Yesterday
Dr Rita Pemberton –
One of the health challenges which manifested itself early in the history of Caribbean enslavement was mental illness, which initially was not accorded the status of a disease, but was generally dismissed as a deliberate prank by enslaved Africans who wanted to escape from labour. Plantation owners and managers did not accept the behaviours of those affected as a matter which required serious intervention.
It was treated as a crime, not an illness which required medical intervention, and until the second decade of the nineteenth century, in Tobago there were neither laws nor facilities devoted to dealing with this as meritorious of official attention.
However, it stimulated the attention of the older members of the planter fraternity, and was considered of such importance that they shared their experiences with those who wished to become involved in plantations, via the various bulletins and publications circulated to the planting community, both as a warning and a guide for new plantation owners when selecting Africans for their labour force for new plantations to be very selective in their choices.
The biased views spread by these older plantation owners projected mental illness as a natural inclination of some groups of Africans, whom new planters were advised to avoid buying. Plantation owners in Tobago and elsewhere in the Caribbean were advised to seek strong Africans who could provide the required labour to generate profits.
Consequently, new planters sought to avoid those Africans from communities on the negative list, who most likely displayed a natural inclination to “varying types of distemper” which were described as: “despondency of mind” or “depression of spirits” or who were also timid and apt to commit suicide.
Members of the Congo community were said to be prone to dropsy, while Ibos were prone to committing suicide. In addition, planters were advised to refrain from buying old Africans, who tended to grieve for their homes and would ultimately commit suicide.
These manifestations were not regarded as expressions of a health issue, but as a naturally occurring feature of the people of some African communities and were considered a ploy to avoid plantation labour.
The more experienced planters advised that such manifestations should be handled with brute force. These biased views were readily accepted by the planting community across the region and shaped their responses to the behaviours of their enslaved property.
However, while all planters would have liked to select from among the strongest-looking Africans and those considered more likely to display desirable work habits among those who were presented for sale, in practice, choice was very limited. Generally, the captains of slavers could not choose their preferred cargo, because when they arrived on the coast of Africa, their human cargo had already been selected by the agents of their company. Specifically for Tobago, slaving ships did not come to the island and Tobago planters had to accept those who were left over after the ship had offloaded captives to Barbados and Grenada; the remainder was transhipped from the latter island to Tobago.
On April 17, 1823, a law entitled An Act to empower the Magistrates to take Charge and confine lunatic and insane persons, and to provide for their maintenance and support, and to prevent, abuse in the manumission of Slaves, which was approved by the Tobago Council and Assembly, was proclaimed by Lieutenant Governor Sir Frederick Robinson. This law treated with the problem of mental illness, which was manifested on estates across the island in various ways.
The framers of the Tobago law considered people with “lunacy” so disoriented that it was dangerous to let them move freely, and to permit manumission under such circumstances to slaves who, by old age or other causes, would be prevented from earning a living to support themselves. Given the current view of “lunacy,” the Tobago administrators adopted an unexpected turn: they made identifying and handling lunacy the responsibility of legal rather than medical officers.
The island’s magistrates were made responsible for apprehending lunatics. Two or more magistrates were empowered to enlist the support of one or more constables to apprehend and have examined, if necessary, people considered “lunatics.” But the law did not specify how or by whom such examination was to be done. The magistrates were authorised to locate secure accommodation in the town of Scarborough and order the confinement thre of those classified as “lunatics,” under restraint, until they were cured. There was no indication of how to determine their cured status.
“Lunatics” were not free to move unless approved by the magistrates, who were also free to enter any house to check for lunatics and place them in the location identified for their safe accommodation. Inmates were not free to move out of those confines without certification from three medical practitioners that they were of sound mind and capable of working to support themselves. Such “deeds of manumission” had to be signed by the medical officers.
While this arrangement was the precursor to providing a mental asylum on the island, it was clearly another prison (the first being the jail) that was created within the lifetime restrictive walls of enslavement, with little visible provision for rehabilitation. Even though the law also made allowance for alternative arrangements for the care of “lunatics,” which could be entrusted to one of their friends who was willing to accept the responsibility, the fact is that it would have been extremely difficult to identify a person or people who could be considered friends of the enslaved Africans and who would be willing to take on such a responsibility.
What prompted this law? The answer lies in the era in which it was timed.
The movement for the termination of enslavement was moving ahead at full steam; at the same time, the incidence of strong resistance movements was a gathering storm over the system of enslavement. Both these developments caused the pro-slavery element to attempt to nullify abolitionists’ claims that the enslaved were cruelly treated, and demonstrate their supportive efforts.
However, the law also encompassed the system of manumission, which if unchecked, could effectively reduce the size of the enslaved population.
Both lunacy and manumission of older enslaved people were used to demonstrate care for members of these communities while protecting the wider population on the island and, in addition, the pro-slavery interest. It must also be noted that the island’s magistrates served in a number of capacities, and included plantation owners and managers, which affected their ability to be impartial in this matter.