economic activities of peasants

7/31/2019 Economic Activities of Peasants

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History Class notes Wednesday, April 23, 2008-04-22

Caribbean PeasantriesEconomic activities of peasants

Peasants held legal rights to lands which they occupied. This differentiated them fromsquatters.

Peassantries characterized by location on lands marginal to needs of estates in low and

medium density islands. Many settlements were located in highlands . Peasants participatedin household production of subsistence crops on small plots, combined with production of

cash crops ( according to location and market conditions), as well as occasional

involvement in wage labour to supplement their need.

In some societies, eg. Nevis, the peasantry was always inextricably bound to plantationsystem. The type of peasantry in the Leeward islands was totally different from that which

existed in places like Jamaica where land was available. In the high density colonies, all

land was alientated from blacks and under the control of planters. Some post emancipation

villages grew on estate boundries along the sides of steep ravines and steep upper slopes ofmountains. A small-holdres economy eventually emerged as sugar declined and later

revolved around the cotton markets This however was never independent of estates. In theLeeward islands the practice of sharecropping was established after emancipation.

Share-rent was a system where tenants supplied tools, seeds, fertilizer, labour , etc. and the

landowner provides land. Another system which became prominent was farming-outwhich was sugar cane planting carried out by gangs hired by the estates after which

households were given 1 or 2 acres to cultivate and were paid a weekly wage.

Black males in the Leeward islands emigrated to Venezuela in search of employment in

gold fields. Women , children and elderly men worked on cotton farms .There was evidence that a proto-peasantry existed in the Leeward islands especially

Nevis but did not become a reconstituted peasantry after emancipation as in Jamaica.

Sidney Mintz - The question of Caribbean peasantries: a comment.

Jamaican peasntry originated within plantations themselves and the plantations served to

destroy the peasantry rathet than to create it. Caribbean peasantry is a relatively recent

social product, a population reconstituted into a new economic form during the decline andfall of the slave-based estate system. Planters only tolerated the peasantry .

A proto-peasantry evolved under slavery because of the particular circumstances which

permitted or compelled the slaves to grow much of their own food, to produce many of

their necessities and very importantly, to sell their surplus and dispose more or less freelyof their profits.

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Caribbean peasantries- Caribbean transformations - Sidney mintz

Peasantry- a class or classes of rural landowners producing a large part of the products they

consume but also selling to and buying from wider markets and independent in some ways

upon wider political and economic spheres of control.

Caribbean peasantries are re-constituted peasantry having begun other than as peasants and

becoming peasants in some kind of resistance response to an externally imposed regimen.

The peassntry was a mode of response to plantation system and its connotations. A mode of

resistance to imposed styles of life.

Peasantry- small-scale cultivators who own or have access to land, who produce

commodities for sale, and who produce much of their own subsistence.

Proto-peasantry- subsequent adaptation to a peasant style of life was worked out by apeople while they were compelled to carry out in order to benefit the planters also enabled

them to demonstrate their intelligence, resourcefulness, and creativity.

Women predominated in marketing

Church founded free village system bt 1838 and 1844 - 19,000 freedmen and their families

removed themselves from the estates, bought land and settled in free villages.

CoffeeBananas

Sugar and coffee estates abandoned after emancipation:.

Five of the Leewards-Douglas Hall

In Antigua by 1840 many planters still opposed the formation of villages, the owners of

Drews Hill were marking off parts of their lands for sale to labourers . The prices

depended on situation, fertility and closeness to markets and varied from L8 to L120

sterling per acre. By 1842 Antigua had 27 villagesPlanters did not like the village system as it weakened their control over their labour force.

It tended to increase wage-rates.

Blacks cultivated: coffee, cotton, indigo, tobacco, corn, ginger.

Non-agricultural activities: potteries, brick-works,

In Monserrat the follwing items were exported by 1846:Arrowroot, boat-timbers, charcoal, potatoes, tamarinds,

Peasants facilitated the increase in importation of consumer goods and the increase in the

number of retail establishments., pickled meat, cornmeal. Flour, cloths, hoes, machetes,

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FREE JAMAICADOUGLAS HALL

Alternative economic activities

Cotton

Silk-cultivation of mulberry trees.Copper-mining

Lead mining

PigsPoultry

Provisions

Cassava

PeasCorn

Eggs

Chicken

In all parishes, the increase of freeholds under 10 acres was noticeable.

Blacks neede money income after 1838 to meet increased financial needs, eg. Rent.

Income could come from 3 sources;etate labour, local sales of produce, sales of crops forexport.

Peasants changed production according to demand and therefore prices offered for produce.

Peasants even planted cane for production of crude sugar in local market.

TailorsShoemakers

Straw hat plaiters,

Cigar makers

Fishermen

FisherwomenMasons

Carpenters

Blacksmith

BricklayersLodging house keepers

Peasant development in the West Indies since 1838. Woodville Marshall

WI peasants exhibited some special characteristics:1. Recent in origin

2. its growth was controlled .

3. it existed alongside and in conflict with the plantation.

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4. did not depend exclusively on cultivation of the soil for its income and

subsistence.

5. Peasants often combined crop cultivation with activities such asfishing,shopkeeping, and causal estate work.

Peasant for Marshall combined terms such as peasant farmers, small farmers, small

cultivators. They were individuals who as Lewis points out, devoted the majority of their

time to cultivating land on their own account with little or no outside labour.

Size of landholding varied according to fertility of soil,type of enterprise engaged in, but

generally an average size of 2 acres.

Peasants were founders and residents of new communities which sprouted near the estatesand occasionally in the mountains immediately after emancipation.

3 stages of growth of peasantry:

1.) Period of establishment-marked by massive acquisistion of land. Roughly 1838-1850/1860

2.) Period of consolidation - expansion and shift to export crop production. -19003) Period of saturation - failure to expand, reached limits of possible expansion.

Opportunites for expansion did not esixt equally in all territories.Push factors for blacks included : insecurity of tenure, low wages, high rents, long

contracts,

Marked increase in artisans, porters, fishermen, seamstresses,, etc.

Jamaica, Windward Islands, Trinidad, and British Guiana, facilitated peasant development,Barbados, St. Kitts , Antigua did not.

Peasantry was facilitated by the planters failure to maintain a unified opposition againstthe peasantry. Some planters were anxious to win advantage in the labour market, and these

sold land to the ex-slaves in the hope that this would secure a labour force. Many planters

were heavily indebted, and therefore welcomed the cash they received.

Some blacks got assistance from Missionaries in their acquisition of land.

Diversification of economic activities.

BananasCoffee

Citrus

LogwoodCocoa

Logwood

Spices

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economic activities of peasants

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