Dr Rita Pemberton

THE issue of the immorality of enslavement was brought to the attention of the British public by the anti-slavery movement, which led a protracted campaign to terminate first the trade in captive Africans, and then enslavement in the British colonial possessions.

While the anti-slavery campaign received much visibility and has been credited as the main causal factor in the British government's decision to terminate slavery in its colonies, it must be recognised that there were other more powerful, but perhaps less visible, forces, at work.

The British government was stimulated by the larger economic interests of its industrialised economy, in which the trading system on which the slavery-dependent plantations was based had become anachronistic. Free trade was the order of the day, and British industrialists felt strangled by the restrictions imposed by the Navigation Acts of 1660.

It was their wish to be able to expand their trade into the wider markets even those of Britain’s traditional rivals, for large-scale purchases of their mass-produced goods. The industrialists wanted to be freed from the restricted markets of the slavery colonies, many of which could only afford very limited purchases.

The interests of the industrial sector were served by political reform in Britain, through which the political supporters of the slavery regime were replaced by men who represented the new business class.

Secondly, the enslaved population of the British Caribbean demonstrated its intolerance with enslavement by intensified resistance efforts across the region from very early in the 19th century. These resistance wars were both costly and disruptive, as property was destroyed, trade disrupted and lives lost, and the imperial government was faced with the huge costs of defence in the region. Fearing that the resistance movement would spread through the region and become uncontrollable, the British Parliament sought to remove the cause of the problem and emancipate the enslaved population.

This decision was not favoured by landowners in the colonies and their supporters. They argued that it would mean the demise of the plantation sector and financial loss to those who had invested in plantations and the sugar business in the colonies.

In order to appease the planting fraternity and its supporters, the British government negotiated compensation to plantation owners for the loss of the labour of their enslaved property.

In addition, to avoid being blamed for the demise of the Caribbean plantation sector, the imperial government agreed to ensure that the supply of labour was maintained for a six-year period through the apprenticeship system.

However, the apprenticeship was terminated after four tumultuous years in 1838.

The passage of the act to terminate the apprenticeship system and emancipate the enslaved population in the British colonies on August 1, 1838 received a hostile reception from the planting community in the Caribbean

Tobago planters opposed the decision and were very dis