On the sugar estates of 19th and early 20th century Trinidad, there was an established natural hierarchy which existed on almost every plantation. This stratification began immediately in the upper echelon of the labouring rank and file–right under the authority of the white manager or overseer. It was born out of the division of labour and the natural penchant for some to take precedent over others.In the pre-Emancipation days, when the Afro-ancestors of our people still laboured under the crack of the whip, the term "driver" came into being. This post had absolutely nothing to do with the piloting of a vehicle but was a shortened form of "slave driver." It was a post that carried over following the end of chattel slavery in 1834-38 and into the period of Indian indentureship. Drivers were a kind of sub-overseer and nominally were supposed to ensure that the field labour carried out the tasks that were measured out for them. These "tasks" were usually a section of the field that needed to be harvested or weeded and the assigned portion was measured out with a lengthy bamboo pole.
The driver
Drivers could often be bullies, and sorely oppressed those under their supervision with the threat of making false reports to the overseers and managers constantly being fronted. As any aficionado of Sir VS Naipaul's works would know, his comically tragic hero, Mr Biswas, spent a short time as an estate driver on the fictitious Green Vale plantation. The portrayal of the driver by Naipaul shows the mixture of fearful respect mixed with contempt with which the post was held by the workers.
The sirdar
The sirdar or headman was another rung on the estate chain of command. He was almost always an Indian whose natural leadership among his countrymen singled him out for the responsibility of liaising between the plantation's middle management and the field hands. The Sirdar was in an enviable position since through various shifty means (which did not preclude cheating the manager through false claims) he was often able to acquire much wealth. The Sirdar was often an oppressor as well, laying about with a heavy hand among his subordinates and making free with the wives of those too weak to oppose. The Sirdar was sometimes little better than a gangster with a group of thugs at his beck and call. On paydays (every other Saturday), the Sirdar and sometimes the Driver as well, would wait on the fringes of the pay yard where the labourers lined up to receive their wages, and would collect a "hand" which was either a bribe for special favours or protection money.
Technical staff
Technical workers like boilermen in the factory as well as those who operated the mechanical scales at the weighbridge were held in some esteem by the agrarian labourers. Their wages were often better than average and the highly skilled nature of their jobs earned them the respect of their neighbours. On some estates, the clerk or bookkeeper was sometimes an Indian. In these cases he was most likely a Presbyterian convert with a sound formal education from one of the many primary schools established by that body's Canadian Mission to the Indians.
The carterman
The star of the canefield society however, was the carterman. These men were in a class by themselves, and may be likened in personality to the maxi-taxi drivers of recent times–fellows who took pride in their job with a brash swagger and a colourful personality. Carters who worked for the estates earned a good living during the dry season croptime since the wage could be as high as five shillings a day. Those who possessed their own carts and draught animals were proudly independent, and outside of the cane harvest, continued to make money by doing odd jobs. In the borough of San Fernando, for instance, the constant need for road metal saw a battery of independent carters providing transportation for gravel from the quarries on Carib Street and La Pique to wherever roadworks were being done. This was almost a guaranteed source of income since the rains washed away the gravelling at a startling rate. Carters took immense pride in their animals, which could be stunning white zebu bulls, powerful black hog-cattle (water buffalo) or hardy mules.Several major transport and trucking enterprises evolved from the carters of yore. The carts , with their huge balata-spoked wheels, were kept mostly in top shape with the harness being polished to a high gloss. For sheer image, there was little to outdo the carter, perched high and proud with his reins in hand, in the canefields of days past.
