Dr Rita Pemberton

The cultivation of cotton and sugar, which occurred during the 18th and 19th centuries in Tobago, typified the use of enslaved labour for the conduct of plantation agriculture for the benefit of the island's large landowners and its imperial possessor. Cotton was the first crop to be cultivated as a commercial enterprise by the first European occupiers of the island, but it was replaced by sugar owing to an outbreak of disease and a surge in demand and prices in Europe and the potential for profits which this brought.

Sugar remained the island's main crop from the time of British acquisition in 1763 across the 19th century. The enslaved African workers who were bonded to work for life had no say in either the choice or change of crop or in the terms of production, and neither did they share in the profits which accrued to their enslavers. It was assumed that African labour would always be free to those participants of the human trade who purchased captive Africans who were forced to work to the satisfaction of their enslavers. Plantation agriculture brought them no benefits, and not surprisingly, the island was rocked by revolts during the initial phase of British possession during the 1770s, when the Africans sought their liberation through rebellion.

The experiences of bonded labour varied from the time of British possession to the 19th and into the 20th century.

France's determination to wrest possession from Britain during the last decades of the 18th century posed a security threat to the island, which resulted in the deployment of members of the enslaved population to strengthen its inadequate defence force. Hence the enslaved population served double duty as forced labour in economic and military service neither of which served their interests, for they were thereby drawn into a war that cost the lives of some and injury to others, and, like the commercial enterprise, was of no benefit to them.

French occupation of Tobago between 1781 and 1793 brought no change in the work routine of the enslaved population, for there was an intensified demand for their labour under French pressure to regain control of the sugar market.

Once the island returned to British possession, plantation owners faced an uphill battle to deal with the challenges which were posed by changed market realities - increased production from other producers both within and without the British Empire and falling prices - to which the plantation owners responded with increased labour demands on the workers. Whether under British or French rule, plantation agriculture remained the nemesis of enslaved workers.

However, a wind of change was provided by the successful move of the American colonies for independence from British rule. This war jeopardised the sustenance of the enslaved population in the British colonies, because the system was based on the supply of food from the North American colonies.

This threat of the disruption of the food supply resulted in the allocation of provision grounds to th