Dr Rita Pemberton

In 1900 the roads which existed in Tobago remained a legacy of the heyday of the plantation era. Despite the decline of the sugar industry, administrators on the island did not consider road improvement a priority, and the island's roads continued to reflect plantation concerns that were based on the need to maintain security to deflect both internal and external threats. It was important for estates to be accessible to each other in order to lend support should an emergency occur. The situation did not change after emancipation, when the island's financial challenges precluded any consideration of expenditure being allocated for road construction.

The roads, which did not connect all parts of the island were, for the most part, in a very poor state. Roads were of two types - those which could accommodate horse and carriage and bridle paths, and those which could accommodate horse and carriage were the island's main roads. These led from the governor's house to the port, and connected to the administration buildings, the main defence centre at the Fort and from a few plantations on the western side of the island to the town. The remaining roads were primarily bridle paths which, as their name suggests, were intended to accommodate single traffic on horseback.

The growth of village settlements after 1838 occurred without infrastructural planning, hence many of the island's villages had no road access. The population depended on the existing bridle paths which, by 1900, were overgrown and obstacle-riddled with fallen trees and debris which remained uncleared for extensive periods of time. Road communication challenges were greatest on the windward side of the island - the source of the island's main rivers. Traversing many of the roads in these areas required crossing these rivers which was a difficult and dangerous undertaking, particularly during the rainy season when some lives were lost. It was a common feature for some communities to be cut off from the rest of the island because of flooding during the rainy season, and further communication difficulties were posed in these hilly areas which were also prone to landslides.

Like they did during and after enslavement, the majority of Tobago's population travelled long distances on foot from their homes to obtain the services they required, to transact business and to attend school, church, funerals, weddings and other social functions. While these challenges created a population of long-distance walkers who functioned from before day clean (early morning) to late evenings at a time when there were no street lights, life was very difficult. Women, bearing trays on their heads, plied their business selling, fish, provision, baked goods, and other items of food between villages. Except for those who were able to afford donkeys, farmers also loaded garden produce on their heads and trekked to their homes across the challenging terrain.

During this period, the many bays around the island provided re