Free Villages
With full freedom from slavery and apprenticeship in 1838, there was the desire among some blacks for personal liberty and land of their own. This desire was heightened by the harsh treatment meted out to the ex-slaves by the planters. In many cases, the planters paid the slaves low wages and charged them high rental fees, which sometimes led to eviction from plantation dwellings. It was soon realised that freedom would have little meaning as long as planters controlled both the housing and labour of the ex-slaves. Free villages emerged as a solution to this problem. Free villages were townships established during the post-emancipation period. Their development was both undirected and systematic. In the first case, individual ex-slaves either bought random sections of wasteland subdivided for that purpose by planters who needed quick capital; or obtained lots from planters who abandoned their properties with the hope of recovering some of their losses. In the second case, free villages were established under well-defined leadership, which came from the Non-Conformist missionaries. These missionaries came from the Baptist, Moravian, Presbyterian and Methodist denominations. They bought land, which they sold in small lots to their congregation. |
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