African slaves worked on plantations owned by merchants of English and Scottish descent. It was these merchants who continued to dominate Barbados politics, even after emancipation, due to a high income restriction on voting. Only the upper 30 per cent had any voice in the democratic process. It was not until the 1930s that a movement for political rights was begun by the descendants of emancipated slaves, who started trade unions. Charles Duncan O’Neal, Clennell Wickham and the members of the Democratic League were some of the leaders of this movement. This was initially opposed by Sir Grantley Adams, who played an instrumental role in the bankruptcy and shutdown of "The Herald" newspapers, one of the movement's foremost voices. Adams would later found the Barbados Progressive League (now the Barbados Labour Party) in 1938, during the Great Depression. The Depression caused mass unemployment and strikes, and the standard of living on the island fell drastically. With the death of O’Neal and the demise of the League, Adams cemented his power, but he used this to advocate for causes that had once been his rivals, including more help for the people especially the poor.