Slave Life in The Bahamas

On the Plantation

• 1st January, 1831 to 31st December, 1832 There

were no sugar plantations in The Bahamas.
Cotton plantations were more usual.
• It was also customary to grow other crops to
provide food for the slaves. These included
corn, pumpkin, peas, beans etc
• Little is known about actual slave plantations in
The Bahamas. The only original account comes
from Farquharson’s journal written from
 Farquharson’s Estate

• The plantation was said to be about 2000

acres.
• The whites lived in the main house or the
dwelling house
• The slave quarters were located about
800 feet northwest of the main house.
The houses were built in a row. Each
house was enclosed by a stone wall
• At the back of each slave house was a
garden and a dumping ground.
• The houses were built of square dry rocks,
some had mortar. The roofs were
probably thatched.
• Most of the slave houses were self
contained. They had either a fire place or
raised cooking areas in a corner of the
house.
• As stated previously, gardens were at the back
of the houses and there were animal pens as
well.
• It appears as if single families lived in the
houses. Families lived near to each other and
this probably accounts for closeness and the
fostering of kinship patterns.
• They were far enough from the whites to make
their own entertainment, telling old stories,
dancing, singing and of course, cooking their
own food.
 Crops

• The chief crop was guinea corn, known as

sorghum. This was a subsistence crop grown as
food for the slaves.
• Cotton was the chief commercial crop but by
1831 it had seriously declined.
• Pigeon peas and Indian corn were next in
importance.
• Other crops grown on the plantation were red or
cow peas, black-eye peas, yams, sweet
potatoes, snap beans, castor oil, cabbage and
pumpkins.
 Stock

• A quantity of stock was raised on the plantation

and was shipped periodically to Nassau. The
stock included sheep, pigs, cattle and chickens.
• The plantation was fairly self-sufficient. Mules
and horses were bred for transport.
• The sea yielded salt, fish, conch and turtles.
• Thatch was collected from the woods for the
slave houses. Lignum-vitae (hard wood) was
also gathered and exported.
• Lime was made from rock and the beach
provided the sand to make the mortar to build
and plaster the houses of the plantation owner.
• Castor oil was also made on the plantation.
• The slaves made use of bush medicine growing
around their slave huts, for e.g. catnip was
grown as a cure for the common cold.
• In fact, the plantation relied on few imports.
 Tasks on the plantation
• The first and very important job was to prepare
the new land for planting. Weeds and bush had
to be cut, heaped and burnt. The “slash and
burn” method of clearing the land was utilized.
• After some time, crops were planted and later
manured. Crops were constantly thinned.
Cotton was planted in February.
• The slaves picked the cotton by hand or it was
ginned to separate the wool from the seed.
• Besides planting, tending and harvesting food
crops, the animals had to be cared for. Horses
had to be groomed and watered.
• Walls and fences were made and mended to
prevent cattle from straying.
• The slaves also had to build the houses for their
Master, his family and for themselves. Slaves
collected the material, burnt the lime and
transported sand from the beach to build the
walls.
• Slaves also built pathways and roads in order to
connect the plantation with other plantations and
to the harbour, the lake and the main road. The
roads which were not tarred, had to be
constantly cut back and cleaned.
• Slaves also raked salt. Salt forms naturally in
certain salt water ponds. It was needed for
cooking and curing meat and fish.
• Fishing was probably one of the more pleasant
tasks for the slaves. Fish, conch and turtles
were plentiful.
 Entertainment and Customs

• Unfortunately, because there is no recorded

documentation of slaves themselves, certain
areas of slaves’ lives remain uncertain.
• African survivals today make us believe that
slaves entertained themselves with music,
dance, story-telling, playing African games and
enjoying a religious life different to that of their
masters.
• Slaves enjoyed both religious and secular music.
According to Clement Bethel (in his study on
Bahamian music) the secular music with its
heavy emphasis on drumming and dancing,
originated in Africa.
• Probably the most popular form of recreation for
the slaves was the ring dance which was played
to the sound of the goat skin drum.
• There were three types of ring dances: the fire
dance, the jumping dance and the ring play.
• Another popular form of entertainment was story
telling. The tradition of folk-tales which have
been handed down from generation to
generation is an African survival.
• The folklore usually concerned animals which,
personified, often had thrilling adventures.
• Some African foods such as accara, foo-foo
survived slavery. The accara, made from black-
eye peas, was a very popular dish.
• The slaves had religious customs different to
those of their white masters. Their music and
their form of worship was alien to that of the
whites. The slaves identified with the early
Baptist and Methodist Missionaries who were
originally black.
• Death rites also originated in Africa. Death is
considered a community affair.
• Wakes were held from settlement to settlement.
These were usually held the night before the
funeral, with members singing anthems, drinking
coffee, rum, and eating johnny cake
• Sometimes, family members and friends
gathered at the house of the dying person before
death occurred. They would then sin the dying
person “into glory.”
• The belief in Obeah, a combination of
superstition, medicine and worship, most
certainly originated in Africa.
• Wherever African slaves settled, African
religious beliefs, healings and
superstitions are still in evidence today.
 Slave Punishments
• There is evidence of extreme cruelty and
brutality inflicted on slaves in The Bahamas.
Before the first quarter of the nineteenth century,
slave owners could punish slaves as they
pleased.
• Slaves were considered chattel- property and
were punished for a variety of things.
• Early slave laws laid down that slaves could be
punished for running away, wandering abroad
without a pass, having firearms, and assembling
in groups greater than six,
• There were heavy penalties for slaves
committing crimes. For striking a white person,
slaves were subject to whipping, mutilation and
even death.
• There was little protection for the slave. A slave
in The Bahamas in 1784 could suffer death for
burglary and rape. He would be whipped if
caught selling liquor or shooting dice.
• Whipping was the most common form of
punishment.
Slave resistance in The Bahamas
• Although slaves in the British West Indies
failed to overthrow their masters as the
slaves did in St. Domingue (Haiti) in 1804,
their acts of resistance in the form of
revolts, played a role in initiating
emancipation.
• Like the other British colonies, The
Bahamas experienced both day-to-day
resistance and also collective violence.
• The slaves on Farquharson’s plantation
frequently were sick and sometimes feigned
illness.
• Some slaves defied the slave owners. As early
as 1787, Governor Dunmore complained that a
number of negroes “had for some time not only
absented themselves from their owners, but had
plundered and committed outrages upon the
inhabitants of New Providence and some of the
other islands.”
Year # of Slaves Island Nature of
Revolt
1829 44 Exuma Objection to
being moved
1831 75 Eleuthera Lack of food
and clothing
1831 7 Cat Island In sympathy of
slave who was
hung
1832 unknown New Protesting
Providence treatment of
slaves
1834 100-200 Exuma Shortage of
food