DR RITA PEMBERTON

As the clauses of the 1838 act to terminate the apprenticeship period, and particularly, the proclamation of the lieutenant governor to the apprentices on 15 July forewarned, there was no intent to change the way business was conducted in Tobago during the years after 1838.

The name change implied a change in status to freed men and women, but there was no specific provision in the law which signified the implementation of a new social order.

Punishment was removed from the control of employers and placed in the hands of the magistrates, but the actions for punishable offences under the law remained unchanged.

The sugar industry maintained its operation in traditional mode, and because it was the island's sole economic activity, it was the main source of employment for the freed African workers. The workers were expected to remain the labour force that provided the service the planters desired.

After Emancipation, three issues immediately surfaced. Firstly, the interests of the two main protagonists were diametrically opposed. The freed Africans wanted to pursue their own ambitions which involved freedom from plantation labour and planter control, and a desire to establish an independent existence.

The planters, on the other hand, resisted any change in their traditional ways of operation and remained mired in the practices of a slave system that allowed them control of a large, cheap labour force.

Secondly, the fortunes of the sugar industry deteriorated dramatically during the first ten years after Emancipation. The reduction of the labour force by the removal of women and children from estate work and the preference of the workers to acquire housing off the estate were viewed by the planters as creating a labour problem.

Also, the 1846 Sugar Duties Act removed the protection Caribbean sugar had long enjoyed on the British market, throwing poor-quality Tobago sugar into competition with cheaper, better sugar, relegating it to the lowest prices on the market. As a result, the revenue generated by the industry was significantly reduced causing further impoverishment of the island's treasury.

The situation was worsened by the disastrous hurricane of 1847, which destroyed estate buildings and threw the industry into near-collapse. Planters clung desperately to the pre-1834 modus operandi of trying to force workers into submission to their work regimes in the effort to save their ailing industry.

The period after 1838 was therefore marked by planter/worker conflicts, generated by planters' attempts to maintain enslavement at a time when workers expected freedom. Faced with mounting economic pressures associated with cost overruns, low prices and heavy indebtedness, planters placed increased pressure on workers.

They made attempts to reduce their operating costs by reducing wages, increasing tasks and making arbitrary changes in the terms of employment. Naturally, such attempts were met with stout resistance from the workers, which was manifested in thr