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Safety and standards: Tobago, 1807

IN 1807 the imperial Parliament passed the law terminating British involvement in the human traffic in Africans to its colonies. News of this development was not received with pleasure by the planter class in Tobago, whose members were determined to demonstrate their intent to institute measures beneficial to the enslaved population, if only to stave off progress on the larger and more feared total emancipation of slavery, which loomed on the horizon. One of the persistent problems in Tobago during the first decade of the 19th century was the frequency of fires in the capital. One such incident prompted the administration to establish a system to deal with the danger. The administration held that the main problems related to the materials used to construct buildings, and the lack of adequate security in the town. These, it was felt, could be remedied by implementing several measures to restrict enslaved Africans, while giving the appearance of general social improvement. The first dealt with construction material. A law was passed by which all buildings in the town were to be constructed of stone or brick mixed with mortar, with roofs which were tiled, slated or covered with copper, lead or other non-combustible material. Landowners were debarred from removing any such buildings on their properties, while those landowners with properties which did not comply with the new regulations were given ten days to remove them. Those refusing to comply were issued a warning from a magistrate, and further refusal would lead to a decision by a panel of five magistrates to pull down the structures, at the owners’ expense. Those property owners whose construction was already in progress before the law was passed were exempt. The law also forbade people to light fires on the streets, lanes or public places in the town or to carry lighted torches, candles or other lighted material unless for preparing meals. For a white or free person, on conviction by two justices of the peace, the penalty was £5 or one month’s imprisonment; a guilty enslaved person could receive up to 39 lashes, as decided by one JP. It is to be noted that the main source of nocturnal light for the African population was by torches called bull de fai, or flambeaux. The law also targeted property owners or occupiers in the town or its vicinity whose activities endangered any other structure. Upon complaint from the aggrieved neighbour, the penalty was £10. It was acknowledged that the island’s fire-fighting equipment needed to be improved with adequate, appropriate pipe, buckets, oil and ladders. The Committee of Public Buildings was authorised to provide two lengths of new pipes of 20 feet each, 30 leather buckets and four ladders of different lengths, with iron hooks at the top, for the use of the fire engine. [caption id="attachment_1179462" align="aligncenter" width="433"] -[/caption] The committee was also required to appoint an experienced person, who could provide evidence from a magistrate that he was qualified for the job, to take care of the engine, for £50 per annum; and a suitable negro or other labourer to assist him one day a week. Both were required to obey the sitting magistrate. The decision-makers agreed it was necessary to provide convenience and safety, encourage commerce in the towns and promote “good order and decorum among the lowest classes.” The means to achieve this was better regulations for the police of the towns, including a regular nightly watch and closer supervision of the markets. This was a not-so-subtle targeting of the African population, whose main activities outside enforced labour occurred at night on the streets. A sitting magistrate was authorised to regulate the police presence, appoint a corps of white or free-coloured watchmen to market duty and keep a white person employed at the courthouse for day and night jail duty. Two constables were appointed for Scarborough and one for Plymouth. They were paid 33 shillings and 16 shillings respectively. Market regulations were also tightened. Sales of all meat and turtle killed and fish caught in Scarborough or Plymouth or brought to the towns from the country was permitted, with proof, by the magistrate, and was to be sold only in the market. Unauthorised people who tried to sell fish or meat in the market would be charged, and half of the penalty paid to the informer. If an enslaved person tried to sell meat, fish or turtle in the towns without a permission ticket from his owner, he would be publicly whipped by order of a magistrate. Public notice of the start of sale was 20 minutes after the conch shell was sounded, with a penalty of £5 for every offence. Sheds were to be erected in the Scarborough and Plymouth markets and allocated to vendors, who were allowed to sell up to 330 pounds of fish or meat in Scarborough and 100 pounds in Plymouth. Enslaved people who attempted to sell off sugar canes, rum and coffee would be charged between £33 and £100 or jailed for 15 days. They would be flogged for sales of other items, including “negro clothing.” An attempt was made to deal with weights and measures. Those giving short weights or measure would be fined £10. Anyone refusing to give up weights and measures for inspection by the magistrate, and anyone buying any meat fish, stock for resale, was subject to the same penalty. For anyone who tried to prevent people going to the markets or to sell there, the penalty was £10 or five-ten days in prison. Animals found alive or dead on or near the roads to Scarborough or Plymouth would cost the owners imprisonment. For leaving horses, cattle or mules loose in Scarborough, on the receipt of complaints, each owner would be charged £50. It was lawful to kill any hogs or goats which roamed the streets, and if their carcasses were not removed within two hours, they became the property of whoever took them. Those who encouraged old or blind slaves to beg in the towns would be fined £5-£10, half to be paid to the informer; and anyone who encouraged a slave with an infectious disorder to mingle in the town would be charged £20-£50. The laws on marketing constituted a serious jab at Africans’ attempts to engage in alternative modes of earning to reduce their dependence on estate labour, and the penalties were totally beyond the reach of the African community, who had to settle for the prison terms and/ or flogging. Overall, the laws advocating safety and standards were mechanisms to assert planter control over the African population.   The post Safety and standards: Tobago, 1807 appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.