Dr Rita Pemberton
The last two decades of the 19th century ushered in a process of change in Tobago which continued into the 20th century.
While the locus of this change was the island's economic circumstance, it resulted in the transformation of other facets of life. The sugar crises of the 1880s, especially the collapse of the sugar industry in 1884, wreaked havoc on the island's export-dependent economy which had far-reaching consequences for its class structure.
Tobago's plantation society was based on a dominant planter class which was composed of a small white group that was buttressed by a coloured planter group.
This liaison was created to balance the population differential between whites and blacks, provide support for the white ruling class against black resistance and to fill vacancies in the administration caused by the shortage of white males.
This alliance was eroded by the decline of the old generation of white planters, a direct consequence of the decline of the sugar industry. The population of white planters, managers and attorneys dwindled as many sought to cut their losses by selling or abandoning their estates and returning to the UK. The population of the old coloured planters was also reduced, by migration and by death.
Both groups were replaced by the development of a new planter class.
Coloured emigration created a social vacuum in the middle class which was filled by the upward elevation of members of the labouring class who became landowners. This was made possible by the availability of land with the demise of the sugar industry. Through favourable terms for land purchase, a new class of black landowners was created, whose members moved up the social ranks as part of the landowning community.
The growth of this group led to a weakening of the dominant class, which became composed of black, coloured and white landowners, some of whom were migrants from Trinidad and other Caribbean territories.
By the beginning of the 20th century, land-owning became an important social marker which reduced the gap between blacks and whites.
It is to be noted, however, that considerations of race and colour remained prominent. While blacks were upgraded to the upper level of the landowning class, there was no commensurate adjustment in their relations with their white counterparts. The black and coloured landowners remained socially ostracised from their white counterparts. They all moved in different social circles and were never invited to the main social events, which remained the preserve of the white group.
The middle group on the social ladder was composed of coloureds and upwardly mobile blacks whose members included landowners, teachers, clerks, supervisors and skilled craftsmen. Their numbers were reduced by migration, which increased during the 20th century as people went in search of better opportunities in greener pastures - the US, Canada, UK, Maracaibo and Trinidad.
As a consequence, there was a distinct change in the population of Scarborough, which
