Image: Shows some early drill operators (for inserting explosives)
Thanks to the Afro-Panamanian journalist George W. Westerman
Although the Black Barbadians ruled in numbers in those first few years after arriving in Panama between 1904 and 1908, great numbers of men from the Caribbean Islands of Guadalupe and Martinique also came by the boatloads, all contracted and guaranteed free repatriation after they had worked one year and eight months, and that, if they so desired. Other privileges included such things as free housing and meals at any of the mess halls designed for the "colored worker."
Below is an example of some of the provisions in the contracts offered to the West Indian workers:
1. Period of labor shall be 500 days.
2. The salary shall be established at 75¢ per day, the U.S equivalent in Panamanian currency.
3. Medical attention as well as unfurnished living quarters shall be provided.
4. The work day shall consist of 10 work hours, and the work week 6 days.
5. Time and a half will be paid for overtime and labor on Sundays.
6. Transportation from the island of Barbados shall be paid by the ICC (Isthmian Canal Commission), the total cost of which shall be deducted from the worker’s wages at the rate of $1 per month.
7. An earnings report shall be provided to the worker at the end of every pay period.*
Some interesting anecdotes regarding the recruitment of workers from the non-British islands include the difficulties recruiters encountered in their task on the island of Martinique, a French colony. Although eager to work they, the laborers, summarily refused to leave their island home unless “accompanied by their women….”
Then there were the problems encountered by S.W. Setton, a recruiter for the ICC, on the Danish colony of Saint Croix, where the governor of the island refused to allow his island to be used for the concentration and shipment of laborers from nearby islands. After several confrontations with Setton the governor accused him of threatening him to completely deplete all of the islands of the area of every young and able bodied man, not leaving a single young boy to even work as a messenger. Needless to say, the problem ended when Setton removed himself and his high handed ways from the area.
Another interesting situation arose in 1907 when the Versailles docked in Cristobal with 664 passengers aboard from the island of Martinique and 236 passengers from Cartagena, Colombia, all to work on the Canal project. The following morning some 400 souls passed the medical inspection before disembarking and were immediately vaccinated. The rest resoundingly refused to be vaccinated.
After it was explained to them that the entire vaccination process was simply to prevent illness, the workers insisted in their refusal saying that they had been warned by the local people that it was not a vaccination but, in reality, a mark so that they could not return to their island home. To resolve the matter the governor of Colon had to intervene drawing upon the Canal Zone police force, the captain of the Versailles, the quarantine official of Colon, and the Shipping Agent of the steamship company in question. Finally, after extensive talks trying to figure out what to do, as the men were still confined to the ship, the “rebels” as well as the entire situation were brought under control.
Figures may vary for the numbers but the more common figures were 7500 men from Martinique and Guadalupe, but for Barbados they were 21,000 men.
Many of our facts for this crucial period have been gleaned from Mr. George Westerman's extensive study, The First Antillean Negros on the Isthmus of Panama, published in Spanish.
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Images: Top: Boatload of Barbadian workers arriving in Cristobal (Colon side) 1909
Bottom: Digging scene in Gaillard "Cut" (Culebra "Cut) 1907
Once the isthmus of Panama ceased being a “white man’s graveyard” with the yellow fever epidemic brought under control and the vectors for malaria also effectively eliminated- although malaria, as stated previously, will always loom a threat should sanitary conditions be relaxed- the working environment became somewhat safer from contagion. The effort of the ICC was now refocused on the enormous construction task at hand.
The death tolls have been a polemic and, quite frankly, a questionable issue since the Americans took over the construction but officially they stand at 5,609 workers died between 1904 and 1914 bringing the total death toll to around 27,500 for the construction of the canal.* Within these deaths we have many unaccounted for- particularly West Indian deaths. Needless to say that the majority of the deaths were within the ranks of the West Indians and anyway one looks at it they died at a greatly disproportionate rate compared to there white counterparts. In later posts we will explore the other mortal dangers, aside from disease, that filled these tolls.
Although by as late as 1906 the top engineers including John Stevens were still unsure about the ultimate nature of the project at hand, whether the canal would be a “sea-level canal” or a locks canal, it did not detract from the fact that there was still a monumental digging job to be done, and the labor force to accomplish it was needed and quickly and in huge numbers.
This is where the efficient recruitment of the West Indian laborers would take on extreme importance. These workers would not only be needed for the crucial and, ultimately, rough and dangerous work in the “cuts” but they would also be employed to man the unfolding infrastructure of housing, commissaries, clubhouses, hospitals and dispensaries, etc, that the administration was anxious to provide for its gold roll workers- the comfort, convenience and safety of the silver roll was always a secondary consideration.
The recruiters, many times insistent and often times somewhat ruthless in their recruiting strategies, even intimidating public officials, were dispatched to the Caribbean islands, since in most Europeans countries they were barred or greatly hampered from their activities. The islands of Barbados and Martinique would be where recruitment would be heaviest. According to a 1907 report by W.J. Karner, chief labor distribution agent for the ICC, the numbers of West Indian laborers that were sent to the Isthmus were as follows:
1905 2,969
1906 7,017
1907 3,410 (January of 1907)
13,396 (February of 1907) **
By now, we must remember that recruitment on the island of Jamaica had been abandoned due to, as we’ve noted, the Jamaican government’s disapproval of any recruitment on their island for the “isthmian project.” Past negative experience with first, the railroad project and secondly, the French Canal project had left them reeling with displaced, unemployed and abandoned Jamaican laborers with no contractual rights to repatriation and no visible means of returning home to their island. They were nervous about another “bail” out episode where they would have to target precious public funds to rescue their citizens.
The Jamaicans, however, the “perennial” Jamaicans, still kept coming to the isthmus. Their government had left that option totally up to these adventurous individuals who wanted to try their luck in Panama. So long as they paid an exit tax of sorts (primarily a sum of money to guarantee the amount needed for their repatriation) they could go ahead and leave Jamaica bound for Panama paying their own passage- without benefit of a contract. We will see later on that many of these laborers would have considered this a mistake once their lives would take root in Panama.
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Images: Top: Stegomyia fasciata the "Yellow fever" mosquito
Today it is called Aedes aegypti
Middle: Anopheles the "Malaria" mosquito
Thanks to www.wikipedia.com
Bottom: A 1905 fumigation truck spraying ditches
www.canalmuseum.com
Dr. William C. Gorgas, the U.S. Army’s Tropical Disease Chief and a physician by profession, was by now convinced of the “mosquito theory.” Although it was persistently rejected by many Commission officials and canal administrators, Gorgas had successfully eradicated yellow fever in Havana, Cuba supported by the findings of brilliant specialists in the field. Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay, a Cuban physician and tireless researcher into the causes of yellow fever had isolated the main cause of the disease- the Stegomyia fasciata variety of mosquito. Dr. Ronald Ross, another equally brilliant and tireless English researcher and physician had been technically credited with discovering the cause of malaria- the genera Anopheles, and on his very brief visit to Panama he commented to Gorgas, “Panama…could be made an example for the entire world.”
Armed with the knowledge that the eradication of the Anopheles mosquito, and not simply the scrupulous clean up of the terminal cities of Panama and Colon and the canal construction areas, was the course to take, Gorgas became focused on putting an end to the epidemics that were crippling the progress of the great engineering project. All he needed, finally, was support – support he received from the new chief construction engineer- John Stevens.
The eradication program in Havana had taken 8 months. At Panama, however, it would take 1½ years to bring things under control, and primarily thanks to the support of John Stevens. Gorgas embarked upon a concentrated health campaign with yellow fever at the very head of his priorities. While placing construction issues on a back burner for the time being, he, with the blessing of Stevens, destined an initial targeted budget for everything he needed for the campaign. Amongst his immediate requisitions (and only the beginning) he ordered:
$90,000 Mosquito netting
120 tons of pyrethrum powder per month
300 tons of sulfur per month
300 tons of sulfur
50,000 gallons kerosene per month (for fumigation tanks)
3,000 garbage cans, 4,000 buckets, 1,000 brooms, 500 scrub brushes
Large supplies of carbolic acid, sulfur powder, wood alcohol, mercurial chloride, “common soap,” padlocks, lanterns, machetes, lawn mowers, 1200 fumigation pots or tanks (to be carried on the backs of laborers) and some 240 rat traps for the hospital alone.
A vigorous fumigation campaign was carried out in both Colon and Panama in a “house by house” effort with some high risk areas being re-fumigated several times. The fumigation brigades were thorough to say the least and they were comprised of human beings with fumigation tanks tied to their backs as well as fumigation trucks. By December of 1906, the epidemic was officially declared eradicated.
The nature of both yellow fever and malaria, however, would involve constant monitoring by health officials. Since both varieties of mosquito, Stegomyia fasciata and Anopheles, are creatures that thrive around human society and especially favor still water (stagnant water) of any kind, the human environment around the terminal cities and the “Digs” would require continued vigilance.
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“A white man’s a fool to go there (Panama) and a bigger fool to stay,” was the fearful declaration of just one of the white workers who packed up hurriedly and left behind that “God forsaken” place called Panama. He, as well as scores of white workers who’d been recruited to work on construction projects were reacting to the mortal diseases that all who ventured onto the isthmus from distant lands might succumb to. The West Indian and other Silver roll workers, of course, hardly had much choice. For the most part they would have to remain and brave the perils of disease that greeted them as they disembarked from the ships that carried them from their island homes.
It had been known since the French era that a yellow fever patient had less than a 50-50 chance of survival once he contracted the disease. As with malaria the patient, at first, would suffer fits of shivering, very high fever and an overwhelming thirst, not to mention the debilitating headaches and sharp pains in the back and legs. After bouts of uncontrollable restlessness the patient would then begin to turn a yellow hue especially in the face and eyes.
In the last stages the unfortunate patient would start to spit up mouthfuls of deep red, almost black, blood. This terrifying “black vomit” or “vómito negro” would usually be a sign that his end was near. Suddenly his body temperature would drop and his pulse would wane. Unusually calm, during his last 8 to 10 hours of his earthly life his flesh would turn very cold to the touch, and finally he would die.* Malaria, the disease that really “never went away” if strict measures were not observed, probably killed more West Indians than “yellow jack.” Since, unlike yellow fever, its range was just about everywhere and not confined to certain geographical areas, it wreaked havoc amongst the workers and filled the death tolls.
Black laborers no less than the white died of both malaria and yellow fever and with the same horrible and sudden outcome. In the beginning there was a mistaken belief on the part of ICC (Isthmian Canal Commission) administrators that the West Indians were immune to yellow fever. More resistant to yellow fever from growing up on Caribbean islands beset by various tropical fevers such as dengue, they might have acquired some resistance to this type of malady. But there was no known human immunity to malaria at the time and many deaths, recorded and unrecorded were caused by this terrifying disease.
Malaria followed, more or less the same pattern of symptoms as yellow fever, with the notable distinction that, after the incipient spells of shivering- uncontrollable shivering- and chattering teeth, the patient would then experience very high fever accompanied by an overwhelming thirst. As the fever would begin to fall off he would then break out in a drenching sweat. Often, if the patient at all survived the highly debilitating effects of this dreaded disease, the person would often be beset by a profound depression- melancholia- a feeling so widely experienced in Panama.
* Many of our facts for this dynamic period can be found in the excellent account of the construction of the Panama Canal, The Pathway Between the Seas, The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1977
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The first years of the renewed digs called for the clearing, excavating and dynamiting in the areas of the Cuts- work that other humans either avoided or were simply not capable of performing. Also, the massive and very unpleasant “clean up” task would have to be undertaken right alongside the extremely heavy work of excavation. The frequent funerals in both terminal cities and the funeral trains can attest to the existence and demise of men whose loyalty to their God and to their work would make them seem invincible at times.
As conditions of hygiene and dilapidation had not improved in the city of Panama by 1904, when the Yankee officials and technicians arrived on the isthmus in the cities of Panama and Colon, able now to take over the former areas where the French had stopped operations since 1889, they encountered a bleak and devastating scenario, not to mention an imminently dangerous one. "Colon was unspeakably dirty, swarming with naked children, ugly, dilapidated and terribly depressing," was the opinion of a very distinguished American of the times who seemed to be describing what we see of Colon and some sections of the country of Panama even today. The City of Panama was not much better. This would also be the scene encountered by the new Black arrivals- a scene they would soon be directly and largely responsible for changing.
The West Indians, although not exclusively, would make up the fumigation, trench digging, forest and grass clearing, swamp filling, street cleaning, and mosquito netting brigades. These absolutely vital tasks would not be even minimally appreciated as the months and years passed and the “Canal Zone” gradually became a safe and hospitable place to live for White as well as Black workers and residents of both the Canal Zone and the cities of Panama and Colon.
However, the mental as well as the physical tensions caused by shouldering these awesome tasks and the prevailing concern in the heads of every able bodied West Indian laborer with possibly waking up ill with fever, the chills and the incipient stages of malaria or yellow fever placed untold strains on just being a human being and working with often inhuman bosses, under inhuman conditions. In addition, the mental pressure of racial discrimination would make these laborers, which we must remember, included contracted Chinese and Hindu coolie laborers, seem callous at times, as they responded on a daily basis to all the calamities in their working midst.
We must also remember that the newly arriving contracted workers would soon, in their majority, be unskilled laborers from the Island of Barbados. The Barbadians, who in the common vernacular would become known as the "Bayjans" amongst the other West Indians, would be the other readily identifiable group of West Indians arriving during this crucial era of construction. Unlike the Jamaicans, however, who were usually hired locally as the Yankee recruiters had been barred from recruiting them in Jamaica since the disastrous French bankruptcy period, the Barbadians were being offered guaranteed free repatriation once their contracts were up.
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An early post card image of the
Old (Gold) Commissary at Las Cascadas (today under water)
Image thanks to: www.czimages.com
This “Mayflower attitude” affected the black Americans who were then also separated from their white counterparts, and would early on live with the West Indians in the separated townships reserved for black employees. We must note that in 1906 when the Gold-to-Silver demotions began and the West Indians were expelled from the Gold Roll, the black Americans remained there for a short time.
However, as the segregationist policies of the Canal administration became more defined and fewer U.S. blacks were recruited, they began offering them a “special” Silver category in which they could claim sick and home leave but could not access Gold housing, commissaries and clubhouses. This virtually eliminated the American blacks from the Gold roll. By 1928 it was documented that only 23 U.S. Blacks were employed on the Canal Zone and “all but a few were on the Silver roll.”*
During those earlier years when construction was at its crucial stages the West Indians, who were key employees, had to, of necessity, be readily available for work thereby they had to live nearby. It is during these early years that we also see the birth of the black Canal Zone Townships with their Silver “aspects and attitude.” Quite understandably these townships would begin springing up around the Silver Commissaries, which, for them, was virtually the only place to shop.
Shopping at the Commissaries, the Canal’s Company Stores, which were gigantic complexes of variety shopping, some of the first of their kind in the world, then became one of the main activities for the newly arriving black and white housewives. The Commissary for both the Gold and Silver Roll was an “experience,” to say the least, as they were stocked with everything that a working person could imagine and desire.
The Commissaries, much as emporiums, sold food both fresh and preserved, dry goods, household hardware, gifts, over-the-counter-medications, toys, some ready made clothing (especially work clothes),under wear, shoes, postcards and many other items. They were known for the high quality of their goods as well as the availability year round of their merchandise.
This aspect, in a backward Central American nation such as Panama where stores and, above all, food stores were none existent, was extremely appealing to the newly arriving workers. Barred from shopping at the Gold roll commissaries, later on Silver roll commissaries were built and, although not as well stocked as their gold counterparts, they nevertheless attempted to provide the Silver people with the best of what they had to offer.
New to such modern trappings, both white and black customers could arrive at clean, well lighted surroundings with smooth paved areas around the shopping complexes. Black cashiers were ever ready, respectful and cheerful to assist in check out and there were always departmental clerks in attendance to provide speedy and high quality service. Security in especially the Silver commissaries was not overlooked although it was focused on preserving the idea of white domination. Store detectives and police were an ever present show of white control.
*"Black Labor on a White Canal- Panama 1904-1981" by Michael L. Conniff, The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985.
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Images: above: An early photo
of the construction
of the Panama Canal
Administration Building
www.czimages.com
below: President William Howard Taft
responsible for the "Nationality Restriction"
www.wikipedia.com
For the Silver roll, whether they were West Indian or Black American citizens, every aspect of their lives would be segregated and generally inferior in quality to that offered to the members of the favored Gold roll workers. The separate housing areas then would become small cities that were also kept apart. Thus, all these rules and policies had started becoming a reality as soon as the army of West Indian Blacks had given their all to secure and clean most of the area, making Panama liveable for human habitation.
The following step-up campaign for the administration was a movement in the recruiting process aimed at convincing more whites among the American working class that they could survive, and survive quite comfortably, in Panama. That effort brought on a marked separation in the class structure of the Canal Zone as more and more whites arrived. All white Americans recruited from then on were to be classified as skilled labor, which was synonymous with being Gold paid or "Gold roll" workers.
Then the true character of what was to be a real "American" for all the other peoples and races of the world would find its full expression during this time. By 1908 race or color had become the main criteria for recruitment and administration on the “Zone.” In a memo between two canal administrators the character of the system couldn’t be more defined: “It is the policy of the Commission to keep employees who are undoubtedly black or belong to mixed races on the Silver rolls.”*
It was also in 1908 that the gold and silver distinctions began to be rigorously enforced in public facilities thereby implanting the Jim Crow system of segregation more fully.
For the brave and stalwart black workers who had been the precursors and the backbone of all the rugged preparations of the Canal construction before this new era of demarcation of the class structure began, the drastic changes that would soon follow would make theirs a totally depressing experience. Soon they would see their expectations for any professional advancement stymied.
In 1908 President William Howard Taft directed an executive order to apply the “nationality test” or restriction to all hiring on the Canal Zone. Only American nationals would be hired for the union positions and almost exclusively white Americans. This measure was basically aimed at offsetting or preventing any form of competition for unionised (white) workers from the West Indian and European skilled workers. It also, as we will soon discover, transformed Panamanian nationals into “aliens” on the Zone, even though Panama was a sovereign nation.
The pressure was on in the Zone to stop hiring any blacks as engineers on the rail road. By 1909 the once plentiful skilled Jamaican workers and U.S. Blacks who had been acting as “engineers of any kind, yard masters, hostlers, boat pilots, machinists, carpenters, wiremen,”* division engineers and even postal clerks, were barred from such positions in the future.
Despite objections from even the white department heads who valued their very competent and skilled black workers, the massive demotions in the thousands began. Of this period it has been said, “It was one of the most vicious episodes in canal history, remembered and resented deeply by the West Indians for years afterwards.”*
*”Black Labor on a White Canal- Panama, 1904-1981” by Michael L. Conniff, University of Pittsburg Press, 1985.
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By now you may be wondering at all my references to the Silver Roll and the Silver People. Established by the Canal authorities in 1904, the Gold and Silver Roll system, the imported version of “Jim Crow,” or the racially segregated system of the United States, became the foundation for Panama Canal Zone society and economy until it was phased out in the 1960’s.
In basic terms the white people, specifically American white people, who were brought in to work on the construction of the canal and in its administration comprised the Gold Roll. The West Indian labor force, and to a lesser degree, some members of other races, the Chinese, the Hindus, native Panamanians and some Europeans, were classed together as the Silver Roll. This separation of the races would govern every aspect of life on the Canal Zone for most of the history of its existence.
For a long time before the actual digging in the canal resumed, since the days of the building of the railroad and the during French period, the system was adopted from the railroad’s policy of different payrolls and the separation of the races soon became an implanted phenomenon. By the time the second large wave of West Indians arrived in the first decade of the turn of the twentieth century, the separation of the races was a practiced and established institution.
What became known as the Gold and Silver Roll system in the Panama Canal Zone was more than just a pay system designed to maintain a more privileged class of white semi-skilled and skilled workers happy with their stay in Panama. The Gold Roll, paid in American gold dollars, reflecting a somewhat higher pay scale than in the U.S., at first was comprised of chiefly white American employees brought in from the United States mainland. Before 1908, however, the Gold Roll did include West Indians, Black Americans, Panamanian nationals and assorted Europeans, such as Spaniards. This group of non-white or non-American Gold roll had been primarily hired for their high level of skill and training. In fact, by 1906 there were over 100 skilled blacks, both West Indian and Black American, on the Gold roll.
The Gold Roll enjoyed all of the privileges and amenities that the system had to offer. They enjoyed, of course, much higher pay, better and more spacious housing facilities for families, excellent and well equipped schools for their children, better nutrition, better health care, almost free entertainment and recreational facilities and a generally better quality of life. Their (the Gold Roll) comfort and satisfaction were central factors in most decisions made by the Canal administrators.
Other benefits that became very important draws in the recruitment process were sick leave and “home” leave, a privilege that included paid return passage back to their home state for a holiday while their job was preserved for them on the zone. Although some blacks and other non-American members of the Gold roll were entitled to the “privileges” of this special group of people, they were, nevertheless placed at a lower pay scale and denied certain benefits, particularly, sick and home leave.
By 1908, however, an important and very troubling change would come to further define the Gold and Silver Roll system in the form of the nationality “test” or distinction.*
*Some of our facts are based on the excellent book Black Labor on a White Canal- Panama, 1904-1914, by Michael L. Conniff; published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985.
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Image: Shows some early drill operators (for inserting explosives)
