The development of the peasantry, 1838 to 1900 – Part 1

OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. List three British Caribbean territories which developed an active peasantry.

2. Describe three factors that facilitated the development of a Caribbean peasant population and the growth of the free village movement in the Caribbean towards the end of the 19th century.

One of the defining tenets of the British Caribbean peasantry was the ability of the people to control the land that they used and the time and labour they employed on that land. As a consequence of this requirement, the peasantry in the Caribbean began after 1838 with the freed people who moved off the estates and who established their own small holdings of an average size of about two acres. The reasons for the setting up of the peasantry are many but, at the root, they all reflect the freed people’s desire to move off the plantations, which had been their place of abuse, and to seek out lives for themselves which they controlled.

Additionally, by being skilled agriculturalists, the move to an agriculturally based subsistence lifestyle was one that gave them comfort. The development of the peasantry in the British Caribbean, in terms of its growth and in terms of the ability of the freed people to engage in it, was, however, limited by the unavailability of land. Hence, the peasantry developed only in a few of the territories, such as Jamaica, Trinidad, the Windwards and British Guiana. These places had available land which could have been utilised for peasant production by the freed people.

From the outset, one notes that the growth of the peasantry was not in keeping with the aim of the plantation. This was because both activities competed for the labour of the freed people. In this context, therefore, one can understand that although the peasants did in fact often work on the plantations as part-time wage earners, in general, however, their orientation was in opposition to the plantation. This occurred because they were always looking for more land to expand the peasantry and, by so doing, making their labour less available to the estates. Thus, the two main inputs of the plantation, land and labour, were the two main inputs also required by the peasantry.

With no surprise, therefore, we learn that the plantocracy often pursued policies to hamper the growth of the peasantry and keep its labour tied to the estates. These policies included strategies like raising the price of landholdings to make it too expensive for the peasants (peasants often paid £20 per acre of land, which could be raised to as much as £200 per acre), as well as to pursue strategies that would lead the peasants into a form of debt peonage. The effectiveness to these policies were, however, limited by the planter’s own indebtness and their own need to secure labour through the offering of incentives to the peasant labour force.

The peasantry was a mixed one and the peasants pursued a number of economic activities which were not all tied to their own plots of cultivated land. To this end, they fished and carried on shopkeeping and huckstering, in addition to part-time jobs on the estates. Their land use differed from that of the plantation and resulted in the setting up of smallholdings and villages away from the plantation. Indeed, in British Guiana, for example, by 1852, peasant smallholdings were valued at over £1 million and numbered about 11,000, while in Jamaica, the smallholdings, under 50 acres, had grown to 50,000.

Historians studying the development of the Caribbean peasantry have identified three stages in its growth. First, a period of establishment which lasted from 1838 up until 1850-60, second, a period of consolidation which followed on and lasted until 1900 and, third, a period of saturation which lasted from 1900 to the present. During these phases, the peasantry established itself as a force for change in the Caribbean and also demonstrated that it too was a changing force. As such, the size of the smallholding increased over time (especially in order to remain as viable units), as the focus changed to cash crops and to the export market. One realises, therefore, that the peasantry was always a dynamic force that experienced different phases in its development.

An important developmental aspect of the peasantry was its move from an activity providing initial subsistence for the freed people to one geared towards the production and export of cash crops and products. To this end, we note that the peasants produced export crops and products such as arrowroot, cotton, sugar, bananas, citrus, logwood, rum, spices, coffee, cocoa, ginger and pimento. The peasantry also introduced new crops and diversified the monoculture of the sugar economies. By their activities, they, ultimately, led to a level of self-sufficiency for the colonies that was never attained in the previous years under enslavement. Indeed, by removing the focus from the plantation, the peasantry directly stimulated the growth of an independent village life for the freed people with the associated services and amenities such as churches, schools and markets. Indeed, the development of the cooperatives in the Caribbean has been traced to this peasant development.

Ultimately, the growth of the peasantry in the

British Caribbean was one that succeeded not because of, but largely in spite of the colonial authorities. Since the peasants consisted largely of the freed people and they were competing with the estates, no real encouragement was given to them by the local governments. Agricultural innovation and assistance that could easily have been provided by the state were denied these peasants. Indeed, it was not until the later part of the 19th century, with the agitation of the period and reports like those of the Royal West India Commission of 1897 (which pointed out that the peasantry was “a source of both economic and political strength”), were the peasants taken seriously. In spite of these realizations, however, little had actually been done in terms of official support, and the Caribbean peasantry has still continued to exist largely because of the resilience of its participants.

ACTIVITY

Extended Writing

Imagine that you are a journalist in Trinidad in the 1890s and assigned to the newspaper the Trinidad Times. Write an article for the newspaper in which you examine the factors that led to the development of the peasantry in the island.

SOURCES

1. A Post Emancipation History of the West Indies – Isaac Dookhan

2. Freedoms Won: Caribbean Emancipations, Ethnicities and Nationhood – Hilary Beckles & Verene Shepherd

3. Notes on Peasant Development in the West Indies since 1838 – Woodville Marshall