Dr Rita Pemberton

BECAUSE OF the anticipated unwelcome increases in labour costs during the apprenticeship period, in addition to concerns about labour and the sustainability of Tobago's sugar industry in the era of emancipation, high on the agenda of the administration was the need to ensure that no unnecessary additional cost burdens were placed on the island's treasury.

This desire stimulated the framing and implementation of laws to control activity in areas which could have financial implications, but which were not considered the island's responsibility.

In 1834 the administration of Tobago found it necessary to impose increased controls over the ships which entered its ports to do business, and provide greater scrutiny of their crews, passengers and cargoes.

Hence the Tobago Council and Assembly formulated a new law to prevent the island becoming a depository for distressed or ill seamen or passengers and abandoned ships. The law which was passed in 1834 to take effect from January 1,1835, dealt with three issues which surfaced in the normal course of the activities of trading ships in the region.

Firstly, it was the norm for both enslaved and free black men who turned up at every port to seek freedom and better opportunities by taking jobs on ships, and captains were willing to employ such men, offering the lowest of wages and poorest working conditions.

One common problem at the port was the number of disgruntled seamen who encountered problems with their employers and were often dissatisfied with their working conditions and wages. They would protest by airing their grievances and abandoning the ship at the port.

For the administration, this problem was larger than simply a wage dispute, because it meant the island would house a group of free black people over whom it could exercise no control.

Secondly, population control was considered essential to maintain the type of social order favoured by the plantation owners who resisted emancipation, wanting to maintain pre-emancipation working arrangements. For them, control of the black population was mandatory to manage their plantations in the traditional manner and prevent the development of a population of liberated black workers.

In addition, what was least welcome was a group of people whose issues could be used to inflame the population into protest action against the ruling class, who, from the start of the apprenticeship system, inflicted restrictive measures against the apprentices. To the planting community this free element would pose serious social problems.

The new law sought to provide a facility for recovering the wages of seamen who resorted to the island to seek redress. Arriving mariners were required to sign an oath and put up a bond for £100 before entering Customs House in Scarborough. The ship's captain or owner was required to state the number of crew, passengers, both male and female, brought to the island. The required clearance was mandatory for all ships. No ship or vessel was to be allowed in if in