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The years after the termination of enslavement presented several challenges to the newly freed population, whose members were anxious to assert their freedom.
However, the island’s ruling class had other plans. In the first instance, the organisation of the island’s administration remained exactly as it was in the era before 1838, and no preparation was made to allocate resources to the free people to enable them to assert their freedom.
Secondly, the members of the ruling class had expressed strong opposition to emancipation and the termination of apprenticeship in 1838 and were determined to maintain the social structure, attitude to their workers and labour practices that had been developed as a part of the regime of slavery which made it clear that they intended to prevent freedom of the African population.
Thirdly, the estate owners remained in control of the island’s land resources and were intent on making their plantations profitable by keeping down their labour cost with cheap labour. Fourthly and because of the former, there were no alternative employment possibilities. Hence, although the freed men and women strongly desired to escape from plantation labour, they simply could not. Fifthly, the new laws that were passed were all restrictive of the actions of the freed people and outlined punishments for those who dared to disobey. Laws were passed against any activity which was deemed a threat to the interests of the ruling class. The island was equipped with a police force to apprehend and a prison to house defaulters. There were no empowering laws for the free population, and no resource allocation for them to be provided with the means to function outside of the estates.
[caption id="attachment_1154407" align="aligncenter" width="255"] Dr Rita Pemberton -[/caption]
The intent to maintain the status quo was confirmed by the sentiments expressed by Lt Governor Henry Darling in his proclamation to the freed population on July 15, 1838. His advice to the freed people underscored the assumption that they would remain estate labourers and emphasised the qualities labourers should display to their masters’ property. He cautioned that they should be “sober, peaceable and industrious“ faithful to the discharge of duty because “to deprive your employer of any part of your time of lawful labour, whether by idleness, neglect or careless performance of your duty, is to be guilty of an act of dishonesty” which makes you “an enemy of God” and “ despised by mankind” and he implored them to “be careful, in the extreme, of any of your master’s property that may be entrusted to you.” This made it clear that there would be no social change and that the freed people would be destined to remain in bondage if they did not liberate themselves.
They engaged in actions that were not specifically stated in the laws and lay in the cracks between the laws. However, despite planter efforts to benefit their operations at the expense of the workers, the workers were able to obtain outcomes which their employers had not anticipated. These were notable in the extent to which activities which provided the basis for community formation were established during the early years of emancipation before the freed people were able to establish their homes off the estates.
It is common to view the system of labour that was used across the island from the 1840s primarily in terms of its organisation and the conflicts it generated, but it must be noted that despite the intent of the planters, the system also stimulated unexpected long-term benefits to the labouring population.
Planters were concerned with maintaining their operations at minimal cost because the estates were showing signs of decline, and profits were low. Labour, the only area of production which they could affect, became their area of focus, and they devoted efforts to tightening their controls over the freed labour force. They began by seeking to reduce wages, lengthen the hours of work and remove the privileges that workers received during the period of enslavement. In a bid to tighten control over the freed African population, they sought imperial permission to import indentured workers through a variety of immigration schemes, all of which were unsuccessful. There was an insistence that the resident population of former enslaved Africans must be forced to work on planters’ terms. The system which gained their favour was the system of sharecropping, which became popular across the island because of the belief that it could be made beneficial to the employers.
However, with freedom for the workers came the privilege of choosing their employers, which, in addition to the prevailing economic state of the island, especially the shortage of cash, allowed the workers to wring benefits for themselves. The workers were also free to give their labour to several employers, which put employers in competition with each other for the labour which they considered a scarce resource. As a result, the workers were able to gain benefits from employment on several estates and payments were made in kind, which included access to land. While landowners sought to prevent black land-owning, workers were able to enjoy the benefits of increased access to land, which was for them a tool of empowerment. This access allowed the freed workers to respond to the challenges posed by planter control of the land, increase their incomes while building resilience to survive and defy, qualities which facilitated the subsequent development of post-emancipation communities on the island.
In addition, to obtain better terms of work and wages, workers formed teams which negotiated with plantation owners and were able to obtain better terms for their labour. Without the realisation of the planters and, of course, their intent, the system of metayage provided the basis for the development of communities across the island.
Workers from different plantations kept in constant communication with each other as members of the labour teams, on the access lands which they earned on different estates, on the house spots which they rented, all of which indicated and facilitated the drive to defy and the determination to succeed.
 
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