MODULE 3: FREEDOM IN ACTION

Theme 1: Freedom Delayed: Challenges and Responses to the Creation of Free

Societies
(a) European policies:

(b) Post-slavery protest movements:

Vox-populi rebellion of St. Vincent 1862
St Vincent in the mid-nineteenth century, like many other British West Indian colonies, was on a
path of progressive decline the sugar industry had been in depression as a result of the removal
of protective tariffs coupled with mobile labor force heavy y indebtedness also plagued the
industry's planters response to this was to reduce wages to reduce their high operating cost. they
also tried to recruit African and Indian immigrant laborers This strategy was unsuccessful largely
because the planters could not find the capital to maintain` immigrant labor .this strategy was
unsuccessful largely because the planters could not maintain immigrant labor
regularly.,additiontionally, the majority of immigrants preferred part-time farming and returned
home at the end of their term of indentureship(marshal 1981).

The trigger factor in the Vox Populi rebellion of 1862, therefore, was an attempt to break a labor
strike. On the morning of Monday 22 September, about 200 field laborers refused to work
against wage reduction and their weekly allowances of rum or sugar. Despite the resident
attorney's promise to restore the allowances, the workers closed the plantation forcing the
immigrant Indian population out of the field and taking the stock out of their carts. The police
were summoned. The violence started when the laborers with cutlasses and sticks refused to
surrender.

A standoff occurred on September 24 and 25 as the Lieutenant Governor attempted to assess the
situation. He met the strike leaders in Georgetown and promised a commission of inquiry to look
into their grievances. All was not well as Woodville Marshall attested highlighted:

The second phase of the riots was entirely distinctive. These disturbances, lasting three days,
from 29 September to 1 October, affected twelve plantations in South Charlotte and St George's

parish, the Biabou district, and spread into the Mesopotamia valley. Most of the action in this
phase was of a distinctly purposive type - assaults on managers and overseers, the breaking and
looting of plantation houses, and the plundering of the Portuguese immigrants' shops. 'The
greatest terror and consternation' were felt in the countryside as well as in the towns, and most
planters, whites and

'Respectable people' immediately sought refuge in Kingstown from the rioters' demonical
violence.
These developments persuaded the lieutenant general that he could arrest the 'evil' and the
popular turbulence only by proclaiming martial law and by urgently requesting military
assistance from Barbados and Trinidad... (Marshall 1981, 90).

For the remainder of the Vox Populi rebellion, rioters committed certain offences assaulting
managers and overseers. They also broke into and looted planters' houses, damaged property, and
four shops kept by Portuguese immigrants in a Mesopotamia village were ransacked. The estate
shop of Evesham Vale was raided. One hundred and twenty of the 246 were convicted for
duplicity in the rebellion. Larceny and breaking were the main offenses with which they were
charged.

Consequences

During the colonial era in the British West Indies, any form of resentment to British rule was
dealt with very harshly. Riots and rebellions were perceived as umbrage of the most dangerous
kind. The Vox Populi riots were viewed in the same manner. They were, therefore, put down very
firmly by the security forces. One may be tempted to suggest that the colonial authorities reacted
with too much force. There was widespread public flogging, some rioters receiving more than 39
lashes and 13 were sentenced to at least four such whippings.

Marshall suggests the riots created a sense of solidarity and alienation among the black
population. This was expressed in the form of prolonged absence from work by the workers.

Absenteeism became a feature of the labor relations climate, a kind of resistance to the planter's
economic measures, among which was a reduction in wages. Workers also 'voted with their feet
as they migrated in large numbers to Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and the Danish Virgin
Islands. Migration to these places occurred before but not on the same scale and intensity as seen
after the Vox Populi uprising.

The Legislature and the lieutenant governor looked to the opportunity to reform the legislation
dealing with the militia after the Vox Populi Rebellion. Eventually, it was agreed to allow blacks
to serve in the militia in the future as police officers, volunteers, special constables, and
militiamen, for they had demonstrated loyalty during the riots.

The riots also led to constitutional reform between 1866 and 1869, when British troops were
stationed on the island. Relations improved between the Executive and the Legislature, a
recognition that such cooperation was necessary to ensure the survival of the white population.
Eventually, a quasi-crown Colony Government was established in St Vincent in the late
nineteenth century, no doubt, stimulated by a fear of the rebellion and what could happen in the
future.

Barbados of the 1870s, like St Vincent in the mid-nineteenth century, was a model of decay. The
sugar industry suffered from falling sugar prices and the removal of protective tariffs. However,
the Barbadian oligarchy had tight control over affairs on the island to the extent that they never
had to resort to immigrant labor. Emancipation in Barbados was a landless process in the sense
that the white population was able to hold on to the vast majority of arable land by preventing the
disintegration of the plantation system. In essence, there was no rapid development of a black
peasantry as seen in Trinidad, British Guiana, or Jamaica.

Plantations mainly changed hands in the Court of Chancery rather than allowed to be abandoned
and hence, go out of production, or the Barbados Mutual Assurance Society provided financial
support for ailing plantations. Moreover, the Legislature passed strict laws that prevented the
mass exodus of laborers to other territories where higher wages were offered. As a result of the
surplus population, wages were kept at a low rate, and the production cost to the planters to a
manageable level. In addition, the local Masters and Servants Act worked to bind the former
enslaved to the plantation in almost servile relations well into the twentieth century. At times
wages were reduced by the plantocracy without any fear of retaliation from the workers.

The wages of Barbadian laborers, the majority of whom toiled on the sugar estates, were low.
Field workers toiled for eight pence a day or, if working per ton or by the job an able-bodied
laborer could earn from 10d to Is 8d within ordinary working hours. Domestics and tradesmen
also earned low wages. Coupled with this, prices for basic articles of consumption such as wheat
flour, fresh butter, and refined sugar appeared to be beyond the reach of the average laborer. In
other words, it is difficult for one to imagine how the laboring classes who worked for the wages
quoted above, and who had no other income other than that gained from estate labor, could be
consigned to anything else but day-to-day existence.

It was the attempt by the Colonial Office to use John Pope Hennessy, the appointed Governor of
Barbados in 1875 to implement the Crown Colony Government, which acted as a catalyst for the
rebellion of 1876 (Belle, 4). The Crown Colony Government was to take the form of a
confederation with the Windward Islands, with Barbados as the central unit. Two previous
governors had attempted this but failed after facing considerable opposition from the Barbadian
oligarchy. Pope Hennessey decided to move more cautiously.

After gaining much popularity by canvassing the various communities, he issued a 'Six Point'
plan which cautiously suggested, among other things, judicial reform, a police force of the
Windward Islands, and a Chief Justice of the Windwards. Immediately, the local oligarchy
declared their opposition to Hennessey's Six Points by venting their opposition in the local press.
Hennessey struck back by removing the executive powers of the legislative council and
appearing to champion the hopeless poverty of the mass of laborers. The planters responded by
organizing themselves into a Barbados Defence Association, a political organization bent on
maintaining the constitution. They identified a confederate party and held political meetings all
over the island.

Beginning at Byde Mill estate on Baster Tuesday, April 18, 1876, the laborers went to the home
of the manager and asked for rum. When he refused, several hundred rebels ransacked the
estate's provision grounds. From Byde Mill bands of labourers fanned out in all directions
plundering provision grounds on 50 estates.

The most intense period of the destruction lasted for just under two weeks, with most of the
incidents taking place between April 18 and 26, 1876. One of the first important features to
emerge is that the rebellion was not spontaneous; organization, planning, and coordination were
quite apparent in the way in which the rebels went about their attacks on the property of the
whites.

They assembled blowing bugles and conch shells. When raiding estates, they were escorted by
bearers of red flags who purported to be agents of Pope Hennessey. Whenever the rebels were
confronted by the police, they attacked them with stones, sticks, and cutlasses. Some rebels
attempted to rescue their comrades who had been arrested from the lockup of the security forces.
By April 21, the rebellion intensified as the rebels attacked the personal property of the estate
owners and threatened the lives of the plantocracy.

Consequences

Many whites abandoned their homes and properties and fled into Bridgetown or aboard ships in
Carlisle Bay. Seven rebels were killed and hundreds were wounded as the militia took an active
part in suppressing the insurrection after April 21. Thirteen rebels were killed on April 21, most
of them at Halton, St Philip. After the successful suppression of the rebellion, Governor Pope
Hennessey received much praise from the Colonial Office for his handling of the affair. He was
promoted to Hong Kong.

Some members of the local plantocracy were convinced that some members of their class had
deliberately provoked the rebellion to justify the constitutional move to Crown Colony status in
Barbados. In the meantime, the Colonial Office offered the Barbadian Assembly the option of
keeping their representative system on condition that they allow two members appointed by the
Crown to sit in the Legislature. The suggestion was rejected by the Barbadians. However, as a
result of the efforts of Sir Conrad Reeves, some initiatives were taken that preserved the
constitutional status of Barbados as an Old Representative System. The Executive Committee
System was adopted in Barbados in 1881 and lasted until the emergence of ministerial
government in the 1950s. In 1884, the franchise was lowered and this allowed a few more people
to exercise the right to vote.