History Fourth Form

Research Task
Study the FIVE sources below which relate to the establishment of the Peasantry, 1838 to 1900, and
then answer ALL the questions that follow.

SOURCE I
The great problem to be solved in drawing up any plan for the emancipation of slaves in our colonies, is
to devise some mode of inducing them… to undergo the regular and continuous labour which is
indispensable in carrying on the production of sugar... I think it would be for the real happiness of the
negroes themselves, if the facility of acquiring land could be so far restrained as to prevent them on the
abolition of slavery, from abandoning their habits of regular industry.
Lord Howick, 1832. In Eric Williams, From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean
1492–1960. London: Andre Deutsch, 1970, pp. 328–329.

SOURCE II
BRITISH GUIANA
… the estate … has been purchased by sixty-three persons, the greater number of whom are Headmen
and mechanics in employment on the neighbouring estates, and has actually been paid for out of the
wages received since the 1st August 1838; they have purchased the estate consisting of 500 acres with the
laudable view of having an independent home, and they will no doubt add to their number by sale of
portions of the land not required for their own use, but I understand the rules they have drawn up for their
community are so rigid, that none but the determinedly industrious and sober would be tempted to obtain
a settlement.
CO 111/227 Governors Despatches. Governor Henry Light to Lord Russell (Secretary of State for the
Colonies), Despatch No. 195 of December 4, 1839

SOURCE III
TRINIDAD
…The majority spend what they earn in idle amusements, and the more thrifty in purchasing lots of land,
with little regard to its powers of production but chiefly on account of its vicinity to towns and places of
amusement. Cultivation on their own account they have nearly abandoned, and rely upon imported
provisions.
Observations on the Present Condition of the Island of Trinidad and the Actual State of the Experiment of
Emancipation. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1842, p. 14
SOURCE IV
JAMAICA

I do hope that, if you can, you will assist me in forming a free village at this place, so that should any of
our members, as I know they will, be the victims of treachery, scorn or trickery, they may have a home.
Hinton’s Memoir of William Knibb, 1849 in R. Augier and S. Gordon, Sources of West Indian History.
London: Longman, 1962, p.161.

SOURCE V
NEVIS
The condition of the people in Nevis is happier (than in St. Kitts)… and the difference is attributable to
the fact that the people in Nevis have no difficulty of obtaining land which they cultivate, and upon which
they live instead of being crowded into villages or towns.
Report of the West India Royal Commission, London, HMSO, 1897, p. 11

1. (i) From the information provided in Sources I and V, identify the requirement that was
considered central to the development of a peasantry in the Caribbean. (1 mark)

(ii) Give TWO reasons for the importance of this requirement to the peasant. (4 marks)
2. What did the writer in Source I consider to be the main ‘problem’ associated with Emancipation and
what measure did he recommend to deal with it? (3 marks)
3. Give FOUR examples of the ways in which freed people of the Caribbean were victims of the
“treachery, scorn or trickery” mentioned in Source IV. (4 marks)
4. Give ONE explanation for the difference between the view of the writers in Sources I and III from that
of the writer in Source II. (3 marks)
5. In an essay of at least 250 words, explain FIVE strategies employed by freed Africans in their efforts to
establish themselves as independent peasants. (20 marks)
Total 35 marks

END OF TEST