Labour Problems in Trinidad Post Emancipation

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Examine the labour problems which emerged in Trinidad in the post-emancipation period, the attempts to solve these problems and the extent to which these attempts were successful After 1838, the planters wanted to make freedom of the slaves a nominal change in status while the ex-slaves wanted true economic and social independence of the planters and their plantations. The planters had political influence, social superiority and control of the most important means of production. On the other hand, the ex-slaves could exploit the labour market as labour was scarce; planters had to compete for what was available. They could also take advantage of the vast amount of land that was available. Trinidad had a small slave population which always presented a labour problem. This was due to the fact that it was newly opened up for sugar cultivation and only became a British colony ten years before the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. There were also restrictions on the importation of slaves to the island before 1807. Therefore, the planters were faced with the problem of influencing the ex-slaves to work steadily and continuously on the sugar plantations at a cheap rate of pay during crop. The planters’ inability to pay a decent wage seemed beyond the question because as experienced in other countries, land was easily available and even liberal wages would fail to attract the labour necessary for the cultivation and manufacture of sugar. According to Eric Williams, “It is impossible therefore to suppose that the slaves (who, though as I believe not more given to idleness than other men are certainly not less so) would if freed from control be induced even by high wages to continue to submit to a drudgery which they detest, while without doing so they could obtain land sufficient for their support.” In 1842, Burnley, the leading spokesman for the plantocracy in
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