Free Villages Essay

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Free Villages In the British Caribbean the emergence of free villages began in 1838 apprenticeship ended. These were introduced with the help of missionaries to aid the ex-slaves in acquiring land. A few of the ex- slaves were fortunate; they bought land with the savings of the money they had earned during the apprenticeship system. These Africans were more fortunate than the squatters because they had written proof of the land they had purchased. In 1835, James Phillipo, a Baptist missionary, bought 10 hectares of land in the mountains behind Spanish Town(during apprenticeship) the new community was named Sligoville from the Governor of Jamaica, Marquis of Sligo. As apprenticeship came to its end, the Baptist missionary, William Knibb foresaw that the planters would force work on the free labourers by increasing the rent on the homes on the estates. He took steps to help his congregation to meet the threat. In 1839, after he was lent money to buy land, he was busily organising a number of ‘free villages’ for labourers who did not want to risk rising their rents on their homes and garden plots. Knibb and the other missionaries who followed him did not plan for the free villages to be a complete alternative to working on the estates. They advised that the men and women in the villages still work for wages on the plantations for three to four days a week. The missionaries and their congregation did not have enough money to buy lands large enough for independent farming so they divided the lands no larger than 1 hectare. This piece was sufficient for the labourers to negotiate for better wages and working conditions. This was an important step in process by which ex- slaves became a truly free people. Much of the money used to buy land was from missionary societies in England or contributions. In 1842 over 8,000 Africans were settled in free villages that had been
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