Education and the first Model Schools

Both parties, masters and slaves, were engulfed by the rumours of the impending emancipation. The rumours that the slaves were soon to be freed became more insistent as news from the antislavery lobby in England reached them.

Governor Sir George Fitzgerald Hill, Bart. (1833 - 1839) and the planters had made the strongest representations possible to London and to their friends in high places there. They insisted that any sudden freeing of the slaves would mean absolute ruin for the colony. Estates would be abandoned and, in the event of the slaves becoming violent, even the 19th Regiment and the militia would not be able to safeguard the population. The terrible events in Haiti, the revolution, the slave revolts, the massacres of the Europeans were still in living memory.

They claimed that in view of the acute shortage of slaves since the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, it was to be anticipated that the Africans, when freed, would not return to work on the plantations. There would be no way of avoiding the complete collapse of the colony’s economy. The Europeans would go away, it was said, and the former slaves resort to savagery in the bush.

Emancipation in 1834, however, was one of those significant events that marked both an end and a beginning. In terms of race relations, it marked the end of a period when things were very clear-cut. It was also the end of clearly defined labour relations. Instead, social and occupational ambiguities would now enter the scene of things.

None of the terrible predictions of upheaval and bloodshed came to pass. Yes, plantations were ruined, fortunes were lost, lands changed hands. The labour shortage occurred, and less than 20 years later, fresh labour was found and fortunes were re-made.

In 1838, 20,656 slaves had been freed. Given the size of the island, this was not a large number, particularly bearing in mind the among of women, children and domestics amongst them.

One of the controlling factors of slavery was access to learning. At the end of the period of slavery, only the chosen few could read or write, perhaps no more than a dozen or so. The social, political, religious and emotional dislocation of the vast majority of the former slave population is hard to imagine nowadays - to describe them as ignorant would be to miss the point.

In the middle of all this, the Africans were not entirely unsought after. Rivalries between religions were as keen then as they are now and both the Catholics and the Anglicans vied with each other for converts. With the prohibition against giving education to the Africans gone, the offer of schooling was the attractive way to create converts. The British government also supported the possibilities  of an education for the former slaves’ children - especially since they were French and Patois speaking and had to be taught English. The various denominations were encouraged to start schools. The quality of this education in those schools, however, has been described by historians as low.

As the result of the plantation system and society in the towns being dominated by the French creoles, French language and the culture of the south of France were endemic. Catholicism was entrenched, and the hierarchical structure of the society almost feudal. The British, on the alert, did not want the former slaves to coalesce even further with these alien French, formerly aristocrats of an overturned regime.

There was a political need to break this alliance of interest, formed of a shared alienation to the British Crown. British education was the answer. It would benefit the Africans, and it would serve to gain their loyalty. During the mid-19th century, the majority of the Africans who were socialised French was diluted by the influx of former slaves from other West Indian islands, many from Protestant cultures like Barbados. They came to work in the fields, however, they did not stay there long. Little by little, the process of segmentation of the Africans along denominational and cultural lines crept in - Catholic/French and Protestant/English.

When Lord Harris assumed governorship in 1845, there were about 54 primary schools in Trinidad, many of them organised by different churches. Lord Harris was an unusual individual for his time - he was interested in mass education and voiced the opinion that “education was essential for the lower classes in order to fit them for freedom.”

He felt that education should not be handed over to the denominations, but instead was convinced that these religious bodies were competing for increased numbers in their individual congregations. The pursuit of these various ‘gains of converts’ would only lead to the creation of deep divisions in the society. Lord Harris advocated a state school system, which was secular and in the hands of the government. In thinking this way, Harris understood the inherent problems of a society segmented in various ways - of which he had enough on his hands with the beginning arrival of Indians from the other end of the British empire.

The creation of the education ordinance in 1851 which established a school in every ward, free and secular under the control of a board of education with salaried inspectors, was a landmark event in Trinidad. Dr. Bridget Brereton writes in her book ...:

“Instruction was to be entirely secular, but each week at stated times the clergyman of the majority faith in the ward would undertake to teach religion, with parents free to withdraw their children if they wished.”

In Port of Spain, a ‘Normal School’ was to be set up to train teachers for the ward schools, with ‘Model Schools’ attached to them for the teachers in training to practice and to come to grips with the challenge of their calling. This was the foundation of the school system in Trinidad.

Notwithstanding Lord Harris’ laudable intentions there were problems. Too few new schools came into existence - only 30 by 1870. Language was a real problem. Since English was the only language used for instruction, it went over the heads of most pupils, who spoke only French patois in their homes and in their community. Within a couple years, the population became entirely bi-lingual. There was also the problem of properly trained teachers as well as a lack of motivation to teach in the inadequate and dilapidated buildings that served as schools.

Sir Arthur Gordon, who arrived in Trinidad as governor in 1866, made a decision to take up the challenge of education. Harris’ ward school system of the previous decade had served to lay the foundations.

The Catholic church had become stronger now, as its main adherents, the French creoles, had once more gained financial ascendancy. The Catholics took the view that only state-aided denominational schools would be acceptable to them. They felt convinced that state-run schools were essentially ‘godless’ and that they placed Catholic youths in mortal danger for their souls.

At Governor Gordon’s request, an Irishman, Patrick Keenan, was sent out to investigate. Keenan was an expert in the field of organised education, and he produced a landmark document in the history of education in Trinidad. He recommended that the church schools be allowed state aid under certain circumstances. This met the Catholic churches’ necessities. The education ordinance of 1870 put into place a dual system of state-supported church schools alongside government schools in the wards.

To what extent this beginning of an education system served to divide the emerging society in its lowest and most vulnerable levels is a topic that historians discuss to this day. In the chequered landscape of our society, with its bewildering collection of faiths and creeds did we get off to a bad start?

Next time you take a shortcut through Lord Harris Square in Port of Spain and walk past his missing statue, or stroll down Harris Promenade in San Fernando, spare a thought for a noble man who spared a thought for children.

The History of Banking Part One

The first bank in Trinidad and Tobago

In the plantation system as it obtained in the colonies prior to the abolition of slavery, there was little need for money. Food, shelter and clothing were provided by the plantation. The existence of the plantation also meant that there was little room for the development oƒ a service or retail trade sector. Since there was no paid labour force on the plantation, there were no wages to be paid and transactions were mainly in kind.

Transactions between plantations and Europe were handled in the main by Bills of Exchange and book entries. The merchant-banker in London or Marseilles would provide ships to bring for example sugar from Trinidad, then sell the cargo in the foreign market. From the proceeds, he would pay the planter’s commitments like pensions and mortgages in Europe, buy goods for him and send it back on a ship to Trinidad. No cash was involved in the transaction at all.

The need for the creation of some type of banking institution in the British Caribbean colonies became increasingly evident following the emancipation of the slaves. Emancipation had the effect of requiring the planter to pay for many of the services which were hitherto rendered by slaves. The full economic impact of emancipation was, however, cushioned by the fact that it was accompanied by a six-year apprenticeship scheme which provided that the ex-slaves were only to be paid wages for work done in excess of 40 hours a week.

But in 1838, when Trinidad’s 20,656 apprentices (ex-slaves) were finally freed, the planters lost control of the labour force. Planters and their merchant bankers in London were aware that full emancipation, when it came, would increase the number of transactions for which they would have to pay in cash. Cash was needed to pay wages for services which had to be bought, thus the need for working capital which it was felt would best be met by the establishment of a bank.

Also, the expansion of bureaucracy and a consequent need for funds to pay the civil servants as well as for public sector projects were evident after emancipation. The former slave owners in the colonies had been given £20 million by way of compensation for the loss of their unpaid labour. All of a sudden, there was a significant increase in the money supply both in Britain and the colonies. Entrepreneurs started to realise that it would be good business to establish a bank to absorb some of this excess liquidity.

On the 1st June, 1836, the Colonial Bank was the first to be incorporated with an authorised capital of £2 million, divided into shares of £100 each. Subscriptions were sought from UK residents to the extent of £1.5 million, while the remaining half million was allocated to subscribers in the colonies in which the bank was to be established. The Colonial Bank was to be established exclusively in the British West Indies and British Guiana, but not elsewhere, not even in London! Its currency were dollars. The bank’s notes would be widely acceptable throughout the West Indies.

In Trinidad, Mr. John Shine was appointed to assume control of the Trinidad branch when it should open, but he died only 60 years of age just months before the bank was opened. The man actually appointed to be the first manager at a salary of £800 a year was Anthony Cumming, Esq., a merchant and plantation owner.

The Colonial Bank finally opened its doors on St. Vincent Wharf and King Street (now Independence Square) on May 15th, 1837, the same day as its principal (controlling) office opened in Barbados and in eleven other places in the islands and British Guiana. Four days before the official opening, Mr. C.A. Calvert, the secretary of the bank, had written to the Trinidad manager advising that seventy boxes of dollars had been shipped on board the ‘Harriet’. Each box contained from 3,000 to 5,000 coins, the total being $250,738.50. The Barbados branch received on 24th April, 1837 the first consignment of notes over $13,125,000 (£2,735,275). These notes would be the first and for many years the only examples of paper money freely to circulate in the West Indies. They were much needed to bring some order into the otherwise chaotic jumble of monetary systems in the Caribbean, where French, Spanish and American coins were used alongside British pieces.

(Pictures and lists of money)

In the early years of the Colonial Bank’s operations, the sugar cane industry was the mainstay of the economy. Quite naturally, therefore most of the bank’s transactions involved operations in that industry. In the post-emancipation era, the sugar industry came under severe pressure, and the bank’s fortunes rose and fell. One of the major problems which the industry faced was the shortage of cheap and steady labour. Freed slaves were naturally unwilling to work on the estates, preferring instead either to buy small plots of land or to squat on crown lands which were in abundant supply.

In 1846, the British government introduced the Sugar Duties Act, which called for the gradual equalisation of all duties on sugar. Thus West Indian sugar lost the advantage it had previously enjoyed over foreign sugar on the British market, having to compete with cheaper sugar from Cuba, Puerto and Brazil. The elimination of the preferential duty on sugar produced in the British colonies led to the virtual collapse of the colonial economy.

Many planters were seriously affected by the crisis. Several had borrowed heavily from merchants and from the banks to tide them over the period of difficulty. As money dried up, some planters were forced to borrow at rates which were as high as 45 percent. Many did not survive and went bankrupt, causing losses for the Bank. Also, many merchant houses collapsed.

The economic crisis led to the failure of one of the two banks then operating in the colonies: the West India Bank, which had been established in 1840, with head offices in Barbados, did not survive. The collapse of the West India Bank in December 1847, which had provided good competition for the Colonial Bank, ruined many of the newly freed slaves who had placed their faith in its viability.

To be continued!