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THE termination of the British trade in captive Africans in 1807 led Caribbean planters to engage in three strategies.
Firstly, planters in the larger colonies engaged in an intercolonial trade which involved moving enslaved people, disguised as members of the planter’s domestic entourage, from some of the smaller to the larger colonies.
Secondly, planters instituted stronger policing mechanisms to prevent Africans from escaping from plantation control; and thirdly, they became more demanding of the labour of their enslaved possessions.
In Tobago, the administration turned to making maximum use of the imprisoned enslaved population to satisfy pressing labour needs.
For reasons of the security concerns which were foremost at that time, the focus of the administration was on developing an improved road communication network, which began with the roads in the town linked with roads to plantations. This programme was put under officials called way wardens.
However, it was also determined that both roads and buildings in Scarborough needed improvement. Since no further supply of enslaved labourers was possible, the labour for this had to be obtained from the existing resident enslaved population.
But the enslaved plantation labourers had already been assigned to duties in the cross-island road development programme, and there was no collection of enslaved labourers owned by or available to the town of Scarborough. So it was to the island’s prison that attention was turned.
It was argued that the prison housed a population of underutilised enslaved Africans, some imprisoned for various offences, some awaiting prosecution, or runaways who had not been claimed by their owners; others were sent to prison by their owners or rentiers to be brought under control by rigid prison discipline.
These remained confined to prison for extended periods and as a result, it was said, “Their health was injured, their morals corrupted, and their labour was lost to their owners and the community.” In other words, they constituted a danger from which the society ought to be protected.
With that justification, the imprisoned enslaved Africans were targeted, and in 1808, it was decided to establish a chain gang to which these prisoners were committed.
In addition to enduring the lifetime sentence of and imprisonment in enslavement and the sentence for whatever offence they were accused of and jailed for, the members of the chain gang, already in prison, suffered an additional sentence and imprisonment – without being charged with another crime.
The chain gang was to be used for cleaning and repairing the streets of Scarborough and the road to Fort King George, or any other public work as prescribed by the administration.
Its members were made to wear metal collar sand chained to each other to prevent their escape, in a similar manner to those in the coffle, when captives in Africa were marched to the coast in preparation for the Atlantic crossing.
Members of the chain gang existed under tight security and were not allowed to speak or have any form of intercourse with the others. The punishment for breaking this rule was public flogging as determined by a justice of the peace. All members were confined with their chains at night.
One member of the chain gang was appointed cook for the group and provided with food items by the overseer. He remained secured with his collar and chains while cooking, which took place in the yard of the courthouse, and he served the other members of the gang. The overseer was to be paid one shilling and sixpence a day for feeding the Africans.
A white man was appointed the overseer, and was paid £330 per annum and given a driver. Both were placed under the power and direction of the way warden of Scarborough. The overseer had to provide, at public expense, the required tools and equipment, which included chains, collars and padlocks, as directed by way wardens.
The overseer was authorised to demand from the jailor every morning at 6 am except Sundays a list of enslaved Africans – all suitable male and female inmates – whose names were to be posted on the door of the jail. The jailor was allowed four shillings and sixpence for committing and releasing any African when required. If he refused to make them available, he would be punished.
Those selected were required to work from 9 am-noon and from 2-5 pm each day. They would remain in that employment until they were either convicted or acquitted of the charges against them, or, in the case of runaways, they were claimed or sold by their owners, or if they were pardoned.
Thus the Africans who were sentenced without a hearing to be permanently imprisoned by enslavement found themselves sentenced another time and imprisoned for contravening the island’s extreme slave laws.
They experienced a third sentence, also without a hearing, and were given a third form of punishment by imprisonment in the chain gang simply because they were incarcerated and therefore available for “protective duty.”
As the trade in captive Africans came to an end in the British empire, the owners of enslaved Africans in the colonies found ways to maintain control over their charges.

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