12 Government Hill

St Micheal, Barbados

November 1, 1845

Pierce Grant
Head of the Colonial Office
Colonial Office
Mango Pace
St Micheal, Barbados

Dear Sir

As we are adjusting to the emancipation period, there are some matters that I
would like to put upfront. I know the ex-slaves are grateful for the abolition of
slavery but for some, more problems are being experienced. Since our country
abolished slavery without an apprenticeship system - designed to ease the
transition from slavery to freedom by forcing the ex-slaves to remain on their
plantations for a period of six years which its main purpose was to prevent the
immediate large-scale abandonment of estates by the workers, although, with cruel
irony, it was the masters and not the slaves who were awarded compensation for
the loss of their "property." Abolition of slavery is becoming difficult for the
country, because the free persons have to be adjusting to having of our majority of
new citizens who could not be denied the civil rights already grudgingly extended
to the few. Extending those civil rights, then as now, I think it is not going to
neither be easily nor gracefully achieved because the political systems are going to
be around for a while as the narrow instruments of the small, white, landed elite,
largely absentee, whose members are being threatened by the removal of their
special trade preferences.

On top of that, there are economic difficulties. Sugar prices are falling so this will
require us to raise labour costs that will complicate things for the urgent need for
ex-slaves because the laborers are able and willing to bargain and you know that’s
going to cost a lot which can cause us to be in debt. Many ex-slaves are not going
to want to be in any form of relationship with their former enslavers due to
previous ill treatments such as being brutally beaten, being overworked and
underpaid. I know that some of the ex-slaves are going to move around and even
migrate to other countries and then we are going to have an inadequate numbers of
free persons left to help build to the country up. Many planters are saying that their
labour problems are because of the scarcity of cheap, reliable estate labour caused
by the flight from the estates. The ex-slaves can rent a portion of land from the
missionaries/landowners in return for their crop but they can choose when and how
long they work for.

The employers are making no effort to at least support the positive relations or
prolong a new well-grounded labour force because they were used to free labour
and treating the ex-slaves how they feel like to ‘divert idling’ and since the ex-
slaves now have a say in what they do, they don’t want to engage in this activity.
They used to be so selfish with paying the ex-slaves’ wages, only paying them by
day and not by task. Even renting everything they accessed so I get why most of
the slaves are not willing to work with their former employers but this should be
now that the employers should comply in thinking about the freed persons because
we are all humans so they should be treated so badly. What I had observed is that,
since some of the ex-slaves wanted to eat and still provide for their family because
they don’t want to move to adjust to a new environment, some stayed with the
landowners and the landowners used this as an opportunity to make the workers
pay for their rent and if they didn’t work enough to pay for the rent, they had to
leave and if they lived on the plantation, they had to work there. Now since the ex-
slaves had a say in what they are doing, majority of the freed persons are not going
to stay in the country.

I suggest that we think about coming to an agreement to importing Indentured

labour through various Immigration schemes to provide the planters the planters
with a steady supply of labour, to make use of the unused lands for labour and if
any freed persons have already claimed the land, make an agreement to work with
them so we can get as much help as possible even though I think some are going to
have a hard time to comply with. The aim of the Immigration will not only
maintain the sugar economy or even expand and increase its production but also
encourage competitions for jobs for immigrants and ex-slaves thereby lowering
wages and balance the Black-White Ratio to even motivate and inspire more White
immigration. You can add your pieces in it and suggest what ideas for this
situation.

Yours truly
Your Excellency, Tishana Thompson
Governor