Dr Rita Pemberton
One of the greatest challenges posed by the history of Tobago is for researchers to find rational explanations for the invisibility of its people in accounts of the protest marches and rebellions across the Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries.
As a consequence, some have ignored the island in discussing resistance, while others have resorted to conjecture, ascribing the absence as due to religious influences, or an unflinching propensity to exist in poverty and hard times. The result is that the Tobago experience is not fully ventilated in the historiography of Caribbean resistance.
The fact is there is no mystery about the Tobago situation, and the real problem lies in the predominance of a particular perception of resistance, as an activity of large groups, which Tobago never possessed, which was confrontational in method and led to the formation of trade unions
The recognition that there were other forms of resistance which were non-confrontational in nature has provided an opportunity to examine resistance strategies in small island communities and those employed by individuals and small groups.
In seeking to understand the history of resistance in Tobago, it is necessary to examine some of its features which allowed the population to develop creative strategies to deal with the problems confronting them. It is clear that they did not sit idly by and accept the impositions with which they had been burdened since emancipation.
One facility through which resistance was expressed was the yard.
The yard is the piece of land which, either fully or partially, surrounds a house. It was, and still is, an essential feature of every household in Tobago. Yards have served multiple purposes in its history, and while the size of yards may vary, size does not diminish their role in island's history and development.
Aside from size variations, there were two types of yard: the yards around the house and the culture yards.
Right after emancipation, the freed Africans wanted to establish control over their lives. For this to occur, in the prevailing environment where planter domination of the administration remained firm, it was essential for them to become established in their own spaces away from planter control.
There was wholesale resistance to planter control, which was reflected in the efforts to own land and the spontaneous growth of the village movement. Resistance was a refusal to accept plantation subjugation and instead promote the assertion of self. This made the surrounding land assume importance, for the yards became an important step in the quest for an independent existence.
Firstly, in strong resistance to planter attempts to continue to exploit the labour of the entire population, the freed Africans wanted neither their wives nor their children to labour on the estates.
The yard permitted the women to earn an independent income by rearing animals and birds, cultivating food crops and making items such as baked goods and candies for sale. These ac
