The Colonial Franchise, 1664-1865

• Author: Trevor Munroe/Arnold Bertram
• Profession: Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, political scientist, labour activist and politician, is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of the West Indies, Mona/Distinguished commentator on Jamaican Social History and Political Development is a former Legislator in both houses of the Jamaican Parliament and a former Minister of ...
• Pages: 3-43

The Colonial Franchise: 1664–1865 / 3

The Journey to Adult Suffrage: An Overview

For nearly two centuries, beginning with the first elections for the

Assembly in 1664, a handful of British planters and their attorneys

maintained an exclusive monopoly of the franchise and the legislature in

Jamaica. Even after the Franchise Act of 1831, which granted the right

to vote to coloured and black persons of free condition, the white planter

class was still able to exploit the division between blacks and coloureds,

as well as the carefully nurtured sense of inferiority among the black

slave population, to maintain their monopoly. Despite the increasing

numerical superiority of the non-white electorate, the planter/merchant

class successfully resisted every attempt at democratization until the

Labour Rebellion of 1938 opened the way for Universal Adult Suffrage.

The factors which contributed to the white planter/merchant class

maintaining its hegemony need to be recalled. First were the deeply

rooted hostilities and mistrust among the non-white population, which

were certainly manifested in the consistent brown opposition to black

political aspirations. Whereas the support of black voters ensured the

election of some 13 brown candidates on the limited colonial franchise

between 1831 and 1844, not one black assemblyman was elected during

that same period. When the first black man, Edward Vickars, entered

the Assembly in 1847, it was due more to the support of the Baptist

missionaries than to any reciprocal support from brown politicians.

In addition to white manipulation and brown snobbery, there was

The Colonial Franchise,

1664–1865

Chapter 1

4 / The Journey to Adult Suffrage

also the lack of confidence among the ex-slaves in electing one of their

own. Hence, even when Representative Government returned in 1884,

with an expanded franchise which gave African-Jamaicans a clear

majority of the electorate, a black man was not elected to the Legislative

Council until 1899. Robert Love, the man acknowledged by Marcus

Garvey himself as his mentor, would observe, ‘If the Jamaican Negro

desires to know why it is that he has so much trouble, so many sorrows,

and so many wants and woes just tell him that it is because he repudiates

and opposes his own people.’1

There is also the view that apathy among blacks contributed to their

political marginalization. The difference between the numerical strength

of black voters and their actual level of participation would tend to

validate this view. However, one also has to recognize that blacks had

little to gain by participating in a crown colonial legislature, which had

no influence on imperial decision making.

The history of the franchise clearly needs to be even more thoroughly

researched, documented and understood by academics, policy makers

and voters alike. For the same racial and social divisions, the same apathy

and the same lack of confidence which undermined progress then,

continue to frustrate, admittedly to a lesser extent, all plans and strategies

for national development to this day. We cannot remain ignorant of our

historical traditions without impeding our progress.

Jamaica’s history of subordination and racial oppression began with

the arrival of the Europeans at the end of the fifteenth century. It was

further to their economic interest that different racial groups were

brought under subjection, and incorporated into the labour regime to

perform varied economic roles. It was in the service of the European

economic interest that the indigenous Indian population was decimated,

and Africans brought forcibly from their continent to provide slave

labour. It was to legitimize this racial exploitation of labour that an

ideology based on racism was generated, which over time made the terms

‘Negro’ and ‘slave’ interchangeable.

As Norman Girvan points out, the primary objective of this ideology

was to depreciate the cultural and physical attributes of the enslaved

race.

The Colonial Franchise: 1664–1865 / 5

African speech, religion, mannerisms and indeed all institutional

forms were systematically denigrated as constituting marks of

savagery and cultural inferiority … and extended to the physical

genetic and biological attributes of black people. The very colour

of the African skin was held to be the first and lasting badge of

his inferiority; as were the characteristics of his mouth, nose and

hair texture. The desired consequence of extending the ideology

of racism from cultural to physical attributes was to ensure that

the African, whatever his degree of success in assimilating white

culture, was permanently imprisoned in his status as a slave

inasmuch as he was permanently imprisoned in his black skin.2

Plantation slavery systematically created and legalized three separate

castes, differentiated by colour as well as their position in the economic

structure. Robotham argues that this legal separation of whites, coloureds

and blacks created the basis for ‘a notoriously profligate, racist, Creole

plantation culture . . . which has left its terrible stain on the country to

this day, and remains a chief feature of the heritage … and a major

obstacle to the progress of the country.’ 3

The effects were all-pervading. On the eve of Jamaica’s independence

in 1962 — the first British colony in the Caribbean to achieve this

milestone — it required a militant regional campaign to secure the

appointment of a black man, Frank Worrell, as captain of the West Indies

Cricket team. While everyone conceded that his experience, expertise

and capacity made him the best man for the job, his appointment would

have established a precedent of black leadership in the international

arena. Even a century after the abolition of slavery, such a concession

by the white ruling class was still considered unthinkable. In the heat of

that campaign C.L.R. James issued the following reminder as to the

origins of Caribbean society, which is worth quoting in full.

The Negroid population of the West Indies is composed of a

large percentage of actually black people and about fifteen or

twenty percent of people who are a varying combination of white