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Emancipation to Emigration
History for CSEC® Examinations
Emancipation
to Emigration
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.
3rd Edition
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
Brian Dyde, Robert Greenwood, Shirley Hamber
Also available:
CXC REVISION GUIDE History
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978-0-230-02087-0
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A Sketchmap History of the
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Caribbean Revision History
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CSEC_HISTORY_2.indd 1
History for CSEC® Examinations
Emancipation
to Emigration
3rd Edition
Brian Dyde, Robert Greenwood, Shirley Hamber
2
I S B N 978-0-230-02089-4
9
780230 020894
09/12/2014 13:51
History for CSEC® Examinations
Emancipation
to Emigration
3rd edition
Brian Dyde, Robert Greenwood, Shirley Hamber
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.
2
Macmillan Education
4 Crinan Street
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
Contents
List of Maps
vii
Preface to the Third Edition
viii
I
European Rivalry in the Caribbean in
the Eighteenth Century
Relative positions of the European powers
in the Caribbean
Naval power
Economic aims of the powers
The effects of the eighteenth-century wars
on the West Indies
The War of Spanish Succession
The War of Jenkins’ Ear
The War of Austrian Succession
The Seven Years’ War
The effects of the Seven Years’ War
The War of American Independence
The effects of the War of American
Independence
The United States and the Caribbean in the
eighteenth century
The position in 1783
Factors favouring an aggressive policy
Factors favouring a peaceful policy
Becoming a Caribbean power
‘Manifest Destiny’
Conclusion
2 The Haitian Revolution
1
1
3
3
3
3
4
4
6
6
7
8
9
9
10
11
11
11
12
13
The French Revolution
13
The effect of the Revolution in the French
Caribbean
13
The effect of the Revolution in St Domingue
The effect on the white population
The effect on the coloured population
The effect on the slave population
The coloured revolt of 1790
The slave rising around Cap Français
in 1791
14
14
14
15
15
16
The Jacobin Commission
British Intervention in St Domingue
16
17
Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint’s rise to power
Toussaint’s domination of St Domingue
Toussaint’s Constitution
Napoleon’s attitude to Toussaint
17
17
18
18
19
The attempted ‘pacification’ of St Domingue
Leclerc’s expedition to St Domingue
Christophe and Dessalines take over
Haitian independence
19
19
19
21
The price of independence
Loss of life
Political chaos
Economic ruin
The boost to other sugar producers
21
21
22
23
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
Victor Hugues and Julien Fédon
The Black Carib revolt in St Vincent
Seizure of the Dutch, Danish and
Swedish colonies
The widening of the war in the Caribbean
The West India Regiments
26
26
27
28
28
28
The Napoleonic Wars
29
The economic effects of the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
29
The United States and the Caribbean
Spanish American independence
The Monroe Doctrine
The United States and Cuba
30
31
31
32
4 The Control and Treatment of Slaves
33
Slavery and the law
33
Slave laws and codes in the British Caribbean 34
iii
The origin of the slave codes
The features of the slave codes
Punishments
Manumission
Marriage and divorce
Religion
Education
35
35
35
36
37
37
38
Forces of law and order
The Militia
British troops
Constables
38
38
39
39
Other forms of slave control
Pro-slavery alliances
39
39
Amelioration
The Huggins and Hodge cases
40
41
Slave codes in the non-British Caribbean
The Spanish Code
The French Code
The Dutch and Danish Codes
41
41
42
42
Conclusion
43
5 Resistance and Revolt
45
Response to slavery
Passive resistance
Amerindian influence on resistance
Resistance through African culture
Active resistance
45
45
46
46
46
Marronage
The Maroons in Jamaica
The First Maroon War
The Second Maroon War
47
47
48
48
The Bush Negroes of Surinam
50
Slave rebellions
The 1763 rebellion in Berbice
The spread of the rebellion
The arrival of troops
The death of Kofi
A National Hero
50
51
52
52
53
53
The late slave rebellions in the British
West Indies
The 1816 revolt in Barbados
The 1823 revolt in Demerara
53
53
54
iv
The 1831 revolt in Jamaica, the ‘Western
Liberation Uprising’
Conclusion
54
56
6 Slavery Challenged
59
Attitudes towards slavery
Pre-eighteenth-century attitudes
Acquisition and justification
Racial attitudes
Eighteenth-century attitudes
Arguments used to condone slavery
Arguments used to condemn slavery
59
59
59
60
60
62
63
The British anti-slavery movement
The Quakers
The Clapham Sect, or ‘The Saints’
Industrialists
63
63
64
64
The campaign for the abolition of the
slave trade
The campaign outside Parliament
The campaign in Parliament
The West India Interest
64
64
66
67
The abolition of the slave trade
Difficulties in enforcing the abolition
of the slave trade
Better days for the free coloureds
68
68
70
7 The Emancipation of Slaves
72
Amelioration
The Registration of Slaves
The Amelioration Bill
The failure of amelioration
72
72
73
73
Missionaries in the British West Indies
Nonconformist missions
The persecution of missionaries
Other obstacles faced by the missionaries
Conclusion
74
74
75
75
76
The emancipation of slaves
Immediate causes
The Emancipation Act, 1833
Compensation
77
77
77
78
The apprenticeship system
Reasons for apprenticeship
Apprenticeship at work
79
79
80
Special magistrates
The end of apprenticeship
80
81
Abolition and emancipation in the
non-British Caribbean
The French islands
The Spanish islands
The Dutch colonies
The Swedish and Danish islands
82
82
82
85
86
Conclusion
10 Problems of the Caribbean Sugar
Industry
British West Indian sugar before 1846
Sugar prices
111
111
112
The Sugar Equalisation Act, 1846
Free trade
Results of the 1846 Act
Surviving the crisis
113
113
113
114
86
The Encumbered Estates Act, 1854
114
8 Post-Emancipation Adjustments
87
The immediate post-emancipation period
The new labouring class in 1838
The attitude of the labourers
The attitude of the planters
The effect on sugar production
Wages and fringe benefits
Sugar cultivation by independent blacks
87
88
89
89
90
92
93
Foreign competition
Cuba
The natural advantages of Cuba
The man-made advantages of Cuba
The sugar revolution in Cuba
The Dominican Republic
Louisiana and Brazil
European beet sugar
115
115
116
116
117
118
118
119
The ‘free village’ movement
Free villages in Jamaica
Free villages in other colonies
93
94
94
The backwardness of the British West
Indian sugar industry
Causes
The Royal Commission of 1882–83
The Norman Commission of 1896
120
120
121
122
The labour situation after emancipation
9 Immigrant Labour
Official reaction to immigration
Immigration schemes
European labour
Madeirans and Maltese
Free African immigration
Chinese immigration
Indian immigration
The contracts
Organisation of Asian immigration
schemes
‘The New Slavery’
96
97
97
98
98
98
98
99
99
101
102
103
Immigration to non-British colonies
The Dutch colonies
The French colonies
Cuba
104
106
106
106
The effects of immigration in the British
colonies
On the sugar industry
On culture and society
108
108
109
The need for alternative crops
Before the Norman Commission
Small farming and alternative crops
The importance of the Norman
Commission
122
122
123
123
11 Constitutional Developments in the
British Caribbean in the Nineteenth
Century
124
Breakdown of the representative system of
government
The representative system
Non-cooperative Assemblies
The judiciary
Local government
124
124
125
126
128
Status of Trinidad, St Lucia and British
Guiana
Trinidad
St Lucia
British Guiana
128
128
128
128
The Morant Bay Rebellion
129
The hardships of the 1850s and 1860s
The key personalities
Events leading to the rebellion
The rebellion
The repression
Judgement on Eyre
The change to Crown Colony government
Crown Colony government in Jamaica
Crown Colony government in the
Windward Islands
Crown Colony government in the
Leeward Islands
Bahamas, Bermuda and Barbados
129
130
131
131
133
133
134
134
135
135
135
Crown Colony government at work
135
Conclusion
136
12 Religion in the British Caribbean in
the Nineteenth Century
137
The Anglican Church
Church of England missions
Reforms in the Anglican Church
The creation of two dioceses
Post-emancipation period
The disestablishment of the Church of
England
Barbados
137
137
138
138
138
Nonconformist Churches
The Moravians
The Wesleyan Methodists
The Baptists
Nonconformist missions
Persecution of Nonconformist Churches
Post-emancipation
140
140
140
141
141
142
144
The Roman Catholic Church
139
139
144
Immigrant religions
Hinduism
Islam
Hinduism and Islam in the West Indies
145
145
147
148
13 Social Life and Changes, 1838–1914
150
After emancipation
Divisions in society
The anti-Portuguese riot in British
Guiana
150
150
vi
151
Religious and cultural divisions
The absence of social mobility
The emergence of a diverse culture
West Indian soldiers
152
152
153
153
Social patterns
Marriage
Matrifocal families
Segregation of the sexes
Kinship
The ‘yard’
Social welfare
154
154
155
155
155
155
155
Education
Charity schools
Mission schools
The training of teachers
School attendance
The dual system
Education under Crown Colony
government
Secondary education
Curriculum
Social results of education by 1914
156
156
157
157
157
158
Public health and medical services
Public works
161
162
Communications
Railways
Sea transport
Posts and telegraphs
163
163
164
164
Emigration
Background to emigration
Trinidad and British Guiana
Panama
Central America
Cuba and the Dominican Republic
The United States
165
165
165
165
166
167
167
Conclusion
159
159
160
160
167
Revision Questions
169
Further Reading
171
Index
173
List of Maps
1 The 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
vii
Preface to the Third Edition
Emancipation to Emigration is 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,
1875–1985 and The United States in the Caribbean,
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
viii
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, both in factual content and comprehension.
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-todate histories of individual territories.
Brian Dyde
Pembroke, 2007
European Rivalry in the
Caribbean in the Eighteenth
Century
Relative positions of the European
powers in the Caribbean
Bombardment of the Moro Castle, Havana, 1762
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
Antilles the British owned Barbados, 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
1
0
BAHAMAS
(BRITISH)
0
TURKS &
CAICOS
(BRITISH)
CUBA
(SPANISH)
HONDURAS
SETTLEMENTS
(BRITISH)
BAY ISLANDS
(SPANISH)
CAYMAN
ISLANDS
(BRITISH)
ST DOMINGUE
(FRENCH)
SANTO
DOMINGO
(SPANISH)
100
400
200
600 km
300
400 miles
VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH)
ST THOMAS
(DANISH)
PUERTO
RICO
(SPANISH)
JAMAICA
(BRITISH)
200
ST CROIX
(FRENCH)
ST EUSTAT IUS (DUTCH)
ST KITTS (BRITISH & FRENCH)
NEVIS (BRITISH)
GUADELOUPE (FRENCH)
ARUBA
BONAIRE
(DUTCH)
(DUTCH)
ANGUILLA (BRITISH)
ST MARTIN
(DUTCH & FRENCH)
BARBUDA (BRITISH)
ANTIGUA (BRITISH)
MONTSERRAT (BRITISH)
MARIE GALANTE (BRITISH)
DOMINICA (FRENCH)
MARTINIQUE (FRENCH)
ST LUCIA (FRENCH)
BARBADOS (BRITISH)
ST VINCENT (FRENCH)
GRENADA (FRENCH)
TOBAGO (FRENCH)
CURAÇAO
(DUTCH)
TRINIDAD (SPANISH)
Map 1
same size
GUIANA
SETTLEMENTS
(DUTCH)
Map 1 The Caribbean at the beginning of the eighteenth century
about 12 000 square 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
of the possession of two naval bases in the Caribbean.
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
Leewards were not able 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 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.
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.
4
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
ten years. British trade, on the other hand, 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
in the Gulf of 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.
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
they began to be used by the Baymen, the English
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.
Walpole and Jenkins’ Ear, 1739
5
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 slavetrading 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
against Guadeloupe which surrendered in May 1759.
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
quantity of sugar produced. 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. The Sugar Act of 1764 lowered the duties
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 possessions – 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.
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 erection 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
The effects of the 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
islands very harshly. They were garrisoned by French
soldiers and subjected to strict laws. Planters were
evacuated and their plantations pillaged. The slaves
were carried off to the French islands.
The economic effects of the war were grave. 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
death. In Jamaica 14 000 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 northwestern frontier and disputed territories to the north.
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
if these lands could 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.
disputed by Britain and US
H
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New Hampshire
L. Michigan
Boston
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
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Philadelphia
Baltimore
Alexandria
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Yorktown
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South
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To United States 1803
Charleston
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Savannah
SPANISH
St Augustine
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US
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300
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Map 2 The independent United States in 1783
10
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Key:
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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
more aggressive and wanted war with the monarchies
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 Revolutionary Wars broke out in 1793, France expected the
United States to support her in accordance with
the alliance of 1778. However, the latter remained
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
greatest success was to buy Louisiana from France
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
within our limits, it is impossible not to look forward
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
11
PARALLEL LIVES
ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND WILLIAM THORNTON
Two white West Indians, both from small islands in the eastern
Caribbean, played important roles in the early history of the USA.
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) was born as the illegitimate
son of a shopkeeper in Nevis. He later lived in St Croix before
being sent to New York to finish his education. He took part in the
War of American Independence, serving as George Washington’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.
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.
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804)
William Thornton (1759–1828)
States expected in time 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
1
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.
The Haitian Revolution
The French Revolution
Toussaint Louverture
In September 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
1
slaves. In the colonies 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.
The whites were not a united group. At the top were
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
origins in France and when the Revolution came they
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.
14
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
the grands blancs, but did not want equality extended
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.
On the other hand, their legal and social disabilities
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
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Map 3 St Domingue
whites. They were in 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.
During the eighteenth century the French colonies
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 DBSJCCFBOIJTUPSZCPPL
century progressed, the proportion grew larger
.BQ
until,
in the last decade before the Revolution, three
TBNFTJ[F
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
15
their own Assembly before 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
16
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
reversed its decree of May and disqualified them. 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.
Sonthonax behaved like a dictator in St Domingue.
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
by bands of armed 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
on 1 February 1793. St Domingue was easily the most
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.
Britain was invited to take over St Domingue by the
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
and the British appointed General Adam Williamson
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
1
responsible position for a 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 welldisciplined, well-armed force.
Toussaint was known abroad and he won the
friendship and support of John Adams, the VicePresident 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
18
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 fiveyear 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
the Cul de Sac Plain. People lost their land, 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 Central 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
the governor from a 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.
Napoleon was unwilling to accept two rulers within
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-auPrince. 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
19
20
Map 4 The Caribbean in 1815
Dessalines and Jacques Maurepas, 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 GovernorGeneral 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
21
in Sonthonax’s terror of 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 disappeared. 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
22
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. In 1825 France recognised the independence
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
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 tenyear-old cabin boy and began life in St Domingue
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
nine years later. He was buried in his magnificent
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.
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
opening of the West 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
La Ferrière fortress, Haiti
24
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
colonial rival. The United States was in a dilemma.
They had only recently fought for their own
independence, but they had a huge slave population
in the south and they did not want slave revolts there.
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
and of how easily a full-scale revolution could spread,
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.
25
Europe and the United States
in the Caribbean, 1783–1823
The French Revolutionary Wars
Soldier of the West India Regiment
British policy at the outbreak of war in 1793 was
directed by Henry Dundas, the Secretary for War. 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
In June 1794 Victor Hugues, a coloured ex-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
the French royalists from 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 diseaseridden 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
27
Seizure of the Dutch, Danish and Swedish colonies
As the Netherlands had been conquered by France
the previous year, in April 1796 Abercromby attacked
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
than Cuba, Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe. 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.
Under the terms of this treaty, all the French, Dutch,
Danish and Swedish colonies in the Caribbean held
by the British were returned to their previous owners.
Only Spain suffered a loss, as Trinidad remained in
British hands.
8
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.
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
being trained to help protect. The island legislatures
all complained and tried to prevent the Army
authorities from carrying out their plans, but without
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 slavetraders. 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.
The effect of the vacuum in trade left by the collapse
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
29
output. This produced a 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
sugar more cheaply than the other British islands, 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.
0
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.
SEA ISLAND COTTON
This is the name given to a variety of the cotton
plant which was found growing in the Caribbean
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.
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
trading links had been built up with the United States.
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
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
and considered she had a claim on it since most of the
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:
We should consider any attempt on their [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
31
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
hands off America. The doctrine had little immediate
effect, but European countries considered it was very
arrogant. Since all the Caribbean islands belonged
to colonial powers, the doctrine applied there.
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.
The United States and Cuba
Once the United States had reached the Gulf of
Mexico, her nearest neighbour to the south was Cuba
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.
LOUISIANA
TEXAS
0
New Orleans
Mouth of
River Mississippi
Galveston
0
BAHAMAS
rid
a Strait
Florida
lo
Gulf of Mexico
F
Havana
Yu
c
at
an
Ch
an
CUBA
ne
Vera Cruz
Map 5 The strategic importance of Cuba to the United States
32
W
d
ar
dw
in
Pa
e
ag
ss
l
200
100
400
200
600 km
300
400 miles
The Control and Treatment of
Slaves
Slavery and the law
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:
Total population
Punishment of slaves
British
French
Dutch
Spanish
Danish
500 000
430 000
90 000
144 000
20 000
Slaves
428 000
379 000
75 000
50 000
18 000
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
from the power that he could exercise over the bodies
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 slaveowners 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.
In the eighteenth century 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
Inspecting slaves
34
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 slaveowners. 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 possessions like animals or furniture acquired by purchase
or inheritance. As a fundamental principle of English
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
English law. Slave-owners were given wide discretion
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
law ignored completely the 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
unfit to be governed by English law. Each slave-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
Barbados code was copied by the Jamaican Assembly
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
Owners with new acquisitions
slave codes, and very little attention was paid to the
welfare of either men or women.
The features of the slave codes
The effect of the laws was to deprive the slaves of even
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
the condition of the society in which they were drawn
up. In the Bahamas slaves could be flogged for selling
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
35
punishment fit the crime’. 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.
In Jamaica, by a 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
slaves before 1789, this does not mean that marriages
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
37
and docility were prime virtues, and that all earthly
efforts needed to be directed towards achieving an
immortal afterlife.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century perhaps
25 per cent of all slaves had been converted. This then
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
and produced children, without having been married
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.
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’.
8
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
white employees time off 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
on the slaves’ activities and at night enforced a curfew
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 slaveowners’ 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 nonwhites 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
39
granted significant civil rights 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
status or an entry into the world of the whites. Rather
it can be seen both as a means of getting unpleasant
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.
40
jobs done on the cheap, and of discouraging nonwhites 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
amended their laws to improve the material existence
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.
Four years later the legislature of the Bahamas passed
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
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 an unfair interference with property rights. 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
drawn up. However, there were important differences,
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
41
the consent of his owner merely by repaying his
purchase price, if necessary by periodic repayments.
The slave had a right to his provision ground with the
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.
42
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
than British law. For example, 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
An anti-slavery print of the early nineteenth century
largely unobserved, while the 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
their interests they were willing to support each other.
43
PARALLEL LIVES
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
Chevalier de Saint-George he devoted his life to music, apart for
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
In this way anti-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.
44
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.
Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-George
(1745–1799)
Had Britain followed Spain and France in allowing
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
to slave control, and its accompanying race prejudice,
eventually spread to the French, Dutch and Danish
possessions throughout the Caribbean.
Resistance and Revolt
Response to slavery
Slave hunt
Resistance was 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 resulting 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
45
force in the form 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.
Legally in the British West Indies a slave could
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 Running away, which was the only way to escape
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 dehumanisation.
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 cooperate 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
46
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’ ‘protopeasantry’ 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.
4 The maiming or 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.
There were Maroon communities in all the islands,
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.
Marronage
The Maroons in Jamaica
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
mountains of Hispaniola. He defeated several parties
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.
Maroons overran the Spanish island of Puerto Rico
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.
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.
Totalling less than 1000, they were led by Juan Lubolo
(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
47
then raids began again 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
wore them down by persistent attacks and a scorched
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
assistance to the government against external enemies
or internal revolt, and to return all runaway slaves
48
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
1795 they were feeling restricted. A second grievance
was the replacement of a white superintendent,
Captain Thomas Craskell.
The spark that set off the trouble could probably
have been extinguished peacefully if the Maroons had
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
Montego Bay
Furrys Town
Trelawney Town
Accompong Town
New Crawford
Moore Town
Nanny Town
Old Crawford
Kingston
ST ELIZABETH
Spanish Town
Port Royal
Maroon settlements
0
0
20
40 km
25 miles
Parish boundaries
Cockpit Country
Map 6 Jamaica and the Maroon Wars
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
thecaribbean
slaves were
restless
history
book 2and on the point of revolt. A
6 sent to intercept the regiment at sea and it
boatMap
was
same size
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,
49
but General Walpole extended 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
50
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
settlement would be surrounded by a moat concealed
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, the Dutch made a treaty with the Bush Negroes
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 slaveowners, 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.
1522 Hispaniola
This was the 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
revolt must have been an act of complete desperation
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
treatment and injustice. The Berbice Association, 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
51
and managers, including his 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
52
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
the key to his defence. He fortified the plantation and
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
wanting the slave revolt to spread to Demerara which
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.
He ordered the Commander of Demerara to organise
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.
The death of Kofi
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
March 1763 the slaves probably would have succeeded
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
in the long term, but was a remarkable demonstration
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
53
surprise at the false 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 commander 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.
54
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
hunted down by armed troops with much bloodshed.
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
of 1831 even Jamaica 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
55
the slaves in control 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
of inciting the rebellion. Several other ministers were
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 illadvised 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
56
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 remained 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.
PARALLEL LIVES
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 fi rst 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.
William Knibb (1803–1845), an Englishman,
arrived in Jamaica in 1824 as a Baptist missionary
and teacher. After some time teaching and preaching 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.
Samuel Sharpe
William Knibb
57
The extremists wanted the extermination of the
whites, blacks to take over the properties and even
complete independence under black government.
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
58
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
Spanish army; his supplies of weapons came from
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.
Slavery Challenged
Attitudes towards slavery
Thomas Clarkson
Pre-eighteenth-century attitudes
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,
59
was a ‘necessary evil’. 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. Protestants also used this argument, 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
Africans as being noble because they lived in a perfect
state of nature uncorrupted by any government or
60
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 slaveowners 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,
but on man’s reason. It culminated in the Declaration
of the Rights of 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.
Others denied that blacks were inferior, and argued
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
sible to prove that slave labour was cheaper than wage
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. Two West Indian planters, Edward Long
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.
61
Thirdly, they attacked the 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 enthusiastically 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.
The Haitian Revolution had an even greater impact
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.
62
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 Slavery did not necessarily lead to soil exhaustion.
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
blacks to white privilege 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, and if free the blacks would probably be
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 Slavery led to economic instability and held back
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 restrictive.
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,
abolition became a religious crusade for the Quakers.
When the ‘Society for Effecting the Abolition of
the Slave Trade’ was founded in 1787, eleven out
63
of twelve of its 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 movement grew up within the Church of England. The
members wanted less emphasis on salvation through
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, who had considerable influence in public
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 Industrial 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
64
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 humanitarian motive for the abolition movement in Britain
emphasise the economic reasons for it. They argue
that abolition was passed so that British industrialists
and merchants could sell more goods and make
more money, a purely self-interested motive. However, 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.
West Indian planters on leave in Britain, or retiring
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
recover, whereupon his master 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
illegal in England and set these slaves free. His victory
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
65
Mansfield was right about inconvenience. As a
result of this decision there were over 15 000 exslaves 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
before the House of Commons in 1776 and was easily
66
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
available inch of space. Copies of this were widely
circulated in France and the United States as
well as in Britain.
Even more potent was the Abolition Society’s
seal, showing a black slave in chains with motto ‘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
defeated. This made it 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
Trade Committee of the Privy Council ‘on the present
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,
‘That the slave Trade ought to be gradually abolished’.
In 1792 also, a bill was passed in Denmark abolishing
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
and proposals for abolition had no chance of success.
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
considerable influence at Court and with the Council
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
67
British politics. Some West Indians, or Englishmen
with plantations in the West Indies, were Members of
Parliament. Others could control votes in the House
of Commons through the system of patronage which
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 counterpropaganda 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,
68
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 Orderin-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
support of the Crown for abolition. When Pitt died in
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
to be ‘utterly abolished, prohibited and declared to be
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 slaveowners 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 Orderin-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
major slave-trader, it caused 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-Portuguese treaty which allowed the Squadron
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
69
Britain and Spain were 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
Plantation slaves attending a religious meeting
70
in the first half of the nineteenth. This was due to
their own efforts. Outside forces like abolition
and emancipation campaigns also helped them,
although the shortage of slaves as a result of abolition
endangered their position. If their title to freedom
was at all doubtful they could be taken back into
slavery.
As the price of sugar fell, the coloureds with money
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,
the restrictions in the amount of land they could hold
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
coloureds prospered. After these 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
another coloured Jamaican, founded The Watchman
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
71
The Emancipation of Slaves
Amelioration
Thomas Fowell Buxton
The abolitionists had thought 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
72
1815 the abolitionists began 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
with their slave laws. Wilberforce agreed to withdraw
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. For example, Governor Murray of Demerara
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
the Legislatures of Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica and
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
73
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
harassment of other missionaries elsewhere, 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
were influential, and the treatment that they received
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
planters and it did very little to help the slaves. In fact,
it acted against them in denying them religion. Its
most effective activity in helping slaves came from the
‘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
74
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
they were overworked, but most of them were of poor
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
close Moravian community developed 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
not attend the main church. Their success was so great
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
and a good Christian. Moreover, the Nonconformists
preached other doctrines, like Christian brotherhood
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
75
3
4
5
6
76
brother died within five months of coming to
Jamaica. William Knibb himself had to travel over
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
between 1868 and 1870, 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 unworkable, 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.
In Britain ‘reform’ was in the air; emancipation was
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
there were clauses in the Act about an apprenticeship
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 apprenticeship 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
77
their compensation, they enacted 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
The first of August, 1834
78
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.
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.
The apprenticeship system
Antigua was the only British West Indian island not
to have apprenticeship. Within two months, twothirds 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.
Colony
No. of
Total
Average
slaves compensation compensation
per slave
(£)
(to nearest £)
Jamaica
311 070
British Guiana 82 824
Barbados
83 150
Trinidad
20 657
Grenada
23 638
St Vincent
22 266
Antigua
29 121
St Lucia
13 291
St Kitts
19 780
Dominica
14 175
Tobago
11 589
Nevis
8 815
Bahamas
10 086
Montserrat
6 401
Honduras Sett.
1 901
Virgin Islands
5 135
Bermuda
4 026
6 149 955
4 295 989
1 719 980
1 033 992
616 255
550 777
425 547
334 495
329 393
275 547
233 875
151 006
128 296
103 556
101 399
72 638
50 409
20
52
21
51
26
27
15
25
17
19
23
17
13
16
53
14
13
Reasons for apprenticeship
There were many justifications given for apprenticeship. 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 – apprenticeship 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.
79
It was also argued 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.
Even by the 1860s, the planters had not fully adjusted
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
The treadmill
80
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
governorship of Jamaica, 1834–36, as a humanitarian
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
throughout the British West 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.
Plantation discipline and punishment still continued,
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, and even accused the special magistrates
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 slaveowners 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.
81
Everyone was pleased except 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 nonBritish 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, decided to adopt a policy of amelioration
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, public opinion in France was not satisfied
with amelioration, and complete emancipation was
demanded. It was influenced by Victor Schoelcher,
a businessman who had observed slavery at firsthand while he was travelling in the Caribbean.
82
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
In the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century
there was a slump in tobacco production in Cuba and
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.
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.
At the Congress of Vienna, 1815, Spain promised to
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
were used by Anglo-Spanish Commission Courts set
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
wealthy family in Paris. He began his career as an
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
83
mulattoes. The brutal suppression 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
despised for this by the liberals in Spain. Many feared
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
emancipation to slaves throughout the United States,
and ended any thought amongst Cuban slave-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
84
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
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
Factor’s commission
Consignee’s commission
Clothing for 217 slaves at $2 each
Extra expenses of all kinds
Total Expenses in HAVANA
TOTAL OF ALL EXPENSES
RETURNS
Vessel sold at auction
Proceeds of 217 slaves
Total Returns
Total Expenses
NET PROFIT ON VOYAGE
1736
5565
3873
434
1200
12808
39980
3950
77469
81419
39980
$ 41439
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.
The Dutch colonies
The Dutch 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
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
was reached with France to hold a referendum which
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.
Gustavia, St Barthélemy
85
estates. Their owners received 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
authority issued a decree of immediate emancipation
for all slaves. Unfortunately, the decree also stated
that as free men and women they would be allowed
86
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
slavery solely for the satisfaction of abolishing it.’ It is,
however, generally agreed that a compelling mixture
of economic, humanitarian and social factors all
contributed to the end of slavery throughout the
West Indies.
Post-Emancipation
Adjustments
The immediate post-emancipation period
A free village
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.
87
Let us compare the 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 exslaves 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,
88
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.
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,
and in West Africa particularly they had achieved
a high degree of economic independence from
men through the development of their marketing
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
The attitude of the labourers
The first thought of the ex-plantation slaves, now free
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
89
government considered destroying all 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
prevent squatting on Crown Land and imposed heavy
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.
The planters then tried to keep the blacks labouring
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
90
3
for their cottages. If they did not work on the
estate the rent was very high.
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 largescale 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
quickly and their sugar industries survived. The large
territories suffered enormous labour problems in
the short run, and their sugar industries threatened
to collapse. The following 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.
Colony
Antigua
Barbados
St Kitts
British Guiana
Jamaica
Trinidad
Approx yearly average in tons
Pre-emancipation Post-emancipation
10 000
16 000
6 000
45 000
90 000
6 000
13 000
39 000
5 000
25 000
30 000
7 000
EMIGRATION FROM THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN
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. Even before the end of the apprenticeship
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.
Peasants at work in the late nineteenth century
91
Wages and fringe benefits
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,
Peasant’s cottage
92
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.
In the larger territories 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.
Territory
Wages per day
Antigua
Small
Barbados
St Kitts
British
Guiana
Jamaica
Large
Trinidad
1s (1834) rising to
1s 6d (1839)
(Planter/labourer relations
were better than elsewhere)
9d (1838) rising to 10d
(to combat threat of
emigration to Trinidad)
6d (1838) rising to
9d (1839)
2s (seven-and-a-half-hour
day)
1s rising quickly to 1s 6d
(7½ d was actually offered
at first)
2s to 2s 6d
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
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 twothirds 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.
This made little contribution to the total sugar output
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
93
Jamaica at this time 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, preemancipation 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
94
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.
In Trinidad the free 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’.
Post-emancipation problems in some of the British sugar-producing colonies
Territory
Land available
Crown Land
Unused
estate land
Plantation
labour
Wages and
fringe benefits
Sugar
production
Antigua
Practically none
Readily
available
1s Cottage,
25%
grounds, free
increase
medical service, schools
Barbados
Practically none
10d Cottage,
grounds
Readily
available
Dominica
Free
villages
Some
around
St John’s
More than
doubled
Much inferior Unreliable
land
9d to 1s
Same
Cash crops, fishing, cottage,
grounds
Settlements
in interior
Grenada
9d Sale of
50%
produce to
decrease
Trinidad
Scattered
smallholdings
Available for purchase in small parcels
Nevis
Much
available
Irregular
Emigration
to Trinidad
Hard to
Profit-sharing
obtain
Very small
decrease
Scattered
cottages
St Kitts
None Unreliable
available
9d Tenuous
hold on cottage.
Allowed to grow
food on estate
Very small
increase
Very few
St Lucia
1s 6d
Some métayage,
cottage, grounds
25%
increase
Small, bush
settlements
St Vincent
Available in Unreliable
9d Sale of
25%
Emigration
produce, cottage,
decrease
small parcels
grounds
to Trinidad
Plantation
cottages
abandoned,
scattered
cottages
British
Much fertile
Much for
Very
2s Legal limit
40%
and infertile
purchase
scarce
of 7½ hours
decrease
Guiana
Many large
‘Negro
Colonies’
Jamaica
Up to 200
free villages
Inferior land Available,
irregular
available
Trinidad
Inferior
land only
Hard to
obtain
Scarce and
unreliable
Much fertile Very
land
scarce
1s 6d Rent for
cottage
Decreased
by 3 times
2s to 2s 6d
20%
Cottage, grounds,
increase
fish, flour and medical services
Settlements
around
Port of Spain
95
The labour situation after 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 planters. 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.
96
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, nonwhite immigration policies.
Immigrant Labour
Official reaction to immigration
East Indians at work in Trinidad
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
pressure from the planters to participate in immigrant
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.
97
Immigration schemes
There were a 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
them died or asked for repatriation, the governments
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
98
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
production was succeeded by that of Madeira, 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.
freed slaves, most notably 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
99
the Anti-Slavery Society revealed that many of the
immigrants had died quickly. Some had been flogged
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
put towards immigration, and the scheme continued.
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’ to differentiate them from the Amerindians,
Chinese immigrants
100
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 nonBritish 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 nonBritish 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
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.
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 castoff clothes they could scrounge.
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 – fiveyear 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
101
year except Sundays and 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
Immigrants landing at Guadeloupe
102
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 immigrant. 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
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 ‘cooliecatchers’ 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.
Between 1838 and 1917, West Indian governments
spent a total of £20 000 000 on immigration schemes,
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
103
involved flogging and imprisonment 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 exstipendiary 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, subagents, 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
Summary chart of immigrant labour brought to the British West Indies between 1834 and 1917
Territory
Europeans
(1834–1841)
Madeirans
(1835–1882)
Africans
(1841–1862)
Chinese
(1852–1893)
British Guiana
30 000
14 000
12 000
Jamaica
5 000
100
10 000
5 000
Trinidad
2 000
8 000
3 000
Grenada
800
1 500
St Vincent
500
1 000
St Lucia
500
500
St Kitts
200
200
500
Antigua
2 000
British Honduras
Totals
5 200
36 100
35 500
20 000
104
Indians
(1838–1917)
238 000
37 000
143 900
3 200
2 500
4 300
300
200
429 400
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105
the Spanish had promised 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
expanding sugar market. The demand for immigrant
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
106
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
Surinam up to 1938, and over 34 000 Indians between
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.
INDIAN IMMIGRANTS TO THE CARIBBEAN
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
between the Dutch and French colonies on the north
coast of South America, various British, French and
Danish island colonies, and the Central American
colony of British Honduras. Their distribution was
as follows:
Indian immigrants to the Caribbean in the nineteenth
century
In 1835 the new 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
British Guiana
Trinidad
Guadeloupe
Jamaica
Surinam
Martinique
French Guiana
St Lucia
Grenada
St Vincent
St Kitts
St Croix
British Honduras
238 909
143 939
42 326
37 027
34 404
25 404
8 500
4 300
3 200
2 472
337
300
200
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
107
Chinese signed a contract 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 preemancipation level. Again, the credit is given to
immigrant labour.
However, the only fair conclusion to draw about
British Guiana and Trinidad is that immigrant labour
was accompanied by increased sugar production; it
was not necessarily the cause of it. Contemporary
planters certainly attributed the rise in output to the
108
Chinese immigrants in Cuba
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
in British Guiana and 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
the West Indies, religion was a separate compartment
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
109
acceptable religion in the 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
110
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.
Problems of the Caribbean
Sugar Industry
British West Indian sugar before 1846
A Cuban sugar plantation
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.
Another problem was competition from India and
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.
111
The level of wages, 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
112
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 fi xed
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
Indies after 1840, all the foreign coins continued
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.
The Sugar Equalisation Act, 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, slavegrown 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
eastern Caribbean were forced to accept wage cuts
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
because of lower wages. 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
113
bankrupt and the Planters 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
refused to vote any taxes and the Governor was so
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
114
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.
23 000 tons
1846
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
planters even accepted one-twentieth of their estates’
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
suffered the same problems in the 1830s, although on
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.
A sugar plantation
St Lucia, in 1833, 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
115
the Spanish government which 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 CamagüeyManiabon 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
labour force. In 1850 the slave population of Cuba
was about 350 000, a little more than the slave
population of Jamaica had been at emancipation
(312 000). The Cuban sugar industry was labourintensive 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.
116
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, large and could achieve economies
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.
The sugar revolution in 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
outlying areas but the land was owned by the centrals
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 twothirds. 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.
American ownership of over 60 per cent of the estates
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
Cuba was the seventh country
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
117
supply in Cuba, so they poured millions of dollars
into Cuba and bought land at inflated prices.
The Cubans also discovered that a large permanent
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
Grinding cane in Cuba
118
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. The production costs of Louisiana and Brazil
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.
Competition from Brazilian sugar in the midnineteenth 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 production 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
119
Therefore, in 1903, European beet-sugar producing 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, European beet sugar continued to compete
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
The industry was using seventeenth-century methods
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 laboursaving 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
centrifugal drier or the steam mill, except possibly
in Trinidad and British Guiana. The ‘central’
factory was the answer to this problem, but it was
not acceptable in the British West Indies.
120
3 Planters were held back by lack of capital. The
new machinery, the huge centrals and associated
railway systems, required large amounts of capital
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.
Trinidad and British Guiana were exceptions to
most of these failings. Their plantations were larger
than those elsewhere and could support up-todate 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 laboursaving 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
121
This was very over-optimistic about the fertility of the
land, but basically the Report was recommending the
diversification of crops to 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
Norman was sent out firstly because the price of sugar
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.
122
The Norman Commission is an example of one
Royal Commission whose advice and recommendations 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
in 1797, they found 130 coffee plantations in
production there.
The cacao plant was native to South America and
was introduced into the West Indies by the Spaniards.
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
exports before 1896. Jamaica had the most diversified
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.
The Imperial Government paid for the Department
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.
123
Constitutional Developments
in the British Caribbean in the
Nineteenth Century
Breakdown of the representative system
of government
Paul Bogle
124
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
classes had representation in the House of Commons
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,
but the representative principle 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
represented under one per cent of the total population
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. The governor always had the ultimate authority,
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
125
in their internal legislation’. 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
126
the majority of the population everywhere was black.
There could be no progress until they were allowed to
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.
The keynote of the judicial system was amateurism.
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
men were chosen; a good social and financial standing
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
AN ADVOCATE OF FRANCHISE 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
a disappointed man, he is still remembered for
his efforts and was made a National Hero of
Barbados in 1998.
Samuel Jackman Prescod
Assembly Building, Nassau
127
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
magistrates in a parish came under the chairmanship
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
128
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 government 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-inCouncil, 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
form British Guiana. It was not given a representative
Assembly because it already 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
planters chose an electoral college, the Kiezers. In the
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.
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
accordance with the existing Spanish laws. 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.
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
129
epidemic swept through the 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
Morant Bay Town in the mid-nineteenth century
130
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
chapels he built in Kingston and in the eastern parish
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.
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.
Edward John Eyre
Events leading to the 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.
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
131
men rescued him from 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
Custos ordered the Riot Act to be read. This provoked
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
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132
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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.
When the Morant Bay Rebellion occurred, 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
Henry Storks, his successor as Governor, 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
133
and even further afield 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
British government did not have to order the change:
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.
134
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 passed 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 dependencies:
1 Turks and Caicos Islands These were separated
from the Bahamas in 1848, and made a colony
subordinate to Jamaica. The colony was established 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.
2 British Honduras The Honduras Settlement
was finally created a British Colony in 1862,
with a Lieutenant-Governor subordinate to the
Governor of Jamaica. In 1871 the Legislative
Assembly voted to end representative government
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 singlechamber 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 onecrop 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 PopeHennessy, and the Assembly over the proposed
Windward Islands Federation. Barbados did not
want to join, partly because the Federation was under
Crown Colony government. Pope-Hennessy wanted
the Assembly abolished because of its opposition,
but the Solicitor-General, Conrad Reeves, and others
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 government and the Colonial Office intended Crown
135
Colony government to work 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 representative system it replaced. If the local government
was serving the interests of a minority and neglecting 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 communicate its orders or complaints direct to the appropriate 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
schools which proved their efficiency by this test were
given higher grants. The money for education came
from the funds released by the disestablishment of
136
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
backward step. West Indian nationalists had accepted
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 unofficials, 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.
Religion in the British
Caribbean in the Nineteenth
Century
The Anglican Church
Dr Thomas Coke
The Anglican 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
137
were more interested in preserving the existing
social order.
Reforms in the Anglican Church
In response to competition from the Nonconformists,
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.
This was accompanied by other reforms. The grant
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
138
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 postemancipation 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 postemancipation 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.
The disestablishment of the 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
choice in religion. There was no legal disability for not
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 following 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
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of Codrington College, the Reverend Richard
Rawle, ensured that the Church was well founded
and popular.
6 Barbados had successfully resisted Crown Colony
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 confirmed the Church of England as the Established
Church by passing an Act which fixed the appointments 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, vicarages and schools, and for the expenses
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 closeknit 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
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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
on the missionary movement in other Churches. 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 movement, 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, relegation of the status of the clergy, 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
Gilbert, the Speaker of 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
helped by the Baptist Church in Britain or the United
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, the greatest Methodist missionary, joined him.
The Nonconformist missionary efforts to reach the
masses had begun to have an impact on the slaves
before the end of the eighteenth century.
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Baptist chapel meeting
Persecution of Nonconformist Churches
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.
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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
that the Jamaican Assembly 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 missionaries 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
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critics who accused them 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 Nonconformist chapels of the Moravians and Methodists
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
144
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
the religion of the working class. At the same time,
the Church made no effort to attract or inspire nonwhite 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
before emancipation. Two other religions, 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
who arrived in Surinam in 1639. These were
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 presentday Suriname are representative of the
oldest permanent Jewish community in
the western hemisphere.
The synagogue in Curaçao
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but also of 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
caste Brahmins and the lowest caste Harijans. 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
THE JHANDI
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
Prayer flags being flown outside a Hindu temple
146
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.
break it down in 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
year starts as merchants open new account books.
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.
Hindu temple in Trinidad
Islam
Islam is the religion that was preached by
Muhammad. It is summed up in the belief. ‘There
147
is no god but 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
fixed by the moon, so calendar dates cannot be given.
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,
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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.
In spite of such attempts by Christian missionaries,
Hinduism and Islam remained 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.
149
Social Life and Changes,
1838–1914
After emancipation
The Panama Canal
The structure of 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
150
bonded and the free. 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.
In the nineteenth century the division of society by
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 largescale 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
restoring order. Detachments of the First and Second
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.
151
Religious and cultural divisions
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 traditional major unit of caste organisation
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
152
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
West Indies, where towns were quartered by race. 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
Indies. There was no 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 cultures, 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, clergymen, lawyers, solicitors, merchants, shopkeepers, 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 existence, 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
was denied to the great majority of the black working
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, LanceCorporal William Gordon of the First Battalion,
153
also received the Victoria Cross for the heroism he
displayed during another action in the Gambia.
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
Martinique
Guadeloupe
Ashantee
West Africa
Sierra Leone
Cameroons
East Africa
Palestine
1805
1809
1810
1873–74
1887
1898–99
1914–18
1914–18
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.
Sergeant William Gordon, who won the VC as a Lance
Corporal in 1888
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
154
before death. Formal marriage was more common in
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
he was. An illegitimate child could not inherit
in most islands, unless his father had willed him
property. This had been common during slavery
and continued after emancipation.
This tended to bring about a lack of companionship
and even affection between men and women,
compared with the affection felt between children
and their parents, especially their mother.
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.
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.
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.
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 governments, 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 various Churches and voluntary organisations.
155
As the century progressed, 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.
Advances in social welfare, particularly education,
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
Very little education of any kind had been available in
the West Indies before the middle of the nineteenth
century. Children of wealthy parents were educated
Boys’ school in Jamaica, 1911
156
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
train physicians and ministers 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.
The first schools maintained by public subscription
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 education was made in 1833. In 1835 the British government 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 matched 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.
157
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
colonies in the 1850s and 1860s to control education.
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.
158
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.
Education under Crown Colony government
After the establishment of Crown Colony government 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
159
receive more than a 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
on religious instruction. After emancipation, 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
Education had achieved very little in welding together
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.
160
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 welleducated 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
PARALLEL LIVES:
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
women in society. He was elected to the Kingston City Council
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
prejudiced views and contradictions of a book, The English in
the West Indies, which had been written a year earlier by J.A.
Froude, one of the most eminent historians of his time. For a
largely self-educated black West Indian to take on one of the
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.
Public health and medical 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.
There was great need for public health and medical
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.
161
MARY SEACOLE
Even though in the first half of the nineteenth century
there had been 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
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
162
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.
Mary Seacole
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
Works Department. General sanitation 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
was not set up until 1883. Until then the maintenance
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
little was done. After 1883, in assuming responsibility
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, often impassable in the wet seasons. In British
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
163
to complete the 20 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 communication between the various islands and mainland 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 coaling 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
164
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 communication 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 communication did much to change life in the West Indies. It
became easier and quicker for people, goods and information 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.
Emigration
Background to emigration
Emigration has 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 construction of a railway across the Isthmus of
Panama, and 2000 West Indians, mostly Jamaicans, emigrated to work on it. This railway provided 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.
165
THE PANAMA CANAL
Between 1881 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.
During the earlier French attempt to build the canal,
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
the Eastern Caribbean. The largest contingents were
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
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.
166
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.
Construction of the Panama Canal locks
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.
Cuba and the Dominican 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.
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Florida
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100
200
300
400 miles
CUBA
JAMAICA
ANTIGUA
DOMINICA
HONDURAS
BARBADOS
TRINIDAD
COSTA
RICA
VENEZUELA
Map 9
same size
PANAMA
Map 9 Emigration from the British Caribbean islands, 1838 to 1914
BRITISH GUIANA
Revision Questions
Theme 3: Resistance and 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 destructive?
(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
3
4
(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?
(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?
(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.
169
3
4
(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?
(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.
170
2
3
(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.
(a) What reasons did the USA have for wanting
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 encountered at this time?
(c) What changes took place in transport by
the end of the nineteenth century?
Further Reading
General texts
Ashdown, P. Caribbean History in Maps. Trinidad,
1983.
Augier, F.R., S.C. Gordon, D.G. Hall and M. 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 Amerindians to Independence. London, 1979.
Steele, B.A. Grenada: A History of Its People. London,
2003.
Thomas, H. Cuba: or the Pursuit of Freedom. 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.
171
Knight, F.W. General History 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.
172
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.
Index
Abercromby, General Sir Ralph,
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,
173
117; and the slave 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 nonBritish 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
174
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
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
175
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 nonBritish 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,
176
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