DR RITA PEMBERTON
The decline of Tobago's sugar industry across the 19th century and its final demise at the end of the century resulted in adjustments in the island's class system and social relations. As a result, there were changes in the composition and sizes of the different segments of society. Like elsewhere in the Caribbean, the class system was race and colour based. The white planter and merchant class stood at the top of the social system and formed the ruling class. The planter class traditionally wielded political and economic power on the island because they possessed the required qualifications - white, male, Anglican and over the age of 21. From the very start the British imposed its racial stamp which generated hostility on the island.
Despite the decline of their economic base, the ruling class clung to political power as the means to restore economic ascendency. These efforts proved futile and their economic power was eroded by the decline and ultimate demise of the sugar industry at the end of the 19th century. Because of their colour they continued to enjoy the social privileges associated with their traditional political and economic position. But their political power was voluntarily terminated after the Belmanna War which they interpreted as an expression of the long feared black reprisal action. In response they showed their racist intent to force blacks to remain as underpaid estate labourers. In a desperate attempt to obtain imperial government support against the black workers, the ruling class surrendered its powers to the imperial government. However, the imperial agenda was set on removing political power from the planters, and having played into the imperial hand, the Tobago ruling class found itself eventually politically sidelined.
Some coloured families who had acquired plantations during the 19th century, formed a sub-set of the planter class. At the start of the 20th century they remained owners of Mary's Hill, Orange Hill, Amity Hope, Indian Walk Estate, Crown Point, Milford, Buccoo, Smithfield, Adelphi, Castara and Craig Hall estates. A small number of black estate owners emerged at the end of the 19th century. They owned Golden Lane, Providence, Dunveygan, Hampden and Parrot Hall estates. It was clear that the colour composition of the island's planter class had undergone visible change by the end of the 19th century. But this was by no means a unified group.
The fate of the sugar industry led to a reduced presence of the old planter class on the island at the start of the 20th century because estates changed hands or were abandoned. Five estates remained in the possession of the old white ruling class, four of which were operational - Franklyns, Green Hill, Blenheim and Grafton estates. Lucy Vale was uncultivated. A new class of planters emerged on the island by the second decade of the 20th century. Low land prices in Tobago attracted migrants and a new set of planters, both black and white mainly from Grenada, emerged in
