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THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PEASANTRY 1838-1900

CORE TOPIC (MC): THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PEASANTRY 1838 – 1900

1. The conditions which facilitated or hindered the development of a Caribbean peasant

population and the growth of the free village movement in the Caribbean to the end of
the 19th century.
2. The development of an Indo-Caribbean peasantry in Trinidad and Guyana.
3. Contribution of the peasantry to the social and economic life of the Caribbean.

THE FREE VILLAGE MOVEMENT

The establishment of free villages did not begin as a result of emancipation but with freedom.
In other words, it became possible to do legally what earlier, a few slaves had done illegally. For
example, during slavery, the desire for freedom and landownership motivated slaves to run
away from plantations in Suriname to establish settlements in the interior (i.e. Bush Negroes)
and from sugar plantations in Jamaica to establish Maroon villages in remote areas.

The system of giving slaves provision grounds so that they can feed themselves also contributed
to free village settlement after slavery. This helped to give slaves the training and experience
required in the cultivation of root and tree crops, in the management of provision grounds. It
also developed a familiar and desirable alternative to work on the estates.

Consequently, a number of conditions led ex-slaves to leave the estates and to establish
themselves in free villages.

Factors that led to the Establishment of Free Villages

1. The ex-slaves had a desire to be free and to own a piece of land. They associated work
on the estates with slavery, so they wanted to be independent of the estates. In
addition, owning a piece of land was the key to independence.

2. The ex-slaves disliked plantation labour and they wanted to forget the bad treatment
that had been meted out under slavery.

3. There was insecurity of tenure on the estates. Many planters began to charge rent for
the use of huts and provision grounds that ex-slaves had formerly occupied as slaves.
The planters evicted those ex-slaves who would not work for them and paid low wages
to those who continued to work. As a result, wherever land was available for rent,
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purchase, or for squatting, they moved away from the estates and set up free villages on
the available land.

4. The ex-slaves’ familiarity with agriculture helped to pave the way for the establishment
of free villages. During slavery, slave owners who had available land provided their
slaves with provision grounds on which they grew food crops. Slave owners had also
developed the practice of allowing slaves to sell any surplus in the Sunday market.
When freedom came the ex-slaves wanted to devote as much time as they chose to the
growing and marketing of provisions from which they could make a living.

5. There was land available for cultivation. In the larger territories, crown land and unused
estate land were available for ex-slaves to occupy. Some ex-slaves squatted on unused
land and disregarded official warnings to desist from such practice, because they knew
that it was difficult for them to be brought to justice.

6. Some landowners were willing to sell some of their land in order to ease their financial
problems, for example to raise money to pay wages or to clear off longstanding debts.

7. Many ex-slaves were able to use their savings to purchase land at prices ranging from
two pounds to ten pounds per acre.

8. In British Guiana, ex-slaves pooled their resources, obtained limited credit and
purchased large tracts of land from estate owners. Victoria, Queenstown, Plaisance and
Beterverwaging were some of the villages which they established. By 1852, it was
estimated that there were more than 70,000 ex-slaves owning property in houses and
land for which they had paid £1 million.

9. Baptist and Wesleyan missionaries for example William Knibb, James Phillipo and
Thomas Burchell in Jamaica who wanted to protect the ex-slaves from the abuses of the
planters, established free villages such as Sligoville, Sturge Town, Clarksonville,
Wilberforce, Boston, Bethany, Salem, Philadelphia and Harmony, where ex-slaves were
able to purchase small lots of land.

10. The generosity of some planters also contributed to the establishment of free villages. In
Barbados Reynold Alleyne Ellcock, the owner of Mt. Wilton Estate in St. Thomas parish,
left money in his will to each of his slaves. After his death, they received this money in
1841, and together, they bought sections of Rock Hall Estate to establish free villages.
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11. A few planters for example Peter Chapman, owner of Workman’s Estate in St. George
made land available for sale. In 1856, he subdivided 102 acres of his estate and allowed
ex-slaves to purchase lots in installments.

The Free Village Movement in the Caribbean

 British Guiana
In British Guiana groups of ex-slaves pooled their savings to form co-operatives
which bought entire plantations. The first co-operative village was built in 1839
when 84 free men paid $10,000 for North Brook plantation on the east coast of
Demerara. The legal owners were a committee of six but 84 members each bought
one share in the property including a house lot and farmlands. Each member gave
either a period of work or a sum of money to maintain the drainage and irrigation
ditches which were essential in coastal Guiana.

Co-operatives usually bought cheap abandoned cotton plantations but occasionally

became owners of sugar estates. Some of the large purchases made between 1834
and 1844 were the 202 hectares Plantation Friendship for $80,000, Plantation New
Orange Nassau later known as Buxton Village for $50,000 and the 162 hectare
Plantation Beterverwaging for $22,000. By 1850 there were more than 25 Guianese
co-operatives with land valued at over a million dollars.

In 1852, the governor passed a measure known as Ordinance No.1 which checked
the growth of co-operatives. It prohibited the purchase of land by a group of more
than 20 people.

In 1856, Ordinance No. 33 limited ownership to 10 or fewer people and they had to
had to make a cash payment for the upkeep of the drainage. It was no longer legal
for co-operative members to take turns to supply the labour needed. The ordinances
stopped the growth of large co-operatives and broke the common bond between
members which had come about from sharing in the drainage work. The owners
found it difficult to borrow money for improvements or to keep the drainage
systems in good repair. Thus, trenches backed up, dykes wore away and bridges
collapsed.

As a result, many co-operative members were forced to leave their flooded fields
and return to working on plantations for wages. Some chose to find less fertile land
to squat on in the interior.
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 Jamaica
The Reverend William Knibb played an important part in the life of Jamaica in the
years immediately following Emancipation. He accused the Assembly of passing laws
such as the Ejectment Act and the Trespass Act which negatively impacted on the
freed inhabitants of Jamaica.

The Ejectment Act stated that these inhabitants could be ejected from the homes in
which they were born. The Trespass Act stated that the police could arrest and
imprison those individuals found in his former home after receiving a notice of
ejectment. The aim was to force labourers to return to the plantations to work for
whatever wages the planters chose to give and perform as much work as they
required.

Planters sought to drive people from the estates by resorting to ejectment and high
rents. The Emancipation Act had provided that negroes who occupied cottages and
grounds on the estates could keep them for 3 months after freedom. However, it did
not make clear that the occupation was to be rent free.

The Reverend William Knibb realized even before the slaves were completely
emancipated that settlement on their own land recourse for evicted people from the
estates. On the 19th July 1838 at a meeting in Falmouth, he told 2,500 Jamaican
apprentices that they could resort to Crown land if evicted from their properties.

By 1839, the change in the social and political state of the colony resulted in a
minute sub-division of landed property. The people settled in districts, villages and
on their own scattered individual freeholds and wherever there was land available.

The Reverend William Knibb at his meeting in Falmouth informed the people that he
had an offer of a loan of £10,000 from a friend in England which could be used if
necessary to purchase lands on which labourers could live if their present employers
forced them to quit the properties on which they live.

Another Baptist missionary James Philippo established the first ‘Free Village’ in the
hills above Spanish Town and called it Sligoville after the Marquis of Sligo, governor
of Jamaica. The Reverend John Clarke devoted himself to the free village movement
in St. Ann’s Parish and was supported by kind people in England such as a Mr. Sturge
who lent £400 for the purchase of land. Mount Abyia was bought, divided into
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village lots and sold. About a 100 families were settled in a village now named Sturge
Town where a church was built and a day school established in 1840. Other villages
settled were Clarksonville, Wilberforce and Buxton.

Others who made an invaluable contribution were the Baptist Missionaries Thomas
Burchell (founded Bethel Town and Mount Carey), Messrs. Dendy, Dexter, Abbott,
Taylor and Reid, and the Rev. George Blyth of the Scottish Missionary Society.

Between 1838 and 1840 there was a large increase in the number of proprietors of
small freeholds in several rural parishes of the island. The increase consisted almost
entirely of emancipated Negroes. In 1838 the number of freeholds assessed was
2,014 and in 1840, 7,848.

The Rev. William Knibb in his address in June 1845 reported that there were 19,000
persons formerly slaves who had purchased land and established their own cottages.
In the parish of St. James there were 10 new free villages with 11,020 houses, in
Trelawney there were 23 free villages with 1,590 houses, in St. Mary 15 free villages
with 632 houses, in St. Thomas in the Vale 10 free villages with 1,780 houses.

QUESTIONS
1. Explain the origin of the free village movement.

2. Identify three factors responsible for the development of free villages.

3. Name three Baptist missionaries in Jamaica that assisted in the development of free
villages in Jamaica.

4. Name three free villages that existed in Jamaica.

5. What was the name of the first free village that was established in Barbados?

6. Name the two laws that were passed by the Jamaican Assembly to drive the former
slaves away from the estates.
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PEASANTRY 1838-1900

After Emancipation slaves became free to choose what they wanted to do with their lives. They
could could either continue working for their former masters or they could engage in other
types of employment other than plantation wage labour.

Immediately after emancipation many of the ex-slaves chose to remain on the estates because:
1) they were attached to their homes and provision grounds

2) the availability of certain services such as free medical treatment

3) they wanted to escape an uncertain future.

However, they were many ex-slaves who wanted to dissociate themselves from the symbol of
enslavement.

Several alternative forms of employment were available to those who sought to abandon
plantation labour. Women could become housewives or engage in occupations such as sewing,
handicrafts, peddling or petty shop-keeping. Children could take advantage of available
educational facilities and go to school. Men could engage in local small-scale trading in clothing
and foodstuffs by setting up shops near to estates or in villages. Those who had the benefit of
previous training were attracted into skilled trades.

The largest number of freemen who abandoned full time employment on the estates was
attracted to subsistence peasant agriculture since they were already familiar with agriculture.
Thus, there was a voluntary movement of ex-slaves from the estates to small holdings acquired
either by purchase, rental, or illegal occupation.

Efforts made by Different Groups to Establish themselves a Peasantry

1. Many freemen bought their own land with money earned from overtime work during
apprenticeship. They became subsistence farmers but sold some surplus crops in local
markets and in some cases grew sugar cane. They eventually developed trading systems
(higgling in Jamaica) and export crops such as coffee, ginger and pimento in Jamaica,
arrowroot in St. Vincent, cocoa and copra in Grenada.

2. Some ex-slaves pooled their financial resources and bought abandoned estates,
subdivided them and established themselves as peasant proprietors. In Jamaica, some
secured the assistance of Baptist ministers to help them bargain with landowners and to
secure land.
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3. Cooperatives were also established in Guyana which enabled ex-slaves to buy entire
plantations. Here, however the cooperative venture was short-lived, yet after its
collapse cooperative members still sought land by squatting in the interior.

4. Squatting which was the illegal occupation of Crown lands in remote areas became
common in the larger territories e.g. Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad. Squatters usually
disregarded official warnings to desist from such a practice because they knew it was
difficult for them to be brought to justice.

5. In the smaller islands such as Antigua, St. Kitts and Barbados where there was little
available idle land, lease holding was more common.

6. Metayage or sharecropping was a system of land tenure in which the proprietor formed
a partnership with his labourers for the cultivation of his land. The usual practice was for
the proprietor to supply the land, mills, carts and draft animals and the laborers
provided the labour. Many planters however, adopted this system because they lacked
money to pay wages and wanted to prevent the drift of labourers from the estates. This
system was first adopted in St. Lucia and spread to Montserrat, Tobago, Grenada and
Nevis.

The Role of the Non-Conformist Missionaries and the Peasantry

After emancipation, missionary groups that were present in the colonies assisted the ex-slaves
considerably e.g. the Baptists who were the most energetic group in the struggle for the rights
of the slaves, the Congregationalists (London Missionary Society), the Methodists, Moravians,
Presbyterians and the Scottish Missionaries.

These missionaries decided to assist the ex-slaves in establishing free villages because many ex-
slaves were leaving the estates to establish settlements in the hills or interior. The missionaries
did not want them to leave because they wanted to retain their influence over them and in
time spread their particular religious doctrine more effectively among them and so encourage
them to turn away from their African worship.

In addition, the missionaries wanted to expand their denomination i.e. have as many churches
as possible and to increase the membership of their churches. They wanted the ex-slaves to
enjoy freedom of worship and to live ‘moral’ lives away from the evils of the estates.
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Ways in which the Missionaries assisted the ex-slaves

1. Missionaries bought large acres of land and resold it in small plots to members of their
former estate congregations. The ex-slaves were allowed to make their payment in
installments.

2. They provided advice on the layout of the villages.

3. They helped ex-slaves to get legal documents (titles) for their land.

4. They provided leadership for their ex-slaves and advised them on administrative
matters.

5. They encouraged ex-slaves who had met the property qualification, to register as voters
in order to become involved in the assembly of politics.

6. The missionaries provided schools, churches, counseling, trained ex-slaves to become

laypreachers, acquired jobs for skilled workers and other villagers.

How the Missionaries acquired money to assist the ex-slaves

The Missionaries acquired assistance in the form of gifts and loans which they used to purchase
land to establish free villages. For example the emancipationist Joseph Sturge lent £400 to Rev.
John Clarke to purchase land for his congregation in St. Ann, Jamaica. In 1838, William Kniibb
obtained a loan of £1000 from the parent church in England to purchase 200 hectares of land in
St. Ann on which Sturge town was built.

Other Groups which assisted the ex-slaves to establish themselves as Peasants

1. The free coloureds in Jamaica who exerted pressure on the local government to pass
laws that would be favourable to the peasants for example to regulate land prices, to
protect squatters and to control immigration.
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2. The planters via the tenant-landlord relationship with the ex-slaves even though it was
established primarily for the planters’ benefit, it helped the ex-slaves to gain access to
land. The planters were willing to allow ex-slaves to settle on marginal estate land in
order to (i) create a pool of workers from which they could draw their supply whenever
the need arose and (ii) to provide a market where the whites could purchase food
supply. In addition, the depression in the sugar industry forced many of the planters to
(i) sell portions of their land to meet some of their financial obligations or (ii) abandon
their estates. This helped to encourage squatting.

3. The government for example a) The Crown Colony system of government was
introduced into most of the older colonies in the second half of the 19th century
starting with Jamaica, in 1866. Under this new system, governors such as Sir John Peter
Grant of Jamaica and Sir Arthur Gordon of Trinidad, promoted a number of new
measures which were of significant benefit to the peasants.b) In the 1860s, the Colonial
Office began to encourage local governments to acquire land. In 1868 Sir Arthur Gordon
began to sell crown land at low prices to free men. c) Roads were improved in several
colonies by the new government. d) The British Government began to invest in the
education of the ex-slaves through the Negro Education Grant. After 1866, the newly
established Crown Colony Government in some colonies increased spending on primary
education.

Other Factors which facilitated the Growth of the Peasantry

1. The desire for personal liberty and the ownership of land.

2. Insecurity of tenure on the estates.

3. High rents on estate houses

4. Low wages.

5. Familiarity with agriculture.

6. Availability of land for cultivation – Peasant farming was greatest in Jamaica, Trinidad
and Guyana where there were large areas of unoccupied land available for ex-slaves to
set themselves up as peasant proprietors. In the smaller islands, there were large
populations and less available land, thus the drift from the plantations was less.
However, it was greatest in Tobago, Grenada, St. Vincent and Montserrat, and least in
Antigua, St. Kitts and Barbados. St. Lucia and Dominica fell between the two extremes.
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7. Abandonment of plantations due to a fall in sugar prices led to an increase in peasantry.

Between 1838 and 1850, as many as 14 sugar and 465 coffee estates in Jamaica, and 40
estates in Trinidad were abandoned in Guyana.

8. A fall in the price of land depending on the quality and location due to the low profits
made from sugar facilitated the establishment of the peasantry. The price per acre in
the 1840s ranged from as low as 4 to 20£ in Jamaica, 1.5 to 13£ in Trinidad to as high as
40 to 80£ in Antigua and 60 to 2000£ in Barbados.

Factors which hindered the Development of the Peasantry

It was not easy for the freed people of the Colonial Caribbean to establish themselves as a
viable peasantry. Many obstacles were placed in their way, thus hindering their development.

1. The governments of territories like Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago refused to
survey Crown lands which was necessary for the distribution of these lands and there
were problems over titles or ownership.

2. Laws were imposed to limit the number of people who could buy land together e.g. in
Guyana in 1852, the government passed an Ordinance that banned the purchase of land
by a group of more than 20 people. In 1856, this was reduced to 10 or fewer people. In
addition, each member of the group had to pay for the maintenance of drains, dykes,
roads etc. It was too expensive for individuals to afford the land and also to be
responsible for maintenance.

3. Prices for the rent or sale of land were increased. Prices ranged from £20 an acre in
some territories to as high as £200 in a few cases. In Barbados, the price of land was so
high that most people could not save enough money to buy land, since wages there
were among the lowest in the region.

4. In some colonies such as Barbados, there were no large tracts of Crown lands on which
the ex-slaves could squat.
5. Laws were passed to prevent squatting.

6. Heavy licences were imposed on the sale of small quantities of sugar, coffee etc. This
was designed to discourage small producers.
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7. There were high land taxes e.g. in St. Vincent in 1844, small land holders had to pay high
taxes of £1 and lease holders 10 shillings.

8. Many planters did not want to sell or rent land to those they had enslaved e.g. in
Barbados.

9. Peasant lands varied in quality but most of them were marginal (small) lands,
inaccessible to markets and infertile. In St. Vincent, the fertile areas were owned by
planters.

Contribution of the Peasantry to the Economic and Social Life of the Caribbean
Economic

1. The peasants helped the Caribbean people to reduce their dependence on imported
food as they grew food crops for the local market and their families. Their goods
consisted mainly of fruits, vegetables and ground provisions which they sold at the local
Saturday or Sunday market for cash.

2. A complex system of direct trading and middlemen developed in places like Jamaica
where not all the peasants who produced came to the market. For example, farmers in
the mountainous eastern parishes, sold their produce to coastal traders who carried
them to the southwest where many wage earners still worked on sugar plantations.
Other peasants sold goods to those who were going to market in Kingston and Spanish
Town.

3. Some peasants in the Eastern Caribbean traded with other islands for provisions. E.g.
Montserrat small farmers sold food to people in S. Kitts, Nevis and Antigua.

4. The development of the peasantry helped to make sure that a variety of different crops
were grown in the region. In the Eastern Caribbean, the peasantry changed the pure
plantation economies which was based on growing just one crop.

5. The peasants contributed to the money earned by the region by exporting spices,
ginger, logwood, cotton, cocoa, sugar, rum, coffee, arrowroot, citrus, pimento, lime juice
and coconuts.
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Social

1. Peasants promoted cultural events, some of which helped to keep African and Indian
culture alive in the Caribbean.

2. Peasants laid the foundation of modern Caribbean society by building schools and
churches in their villages, by campaigning for roads and streets, and for improved
medical and educational facilities.

3. Peasants helped to develop Friendly and Benefit Societies, and to develop agricultural
societies and cooperative banks.

Alternatives to Sugar

Sugar was the main export crop in Trinidad, British Guiana and Jamaica, however a main export
crop was developed. In Trinidad, cocoa was grown along with quicker growing crops such as
bananas, plantains, peas, beans and ground nuts.

In Jamaica bananas were at first grown as a locally eaten food until Lorenzo Dow Baker realized
its profitability and officially registered the L.D. Baker Fruit Company in 1772. In 1885, he
formed the Boston Fruit Company and controlled all stages of his banana business. In 1929,
small farmers in Jamaica pooled their resources and set up an organization for the transport
and sale of their crops in the USA and Britain. This organization was called the Jamaica
Producers’ Association.

In British Guiana rice became important due to the arrival of the Indian labourers. In the
Eastern Caribbean, small farmers turned to other crops in addition to sugar. Barbados and
Antigua exported sea island cotton, cocoa was grown in St. Lucia and Dominica. In St. Vincent,
arrowroot was the chief new crop; in Grenada it was nutmeg and in Montserrat, sea island
cotton and limes. These crops met with new difficulties such as insects, hurricanes, diseases and
overseas marketing.

QUESTIONS
1. State two reasons why some ex-slaves decided to remain on the sugar estates.

2. List two alternative forms of employment for a) women b) men.

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3. Identify two ways in which groups of ex-slaves attempted to become peasants.

4. Explain the term ‘squatting’.

5. Why was the practice of squatting so common in Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad.

6. Explain the term ‘metayage’.

7. In which Caribbean territory did it start? b) Name four other islands to which it spread.

8. Name two other Non-Conformist groups of missionaries besides the Baptists that
assisted in the development of free villages.

9. Identify three ways in which the missionaries assisted the ex-slaves.

10. Name three groups of people besides the Non-Conformist missionaries who enabled the
ex-slaves to become peasants.

11. Identify three factors that led to the growth of the peasantry.

12. Identify three factors that prevented the growth of the peasantry.

13. Identify two ways in which peasantry contributed to a) economic b) social life of the
people.

14. Name four crops that were grown for export besides sugarcane and their respective
territories.

S. Branche
Edited 2022