unpleasant tasks, like scrub-cutting, were tackled together, and when the task was finished there was the possibility of a communal celebration and party. Social welfare As a result of slavery, the slaves up until 1834 were accustomed to being dependent on their masters for nearly all their needs. After emancipation, they were forced to rely on themselves, and on what little help was available from the colonial legislatures. The latter, like most nineteenth-century govern- ments, followed a policy of laissez-faire with regard to social welfare. What little provision they made for poor relief, help to the old and sick, education and health was carried out with the help of the vari- ous Churches and voluntary organisations.
- 165. 156 As the centuryprogressed, the government played an increasing part in the provision of social welfare. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly, the extension of Crown Colony government meant that financial aid as well as technical advice and assistance was available from Britain. Secondly, the introduction of large-scale Indian immigration to the West Indies necessitated the provision of medical and other social services which were later extended to the population in general. Advancesinsocialwelfare,particularlyeducation, had been made by the end of the century but these were limited by laissez-faire, by lack of money due to the depression, the high rate of population growth and the lack of interest of the wealthy in the welfare of the poor. Such facilities as there were tended to be limited to the towns, and little was done for the isolated rural areas. Education Verylittleeducationofanykindhadbeenavailablein the West Indies before the middle of the nineteenth century. Children of wealthy parents were educated privately and the boys were often sent to Britain or America to complete their education. Children of poorer parents had virtually no formal education. The planters opposed any kind of education for slaves in the eighteenth century because they felt it would unsettle them and give them ‘ideas beyond their station in life’. Charity schools Barbados was the pioneer in education. A charity school for poor whites, possibly the first in the West Indies, was started there in 1686, using a gift of land and £1000 from two planters, John Elliot and Rowland Bulkeley. Jamaica also had early charity schools. In 1694 Raines Waite bequeathed money which led to the foundation of Alley School and Manchester High School. A more famous school was Wolmer’s, arising from the bequest of John Wolmer, a Kingston jeweller, in 1728. There were many other charity foundations in the first half of the eighteenth century, but they were all for poor whites with the exception of Codrington College, Barbados. Christopher Codrington, who died in 1710, left money to found an institution to Boys’ school in Jamaica, 1911
- 166. 157 train physicians andministers of religion. Building began in 1716, but when it opened in 1743 it was as a Grammar School for the white elite. The first intake of coloured and black pupils was not made until the next century. Thefirstschoolsmaintainedbypublicsubscription were also in Barbados. These schools catered for coloured children and sometimes slave children. In 1818 a school was started by public subscription and £100 from the Church Missionary Society in Bridgetown. The Colonial Charity School, enrolling eighty-nine pupils, including thirty-two slave children, was also opened in 1818 in Barbados. Combermere, a famous Barbadian school, was originally the Boys’ Central School in Bridgetown in 1819. Barbados also claimed the first girls’ school: the Girls’ Central School, which became Queen’s College in 1883, was founded in 1827. These schools had very few pupils by modern standards and served only a very small proportion of the population. The level of education was primary, or perhaps a little higher, except in the case of Codrington College which had grammar school status. Barbados was not typical of the islands. Visitors to the West Indies in the early nineteenth century commented on the poor education of all classes of society, the lack of education amongst the whites being especially surprising to them. Mission schools In Britain the first grant of public money for edu- cation was made in 1833. In 1835 the British govern- ment decided to make a similar grant to education in the British West Indies. A grant of £25 000 a year was made, which was raised to £30 000 a year until 1846. The Negro Education Grant was divided amongst the colonies roughly in proportion to their numbers of freed slaves. For example, Jamaica received £7000 per year and Barbados £3000. It gave a great impetus to education in the British West Indies. The number of schools in Jamaica increased from 36 in 1833 to 307 in 1836. It match- ed the enthusiasm with which the freed slaves embraced education. The government divided the grant between the missions, because they were most deeply involved in education. Unfortunately, this arrangement favoured the ‘Protestant’ islands, and ‘Catholic’ islands like Trinidad and St Lucia were neglected. The British government were unwilling to grant money to Catholic missions. The Negro Education Grant could be used only for the provision of buildings and furniture. The running costs of the schools, such as teachers’ salaries and books, had to be met by the missions and subscriptions. Thus, many of the new schools soon collapsed because of the very great burden of running them. The training of teachers The supply of teachers was always a problem. In the early days qualified teachers could not be found on the islands and they had to be brought out from Britain at great expense. A bequest of £1000 by Lady Mico in 1670 for ransoming Christian slaves captured by Barbary pirates had never been used for that purpose, and in 1827 Thomas Buxton proposed to the Court of Chancery that it should be used for the education of freed slaves. By then, the bequest had increased to £127 000. Some was used to send out teachers from Britain, but soon two teacher training colleges were set up in the West Indies: one in Antigua, the other in Jamaica. They were known as ‘Mico Colleges’. The Jamaican college trained about ten teachers per year, but with the expansion of schools in 1836 the supply of teachers was still totally inadequate. Most schools were staffed by unqualified teachers whose attendance was sometimes irregular. Other schools had to close through lack of teachers. The Mico bequest was also useful in filling the gap in education left by the Negro Education Grant in the Catholic islands of Trinidad and St Lucia. Here it was applied to founding ordinary primary schools. School attendance The attendance of pupils was very irregular. After the initial thirst for education, people became less enthusiastic. An average satisfactory attendance at school in the West Indies was set as low as 100 days per year (nowadays pupils are always expected to attend for over 250 days). Very few pupils, except at the leading schools, achieved even this low attendance.
- 167. 158 The reasons were: (a)When fees were charged many parents could not meet them. (b) Black parents became disillusioned with an education system which they saw offered little escape from field labour for their children. (c) Many families could not survive unless their children worked. (d) Children were kept away from school for such seasonal tasks as picking coffee. When the Negro Education Grant lapsed in 1846 the rate of increase in the number of schools fell dramatically. From 307 schools in Jamaica in 1836 the number had only risen to 379 in 1867. Because the Negro Education Grant had neglected Trinidad, the number of schools there was always low in the nineteenth century: in 1846 there were forty schools, and in 1880 there were still only ninety-six. The dual system The church and the state continued to be partners in education after 1846, but local governments made a much smaller contribution than the British government had done, except in the case of Barbados. For example, between 1835 and 1845 Jamaica had received £7000 per year. In 1846 the Jamaican Assembly voted only £3000 for that year. The planter-dominated Assemblies refused to vote money for the education of blacks because they believed it would make them independent of the estates. However, some people in the colonies saw the necessity for developing a proper education system instead of leaving it to the missions and the benevolence of individuals such as Bishop Coleridge in Barbados. Government departments, variously called ‘Education Committees’ or ‘Boards of Education’, were established throughout the coloniesinthe1850sand1860stocontroleducation. For example, under the influence of Richard Rawle, ‘Schoolmaster-General’ of Barbados from 1842 to 1864, an Education Committee was established in 1850. In Trinidad a Board of Education was set up in 1851 on the initiative of the Governor, Lord Harris. In British Guiana the Board of Education dates from 1862. There was much controversy over the linking of education with religion, and proposals were made that the state should take over responsibility for education. Quite naturally this feeling was strongest in Trinidad, where most of the schools were Catholic. Lord Harris, who became Governor in 1846, abolished grants for denominational education in 1851 and made the Board of Education entirely responsible for the schools. No school fees were to be charged and the schools would be funded from local rates. The Board would also license teachers. Religious instruction was removed from the curriculum, but one day a week was free for the pupils to attend their churches. However, most colonies were not so radical. They saw the need for more state control, but compromised with the Churches. In Trinidad, after 1869, the Churches had to apply to the Board of Education for permission to run a school. If the school was to receive government funds certain other conditions had to be met: it would have to be opened for 200 days per year, and take pupils of whatever class, colour or creed. The Churches would have control over the buildings, staffing and curriculum. An inspectorate was established to ensure that the school was maintaining approved standards. These arrangements were typical of those followed in the other colonies. State aid to church schools enabled governments to provide education for a greater number of pupils at less expense to public funds. It also pleased the Churches. It was an expedient in the nineteenth century when colonial governments were short of funds. The Education Commissions of 1848 and 1851 in British Guiana had suggested complete state control, but the Churches protested so strongly that a compromise was reached and state control was exercised by an Inspector of Schools, who was in complete control over education when the Board of Education was not in existence. In Barbados, because the Church of England was by far the strongest religious body in the island, the system was more uniform. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society were all under the wing of the Bishop of Barbados. The inspectors from the Education Committee maintained standards approved by the government.
- 168. 159 Education under CrownColony government After the establishment of Crown Colony govern- ment in all the colonies except Barbados, education remained one of the most pressing problems. Jamaica provided the best example of the way in which education was expanded. The number of schools more than doubled by the end of the century, from under 400 in 1867 to about 900 in 1896. The number of pupils attending schools in the British islands multiplied about five times during this period. However, education was still very limited in extent and quality at the end of the century. Most colonies were spending only about 5 per cent of their revenue on education; only about half the children of primary age were attending any school at all; only about 10 per cent of the population over five years old could read and write; and less than 5 per cent of pupils in any island received any kind of secondary education. In 1870 elementary education was made compulsory in Britain. West Indian governments also soon introduced compulsory education, but conditions prevented its practical enforcement. For example, the 1876 Education Ordinance in British Guiana made education compulsory up to the age of eleven, but there was no chance of implementing it as even some people in authority thought that it was much better for the young to be working in the fields. In any case there were not enough schools in the British West Indies to make compulsory education possible, and there was not the money to build more. The education of the children of the East Indians in British Guiana and Trinidad gave particular problems. In general, Indian parents were unwilling to have their children, especially the girls, taught in denominational schools staffed or attended by black West Indians. Many, in any case, thought it better to ‘earn rather than learn’. Even fifteen years after education had been made compulsory, less than one-third of all the Indian children in British Guiana attended school. Attendance rates were better in Trinidad, where the Canadian Presbyterian Church made a determined effort to provide the East Indian population with education. The Church opened its first school specifically for Indian children in 1871. By the 1890s the Church had established fifty schools, and provided primary education for over 80 per cent of all the Indian pupils who attended school on a regular basis. Secondary education If society was to advance and improve, much more than primary education was needed. All classes in society realised this, but only the upper levels could do anything about it. The great mass of the mostly poor black working class was barred from anything but a very basic education by two things. These were the lack of the money needed to pay for secondary education, and lack of the ‘respectability’ demanded by those who founded and ran the secondary schools. Whether founded with public or private funds, such schools not only charged high fees, but also refused entry to the children of parents who were not married. Lord Harris in Trinidad had seen the need for secondary education that was available to all, and in 1859 Queen’s Collegiate School was founded with the aid of a vote of £3000 a year out of public funds. Yet when it opened, four-fifths of its pupils were white, and none was black. This was a situation that was not to change until the 1870s, by which time it had been renamed the Queen’s Royal College. By 1880 there were three secondary schools in Trinidad, but less than 20 per cent of all their pupils were coloured. It was a similar story everywhere else in the British colonies. The leading secondary schools in Barbados, Lodge (1850) and Harrison College (1871) for boys, and Queen’s College (1883) for girls, all discriminated on the grounds of colour, and had a minority of coloured pupils. In Jamaica, secondary schools such as Wolmer’s, Munro College, Rusea’s and Jamaica College (all of which had been founded as primary schools in the eighteenth century) were even more selective and accepted only the children of white parents. There was very little or no secondary education available in most of the other colonies until almost the end of the nineteenth century. Grammar schools were opened in Antigua in 1884, in Grenada in 1885, and in Dominica in 1893. Queen’s College in Nassau was founded in 1890. Middle School, the first educational establishment in British Guiana in which the children of relatively poor parents could
- 169. 160 receive more thana basic education, was opened in 1894. It was not until well into the twentieth century that the children of poor black working people anywhere in the British West Indies had ready access to secondary education. Curriculum The curriculum in mission schools had been based onreligiousinstruction.Afteremancipation,reading and writing were introduced, chiefly to aid religious instruction. This type of curriculum was irrelevant to the social needs of the blacks, and it seemed to have been influenced by the planter governments of the time to inculcate obedience and duty. In the 1850s the curriculum in most islands expanded. Under Richard Rawle’s influence, the Barbados Education Act of 1858 introduced arithmetic and even grammar, geography, history and music. This was more in line with a British curriculum, but still irrelevant for the needs of most pupils in the islands. Technical subjects like agriculture, carpentry and mechanics were much more suited to agricultural communities. When a subject like history appeared on the curriculum, it was British history, enforcing colonial ideas on West Indian pupils and giving them no sense of independence and pride in their own countries. Trinidad was following the syllabi of the Irish National Board in the 1860s. It was a good curriculum for Ireland, but it was not suited to Trinidad. The need for scientific and practical training in schools was realised, but little could be done about it. Teachers and instructors could not be found for these subjects. Therefore, well into the twentieth century, the curriculum in most cases remained literary and academic. Social results of education by 1914 Educationhadachievedverylittleinweldingtogether an integrated society by 1914. In theory the schools were open to all classes, colours and creeds, but in practice education, especially at the higher levels, was the preserve of the upper classes. Education still created barriers to social advancement and preserved divisions in West Indian society. In spite of these criticisms, the basis of an education for all had been established by 1914. Although it had been of most benefit to the white section of the population in every colony, this had not prevented the emergence of a small and well- educated coloured and black middle class. This consisted of teachers, civil servants, lawyers, church leaders, doctors and journalists. Among them were Sir Conrad Reeves, Sir Grantley Adams, Charles O’Neal and Clennel Wickham of Barbados; Hubert Critchlow and Alfred Thorne of British Guiana; Albert Marryshow of Grenada; Norman Manley and Robert Love of Jamaica; and John J. Thomas and Henry Williams of Trinidad. Sir Grantley Adams
- 170. 161 Public health andmedical services These had been the responsibility of the plantation owners before emancipation, but after 1838 the majority of people could neither afford nor obtain medical treatment. There were very few hospitals and those that existed were badly staffed and poorly equipped. Therewasgreatneedforpublichealthandmedical services because of the large number of diseases which were endemic in the West Indies. The main ones were smallpox, typhoid, measles and yellow fever, with occasional outbreaks of diphtheria, malaria and influenza. Cholera arrived from Asia in the early 1830s. In 1849 cholera broke out at Cartagena on the South American mainland, and from there was carried to Cuba and Jamaica by 1850. It then spread throughout the entire West Indies, reaching British Guiana in 1856. Some idea of the devastation it caused can be gathered from the numbers of people who were killed by the disease in various islands. Over 30 000 people died in Jamaica, another 1000 in the Bahamas, just under 4000 in St Kitts, nearly 15 000 in St Vincent, more than 20 000 in Barbados, and another 4000 in Trinidad. It also reached British Honduras, but not until 1867. The death rates from other diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever were not so high, but the frequency with which outbreaks recurred seriously weakened island populations. Particularly serious outbreaks of yellow fever were experienced in Jamaica in 1847, 1856 and 1866, also in Trinidad in 1869 and Barbados in 1881. It did not begin to be eradicated until the beginning of the twentieth century. In time, such epidemics brought about significant social changes among the people who lived in the colonies most affected. These were particularly noticeable in the growing urban areas, in which the crowded living conditions, limited fresh water and the absence of sewage systems caused the highest death rates from any disease. The inbuilt social disadvantages made the overall effect of an epidemic even worse. Children were left without parents or any means of support, and crime increased, especially among young men. The gap widened between the black working class forced to inhabit such areas, and the rest of society anxious to distance itself from disease and crime. At the same time the colonial governments everywhere were forced to take more interest in the provision of basic public health and medical services. Public health legislation throughout the British West Indies dates from around the middle of the nineteenth century, following the cholera pandemic. P A R A L L E L L I V E S : ROBERT LOVE AND JOHN JACOB THOMAS Robert Love (1839?–1914) was born near Nassau in the Bahamas as the son of a woman who until 1834 had been a slave. In spite of his humble beginnings he qualified as a doctor and by 1890, after some years in Haiti and Panama, was in practice in Jamaica. There he campaigned for equal opportunities for blacks, and was an outspoken advocate of black representation in the legislature. In 1894 he founded a weekly newspaper, The Jamaica Advocate, and widened his campaigning to press for better education, more highly qualified teachers, and for improvements in the position of womeninsociety.HewaselectedtotheKingstonCityCouncil in 1898 and became a member of the Legislative Council eight years later. As a champion of black consciousness, a pan-Africanist and a firm opponent of colonialism he was very much ahead of his time, and his views had a great influence on the young Marcus Garvey. John Jacob Thomas (1840?–1889) was born in equally humble circumstances to Robert Love, but in Trinidad, where after some years as a teacher in 1870 he became Secretary to the Board of Education. He was forced to retire after nine years due to ill-health, and spent the rest of his short life either teaching or working as a journalist. He is remembered today for Froudacity, a book which was published shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1889. This was a reasoned and deeply-felt refutation of the prejudicedviewsand contradictionsof abook, TheEnglishin theWestIndies,whichhadbeenwrittenayearearlierbyJ.A. Froude, one of the most eminent historians of his time. For a largelyself-educatedblackWestIndiantotakeononeofthe foremost British academics of the day in print was no mean thing. His courage in doing so has been amply rewarded: his book, unlike that written by Froude, is still readily available, and he is now considered as one of the pioneers of a native intellectual tradition in the Caribbean.
- 171. 162 MARY SEACOLE Eventhoughinthefirsthalfofthenineteenthcentury there hadbeen a general lack of medical facilities throughout the Caribbean, not all the victims of epidemics had been left entirely without aid. There had always been some doctors and other people with medical or nursing experience here and there who were prepared to risk their lives for others. Among these was a woman named Mary Seacole, who was born into the free coloured society of Jamaica in 1805. Her mother was a healer or ‘doctress’, who owned a Kingston boarding house which also doubled as a dispensary for British troops. Her father was a Scottish soldier. From her mother she learnt not only hotel-keeping, but a lot about herbal remedies and tending the sick. She was able to put her nursing skills to good use when the cholera epidemic reached Jamaica in 1850, and she ended up being asked to take charge of the nursing provided for the troops who were afflicted with this and other tropical diseases. Her experiences led her in 1854 to go to England and offer her services to the British Army, which had been sent to take part in the Crimean War. Even though her offer was rejected, she made her own way to the Crimea and set up an unofficial rest-home combined with a hospital behind the front lines. Her efforts were much appreciated by the soldiers even if, in the eyes Mary Seacole The state assumed responsibility for public health in Britain in 1848. Following suit, and usually acting on the findings of a Sanitary Commission, a Board of Health was set up in each colony. This was followed by the opening of a hospital where none already existed, and in organising a dispensary system in the rural areas. Throughout the West Indies, the hospital was inevitably built in or close to the main town, where the provision of all the community health services was centred. Well into the twentieth century, in spite of the rural dispensaries, the bulk of the population in any island or territory had very little access to proper medical attention or health care anywhere but in the main town. Public works In many cases public works complement public health. Refuse-collecting, mains water, sewerage and drainage are all public works which improve sanitation and promote the health of the people. Unfortunately, the towns in the British West Indies were built before the importance of public works was realised. Introducing public works after most of the city has already been built causes considerable upheaval, and often is not carried out satisfactorily. This caused additional administrative problems for West Indian governments in the nineteenth century. Public works were carried out under Crown Colony government mainly in the 1870s. Under Sir John Peter Grant’s governorship a scheme for public works was begun in Jamaica. In 1872 the capital was moved from Spanish Town to Kingston; a mains water supply was begun; a gasworks was built; and a new, more hygienic market, the Victoria Market, was opened. All these were put under a Public of the Army authorities, they were overshadowed by those of Florence Nightingale. Mary Seacole remained in the Crimea until the end of the war in 1856. She received no official recognition for her humanitarian actions, and had long been forgotten by the time of her death in 1881.
- 172. 163 Works Department. Generalsanitation in Kingston was improved, but drainage and sewerage remained the chief problems. Trinidad had always been under Crown Colony government and so it began its public works earlier than the other colonies. In 1847 improvements were started to sanitation in Port of Spain, and refuse-collection began. In 1861 an underground sewerage system was built, and a public baths and washhouse were supplied with mains water. All this caused much digging-up of roads, which was locally called ‘trenching’, but it was the price of progress. It was made worse because the main streets had been macadamised in 1860. The Public Works Department in British Guiana wasnotsetupuntil1883.Untilthenthemaintenance and improvement of the sea defences, drainage and roads had been the responsibility of the villagers and small proprietors along the coast. The cost of carrying out the work needed was high, and very littlewasdone.After1883,inassumingresponsibility for the work, the Public Works Department also became responsible for the administration of the coastal villages. This was unsatisfactory, and in 1892 the Central Board of Health became responsible for their administration. Although the Public Works Department of British Honduras was established in 1852, mainly in order to improve the water supply, sewage system and harbour facilities of Belize town, very little improvement took place before the end of the century. In 1884 a scheme was put into effect to improve sanitary conditions by dredging the sewage-filled canals which ran to the north and south of the town. This turned into a disaster when the spoil from the dredging piled on the banks led to an outbreak of yellow fever. Fortunately, most public works projects in the West Indies achieved better results. Gradually, the towns were cleaned up, public buildings were repaired or rebuilt, and roads and water supplies were improved. The rural areas, however, continued to be greatly neglected. Communications In most of the colonies, settlements were cut off from each other and the easiest links were very often by sea. For example, in Jamaica the estates were linked to the sea by tracks. Travel round the island was accomplished by hopping from one port to another: from Port Antonio, to Port Maria, Falmouth and Montego Bay. ‘Roads’ were rough tracks,oftenimpassableinthewetseasons.InBritish Guiana the natural method of communication was by water. Towns were sited on the coast or up the river mouths. East–west travel was accomplished by going downriver to the coast, by sea to another river and upriver to the destination. Communication difficulties caused the failure of many of the free villages in British Guiana. Only those near Georgetown and New Amsterdam had easy access to markets. For a long time there were only two recognised roads in British Guiana, the East Coast Road and the East Bank Road (along the east bank of the Demerara River), both leading out of Georgetown. Early laws had required each estate to be fronted by a road in case of slave revolts, and linked to the nearest river. In 1900 the roads were still confined to the coast, but in 1913 the Bartica/ Potaro Road became the first inland highway. Public roads were built in Jamaica after 1866 and came under the Public Works Department. Ease of transport and travel still depended very much on the weather. All-weather, tarmac roads came much later in the century and were at first confined to the towns. Trinidad had tarmac roads in Port of Spain in 1860, but Trinidad had the advantage of the Pitch Lake. All-weather roads enabled better transport to be introduced. In the 1860s hansom cabs were being used in Kingston and Port of Spain. By 1870 streetcars, running on steel rails and drawn by mules, were seen in Kingston. A similar tramway began in Port of Spain in 1883. Electrification of this tramway came in 1895. Finally, the first motor car was seen in Trinidad in 1900. Railways The British West Indian colonies were behind Cuba in railways. The first railway in the Caribbean was opened in Cuba in 1837 (see p. 117). The first to be started in the British islands were a Kingston to Spanish Town line in Jamaica in 1845, and the East Coast Railway in British Guiana in 1848. Progress was very slow on the latter, and it took until 1864
- 173. 164 to complete the20 miles to Mahaica. Extensions further to the east, to the west and into the interior were made between 1895 and 1899. The Jamaican railway system was extended considerably between 1885 and 1896. The first railway in Trinidad, a line connecting Port of Spain with Arima, was opened in 1876. Port of Spain and San Fernando were connected in 1882, and further lines were laid down between 1886 and 1897. The Barbados Railway Company was formed in 1873, but no line was opened until 1881. This was then added to in 1883 and 1905. Plans for a railway to connect British Honduras with some part of Guatemala were drawn up in the 1880s, but never put into effect. The only railway ever seen in the colony was a short, private light railway built in 1892 to the south of Belize town, between Stann Creek and Melinda. Light, non-passenger-carrying railways, for use in connection with their sugar industries, were built in Antigua, St Lucia and St Kitts in the early years of the twentieth century. Sea transport Ships and boats provided the only means of com- munication between the various islands and main- land territories. In the days of sail, west to east voyages in the Caribbean had been very difficult. Steamships altered this. The first such ship to be seen in the region, the Woodford, arrived off Trinidad in 1818 and was then employed in the Gulf of Paria. Six years later the Cambria crossed the Atlantic and entered the Demerara River, and in 1825 yet another steam-driven vessel entered the Caribbean and was seen at St Vincent and Barbados. In 1835 a regular fortnightly steamship service began operating between the port of Falmouth in England and the West Indies. Seven years later this service was taken over by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, whose ships sailed from Southampton. These ships needed to refuel in the West Indies, and the harbours of St Thomas, Grenada and St Lucia developed as important coal- ing stations. In 1878 Castries in St Lucia became an Imperial Naval Coaling Station, and by the end of the century a dozen or more ships of the Royal Navy were calling there every month. Another harbour which became very busy in the nineteenth century, but only for a relatively short while, was Nassau in the Bahamas. During the American Civil War Nassau became the base for blockade-runners from the Confederate States. Beginning in 1861, Nassau became a booming and very prosperous port, with fast ships constantly bringing enormous quantities of cotton into the harbour for onward shipment to Europe. Unfortunately, the prosperity lasted no longer than the war itself and the boom ended in 1865. Posts and telegraphs Before the advent of steamships, personal com- munication between the islands, or with countries outside the Caribbean, was slow and uncertain, even though there had been private postal services in the British West Indies since the end of the eighteenth century. In 1859 each local government assumed control of its own postal system. Rates for transatlantic mail were laid down in London, and each colony was allowed to keep one-sixth of the postal charges to staff and run the local Post Office. At much the same time the British government began to subsidise the laying of undersea cables to provide the West Indian colonies with telegraphic communication. In 1870 a line opened which connected Jamaica with Britain through Cuba and Florida. The following year a cable was laid between all the islands from Puerto Rico, which was already connected with Cuba, to Trinidad. In 1872 the cable reached British Guiana, and telegraphic communication became possible between all the main towns from Havana to Georgetown, as well as with Europe and North America. The Bahamas were provided with a similar service a little later, and the Turks and Caicos Islands shortly before the end of the century. These improvements in methods of communica- tion did much to change life in the West Indies. It became easier and quicker for people, goods and in- formation to move between the colonies. Also, with access to a regular postal service and a functioning telegraph system, all who needed or wanted to keep in constant touch with the outside world were able to do so.
- 174. 165 Emigration Background to emigration Emigrationhas been a feature of West Indian society from the earliest days of the European settlement. The majority of the white people who came to the Caribbean came to make their fortunes, and then to return home. Once a coloured class had come into existence, many of its members, too, wanted to leave and get far away from a slave-based society. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries thousands found their way across the Atlantic and became assimilated into European society. After emancipation, emigration became even more common. Often ex-slaves had little or nothing to tie them to their island. Many of them wanted to get as far away from their ‘roots’ as possible, and from the lack of available land, the low wages and the unemployment. The commonest emigrations were from the small islands of the eastern Caribbean to Trinidad or British Guiana, where there was a chance of acquiring their own land or earning high wages. This only involved the men. Any women and children were left behind. It was confined to the British islands because there was still slavery in the foreign colonies. Later, emigration became more diverse and more distant. The period of these emigrations, 1838 to 1914, coincided with the first generation of freedom, with the difficulties and decline of the sugar industry and the search for smallholdings and alternative crops to grow on them. It was a period of great change and great challenge for the blacks. Some of them met this challenge by emigrating. There are two ways of looking at emigration: one is that the individual is meeting an opportunity with courage and a spirit of adventure; the other, that he is not facing up to the struggle with adversity and is deserting his home. In most of the British islands there was little work apart from the hated drudgery of the plantations. Wages were low and there was little land available. The blacks met with economic, social and political injustices and racial prejudice. Most people had to stay and suffer these hardships, invariably the women and children. For some men, at certain times in the nineteenth century, there was the opportunity to emigrate. Trinidad and British Guiana Between 1838 and 1848 over 10 000 black workers emigrated to Trinidad from the small islands of the eastern Caribbean. This figure included several thousand from Barbados, 2600 from Nevis, 2200 from Montserrat and 1000 from St Kitts. About another 8000 from the same islands went to British Guiana. Later in the nineteenth century another 15 000 people left Barbados, mostly for Trinidad and British Guiana, but some for Dutch Guiana and a few to St Croix. Panama There were three waves of emigration to Panama before 1925. 1 In 1850 an American company began the con- struction of a railway across the Isthmus of Panama, and 2000 West Indians, mostly Jamai- cans, emigrated to work on it. This railway pro- vided employment for many other emigrants throughout the 1850s. 2 In 1879 Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, formed a company to build a canal across the Isthmus. Work began in 1881 and labour was imported from Europe, China and the West Indies, but so many workers died that the scheme was abandoned in 1888. About 25 000 West Indians were employed in this period. As with the railway, most of them were Jamaicans. 3 By the Hay-Pauncefort Treaty of 1901, the United States bought out de Lesseps. In 1903, when Panama seceded from Colombia, the United States was allowed a strip of land ten miles wide across the Isthmus on which to build the canal. Scientists had traced yellow fever to the Stegomyia fasciata mosquito and this had been eliminated from the Isthmus when work began in 1904. Between then and 1914 tens of thousands of West Indians, mostly Jamaicans but with a large contingent of 20 000 Barbadians, went to work on the canal. When it was finished, there was still work in the Canal Zone until 1920. Today, there are said to be 60 000 people of West Indian descent in the Canal Zone, chiefly living in the towns of Colon and Cristobal.
- 175. 166 THE PANAMA CANAL Between1881 and 1914 it is possible that as many as 150 000 West Indians worked at one time or another on the construction of the Panama Canal. DuringtheearlierFrenchattempttobuildthecanal, the largest number of workers were from Jamaica. So many of these died from diseases or were left stranded on the Isthmus after the attempt ended in 1888 that the Jamaican government refused to allow recruiting by the Americans in 1904, and a tax was imposed on all those who wanted to emigrate to Panama. This did not prevent many thousands of Jamaicans from leaving. In Panama they joined thousands of other West Indians from theEasternCaribbean.Thelargestcontingentswere 20 000 men who had been contracted in Barbados and another 7500 in Martinique and Guadeloupe. Their contracts entitled them to free passage to Colon and free repatriation after 500 working days. They were paid 10 cents an hour for ten hours a day for six days a week, with accommodation and free medical attention provided. As black labourers they were paid in silver Panamanian balboas (as opposed to the white Americans, who were paid at a much higher rate in gold). This was still four or five times as much as any of them could earn at home. Most of what they earned was remitted to their homelands: an average of over US$300 000 was sent back to Barbados every year. For these labourers it was an all-male society until after 1906, when a number of women from Martinique were contracted as laundresses. They were eventually joined by several Construction of the Panama Canal locks thousand women from all over the Caribbean who came either to join or find a husband. During the building of the canal between 1904 and 1914, out of the total of 5609 workers who lost their lives due to diseases or accidents some 4500 were black. After the canal’s completion, many thousands of West Indians remained in Panama, where they formed a sub-culture which then had to endure several decades of discrimination before being assimilated. Central America When American companies started producing bananas in huge numbers in Costa Rica and Honduras in the 1880s, the demand for labour there was high. Again, it was mainly Jamaicans who emigrated, and at one time about 1000 workers a month were leaving the island for Central America. Many of them eventually settled near where they worked, but more stayed only temporarily, repatriating most of the money they earned. It has been calculated that, between 1880 and 1889, some 84 000 Jamaicans went to Central America. Out of these over 22 000 never returned. About 1200 men from Jamaica and Barbados went to British Honduras between 1880 and 1890 to work on the banana plantations but, as they were generally not made to feel welcome, very few settled. This antipathy towards West Indians had much to do with the way society in the colony developed during the nineteenth century. Between 1847 and 1861, as a result of warfare in the Yucatan, about 10 000 Mexican refugees had moved to settle in the northern part of British Honduras. Their presence had done much to increase the Hispanic nature of British Honduran society, and to broaden the gap between it and the West Indian island society in which it had had its beginnings.
- 176. 167 Cuba and theDominican Republic After slavery was abolished in Cuba in 1886 thousands of Jamaicans went to work there on the sugar plantations. The entry of so many black workers, many of whom had no intention of returning home, was not widely welcomed and in 1898 a general ban on further black immigration into Cuba was imposed. This ban was lifted in 1912, and over the next seven years another 50 000 Jamaicans emigrated to Cuba. The emigration to the Dominican Republic of labourers from Jamaica and some of the islands of the eastern Caribbean began in the 1890s. They went to work in the sugar industry, which had been revived during the two previous decades. As in Cuba, they were expected to enter the country to carry out seasonal work and then to return home. The majority did this, but some permanent emigration also took place. The United States Emigration to the United States (USA) began in the 1870s. In the early days it was confined mostly to Jamaicans and Barbadians, but as time went by men and women from every part of the West Indies were attracted by the opportunities offered in the USA, particularly in the northern States. A regular steamship service between New York and Kingston was begun in 1879, in part to cater for the traffic generated by the urge to emigrate. Emigration into the southern States was confined mostly to people from the Bahamas. Beginning in the 1890s, many people from the poorer islands emigrated to Florida. Several thousand had left the Bahamas permanently before the outbreak of the First World War. Conclusion It is difficult to know to what extent emigration benefited the British West Indies. On the debit side was the loss of thousands of young, able-bodied and often talented men, leaving behind a largely unproductive and dependent population, mainly women and children. It is estimated that in the 1920s, 40 to 45 per cent of the population was under fifteen. On the credit side, the emigrants repatriated money and often contributed far more to the family home than if they had stayed behind. Often it was used to buy a smallholding when the emigrant returned home, another benefit to the family and the island. An emigrant to the United States could expect to earn as much in an hour as he could in a day in the West Indies. Emigration was a ‘safety-valve’. Without it, there would have been more hardships, and more economic and civil strife, with no hope of relief. When opportunities for emigration came to an end in the 1920s, tensions built up which culminated in riots and strikes ten years later. The ending of emigration did not cause this unrest, but it was a contributory factor, as there was no longer a means of releasing tension.
- 177. 168 Map 9 Emigrationfrom the British Caribbean islands, 1838 to 1914 Map 9 same size Florida CUBA HONDURAS PANAMA COSTA RICA VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA DOMINICA TO USA JAMAICA 0 200 400 600 km 0 100 200 300 400 miles TRINIDAD BARBADOS ANTIGUA
- 178. 169 Theme 3: Resistanceand Revolt 1 (a) Name as many as you can of the leaders of the Haitian Revolution. (b) Give as many reasons as you can for the success of the revolution. (c) In what ways did the revolution affect the rest of the Caribbean? 2 (a) Provide as many reasons as you can to explain why the revolution took place in St Domingue. (b) Why did the war then become so destruc- tive? (c) What were the reasons why the war lasted for so long? 3 (a) Name the Caribbean territories in which there existed large Maroon communities. (b) Choose one of these communities, provide as many reasons as you can to explain its origin and growth, and name its leader or leaders. (c) Give as many reasons as possible to explain why the Europeans were unable to defeat the Maroons. 4 (a) What were the reasons for the success of the Jamaican Maroons in maintaining their freedom up until 1738? (b) Provide as many as you can of the names of Maroon settlements and their leaders in Jamaica in 1729. (c) List the benefits the Jamaican Maroons expected to gain from the peace agreement of 1739. Theme 4: Movements towards Emancipation 1 (a) Give as many examples as you can of the ways in which the slaves tried to free themselves from slavery. (b) What were the reasons for these attempts? (c) Provide as many reasons as possible to explain why such attempts ended in failure. 2 (a) Why did plantation slavery in the British West Indies come under attack in the late eighteenth century? (b) What proposals were made in 1823 to improve the conditions of slavery? (c) How did the planters react to these proposals? 3 (a) Name as many as you can of the leaders of the British anti-slavery movement. (b) What were their achievements before 1834? (c) In which year were the slaves freed in the French Caribbean territories, and what were the names of these territories? 4 (a) In what way was emancipation celebrated in 1834? (b) Give as many reasons as possible as to why the apprentices were unhappy with the conditions of the apprenticeship system. (c) In what ways did they protest against these conditions? Theme 5: Adjustments to Emancipation, 1838–1876 1 (a) Give as many reasons as possible to explain why free villages were able to be set up after 1838. (b) Name as many of these villages as you can, indicating the territory in which they are situated. (c) What effects did these villages have on the supply of labour to the estates? 2 (a) Give as many reasons as you can to explain why the planters feared the sugar industry would be ruined after emancipation. (b) Outline the steps taken to develop the immigration of workers to the Caribbean up until 1876. (c) List the ways in which such immigration affected the existing Caribbean economy and society. Revision Questions
- 179. 170 3 (a) Inwhat ways did the indentured workers from India contribute to the growth of the Caribbean sugar industry? (b) What difficulties did these workers face in Trinidad and British Guiana up until 1876? 4 (a) Describe how indentured Indian workers were recruited and brought to the Caribbean. (b) Name the non-British territories which also recruited Indian workers. (c) Explain why Chinese workers were not imported into the British West Indies in large numbers. Theme 6: Economic Diversification, 1875–1985 [in the 19th century] 1 (a) What were the reasons which made Cuba such a large producer of sugar in the late 1800s? (b) What was the main reason for the fall in Cuban sugar production after 1895? (c) Explain why, in the late nineteenth century, Barbadian sugar exports rose at the same time as they fell in Jamaica. 2 (a) What crops, other than sugar-cane, began to be grown in the British West Indies after 1875? (b) What were the reasons for this? (c) Outline the reasons why such crops were not a great success. Theme 8: The United States in the Caribbean, 1776–1985 [the 18th and 19th century aspects] 1 (a) What goods did the British planters import from the American colonies before the American War of Independence? (b) Explain why Britain was not successful in ending this trade. 2 (a) Explain as fully as possible why Cuba became of increasing importance to the USA during the nineteenth century. (b) Explain as fully as possible why the USA became involved in the Cuban War of Independence. 3 (a) WhatreasonsdidtheUSAhaveforwanting to build and control the Panama Canal? (b) How did the US Government obtain the land on which to build the canal? Theme 9: Social Life 1838–1962 [in the 19th century] 1 (a) In what ways did immigration cause racial tension after emancipation? (b) In what ways did racial discrimination affect indentured workers during the nineteenth century? 2 (a) Why did those who had once been slaves continue to worship in Christian churches after 1834? (b) In which Churches did this section of society worship after slavery had ended? (c) What were the reasons why some blacks came to hold positions of influence in Christian churches after emancipation? 3 (a) Describe the dress and occupations of the indentured Indian workers in the Caribbean during the nineteenth century. (b) What were the reasons for racial tension between these workers and the black labourers? (c) Why was Hinduism seen as something strange by the rest of society in the British West Indies during the nineteenth century? 4 (a) What means of travel existed in the Caribbean in the mid-nineteenth century? (b) What transportation difficulties were en- countered at this time? (c) What changes took place in transport by the end of the nineteenth century?
- 180. 171 General texts Ashdown, P.Caribbean History in Maps. Trinidad, 1983. Augier,F.R.,S.C.Gordon,D.G.HallandM.Reckord. The Making of the West Indies. London, 1960. Burns, Sir A. History of the British West Indies. London, 1954. Dookhan, I. A Post-emancipation History of the West Indies. London, 1975. Ferguson, J.A. A Traveller’s History of the Caribbean. Moreton-in-Marsh, 1998. Greenwood, R. A Sketch Map History of the Caribbean. London, 1991. Hart, R. From Occupation to Independence. London, 1998. Parry, J.H. and P.M. Sherlock. A Short History of the West Indies. London, 1956. Richardson, B.C. The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492–1992. Cambridge, 1992. Watts, D. The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture and Environmental Change since 1492. Cambridge, 1987. Williams, E. From Columbus to Castro. London, 1970. Caribbean histories Albury, P. The Story of the Bahamas. London, 1975. Beckles, H. McD. A History of Barbados. Cambridge, 1990. Black, C.V. History of Jamaica. London, 1974. Brereton, B. A Histoy of Modern Trinidad, 1783– 1962. Kingston, 1981. Brizan, G. Grenada: Island of Conflict. London, 1998. Carmichael, G. The History of the West Indian Islands of Trinidad and Tobago. London, 1961. Craton, M. and G. Saunders. Islanders in the Stream: A History of the Bahamian People. 2 vols. Athens, Georgia, 1992–98. Daly, V.T. A Short History of the Guyanese People, London, 1985. Dobson, N. A History of Belize. London, 1973. Dookhan, I. A History of the Virgin Islands of the United States. Epping, 1974. Dyde, B. A History of Antigua. London, 2000. Dyde, B. Out of the Crowded Vagueness: A History of the Islands of St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. London, 2005. Fergus, H.A. Montserrat: History of a Caribbean Colony. London, 1994. Honychurch, L. The Dominica Story. London, 1995. Hoyos, F.A. Barbados: A History from the Amerindi- ans to Independence. London, 1979. Steele, B.A. Grenada: A History of Its People. London, 2003. Thomas,H.Cuba:orthePursuitofFreedom.London, 1973. Thomson, P.A.B. Belize: A Concise History. London, 2004. Zuill, W.S. The Story of Bermuda and her People. London, 1973. Special texts Chapters 1 and 3 Duffy, M. Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower. Oxford, 1987. Dyde, B. The Empty Sleeve: The West India Regiments of the British Army. London, 1997. Chapter 2 James, C.L.R. The Black Jacobins (revised edition) London, 1980. Chapters 4 and 5 Beckles, H. and V. Shepherd. Caribbean Slave Society in the Atlantic World. Kingston, 1998. Blackburn, R. The Making of New World Slavery. London, 1997. Bush, B. Slave Women in Caribbean Society. 1650– 1838. Jamaica, 1990. Goveia, E.V. Slave Society in the British Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Century. New Haven, 1965. Further Reading
- 181. 172 Knight, F.W. GeneralHistory of the Caribbean: Vol III: The Slave Societies of the Caribbean. London, 1997. Walvin, J. Black Ivory: a History of British Slavery. London, 1993. Williams, E. Capitalism and Slavery. London, 1972. Chapters 6 and 7 Gratus, J. The Great White Lie: Slavery, Emancipation and Changing Racial Attitudes. London, 1973. Shyllon, F. James Ramsay: the Unknown Abolitionist. Edinburgh, 1977. Chapters 8 and 10 Comitas, L. and D. Lowenthal (eds), Slaves, Free Men, Citizens: West Indian Perspectives. New York, 1973. Craton, M. Empire, Enslavement and Freedom in the Caribbean. London, 1997. Hall, D. Five of the Leewards, 1834–1870. Barbados, 1971. Chapter 9 Tinker, H. A New System of Slavery: the Export of Indian Labour Overseas, 1830–1920. London, 1993. Chapter 11 Heuman, G. ‘The Killing Time’: The Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica. London, 1994. Chapter 12 Caldecott, A. The Church in the West Indies. London, 1970. Daycott, A.C. The Shaping of the West India Church, 1492–1962. Kingston, 1999. Chapter 13 Gordon, S.C. A Century of West Indian Education. London, 1963. Lowenthal, D. West Indian Societies. Oxford, 1972.
- 182. 173 Index Abercromby, General SirRalph, 27, 28 Abolition Act (1807), 68, 69 Adams, Grantley, 160 Adams, President John, 11, 18 Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of (1748), 4 Akara, slave leader, 52, 58 American Civil War, 84, 129, 131, 164 Amiens, Treaty of (1808), 28 Amis des Noirs, Société des, 16 Anglican Church, 37, 44, 64, 74, 76, 77, 137–140, 143–144 Anguilla, 1, 34 Antigua, 1, 8, 74, 87, 124, 135, 138, 140, 141, 151; slaves, 40, 47, 51, 78, 79; labour problems, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96, 120; immigrants, 104; sugar, 6, 114, 115, 119, 122 Anti-slavery movement, 63–68, 73 Apprenticeship system, 79–82 Arrowroot, 88, 123 Aruba, 1, 84 Asante slaves, 51 Asiento, the, 4 Atta, slave leader, 53 Bahamas, 1, 2, 30, 122, 135, 138, 161, 164, 169; and slavery, 34, 35, 40, 47, 79 Baker, Moses, 75, 141 Banks, 80, 112 Baptist Church, 38, 54, 75, 76, 130, 141, 142, 143; the ‘Baptist War’, 54–56; and free villages, 94 Barbados, 1, 71, 74, 77, 81, 124, 126, 135, 138, 139, 145, 151, 160, 161, 164; slaves, 35, 39, 40, 47, 51, 53–54, 72, 73 75; labour problems, 89, 90, 91, 93, 95; sugar, 109, 112, 114, 122, 123 Barbuda, 1, 34 Barkly, Sir Henry, 114, 126, 129 Bay Islands, 5, 27 Beaumont, Joseph, 103 Beet sugar, 24, 119, 120; Brussell’s Convention (1903), 119 Belize Town, 28, 163, 164 Berbice, 7, 28, 29, 128; slave revolt (1763), 51–53 Berlin Decrees (1806), 30 Bermuda, 7, 35, 60, 78, 135 Black Caribs, 27, 46 Boards of Health, 163 Bogle, Paul, 124, 130–134 Bolivar, Simon, 24 Bonaire, 1, 84 Boukman, slave leader, 16 Boulogne, Joseph, 44 Boyer, Jean-Pierre, 19, 22 Brazil, 31, 115, 118–119 Bright, John, 113 Britain: and the Revolutionary Wars, 26–30; and Haiti, 17, 21, 22; war with USA (1812–14), 30–31; the West India Interest, 67–68; and eighteenth century wars, 3–9; naval bases, 3 British Guiana, 29, 68, 79, 128, 129, 144, 159, 160, 163, 164, 165; labour problems, 90, 91, 93; sugar, 91, 93, 106, 107, 108, 113, 114, 120; free villages, 94, 95, 96; immigrants, 98–104, 107, 108; emigration, 165 British Honduras, 104, 107, 135, 138, 144, 161, 163, 164 British West Africa Squadron, 68, 69 Brougham, Henry, 68 Buddoe, ‘General’, 86 Burchell, Thomas, 75, 77, 94, 143 Bush Negroes, 50, 94 Bussa, slave leader, 54 Buxton, Thomas, 72, 73, 77, 143, 157 Cacao, 122, 123 Calderon, Louisa, 129 Canada, 6, 8 Canadian Presbyterian Church, 109, 148, 159 Cap Français, St Domingue, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 Caribs, 27, 46 Cartagena, 4, 161 Cayenne, 82 Cayman Islands, 34, 135 Chatoyer, Joseph, 27 Chavannes, Jean-Baptiste, 16 China, 99–100, 105; immigrants to British West Indies, 99, 104; to Cuba, 107–108; Maçao, 103, 105, 106, 108 Choiseul, Duc de, 7 Cholera, 129, 161, 162 Christophe, Henri, 19, 21, 22, 23 Church Missionary Society, 137 Church of England, see Anglican Church Clapham Sect (‘The Saints’), 64, 66, 68, 72 Clarkson, Thomas, 64, 66, 67 Cobden, Richard, 113 Cockpit Country, 48, 49 Codd, Colonel Edward, 54 Code Napoléon, 42 Code Noir, 42, 74 Codrington, Christopher, 74, 128 Codrington College, 74, 138, 139, 144, 156 Coffee, 16, 23, 25, 30, 85, 88, 121, 122, 123 Coke, Dr Thomas, 75, 141 Coleridge, Bishop William, 138, 139 Colonial Church Union, 56, 76, 143 Coloureds, 70–71, 150–153, 160 Communications, 163–165 Congress of Vienna, 69, 83 Constables, 39, 41 Cotton, Sir Willoughby, 56 Cotton, 30, 122, 164 Craskell, Thomas, 48, 49 Critchlow, Hubert, 160 Crossman, Colonel William, 121 Crown Colony government, 128, 134–136 Cuba, 6, 25, 161, 164; sugar, 82, 113, 115–118; slaves, 6, 46, 47,
- 183. 174 117; and theslave trade, 69, 70, 82–84, 106, 107; and USA, 30– 32; independence movement, 84, 117; immigrants, 104, 105– 108, 167 Cudjoe, Maroon chief, 48 Curaçao, 1, 28, 29, 84 Currency, 111, 112 Danish Virgin Islands, 1, 28, 42– 43, 140; abolition of slave trade, 69; emancipation, 86 De Grasse, Admiral, 7 Demerara, 7, 28, 29, 38, 73, 76, 128; slave rebellion (1832), 54 Déssalines, Jean Jacques, 19, 21, 22 Des Voeux, William, 104 Dominica, l, 6, 7, 8, 27, 95, 122, 123, 124, 135; slaves, 46, 47, 73 Dominican Republic, 167 Dundas, Henry, 26 Dutch, the, see Netherlands, Dutch East Indies, 106 Education, 89, 109, 149, 156–161; charity schools, 156–157; mission schools, 157; dual system, 148; secondary education, 159; curriculum, 160; teacher training, 157 Edwards, Bryan, 61 Emancipation, 77–82; in non- British Caribbean, 82–86 Emigration, 90, 91, 165–169 Encumbered Estates Act (1854), 114–115 England see Britain Essequibo, 7, 28, 29, 52, 54, 128 Eyre, Edward, 130–134 Fédon, Julien, 26–27 Florida, 4, 9, 10, 11, 169 France, 1, 13, 85, 116; and the French colonies, 1, 3, 13–21; eighteenth century wars, 3–8; slaves, 41, 42, 44, 83; and slave trade, 6, 82; immigrants, 100, 104, 106, 107 Free African immigrants, 98–99 Free trade, 9, 105–106 ‘Free village’ movement, 93–95 French Guiana, 106, 151 French Revolution, 13, 25, 82 Revolutionary Wars, 11, 26–30; effect on St Domingue, 13–21 Gardner, Rear Admiral Alan, 26 German immigrants, 98 Gilbert, Nathaniel, 140–141 Gladstone, John, 99 Gordon, Sir Arthur, 104 Gordon, Lance Corporal William, 153, 154 Gordon, George, 130–134 Gorée, 6 Grands blancs, 14 Grant, Sir John, 104, 136, 163 Gravesande, Laurens, 52, 53 Grenada, 1, 6, 7, 23, 70, 95, 122, 123, 128, 135, 160; slaves, 27, 79; immigrants, 98, 104, 107 Grenadine Islands, 7, 27, 34 Grey, General Sir Charles, 26 Grig, Nanny, 38 Guadeloupe, 1, 6, 8, 14, 25, 26, 27, 29, 44, 82, 85; sugar, 6, 7, 119; slaves, 8, 46, 47; immigrants, 100, 106, 107 Guianas, the, 1, 28, 30, 40, 46, 72; see also British Guiana and French Guiana Guyana, Republic of, 53 Haiti and the Haitian Revolution, 13–23, 84; effects of the Revolution, 24–25 Hamilton, Alexander, 12 Havana, 6, 32, 83 Hill, Richard, 81 Hindu immigrants, l09–110, 152 Hinduism, 145–147, 148–149 Hispaniola, 16, 19, 32, 46, 47, 51 Hodge, Arthur, 41, 44 Hodge, Private Samuel, 153 Holland, see Netherlands Honduras, 4, 5, 6 Honduras Settlement, 28, 51, 79, 135 Hospitals, 163 Huckstering, 89 Huggins, Edward, 41, 44 Hugues, Victor, 26–27, 50 Immigration and immigrant labour, 97–110; migration between colonies, 91; the ‘new slavery’, 103–104; to non-British colonies, 104–108; effects on British West Indies, 108–110 Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, 123 India, 100, 106 Indian immigrants, 99–108, 109–110 Indonesian immigrants, 106 Irish immigrants, 98 Islam, 147–149 Jacobin Commission (1792), 16, 25, 26 Jamaica, 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 25, 30, 40, 57, 70, 71, 72, 75, 112, 122, 123, 125, 126, 134–135, 136, 138, 141, 144, 145, 153, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165; sugar, 5, 7, 30, 91, 113, 114, 121; slaves, 9, 16, 35, 40, 47, 51, 54–56, 73, 77, 78, 79; Maroons, 47–50, 65, 132, 133; labour problems, 80, 81, 88, 89, 90, 93, 96; free villages, 94–95; immigrants, 98, 100, 101, 104, 107; emigrants from, 118, 166, 167; Morant Bay Rebellion, 129–134; education, 156, 157, 159, 160 Jervis, Admiral John, 26 Jews, 145 Jhandi, the, 146 Jordan, Edward, 71 Kalinago, 1, 27, 46 King, Martin, 86 Kingston, 130, 133, 156, 161, 162, 163, 164 Knibb, Rev. William, 55–57, 75, 76, 94, 143 Kofi, slave leader, 51–53, 58 Leclerc, General Victor, 19, 21 Leeward Islands, 9, 37, 41, 72, 135 Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 167 Lipscomb, Bishop Christopher, 138 Lisle, George, 75, 141
- 184. 175 London Missionary Society,38, 54, 158 Long, Edward, 61 Louisiana, 10, 11, 19; sugar, 115, 118 Love, Robert, 160, 161 Macaulay, Zachary, 64, 68 Madeira, 98, 104 Magistrates, 80–81 Maltese immigrants, 98 Manley, Norman, 160 Mansfield, Lord Justice, 65 Manumission, 36–37, 42 Marie Galante, 1, 6 Marronage, 47; in Jamaica, 17, 25, 47–50, 56, 94, 99 Marryshow, Albert, 160 Martinique, 1, 6, 8, 25, 26, 29, 83; slaves, 14, 46, 47, 82; immigrants, 100, 106, 107; sugar, 120 Matrifocal families, 155 Mauritius, 77, 111 Métayage, 93 Methodism, 140–144; missionaries, 38, 56, 74–76 Mico Colleges, 157 Militia, 38–39, 48, 54, 55 Missiessy, Admiral Edouard, 29 Missionaries, 54, 55, 56, 57, 74–76; and education, 157 Molasses Act (1733), 6, 7 Mole St Nicolas, 17, 18, 21 Monroe, President James, 31 Montego Bay, 55, 57 Montserrat, 1, 3, 7, 122, 135, 165; slaves, 35, 78, 79 Morant Bay Rebellion, 129–134, 153 Moskito Indians, 40 Moravian (United Brethren) Church, 38, 74, 75, 140 Mulattoes, see Coloureds Muslims, 109–110, 147–149 Napoleon I, 19; and Haitian revolution, 19, 21; and slavery, 19, 82 Napoleonic Wars, 12, 29–30, 70, 75, 111, 112, 116 Nassau, 159, 161, 164 Navigation Acts, 113, 122 Negro Education Grant, 138, 157 Nelson, Admiral Lord, 29 Netherlands, the, 1; and the Dutch colonies, 1, 84, 85, 104; American War of Independence, 7; Revolutionary Wars, 28; and Napoleonic Wars, 29; slaves, 41, 42, 43, 84, 85; slave trade, 69; immigrants, 106, 107 ‘Neutral Islands’, the, 5, 6 Nevis, 1, 3, 91, 95, 122, 135, 165; slaves, 41, 51, 78, 79; immigrants, 98 New Orleans, 30, 112 Norman Commission (1896), 122–123 Ogé, Vincent, 16, 21 O’Neal, Charles, 160 Orr, James, 151 Palmerston, Lord, 84 Panama: Canal, 166, 167 Peel, Sir Robert, 113 Pétion, General Alexandre, 19 Petits blancs, 14, 17 Phillippo, Rev. James, 94, 143 Picton, General Thomas, 129 Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 6 Pitt, William (the Younger), 24, 66, 67, 68 Pope-Hennessey, John, 135 Port-au-Prince, 17, 19, 22 Port of Spain, Trinidad, 88, 94, 144, 163 Port Royal, 3 Porto Bello, 4 Portugal and the Portuguese, 69, 151; colony of Madeira, 98, 104; colony of Maçao, 99, 103, 106, 108 Postal services, 165 Prescod, Samuel, 127 Providence Island, 51, 60 Prussia, 24, 119 Public health services, 136, 161– 163 Public Works, 136, 163 Puerto Rico, 16, 25, 32, 165; slaves, 47, 70, 83, 84 Quakers, the: missionaries, 37, 38, 60, 63, 64, 67 Quamina, slave leader, 54 Railways, 117, 164 Ramsay, Rev. James, 64, 68 Rawle, Richard, 158 Reciprocal Search Treaties, 69 Reeves, Sir Conrad, 135, 160 Rigaud, Andre, 17, 18, 22 Roads, 163–164 Rochambeau, General, 21 Rodney, Admiral Lord, 7, 8 Rolle, John, 79 Roman Catholic Church, 74, 144–145 Royal Commissions, 115, 121–123 Saba, 1, 7, 28, 29, 84 St Barthélemy, 1, 28, 85, 86 St Croix, 1, 28, 47, 86, 145, 165 St Domingue, 1; and the French Revolution, 14–16; sugar, 3, 14, 22, 23, 24; slaves, 13, 14, 15–17; and Haitian Revolution, 16–25 St Eustatius, 1, 7, 28, 84 Saint-George, Chevalier de, 44 St George’s Cay, Battle of, 28 St Helena, 98, 103 St John, 28, 51, 86 St Kitts, 1, 4, 7, 64, 68, 74, 125, 135, 161, 165; slaves, 78, 79; labour problems, 90, 93, 95; immigrants, 98, 104, 107; sugar, 91, 92, 114, 122, 123 St Lucia, 1, 5, 14, 26, 27, 29, 53, 72, 122, 128, 144, 164; sugar, 115, 121; labour problems, 93, 95; immigrants, 99, 101, 104, 107 St Martin, 1, 7, 28, 84 St Thomas, 1, 28, 74, 86, 164 St Vincent, 1, 5, 6, 27, 46, 75, 95, 122, 123, 135, 144, 161; slaves, 37, 73, 79; immigrants, 101, 104, 107, 109 Saintes, Les, 6, 8; Battle of, 7, 8 Santo Domingo, 19, 47
- 185. 176 Schoelcher, Victor, 82,83 Schools, 156, 157, 159 Seacole, Mary, 162 Sharp, Granville, 64, 65, 66 Sharpe, Samuel, 55, 57, 77 Shrewsbury, William, 54, 74 Sierra Leone, 50, 65, 66, 83 Siete Partidas, Las (Spanish slave code), 41 Slaves and slavery, 27, 33–40, 41, 74–77; in the British colonies, 27, 33–40, 41, 74–77; in non- British colonies, 13–22, 41–44; laws, 31–5, 37–41; passive and active resistance, 45–50; revolts, 50–58; attempts at amelioration, 40–41, 72–74; abolition movement, 63–70; emancipation, 77–86 Smith Adam, 61, 113 Smith, Rev. John, 38, 54, 58, 74, 143 Société pour l’bolition de l’Esclavage, 82, 83 Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 66 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 74, 137, 138, 158 Somerset, James, 65 Sonthonax, Légér, 16, 17, 22, 25 Soubise, Julius, 44 South Sea Company, 4 Spain, 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 18, 23, 28, 69; and the Caribbean colonies, 4–6, 16, 18, 22, 25, 31, 32, 82; and eighteenth century wars, 3–12; and Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 28, 30; slaves, 33, 41–42, 44, 47, 48, 51; and slave trade, 69, 70, 82–84, 107; immigrants, 104, 106, 107, 108 Spanish Town, 47, 94, 131, 132, 163 Steamships, 101, 164 Stephen, James, 64, 68, 97 Sturge, Joseph, 81 Sugar and the sugar trade, 97; in British colonies, 6, 7, 23, 24, 29, 30, 90–91, 95, 108–109, 111–114, 119–122; 87, 107–14; in non-British colonies, 6, 7, 23, 24, 115–118; in foreign countries, 98, 118–119; European beet sugar, 24, 119, 122; Royal Commissions, 121–123 Sunday Markets, 76 Surinam, 28, 47, 50, 51, 52, 85, 165; immigrants, 100, 106, 107 Sweden, 28; possessions in West Indies, 29, 85; slavery, 69, 86 Tacky’s Rebellion, Jamaica, 51, 56 Teacher training, 157 Telegraphs, 165 Thomas, John, 160, 161 Thorne, Alfred, 160 Thornton, William, 12 Tobago, 6, 14, 26, 29, 51, 71, 93, 135 Tortola, 1, 41, 153 Toussaint Louverture, 17–21 Trafalgar, Battle of, 29 Treaties; Amiens (1802), 28; Basle (1795), 19; Hay-Pauncefort (1901), 167; Paris (1814), 9, 29; Pinckney’s (1795), 11; Utrecht (1713), 4 Trelawney Town, Jamaica (Maroon settlement), 48, 49, 50 Trinidad, 28, 72, 109, 112, 122, 123, 128, 129, 135, 144, 148, 149, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165; slaves, 46, 53, 68, 73, 79; labour problems, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96; immigrants, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, 107, 147; sugar, 91, 108, 114, 115, 120 Turks and Caicos Islands, 1, 30, 122, 134 United States of America, 9–12, 16, 25, 30–32; obtains independence, 7–9; and Haiti, 17, 18, 23; and Britain, 9, 30–31; and Cuba, 32, 84, 116: Civil War, 84, 122, 164; sugar, 117, 118; and Panama Canal, 166, 167; emigrants to, 167, 169 Van Hoogenheim, Governor of Berbice, 52–53 Venezuela, 24, 31 Victoria Cross, 153 Villeneuve, Admiral Pierre de, 29 Virgin Islands, 35, 86, 135 Von Scholten, Peter, 86 Wages, 88, 89, 90, 92–93, 95, 111, 112 Walpole, General, 49 Walpole, Sir Robert, 4 Wars; Spanish Succession, 3–4; Jenkins’ Ear, 4; Austrian Succession, 4–5; Seven Years, 6– 7; First Maroon, 48; American Independence, 7–9, 30; Second Maroon, 48–50, 56; French Revolutionary, 11, 26–29, 30, 70; Napoleonic, 29–30, 70, 75, 112, 119; Anglo-American of 1812, 11; Ten Years (Cuba), 117, 119; First World, 119 Wesley, John, 61, 140, 141 Wesleyan Methodists, see Methodists West India Regiments, 28–29, 30, 133, 153–154 ‘Western Liberation Uprising’, 54–56 Wickham, Clennel, 160 Wilberforce, William, 64, 66, 67, 68, 73, 77 Williams, Eric, 86 Williams, Henry, 160 Windward Islands, 128, 135 Yellow fever, 17, 21, 161, 167 Yucatan, 144, 167