Guyana: the making of the labour force

This aspect of the ending of slavery is not fully developed in Guyanese and Caribbean historiography. For a general reference, see Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (London, 1964), pp. 201-8. With regard to Guyana,

see F.R. Augier and F.C. Gordon , Sources of West Indian History (London, 1962), p. 184- 'A Protector of Slaves declares the need for emancipation to avert further rebellion'.

Considerable discussion has centred around the essential characteristics and the preferred nomenclature for the mode of production in which slavery, capitalism and colonialism were juxtaposed. For an analysis of direct relevance to Guyana, see Clive Y. Thomas, Plantations, Peasants and State: a study of the modes of sugar production in Guyana ( Georgetown and Geneva, 1979).

Dwarka Nath , A History of Indians in British Guiana (London , 1950), p. 16.

Allan Young , The Approaches to Local Self-Government in British Guiana ( London, 1958), p. 16.

See also P. McLewin , 'Power and economic change: the response to Emancipation in Jamaica and British Guiana' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1971).

'Report from the Select Committee on Ceylon and British Guiana' , Parliamentary Papers, vol. II (1849).

Dwarka Nath , op. cit., table 1.

See also G.W. Roberts and J. Byrne , 'Summary statistics on indenture and associated migration affecting the West Indies, 1834-1918', Population Studies (20, no. 1, 1966), table 2.

'Report of the Immigration Agent-General' 1882 , table on 'Average earnings of male immigrants on ten estates for one week in March 1882'.

Guyana National Archives (GNA), GD 102, 17 March 1887 (C.O. 111/438).

C.O. 111/488, GD 353, 11 November 1896.

GNA, GD 281, 14 October 1886 (C.O. 111/436).

See, e.g., GNA, GD 133, 12 April 1887 (C.O. 111/438).

West Indian Royal Commission , 1897, evidence of Cavendish Boyle (government secretary).

Sandbach Parker Papers, G.R. Sandbach , 30 October 1886.

Argosy (18 April 1891).

Peter Ruhomon , Centenary History of the East Indians in British Guiana, 1838-1938 (Georgetown, 1947 ), p. 118.

D.W. Comins , Note on Emigration from India to British Guiana ( Calcutta , 1893).

William des Voeux is the best-known example. Chief Justice Beaumont, dismissed in 1868, also falls into this category.

M.C.P. , letter of 8 November 1881.

The Overseer's Manual (Georgetown, 1882 ).

Robert J. Moore , 'East Indians and Negroes in British Guiana, 1838-1880' (Ph.D. diss ., University of Sussex, 1970). He states (p. 142): 'These gangs covered large distances in search of estates where the rate of wages had not been reduced or the task had not been lengthened. The chief characteristics of the task gang were its independence, its hard bargaining and its specialising in the most necessary and arduous work on the estates.'

'Report of the Inspector of Villages', 1878 .

Allan Young , op. cit., table on p.221.

A.R. Gilzean , 'Contracts with cane cutters', Timehri, n.s. 4(1890)

Royal Gazette (21 May 1889) — article on La Grange estate refers to the Creole expression, 'Rabah Rabah', or 'bad wo'k'. The Colonist (30 October 1880) deals with the question of burning before cutting in its 'Planters' column'.

West India Royal Commission , 1897, evidence of Walter Alleyne Ireland .

See tables in Dwarka Nath , op. cit.; and G.W. Roberts and J. Byrne, op. cit.

Argosy (13 November 1866).

GNA, GD 353, 11 November 1896 (C.O. 111/488).

'Report of the Immigration Agent-General', 1896.

Planter control over estate tenants in the post-Emancipation period is discussed in W. Carroll, 'The end of slavery: imperial policy and colonial reaction in British Guiana' (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1970). The control of landlord over tenant was extended to indentured immigrants in a manner reminiscent of feudal 'cottars' as well as the 'tied cottagers' who survived into the early nineteenth century in England.

D.W. Comins , Notes on the Abolition of Return Passages to East Indian Immigrants from the Colonies of Trinidad and British Guiana, (Georgetown, 1834).

Ibid.

Ibid., see section 19 of his diary.

Walter Rodney (ed.), Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the Late Nineteenth Century (Georgetown, 1979).

Argosy (26 May 1883).

See Michael Moohr , 'Patterns of change in an export economy: British Guiana, 1830-1914' (Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1971).

West India Royal Commission , 1897, evidence of the Planters' Association and Report of the Commission. It would also have been difficult further to increase the size of the tasks which were already so fixed that they could not be completed in less than two days. (See D.A. Bisnauth, 'The East Indian Immigrant Society in British Guiana, 1891-1930' (Ph.D. diss., University of the West Indies, 1977)).

Moohr , op. cit.

Argosy (24 January, 31 January and 7 February 1891).

London Missionary Society Archives , Berbice, Box 11, Allen Thompson, 21 August 1879.

C.O. 111/510, Norman Lubbock citing letter of Duncan, 18 April 1898.

Ibid. See also West India Royal Commission, 1897, evidence of Joseph Monkhouse (manager of Pln. Providence); and C.O. 111/537, GD 272, 14 July 1903, enclosed copy of anti-immigration petition.