Theme 9: Caribbean society (1900-1985)

*Describe the social and economic conditions existing in the Caribbean between 1900-1935

Social and economic conditions:

1. Housing: Urban slums, Tenantries, Chattel houses

2. Working conditions: Wages, hours, conditions

3. Unemployment: Industry and economic conditions 

4. Health: Child/infant mortality, Training for health care

5. Cost of living: War time conditions, shortages led to price increases

 During the post emancipation period, the relationship between the ex planters and ex enslaved that was already not in a good place, was getting worse. Even with slavery coming to an end, the notion that white meant free and black meant enslaved still lingered in the minds and hearts of many. This, along with the sour relationship between the ex planters and ex enslaved individuals did nothing to help with the economic and social conditions of the Caribbean but instead may have made these conditions worse. The social conditions included housing, health and cost of living whilst working conditions and unemployment fell under economic conditions.

 The three main things to point out under housing were urban slums, tenantries and the chattel houses. These three points held one thing in common in that they were all methods of housing that the ex enslaved individuals took advantage of. The urban slums refers to the place of residence of the ex enslaved individuals that migrated from the country to the town, eventually ending up in the urban slums. In the urban slums, the ex enslaved people were expected to live in an ill made barracks that was separated into sections with each section being delegated to one or more ex enslaved individuals. These sections lacked a water source and the sanitary conditions were not good. Whole families were made to live in these sections and these families not only had to share a living space, but also had to share a standpipe, that was located some distance away from the barracks, and latrines that were just buckets that were placed in holes in the ground. Because of the very poor sanitary conditions, diseases would run rampant and many ex enslaved individuals would die.

 Tenantries refers to a system in which a landlord rents land to a tenant. Although the rent was normally high, because the landowners were very unscrupulous, the ex enslaved individuals still took the opportunity to become landowners even if they had to rent it. This system was one that worked relatively well but had a few massive disadvantages as it was not bound by law. Because of the lack of laws to govern the system, any dispute between landowners and tenants were detrimental to the tenants livelihood and normally resulted in the tenant being evicted without notice. Though the cons outweighed the pros, this system was still one that was used by many of the ex enslaved people.

 The last form of housing nullified the cons of the tenantry system and gave the ex enslaved individuals more freedom with their actions as they no longer needed to worry about homelessness at any moment. This counter was the Chattel houses which were houses built in a way that they were able to be packed up at a moments notice and set up at a different location without much problems. Because of the Chattel houses, the ex enslaved essentially became free of the authoritative nature of the tenantry system. The ex enslaved people no longer needed to worry about random sharp increases in rent prices or disputes with their landowners that result in them being evicted as they still kept their home and could always rent from another landowner. Even with good housing, the ex enslaved still needed a way to pay rent but the bad treatment the ex enslaved people received, even after slavery had already ended, resulted in most ex enslaved having to work under bad working conditions.

 The ex enslaved people found it hard to find jobs as the majority of them lacked technical skills and education but even when some of them were able to receive a job, they were treated badly. Their wages were normally miniscule in comparison to the work they had to put in. Not only were their wages abysmally low, the hours they were expected to work were in huge amounts and since the ex planters didn't have a time based wage payment system in which you get paid for amount of work done in a period of time, the long hours didn't affect the low wages. The ex enslaved were limited in their job options so even if these things occurred they had no choice but to work unless they wanted to become a vagrant but even if they worked and received wages, the ex enslaved pe with jobs still border lined vagrancy as the cost of living, compared to their wages, was too high.

 The time period in which these social and economic conditions were occurring in the Caribbean coincides with World War 2. World War 2 affected many places globally and affected many things including the production of essential items. This shortage of essential products lead to these products that were common becoming hard to obtain and the more needed something is, the higher its value. Because of this, many essential items had their prices increased leading to the people who could barely afford them before, being unable to obtain them effectively increasing the cost of living for many people in the Caribbean and around the whole world. This increase in price in products put many people in a position where they were unable to offered , access and receive the help they would need to stay healthy.

 Health declined drastically in the Caribbean leading to a high mortality rate of children and infants. At that time, health care was not readily available for pregnant woman and even if it was, getting access to the health care became a whole different problem. That along with the fact that there were a limited amount of properly trained doctors from the Caribbean who could help with this problem lead to the mortality rate steadily increasing as time passed. Although there were trained doctors from Europe who could be available, getting access to the limited amount of trained doctors was an extremely difficult and tedious task. The people of the Caribbean were given opportunities to study in Cuba and specialize different fields which helped increase the amount of doctors available to help when help was needed but this would come later down the line. Even with this large mortality rate of children increasing steadily, the population of certain countries, like Trinidad and British Guyana, was increasing at a faster rate due to the immigration scheme.

 The immigration scheme was originally put in place for the planters to get access to a labor force for their plantations and it was successful however its time had come and gone but the immigration did not stop. The population increased sharply due to this leading to the amount of people needing work increasing whilst the amount of people needed for work stayed the same. These would lead us to the last condition of this theme, unemployment. In this large population of individuals, there was bound to be someone more skilled and qualified for the only job that you could get and because of this you would be unable to find a job place that would want or need you leading to you being unemployed. This scenario was common in these highly populated places and although it did cause a massive amount of people to be living unemployed, it wasn't the only cause. During this time period, the work industries were diving into the realm of machinery. These machines were more efficient than workers and less costly in the long run. These two facts alone lead to lots of ex enslaved people and immigrants losing their jobs or not having the oppurtunity to get one in the first place.