Assess the contribution

of free peasants to
Caribbean society
Peasant Farmer- A A small famer owns or Métayage: In métayage,
small famer owns or rents lands, hires labour to the planter did not pay
rents lands, hires help work the land or money as wages to his
labour to help work harvest a crop, lives on labourers. Instead, he
the land or harvest a the income from the farm, shared with them the
crop, lives on the and very seldom if ever, proceeds of the crop. The
income from the farm, labours for wages. arrangement was made in
and very seldom if one of two ways. In one,
ever, labours for the sharecroppers would
wages. undertake to plant and
reap and supply the cane
to the planter’s factory.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
Such a life would give them
the security of personal
liberty and landownership,
enabling them to escape
the high rents and the low
wages or in some cases
the métayage system.
 Legislation: Squatter
Act

Delayed liscence and Planter reluctance to

high taxes sell land

High Rents
 Cash crops
Livestock included,
ranged from tobacco,
cattle to Peasantry= bananas,
sheep, goats, Agricultural spices, cocoa,
pigs and Diversification coffee,
poultry. coconuts,
and some
sugarcane.
Economic
In Trinidad, cocoa was grown along with
quicker growing crops such as bananas,
plantains, peas, beans, and ground nuts.

In Jamaica, bananas were at first grown as a locally eaten food until

Lorenzo Dow Baker realized its profitability and officially registered
the L.D. Baker Fruit Company in 1772. In 1885, he formed the
Boston Fruit Company and controlled the stages of this banana
business.
In 1929, small farmers in Jamaica pooled their resources and set up
an organization for the transportation and sale of their crops in the
USA and Britain. This organization was called the Jamaica Producers’
Association.
 In British Guiana, rice became
important due to the arrival of the
Indian labourers.

In the Eastern Caribbean, small famers turned to

other crops in addition to sugar. Barbados and Antigua
exported sea island cotton, cocoa was grown in St.
Lucia and Dominica. In St. Vincent, arrowroot was the
new chief crop; in Grenada, it was nutmeg, and in
Montserrat, sea island cotton and limes.
 These crops were met
with new difficulties such
as insects, hurricanes,
diseases, and overseas
marketing.
 Planters did
not pay wages

Mostly used in
Proceeds from
Windward
crops shared
islands

METAYAGE

Sharecroppers
Sharecropper
plant, reap
receive 1/2 or
and deliver
1/3 profit
cane
Research, Review
and Record.