Dr Rita Pemberton
PART I
FROM THE 1840s to the end of the 19th century, metayage was the dominant system of labour in Tobago. The metayage/metairie system was a system of sharecropping which was based on the principle that planters supplied land and required facilities, while workers, called metayers, provided labour. When the crop was sold, the returns (profit or losses) would be shared on an agreed basis.
This system was introduced and popularised in Tobago during the 1840s and particularly after the disastrous hurricane of 1847, which added to the problems of the island's sugar industry, which was already faced with serious operational challenges.
The imperial mandate which terminated the apprenticeship system in 1838 was vehemently opposed by Tobago's plantation owners, who were neither mentally nor financially prepared to implement the changes which were implied in the transition from a work force under planter control to free workers.
As their conduct during the apprenticeship period indicated, planters were determined to maintain their pre-emancipation social and economic practices. These were based on their focus on making the island's sugar business profitable, which they could only perceive would occur if labour was conscripted.
However, planters faced an uphill battle because, even before emancipation, the island's sugar industry had begun a steady decline into the doldrums of unprofitability, and in addition the African population was determined to resist planter exploitation and control.
The psychological unpreparedness of Tobago's planting community for the conduct of plantation operations with free workers presented the first major challenge for it magnified the issue of labour in post-emancipation Tobago.
According to the maxim 'land without labour is useless,' the workers in Tobago were unwilling to provide their labour under the terms offered by the planters. Hence worker resistance characterised labour relations in post-emancipation Tobago.
The problem was aggravated by the fact that there existed a serious shortage of cash on the island, so planters were unable to pay wages and there was a variety of specie in use. Both realities served to make the issue of remuneration for work complex and tension-filled, and stimulated a range of other problems.
Wages were paid in kind - rum, molasses, credit from the exploitative plantation shops, but, most importantly, access to land. In addition, planters were unable to make changes in their operations because of a lack of credit since no financier was willing to invest in the sinking fund that was Tobago's sugar industry.
Hence planters held tightly to traditional ways of operation, including labour arrangements which stimulated their perceived need to hold on to the pre-emancipation system of forced labour. To them the metayage arrangement was the best deal possible at the time and they were determined to make it work
The main challenge to the workers was the fact that after emancipation there were limited opportuni
