ABSTRACT
The concentration of state power in the hands of the small white minority, in particular the plantocracy, so characteristic of plural and plantation-dominated societies, was designed not only to perpetuate the social and political dominance of that minority, but also to deny the other ethnic sections political rights or the opportunities to organize themselves as corporate groups. Class status is alterable over time through mobility criteria such as educational and professional/occupational achievement, material wealth, and acculturation to the dominant norm or tradition. A dramatic change occurred, however, after the economic depression and unsuccessful labour strike of 1847-48. The successful restriction of the Creoles to the plantation belt was only the first facet of a grand design to exercise effective control over them and to reduce them to a state of economic dependence on the plantation system.
