Dr Rita Pemberton
THE STATE of Tobago's enslaved African population attracted considerable attention from agencies of the imperial government during the closing years of the 18th century.
This concern was stimulated by two forces. One functioned in the imperial country and the other in the colonies.
Despite the difference in geographical location, both were attacks on the slave system which inspired fear in the planting community. and their combined impact was to force the imperial hand to institute some mitigating measures in an attempt to placate the combatants.
In England, the anti-slavery group exposed the horrors of the slave trade and campaigned for its termination. while in the colonies, there was growing instability among the enslaved population and an increased incidence of resistance.
Both developments alarmed the planting community. whose members felt their businesses were under threat. In an effort to counter the impact of the anti-slavery group, in 1799 the Tobago Council and the Tobago House of Assembly established a committee to examine the state under which the enslaved population lived and to make recommendations for improvement where possible.
This committee began with a focus on matters concerning the welfare of the enslaved population and the causes of the problems.
The mortality rate among the enslaved African population in Tobago was extremely high and very interestingly, the first explanation offered was environmental.
The high death rate was said to be due to the unhealthiness of the climate, which was considered to be 'inimical to human constitution'; yet it was admitted that more attention should be paid to the food, clothing and housing provisions for the enslaved workers.
Allocation to
the enslaved
Each adult worker was provided with a weekly allocation of one of the following: 3 lbs salt pork; 4 lbs salt beef; 4lbs saltfish or 14 good herring.
Seven quarts wheat flour, oatmeal, guinea corn, Indian corn, peas, plantains yam, potatoes; eddoes.
With pride, the committee reported that the enslaved in Tobago were fed as well as and possibly better than those in other colonies.
Africans were allocated two sets of clothing per year, in May and December
Males were given a cloth jacket and a pair of trousers made of osnaburg (cheap cotton) and females received a cloth jacket a hat, a coarse handkerchief, a petticoat and a wrapper (usually six yards) of osnaburg.
The enslaved population was portrayed as being well housed, clothed and fed by the produce of their provision grounds. It is to be noted that the allocation of provision grounds was made mandatory during the American War of Independence, when food supplies became so short that the survival of the enslaved population came under threat.
In order to preserve the lives of the members of the labour force, each enslaved person over 14 was provided with a plot of land, called the provision ground, on which food cultivation was mandatory. It was a survival mechanism, and not a planter st
