A History of Belize - A Nation in the Making
Chapter 8
The Suppression of Agriculture
As we already know, there was always some agriculture in Belize. Some of the slaves cultivated provisions, either at the order of their masters to feed themselves or to sell. A number of free blacks and free coloured people also worked the land in small "provision grounds". The Garifuna, too, cultivated crops. In 1824, Punta Gorda was described as a town with 500 people who grew "cotton, rice, the cohune, banana, coconut, pineapple, orange, lemon, and plantain, with other many fruits". The Maya continued to live in the interior and cultivate the land.
But although these four groups practiced subsistence farming in the late 18th and 19th centuries, the land was largely used for logging. The landowners and woodcutters were generally opposed to agriculture, especially when people farmed on their own. In 1805, for example, they passed a resolution forbidding a slave "to hire himself out to himself with a view to pursue Trade".
Yet farming continued. It even increased significantly between 1817 and 1838. After 1818, disbanded soldiers from West Indian regiments and their families arrived in the settlement. Almost 700 people came, significantly increasing the population of only 4,000. Although many of them worked in the mahogany gangs, a large portion cultivated the land in small plots. But, like free coloured and blacks, they did not have the proper titles to their lands. Powerful landowners were often able to force them off their land so they had to work for someone else.
Land Denied
At the time slaves were emancipated in 1838, the British government sent an order to all the West Indian colonies, including Belize. All Crown grants of land would from then on be sold at a cost of 1 pound sterling per acre. This order was given at a time when many newly freed ex-slaves looked forward to getting their own land to farm. But this would not be so.
For almost 50 years, British settlers had taken large areas of land for free. Crown grants were officially issued free for 30 years. But as soon as slaves were freed, the Colonial Office in London added a fee. The effect of giving free grants of land, it said, "was to create indolent habits, to discourage labour for wages, and to leave large tracts of territory in a wild and unimproved state". It worried them that now, large numbers of black men and women would qualify for the free land grants and a scarcity of labour would develop.
Once again it was important to discourage the ex-slaves from working their own land in order to force them to work in the mahogany gangs. As a result of the new order of charging money for land, from 1838 to 1855 no Crown lands were sold and even by 1868 very little land had been sold.
The Garifuna
The early Caribs migrated to the Caribbean islands from South America. They were farmers, trappers and fishermen, and they made pottery and tools out of wood, stone and bone. They moved every few years, using dugout canoes to get from island to island. The Caribs were good warriors, and used many different kinds of weapons like bows and arrows, spears and clubs.
During the 17th century, Africans who had escaped from slavery intermarried with the Caribs who lived in the Windward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean. The new people which resulted are today called the Garifuna.
The Garifuna strongly resisted European control. They kept the tradition of the earlier Caribs who fought against the Spanish invaders. The Caribs continued to fight against the British and the French, but the Europeans had guns and were eventually able to overpower them. One of their great leaders was Joseph Chatoyer. The British confined the Garifuna to the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica but they continued to fight until they were finally defeated in 1796. The following year the British forced about 5,000 Garifuna to move to the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. From there they migrated to the coastal areas of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and southern Belize.
By 1802 there were 150 Garifuna settlers in Stann Creek. They fished and grew ground foods. In 1811 they were already taking their produce to Belize Town to sell. A Magistrates' Meeting in that year directed that all "Caribs" arriving at the Fort (in Belize Town) must get a permit or ticket from the Superintendent, or leave the Settlement within 48 hours. In 1814, it was reported that they tried to become a part of the Public Meeting, but were not allowed. In 1832, many Garifuna left Honduras after a civil war there. On 19 November 1832 they landed in Belize, led by Alejo Beni. To commemorate their arrival, we now celebrate this day as Garifuna Settlement Day, a national holiday.
The Baymen were afraid that the Garifuna would help slaves to escape. The Baymen therefore set out to build up a distrust and fear in the slaves against the Garifuna. They spread propaganda branding them as "devil worshippers" and "baby eaters". This created a prejudice that persisted for a long time.
The British colonialists and woodcutters saw the Garifuna as another source of labour for their mahogany camps. By 1833, many of them were working in the camps. The Public Meeting appointed a policeman in Stann Creek to deal with what they called the "runaway Caribs".
In 1855, the "Laws in Force Act" gave legal title to any person who was in "quiet and undisturbed possession of land" since 1840 - but this did not apply to the Garifuna on their lands. In 1857, the Crown Surveyor issued a notice to the Garifuna of Stann Creek stating that they must apply for a lease or they would lose their land and any buildings on them. They were treated as squatters on Crown lands. Later, the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1872 established "Carib Reserves" and "Maya Reserves". This prevented the Garifuna and Maya from owning land as their private property.
The colonial authorities continued to give preference to the large land owners, usually British, over the Garifuna, Maya and Africans. For example, in 1868, Governor Langden stated that small plantations, though occupied for over 50 years, could be "sold over the heads of the present occupiers to large proprietors".
Immigrants from India
Many of the sugar growers in the Caribbean needed more labour on their plantations and they re-introduced the system of "indentured labour". Under this system a person was encouraged to come to the Caribbean to work for a "master" for a certain number of years. After that he was free to work as he pleased. But too often circumstances forced him to "re-indenture" themselves, and agree to work for a further number of years.
Most of the indentured workers came from India. Under British colonialism thousands of people in India had become unemployed. Many were starving because of droughts and increased food prices. Between 1844 and 1917, 41,600 East Indians were indentured to work in the British colonies in the Caribbean.
The exact number of indentured labourers brought to Belize is not known. However, the numbers were never large. The census of 1891 lists only 291 persons living in the colony who were born in India. East Indians were put to work in the sugar estates in the Toledo and Corozal districts. Their descendants can still be found in areas such as Calcutta in the Corozal District and Forest Home in the Toledo District.
The British were never very respectful to East Indians, but they came from a very advanced civilization. They built magnificent cities and were great traders. Europeans had traded with India since ancient times. East Indians were advanced in mathematics, the languages, and the arts.
Forestry Still Dominant
The cultivation and export of sugar did not last long during this period. The late 19th century was a bad time to produce sugar and the plantations soon closed down. The small farms and milpas were more adaptable and continued their cultivation. But other attempts at commercial agriculture were not successful.
The sugar plantations that had spread to Toledo were closed down by the end of the century. An 1882 report by a man named Daniel Morris travelling in the south of the colony mentions fruit companies growing bananas, coconuts, cacao, and a factory for making cohune oil. By 1885, many of these estates in southern Belize had been abandoned. The export of bananas, first recorded in 1880, reached its peak in 1890, and soon disappeared.
Forestry, therefore, continued to be the most important economic activity and the big mahogany companies continued to hold the most power in Belize.
Commercial Agriculture
Some landowners did try to develop commercial agriculture in Belize, but were not successful. The British-Spanish treaties had not allowed it. In addition, the British discouraged the export of produce from Belize by making the taxes on crops from Belize higher than in other colonies. This made products from Belize more expensive which meant fewer people bought them. The landowners and merchants found that agriculture was not profitable. In the middle of the 19th century, however, events occurred which affected the population of Belize and had immediate effects on agriculture.
The Mestizo and the Maya
In 1848 the Maya of Yucatan in Mexico, revolted against the control over their land and the unjust social conditions. This revolt is known as the Caste War of Yucatan. Many thousands of Maya and Mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Maya descent, fled to Belize.
After the war many of the refugees returned to Yucatan, but a large number stayed in Belize, mostly in the north. An official report in 1856 estimated the total population for Belize at 20,000. Over one-quarter of the people lived in the northern district, and most of these were refugees from the Yucatan. At that time, the population of Belize Town was about 7,000. Corozal Town had 4,500 people. San Estevan, with 1,300 Yucatecos, was the next largest town in the north.
A number of villages - San Pedro, Punta Consejo, Orange Walk, and San Antonio - had 200 or more persons each, mostly from Yucatan.
The Maya and Mestizo refugees who came were mostly small farmers. They continued this activity in Belize. The mahogany trade was declining and large areas of land, which had no more mahogany trees, were available. The big landowners were now willing to rent to these farmers.
By 1857 the new immigrants were growing large amounts of sugar, rice, corn and vegetables. In addition to growing enough sugar for Belize, they were able to export sugar and rum to Britain that year.
Once these new settlers showed that sugar could be successfully grown and exported, big landowners also began to grow cane. By 1868, over 3,000 acres of land were used for growing cane. One thousand and thirty-three tons were exported. Ten estates had steam machinery and four of these estates belonged to the British Honduras Company. By this time the British Honduras Company had become the biggest sugar producer in Belize.
Chapter 9
Chapter 8
The Suppression of Agriculture
As we already know, there was always some agriculture in Belize. Some of the slaves cultivated provisions, either at the order of their masters to feed themselves or to sell. A number of free blacks and free coloured people also worked the land in small "provision grounds". The Garifuna, too, cultivated crops. In 1824, Punta Gorda was described as a town with 500 people who grew "cotton, rice, the cohune, banana, coconut, pineapple, orange, lemon, and plantain, with other many fruits". The Maya continued to live in the interior and cultivate the land.
But although these four groups practiced subsistence farming in the late 18th and 19th centuries, the land was largely used for logging. The landowners and woodcutters were generally opposed to agriculture, especially when people farmed on their own. In 1805, for example, they passed a resolution forbidding a slave "to hire himself out to himself with a view to pursue Trade".
Yet farming continued. It even increased significantly between 1817 and 1838. After 1818, disbanded soldiers from West Indian regiments and their families arrived in the settlement. Almost 700 people came, significantly increasing the population of only 4,000. Although many of them worked in the mahogany gangs, a large portion cultivated the land in small plots. But, like free coloured and blacks, they did not have the proper titles to their lands. Powerful landowners were often able to force them off their land so they had to work for someone else.
Land Denied
At the time slaves were emancipated in 1838, the British government sent an order to all the West Indian colonies, including Belize. All Crown grants of land would from then on be sold at a cost of 1 pound sterling per acre. This order was given at a time when many newly freed ex-slaves looked forward to getting their own land to farm. But this would not be so.
For almost 50 years, British settlers had taken large areas of land for free. Crown grants were officially issued free for 30 years. But as soon as slaves were freed, the Colonial Office in London added a fee. The effect of giving free grants of land, it said, "was to create indolent habits, to discourage labour for wages, and to leave large tracts of territory in a wild and unimproved state". It worried them that now, large numbers of black men and women would qualify for the free land grants and a scarcity of labour would develop.
Once again it was important to discourage the ex-slaves from working their own land in order to force them to work in the mahogany gangs. As a result of the new order of charging money for land, from 1838 to 1855 no Crown lands were sold and even by 1868 very little land had been sold.
The Garifuna
The early Caribs migrated to the Caribbean islands from South America. They were farmers, trappers and fishermen, and they made pottery and tools out of wood, stone and bone. They moved every few years, using dugout canoes to get from island to island. The Caribs were good warriors, and used many different kinds of weapons like bows and arrows, spears and clubs.
During the 17th century, Africans who had escaped from slavery intermarried with the Caribs who lived in the Windward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean. The new people which resulted are today called the Garifuna.
The Garifuna strongly resisted European control. They kept the tradition of the earlier Caribs who fought against the Spanish invaders. The Caribs continued to fight against the British and the French, but the Europeans had guns and were eventually able to overpower them. One of their great leaders was Joseph Chatoyer. The British confined the Garifuna to the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica but they continued to fight until they were finally defeated in 1796. The following year the British forced about 5,000 Garifuna to move to the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. From there they migrated to the coastal areas of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and southern Belize.
By 1802 there were 150 Garifuna settlers in Stann Creek. They fished and grew ground foods. In 1811 they were already taking their produce to Belize Town to sell. A Magistrates' Meeting in that year directed that all "Caribs" arriving at the Fort (in Belize Town) must get a permit or ticket from the Superintendent, or leave the Settlement within 48 hours. In 1814, it was reported that they tried to become a part of the Public Meeting, but were not allowed. In 1832, many Garifuna left Honduras after a civil war there. On 19 November 1832 they landed in Belize, led by Alejo Beni. To commemorate their arrival, we now celebrate this day as Garifuna Settlement Day, a national holiday.
The Baymen were afraid that the Garifuna would help slaves to escape. The Baymen therefore set out to build up a distrust and fear in the slaves against the Garifuna. They spread propaganda branding them as "devil worshippers" and "baby eaters". This created a prejudice that persisted for a long time.
The British colonialists and woodcutters saw the Garifuna as another source of labour for their mahogany camps. By 1833, many of them were working in the camps. The Public Meeting appointed a policeman in Stann Creek to deal with what they called the "runaway Caribs".
In 1855, the "Laws in Force Act" gave legal title to any person who was in "quiet and undisturbed possession of land" since 1840 - but this did not apply to the Garifuna on their lands. In 1857, the Crown Surveyor issued a notice to the Garifuna of Stann Creek stating that they must apply for a lease or they would lose their land and any buildings on them. They were treated as squatters on Crown lands. Later, the Crown Lands Ordinance of 1872 established "Carib Reserves" and "Maya Reserves". This prevented the Garifuna and Maya from owning land as their private property.
The colonial authorities continued to give preference to the large land owners, usually British, over the Garifuna, Maya and Africans. For example, in 1868, Governor Langden stated that small plantations, though occupied for over 50 years, could be "sold over the heads of the present occupiers to large proprietors".
Immigrants from India
Many of the sugar growers in the Caribbean needed more labour on their plantations and they re-introduced the system of "indentured labour". Under this system a person was encouraged to come to the Caribbean to work for a "master" for a certain number of years. After that he was free to work as he pleased. But too often circumstances forced him to "re-indenture" themselves, and agree to work for a further number of years.
Most of the indentured workers came from India. Under British colonialism thousands of people in India had become unemployed. Many were starving because of droughts and increased food prices. Between 1844 and 1917, 41,600 East Indians were indentured to work in the British colonies in the Caribbean.
The exact number of indentured labourers brought to Belize is not known. However, the numbers were never large. The census of 1891 lists only 291 persons living in the colony who were born in India. East Indians were put to work in the sugar estates in the Toledo and Corozal districts. Their descendants can still be found in areas such as Calcutta in the Corozal District and Forest Home in the Toledo District.
The British were never very respectful to East Indians, but they came from a very advanced civilization. They built magnificent cities and were great traders. Europeans had traded with India since ancient times. East Indians were advanced in mathematics, the languages, and the arts.
Forestry Still Dominant
The cultivation and export of sugar did not last long during this period. The late 19th century was a bad time to produce sugar and the plantations soon closed down. The small farms and milpas were more adaptable and continued their cultivation. But other attempts at commercial agriculture were not successful.
The sugar plantations that had spread to Toledo were closed down by the end of the century. An 1882 report by a man named Daniel Morris travelling in the south of the colony mentions fruit companies growing bananas, coconuts, cacao, and a factory for making cohune oil. By 1885, many of these estates in southern Belize had been abandoned. The export of bananas, first recorded in 1880, reached its peak in 1890, and soon disappeared.
Forestry, therefore, continued to be the most important economic activity and the big mahogany companies continued to hold the most power in Belize.
Commercial Agriculture
Some landowners did try to develop commercial agriculture in Belize, but were not successful. The British-Spanish treaties had not allowed it. In addition, the British discouraged the export of produce from Belize by making the taxes on crops from Belize higher than in other colonies. This made products from Belize more expensive which meant fewer people bought them. The landowners and merchants found that agriculture was not profitable. In the middle of the 19th century, however, events occurred which affected the population of Belize and had immediate effects on agriculture.
The Mestizo and the Maya
In 1848 the Maya of Yucatan in Mexico, revolted against the control over their land and the unjust social conditions. This revolt is known as the Caste War of Yucatan. Many thousands of Maya and Mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Maya descent, fled to Belize.
After the war many of the refugees returned to Yucatan, but a large number stayed in Belize, mostly in the north. An official report in 1856 estimated the total population for Belize at 20,000. Over one-quarter of the people lived in the northern district, and most of these were refugees from the Yucatan. At that time, the population of Belize Town was about 7,000. Corozal Town had 4,500 people. San Estevan, with 1,300 Yucatecos, was the next largest town in the north.
A number of villages - San Pedro, Punta Consejo, Orange Walk, and San Antonio - had 200 or more persons each, mostly from Yucatan.
The Maya and Mestizo refugees who came were mostly small farmers. They continued this activity in Belize. The mahogany trade was declining and large areas of land, which had no more mahogany trees, were available. The big landowners were now willing to rent to these farmers.
By 1857 the new immigrants were growing large amounts of sugar, rice, corn and vegetables. In addition to growing enough sugar for Belize, they were able to export sugar and rum to Britain that year.
Once these new settlers showed that sugar could be successfully grown and exported, big landowners also began to grow cane. By 1868, over 3,000 acres of land were used for growing cane. One thousand and thirty-three tons were exported. Ten estates had steam machinery and four of these estates belonged to the British Honduras Company. By this time the British Honduras Company had become the biggest sugar producer in Belize.
Chapter 9
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