Dr Rita Pemberton

At the start of the 20th century, the village was the primary social unit in Tobago. The island's villages developed as a result of sales of crown land and abandoned estates after the demise of the sugar industry to the workers.

Government offered five-acre blocks of land in the northern areas to those who fought in World War I, most of which were sold to the public. The price of land in L'Anse Fourmi and Bloody Bay, which was the lowest on the island, attracted settlers from the leeward side of the island, as well as Grenadian settlers whose numbers boosted the size of the village communities in these areas.

The villages were agricultural communities through which residents obtained their main means of survival, but it is to be noted that the island remained largely underdeveloped, with both internal and external communication being severely deficient. Villagers were dependent on the round-the-island steamer service, small boats, donkeys and a few cow carts to transport their goods. While donkeys provided the main means of land transport, some traders traversed the countryside on foot with trays on goods on their heads.

Hence, because of the communication challenges, subsistence agriculture became one of the mainstays of the island's population. Subsistence agriculture was practised by the occupants of every household because of their traditions, the need to have items readily available for their families and to supplement their incomes.

Food was cultivated around their homes, and on rented or their own plots of land, which were usually some distance away from their homes. On these would be planted ground provision, cassava, corn, pigeon peas, beans and vegetables.

Livestock farming was also practised. Cows were reared to provide the family's milk needs and chicken for eggs and the family Sunday meal. Pigs, sheep and goats were reared for sale. These items were supplemented by fish, which was obtained from the coastal villages.

Food-crop production was bolstered by a system of cross-island trading in which each community sold or exchanged what it produced for items produced in other districts. This internal marketing system was hinged upon the varying resource base of these communities, which facilitated food exchanges and bartering. The coastal communities supplied fish, while the inland communities provided items such as ground provisions, for which their soil types were suited. The coconut-growing communities on the leeward side produced coconut oil, which was the main edible oil used in food preparation, and for hair and skin grooming on the island.

Plymouth was an important trading hub which served the northern and inland areas. Small boats with dasheen, yam and other produce came from Parlatuvier, Bloody Bay and L'Anse Fourmi, and fish from Toco. Donkeys and people on foot, bearing bread fruit from Moriah and ground provisions from Montgomery, Bethel, Prospect and Patience Hill were exchanged (or sold) for fish from Plymouth.

Traders in small boats sailed f