The 1859 Toll Gate Riots of Jamaica (Transcript)

A War Of Land

“What you want and what you will,

Working for your dollar bill,

Sad to see the old slave mill,

Is grinding slow, but grinding still”

The opening lines from Damian “Jr Gong’ Marley 2017 song, Slave Mill which describes what happened following August 1st, 1838. On that day, Jamaica, alongside the rest of the countries in British West Indies, achieved emancipation and thus all enslaves black people on the island, gained their freedom. Soon after, like very soon after, immediately - the topic of land became a major issue. See, uncultivated land in Jamaica and the rest of those in the British colonies really, was divided into two categories: Crown land and Back land. Crown land was undistributed land that was still owned by England but not suitable for settlements as they were located in mountainous, forested areas. Back Lands on the other hand was largely uncultivated estate land. 

Still neither of these lands were accessible for former enslaves. For even though freedom day come for all black persons, white planter landowners bined the former enslaves population with long labour contrasts and labour rent tenants contracts. This means that they force the freed population to work on these lands by charging very pricy rents on estate based houses to anyone who was not an employee. They even made it very difficult for black persons to produce cash crops. This drove thousands of freed Blacks right back to the plantation, they were once freed from.

As such, some enslaves tried to purchase land but according to historian Woodville Marshall in his paper, “Aspects of the Development of the Peasantry”, an estimated 815,000 acres of land were in arrears of payment of quit rent and other taxes. Then, between 1871 and 1912, nearly 250,000 acres became property of the crown for the non-payment of taxes. It also did not help, that these freed persons who work on plantations to afford their own land, were given extremely low wages. So in the true nature of been oppressed, some members of the newly freed black population decided they were going to settle on Jamaica lands by any means possible - and thus squatting became the only option of many to avoid planter’s exploitation. Through these means, free villages were established, many of which, still exist as communities today, but they still got a fight. The state passed legislation against squatting and it was not until 1895 that Jamaica and any other territory really, revised this policy. 

The situation didn’t even get any better when indentured servants, that is  Indians, Chinese and other nationalities were brought to the island to support the still, dominant sugar economy. In 1897, a Royal Commission found evidence of the desperate need of land ownership by oppressed groups. This was termed land hunger. A section of the report states: “both the Negro and Coolie like to own small patches of land by which they make their livelihood, and take a pride in their position as landholders” 

Taxes Everywhere

Then there were other issues - the complete state neglect of the peasantry class. The peasantry class was created right after emancipation and was categorised by former enslaves who started small farms surrounding plantation or really, where they could find unoccupied land. After emancipation, the government provide little to no improvement of the property. No roads were built or the maintenance of existed road were improved in peasant districts; services such as markets, hospitals and schools were rarely established nor were any policy to improve peasant agricultural implemented. 

Then, the white planters orchestrated a whole propaganda plan against the peasantry by labelling then as just squatters, having a ‘love of uncivilised ease’, prone to ‘relapse into barbarism and the savage state’ and been ‘too lazy to work on the sugar plantations’. They were successful as legislation was passed against the peasantry which saw many having to resort to going back to on estates. One of the main legislation was the implementation of heavy taxes. Taxes were places on peasants’ houses and their livestock. An example of this is seen in Grenada and Tobago where planters animals were either lightly tax or not tex at all, while those of the peasantry was very, very heavily taxed. Still, it was the land tax that burden many of the peasantry class. For example in St. Vincent, a tax was established in 1844 upon all farmers who did not proceed taxable produce. In Tobago, a land tax was levied in 1843 on land not directly attached to an estate or leased to small owners. A stipendiary magistrate in Tobago described these taxes as “either robbery or confiscation”. 

In March of 1849, a protest against these land tax broke out in St. Lucia. First, petitions were sent to the governor where black peasants expressed their concerns over the newly imposed land taxes. They stated that low cost of produce and the already high rent created an unbearable reality to pay such high land tax. They wanted the tax to be repealed so they have the chance to make an honest living. But it seems the government did not take their concerns seriously and subsequently a protest and demonstration unfolded near the government main office occurred. Ultimately, this demonstration led to a bloody riot where eight persons were killed and a numerous sugar estates damages by fire. However, the governor stated that the riot was orchestrated by persons from Martinique who were aligned with “communist and republican principles” and wanted to see the government’s “strength and firmness”. 

Back in Jamaica, it was not just the land tax that was causing issues but the introduction of toll gates. Toll roads were nothing new in Jamaica. White planters placed gates across roads passing through their lands, to secure property and monitor movement. In the book, “Jamaican Place Names” by B.W. Higman and B.J. Hudson, the authors state that from the 1740’s to the 1860’s, a network of turnpikes operated in the country with toll gates along for the collection of payments. However, in the years following Emancipation, these moneys collected at the toll, did not go into the maintain of road for the peasants but only use to serve the interest of white planters and white landowners. We should repeat what we said previously: After emancipation, the government provide little to no improvement of the property. No roads were built or the maintenance of existed road were improved in peasant districts; services such as markets, hospitals and schools were rarely established nor were any policy to improve peasant agricultural implemented. 

However, in the mid 1800’s, the issue of land and toll gates and the subsequent riots and protests that took place were not only occurring in the Caribbean but across the British colonies. In Wales, in particular, a series of protest between the years of 1839 to 1843, demonstrated the frustration of peasants and small farming communities with taxes imposed on them. These riots are known today as the Rebecca Riots. 

Rebecca Riots 

At the beginning of the 1800’s, many of the main roads in Wales were owned and operated by Turnpike Trusts. These trusts were established to maintain and improve the condition of the roads and bridges by charing travellers tolls to use them. But what was really happening was that the trusts were overseen by English businessmen who use this power to exploit money out of the locals. The people that suffered the most were the rural farming folks of Wales. Already in the early decades of the year, this population of the area faced hardships due to horrible harvests and then there was the mandatory tithe they had to pay to the church. Then now, in the late 1830’s, they were told that they would have to pay to take their animals and crops to market and bringing fertilisers back for the fields. This further threatened the rural population’s livelihood. Thus, this formed the catalyst of the Rebecca Riots where the rural population demonstrated their frustration over the tolls. 

The earliest signs of the riots occurred in 1839, right after a new toll gate was established in Efailwen to catch farmers who did not pay tolls elsewhere. In one market town already, Carmarthen, there was already 12 tolls gates around it. Soon after the toll gate was established in Efaolwen, there was an attack on a new workhouse at Narberth. Then gangs were formed soon after to attack the toll gates.  The members of these gangs wore women's clothes and blackened their faces in disguise. The name of these tolls gates: ‘Rebecca and Her Daughters’. The most accepted theory behind this name is biblical. In those days, Welsh had to learn to read a particular scripture which speak of a woman name Rebecca: Genesis 24 vs 60. It goes: 

“And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, by thou the mother of thousands of millions and let thy seed possess the gate of those that hate them”

As interpreted by the residents, the scripture speak to their need to destroy the toll gates. 

Still by 1842 to 43, the economy was in further decline and the rural population frustration over the toll and other monetary increase boiled over. Numerous rioting broke out across Wales and it so happened - by the time the ‘Rebecca and Her Daughters’ were done voicing their frustration, every single toll gate in the area was attacked. Not one was left standing. Their frustration did not stop at the tolls however. Landlord were also threaten to lower their rents and persons who were seen as exploiting the population was also attacked. During the attacks, persons were reported to have shouted ’I am averse to tyranny and oppression’. 

Nevertheless, by the late 1843, the government increased troops presence in the area and eventually the rioting came to an end. But ‘Rebecca and Her Daughters’ were successful as the tollgates were removed off the roads of in the area; and it stayed that way - for almost 100 years. The next toll gate to be established in area after the riots was in 1966. 

So, in February of 1859, when the black peasantry of western Jamaica who were already burden with numerous taxes imposed on them, got fed up with the toll gates that were placed on roads leading to Savanna-La-Mar, the subsequent events that occurred, mirrored the Welsh Rebecca Riots that took place almost 20 years prior. 

Westmoreland Toll Riots of 1859

So far, we have explain how the 1830’s and 1840’s, the years following British Emancipation, enslaves although, now off the plantation, realised that the system trapped them and emancipation was not materialising in the way it should be. Any means of freedom for the former black enslaves, especially the means to own land and have businesses, were been curtailed in numerous, exploitative taxation. But then in the midst of all this, in 1851, a Board of Commission of Highways and Bridges was established. Th purpose of the commission was to oversee the operation of toll gates on the island. And if black people in the country thought they have enough of tax and toll gates, it was only going to get worse. Throughout the 1850’s, the location of toll gates became even more burdensome and at some locations, ridiculous. Former librarian and secretary at the Institute of Jamaica, Frank Cundall, in his book, ‘Political and Social Disturbance In The West Indies’ states that “one ill effect of the Jamaica toll-gate law was that, in some cases, toll had to be paid in order to fetch water”. 

Then on February 12th of 1859, residents of Westmoreland, a western parish on the island, had enough. Inspired by “Rebecca and Her Daughters”, some persons dressed in women clothing, joined others to demonstrate their grievance with the state. Fuelled by their frustration, they took to the streets and destroyed toll-keepers and the toll gates throughout Savanna-la-mar and other towns in Westmoreland. Law officers were sent in to curbed the rioting but they were ineffective reinforcement from neighbouring western parishes of Trelawny, Hanover, St. James and St. Elizabeth.

On March 4th, the Falmouth Post wrote the following on what occurred: 

“The demolition of toll-gates in the parish of Westmoreland - the pulling down of toll-keepers houses - and the threats held out to persons in authority, by a lawless desperate rabble - are events which have resulted from mischievous speeches delivered at public meetings, and from editorial articles, equally mischievous, which have approved from time to time in the columns of newspapers owned by persons who are always boasting of their patriotism and friendship for the people. The late riots were planned by men of tolerable intelligence: some who aspire to the rank of respectable citizenship counselled that the law should be set at defiance, and salaried officers have taken, if not a direct, at all events an indirect, part in the disturbances” 

Another of the country’s newspaper editor wrote the following in relation to the Westmoreland Riots of 1859: 

“The peasantry are well disposed, and if left to themselves, would respect the authorities and obey the laws of the land; but their minds are influenced by political quacks who are indifferent to the probable results of reckless agitation”. 

When the persons who took part in the riots of 1859 were arrested, a special commission was set up to put them on trial. However, when the trial began on March 9th, a crowd of around 2000 persons showed up. Soon after, the  governor himself, Charles Henry Darling, went down to Westmoreland with a large military force. Then the custos of the area was replaced. But the state did not take into account the almost two decades of exploitation clouded in tax and tolls that the black population was been subjected to and no change in legislation for around land. So 5 months after the Westmoreland riots, there was another disturbance in the neighbouring parish of Trelawny. And yes, this was also associated with land. 

The whole incident stemmed from the arrest of a man of mixed race Theodore Buie, who was evicted off the Florence Hall Estate where he lived. Buie was arrested with number of his supporters. So, a special commission was set up to tried them. So on August 1st, 1859, exactly 21 years after Emancipation in Jamaica and the rest of the British West Indies, when the trial started, persons sympathetic to cause of the Buie, intervene. A large crowd made up of women and men, showed up with stones and bottles and attacked the Falmouth police officers who were escorting the arrested persons to the court. This resulted in the arrested been released, the police injured and the court house, police station and other building around Falmouth were damage. Against the stones and bottles, the police offers drew their gun and fired, killing three women and wounding others. Extra police officers were called in from the parishes of St. James and Hanover which led to the West India Regiment been sent from Kingston - over 100 persons were arrested. To note, the West India Regiment was the infantry units of the British Army recruited from and normally stationed in the British colonies of the Caribbean between 1795 and 1927. In their article of the events, the Falmouth Post linked the event to the Westmoreland riots. And the three women who were murdered by the police, a verdict ruled “justifiable homicide”.

Work Harder, You Peasants

Even still, despite the two riots that took place in 1859, the peasants and their called for legislation change towards the numerous taxation they are subjected to and having the ability to get access to land and to buy said land, was ignored. By the early 1960’s, the situation became even harder. The US Civil War affected the sugar industry which curtail many economies in the British colony, including Jamaica. On the island, in 1865, there was a terrible drought which create even more hardship and the black populate was already facing low wages and burdensome taxation. Thus, the peasants wrote petitions where they complained about the government neglect. They stressed the awful condition of the roads in their district and the destruction of their crops by white planters' grazing herds of cattle which they could not fence out. But most importantly, the complained about the shortage of land for cultivation and the racial biased they face as black people in the legal courts of Jamaica, particularly in cases involving the titling of land, securing land and their rights to tenancy. The government did not listen to them. 

So one group of peasants from St. Ann, took it a step further, they wrote to the Queen of England, Queen Victoria. Here, they also included in their pleas: a  relief from the gruesome taxes and tolls, an improvement in the administration of justice and for them to have a fair and just ability to access the Back Lands and Crown Lands of Jamaica. Their April 25, 1865 letter to the British monarch speaks on their need for a  “great want at this moment from the bad state of our island”. It so happens that the Queen responded, in a reply which the state distributed. They called it the Queen’s Advice. In her response to the black population in the country, she stated that, workers’ prosperity depended upon them working harder to make the plantations productive and by them working harder that’s how they can make better wages. In summary she said: “work harder, you peasants”.

Pushed to the brink of their frustration, the peasants organised themselves, just like the Westmoreland Riots of 1859. However, unlike 1859, in 1865, theres was a political consciousness in the peasants organising. Here, they had ally-ship in a local coloured politician on the island, George William Gordon who occasionally championed their cause in the House Assembly. Another difference was that in 1865, the peasants found a leader in a Native Baptist preacher who possessed a strong ability to organised - Paul Bogle.

So in October 1865, a few months after the peasants were told to ‘just work harder’ by the Queen, Paul Bogle led a protest against the court settlement of a land dispute in the eastern parish of St. Thomas. See, it is always about land. But, the protest resulted in Bogle and others been placed on the state watched to be arrested. A few days after his protest, on October 11, 1865, Bogle led a march to Morant Bay Courthouse. 

What happened is probably one of the most important events that took place in the British West Indies in the 19th century - The Morant Bay Rebellion. Excluding this rebellion, between 1838 and 1905, there were twenty other disturbances that took place in the British West Indies: 5 in Guyana and 4 in Trinidad and Jamaica, 2 in Dominica and 1 each in Barbados, St. Kitts, Montserrat and Belize. None of these matched even half the scope, coverage and resulting litigation like that of the Morant Bay Rebellion. A rebellion which stem from the issues of land and more broadly, the promises of freedom which black people in the British West Indies found they were not privy to. In his paper, 'From Slave Rebellions to Morant Bay: The Tradition of Protest In Jamaica’, historian Dr. Gad Heuman states: 

“The riots of 1859 highlighted some of the issues which profoundly affected  post-emancipation Jamaica and would prove crucial six years later at Morant  Bay. High taxes (the cause of the first riot in 1859), whether in the form of assessments or of toll-gates, were a serious problem for the mass of the people,  especially as the Legislature had shifted a heavy proportion of the taxes onto the ex-slaves and away from the plantocracy. The lack of justice, which was an important element in the Buie case, was one of the leading factors in the outbreak at Morant Bay”. 

Capture Land

Decades have passed after the Westmoreland Riots of 1859, the Morant Bay Rebellion and the other disturbances that took place across the region, but still legislations against black peasants owning and having access to the land and the gruesome taxation laws they were were subjected to, were ignored and in some countries, built upon. Almost a century after the riots, black peasants who were members of Rastafari would be embroiled with white landowners and the state over land accessibility in western Jamaica; a dispute which ultimately culminated with the 1963 Coral Gardens Massacre. 

Still, the effects of this history of land in region is seen today. Even though different nations have put measures in place to get to the root of land ownership in their respective country, an issue lies in who has access to the land, who has owned the land, the change of the ownership of said land throughout out centuries; but most importantly - who has been given the ability, resources and opportunities to have access to land. For even though, other groups of persons have travelled to the region in large numbers after Emancipation - Chinese, Indians, Lebanese etc, and have owned lands, the decades of legislation, taxation, neglect and prejudice blocking black persons from land access and ownership across the Caribbean, still affects that group today. Today, across the region black persons who have had generation of their family living on the lands, in some countries those of Indian heritage, are deemed as squatters with ineffective legislation put in place for them to have legal ownership for said land. But then on the flip side, in some Caribbean countries, the owners of large lands, of towns even, can traced their family linage to plantation owners in the 17th, 18th and 19th century. 

This history also gives context to societal views of where black people are allowed to take up space - literally. One can look at the lives of two of the most famous Jamaicans: the hostility that Bob Marley faced by white Jamaicans while living in a upper class neighbourhood on Hope Road in the 1970’s; and in recent years, Usain Bolt and his experiences as a resident in upper class neighbourhoods in Kingston and St. Andrew. 

But the craziest thing is, the concept of Back Lands and Crown Lands still exist today. As such, the head monarch of England, where at this time of recording it is Queen Elizabeth II, owns all the public land in Jamaica. Actually no, the English monarch, the Royal Family of England, owns all the public land in every Caribbean country where they are head of state - the person occupying said land only has a tenure. Legally, no one but the crown owns the land, they only owns interest in the land. 

So Jamaican musician Chronixx on his 2014 single, Capture Land, was indeed correct - we are all just living on capture land.