DR RITA PEMBERTON

The news that 'free paper come' was received by the enslaved African population across Tobago with much jubilation and great expectations.

The island had been home to an increasing enslaved African population since the British determination to create a plantation colony there after it was acquired in 1763.

When news reached Tobago that the law had been passed by the British Parliament in 1833, there were just over 11,000 hopeful Africans on the island who looked forward to the start of a new phase of their lives after having endured the rigours of enslavement umder exploitative plantation owners.

But on the planter side, the mood was far more sombre, because there were concerns about their ability to maintain the operations of their plantations without the controlled labour force to which they had grown accustomed. Based on their prejudiced notions about the inherent racial deficiencies of the African, they anticipated violence and mayhem. They expected their former enslaved possessions to revert to their 'natural savagery' and inflict vengeance on them.

The imperial authorities felt the same. The Abolition Bill was passed after the most devastating slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1831, which was put down with military force. With Emancipation, extra troops were drafted into Jamaica and the Royal Navy patrolled the Caribbean as precautionary measures.

The imperial administration took advantage of the appeal of ceremony and rituals to the Africans, and enlisted the support of the churches to assist in the maintenance of social order in the British colonies. Colonial officials organised thanksgiving services under the auspices of the existing churches, and colonial governors mandated churches to remain open on August 1, 1834. These were official, sanctioned efforts at social control of the Africans.

Although the law was entitled the Emancipation Act, it provided less freedom to the Africans than they anticipated, and more liberties to the plantation owners. The law stated that planters were to be paid £20,00000 compensation for the loss of their property, but made no provision for the enslaved workers for their years of free labour to the plantations. Children under six were immediately free, but the nature of the relationship between the free children of apprenticed parents on the estates was not specified. This became a bone of contention.

The Africans were required to serve a period of apprenticeship ⁠- four years for skilled workers and six years for labourers. They were to give 45 hours per week to their former masters and they were to be paid for any work done beyond that period of time.

Stipendiary magistrates were sent out to the colonies to manage the operation of the system. This was a restricted freedom which workers found difficult to understand.

The proclamation of lieutenant governor of Tobago, Henry Darling, provides a very good indication of the restrictions imposed on the apprentices. The proclamation was addressed to "the free apprenticed l