TO WHAT EXTENT WERE DOMESTIC SLAVES TREATED BETTER THAN FIELD SLAVES?

The black woman produced

The harsh sunlight burning into their skin; the brutal hours of sweat and toil; aching muscles from the physical torment; all endured by the enslaved Africans. Field slaves were generally those Africans who as the name implies, worked on the field. Some were creole (those born in the Caribbean). There were more African women than men working on the field because it was said that the women lived longer and were already accustomed to such strenuous labour as it was what they were used to in Africa. 1 There were three levels or gangs in field work. Heavy work was carried out by those between 16 and 50. Lighter work was carried out by those between 12 and 16, the ill, pregnant women and new mothers. The final gang did the weeding and clearing fields of small items and consisted mostly of children younger than 12. Older trusted women would supervise these children. Generally, however, all field slaves were supervised by an overseer who would administer punishment by flogging to those who committed offence. There was a case where a hole was dug in the ground to fit the belly of a pregnant woman and she would lay face-down and receive flogging as punishment.2 Women were overworked and sometimes had to produce their own food or craft work

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Women and their forgotten role in Slavery, www.sandsoftimeconsultancy.com Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009

for the family and market to add to the work load. Generally, women dominated this production, following the African tradition where the women looked after the home. All of this took a great toll on the physical being of a female field slave which regular punishment did not aid. The psychological torment was no less. Even though family life was restricted and the threat of family break up was high due to the selling of children and movement of slaves between plantations irrespective of family ties, enslaved women tried their best to form families to create support for one another. This was not very successful; however, it was more successful than attempts made by domestic slaves. Sometimes men and women lived on different estates due to different work tasks making it hard to create a proper family life. The intense labour often led to miscarriages and stillbirths or sometimes the enslaved women would induce abortion so that children would not be born into slavery. Many children were born in to slavery though and were left orphaned due to early deaths of their mothers due to overwork. Overwork of women also led to the children being raised by the elderly which further degraded any chance at family life. The plantation owner did, however, encourage the enslaved women to reproduce because the children would be his property and provide labour which was especially essential when the Slave Trade ended and enslaved Africans could no longer be imported. This led to women having numerous children for different fathers, the plantation owner included. Field slaves were often raped by their owners who wanted them for irresponsible, covert sexual adventurism, although some

of the enslaved women complied because they were offered payment.3 An example of this would be Old Doll who lived on estate Elizath Newton. Newtons will had indicated that Old Doll and her family should continue to reside on the estate where they had a specially carved niche on the property. Sampson Wood, a manager of the estate after the demise of Newton claimed that the women in Old Dolls family did nothing on the plantation and William Yard, another manager on the estate, put the family to work in the field as punishment but Old Doll used her power to make the manager take back his punishment and place them back in the household to work. Old Dolls family was also fairly wealthy and even owned a few slaves of their own. It was said this wealth came from her selling her body to both white and free-colourd men. This was supported by the whitening of her offspring and diminishing connection to servitude. It is said that Old Doll became the controller by the use of her body and a few of her female family members followed her example.4 With the increase of white men pursuing the black women, black men began fighting over the white men for these women, particularly in Jamaica where there was a shortage of white women. This made white women very jealous of the black women who in turn mocked the white woman after having affairs with her husband to add insult to injury. Ironically, it is said that white women influenced the attraction of white males to black females because the white women would have the enslaved women practically raise their children from
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Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009 Black Breeding Machines, Eddie Donoghue

birth. This created a weakness for black/coloured women in the white men. Baley described that black women captivated, with ease, the hearts of English, Irish and Scotch. This enraged the white woman so as revenge she would frame the black woman so that the planter would punish her. To hide the brutality of slavery, plantation owners would spend excessive money on material things, but this would squander their profits and the overseer would make the field slaves work harder to increase profits. Some slaved were even forced to continue working after injury. The hardship faced by the field slaves was undoubtedly real and very clear for everyone to see.

The brown woman served

Domestic slaves were often creole women and many were Mulatto. These mulattos were generally the product of white males having affairs with the Negro women who worked on the plantation. This was due to a shortage of white women in the Caribbean, for example, in Jamaica the children would work with their mothers, and siblings, on the plantation.5 These brown women were specifically chosen as domestic slaves because they were deemed superior to the blacks because of their lighter skin; also the blacks had a stigma of being lazy and illiterate while the mulattos were regarded as otherwise, depending on the character of the owner. Although domestic slaves were classed as superior to the field slaves, their treatment was no better (again, depending
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Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009

on the character of the owner). Unlike the field slaves, the domestics were overseen by the plantation owners wife, or perhaps the housekeeper. Domestic slaves served as nannies, nurses, cooks, cleaners, washerwomen, hucksters, seamstresses and general labourers. They were also expected to work in the fields when there was a labour shortage like in Barbados during the end of the Slave Trade when male slaves were not easily purchased.6 Quite like the field slaves, domestic slaves were also separated from their families. In the case of Mary Prince, a domestic slave in 1788, apart from being sold numerous times, she was physically, mentally and emotionally abused for years until death claimed her. When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging us to keep a good heart. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another,7 said Mary Prince. Not only was she faced with the loss of her family but physical abuse was endured as stated by the following extract: The next morning my mistress set about instructing me in my tasks And she taught me (how can I ever forget it!) the exact difference between the rope and the whip, when applied to my naked body by her own cruel hand,8 She also went on to describe some of the work she was made to do by other owners: I was immediately sent to work in the salt water with the rest of the slaves from four o'clock in the morning till nine Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours, soon became full of

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The Caribbean Slave: A Biological Slave, Kenneth F. Kiple, 1984 The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006. 8 The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006.

dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the bone. Mary was also psychologically traumatized when she witnessed the abuse that led to the death of another domestic slave who had taught Mary to do her many jobs. When Mary had saved enough money to purchase her freedom her owners at that time withheld her freedom from her; she was lucky enough to have gotten permission to marry.9 Other domestic slaves were particularly familiar with prostitution. There was female predominance in urban areas like Bridgetown, Barbados where 58% of women were slave owners.10 Mainly white women, but also a few freed slaves, prostituted domestic slaves in port towns and made a thriving business of it although it was illegal. In a travel book, John Waller, who was touring Barbados in 1808, related how a very respectable matron advised him in a very serious manner to look out for a young Mulatto girl for his housekeeper, urging that it would greatly increase his domestic comforts and diminish his expenses.11 A British Naval Officer in 1806 indicated that a respectable white mistress had her young female slaves to prostitute themselves to those who could afford to pay. She was said to become irate if the girls did not come home impregnated.12 White women encouraged reproduction among these prostituted slaves because their children would become the property of the whites and were raised

The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006.

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Slave Populations in the British Caribbean, 1807-1834, B. W. Higman A Voyage to the West Indies, John Waller, 1820 12 Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009

like pets.13 Also, rape was not uncommon too for those domestic slaves on the plantation. White males wanted these brown women for socio-sexual relations. Phibbah, a domestic slave in Jamaica, was constantly forced into sexual relations with her master, Thistlewood, who had engaged in sexual acts with 109 slave women between 1751 and 1764. After her master died, Phibbah, like every other slave woman in 18th century Jamaica, had to cope with the constant fear of sexual molestation from other predatory white men.14 This raised jealousies among the planters wives and when the planter himself was not around to torture the slaves, the wife would exert revenge. This often led to overwork of the domestic slaves and brutal punishment at no cause of the enslaved. Baley gives account for this by saying; I will state, however, my convictions that female owners are more cruel than male; their revenge is more durable and their methods more refined, particularly towards slaves of their own sex. However, it was also said that even the female plantation owners would have sexual relations with their domestic slaves if they were lesbian. Among all the punishments faced by enslaved women, whippings were the most common. The whip used was made of plaited cow-skin. Some overseers report that it was so strong, that it could take the skin off horses back, or lay marks in a "deal board." At times women ran away to protest whippings or escape other mistreatment. Running away was looked at as a serious crime, and many slaves were punished in various ways. Some female slaves
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A. F. Fenwich (ed) The Fate of the Fenwichs: Letters to Mary Hayes, 1798-1828, 1927 Beyond Bondage: Free Women of Color in the Americas edited by David Barry Gaspar, Darlene Clark Hine

were punished so badly that they were left to die. An observer remembered "A woman lying down and groaningher left side, where she had been most whipped appeared in a most mortifying state, and almost covered with worms."15 Slave owners and overseers also assaulted enslaved women with ebony brushes, which were known to be far worse than thorn brushes. The back of one slave woman in Jamaica, flogged with such a brush, was described as being taken off, down to her heels. Another form of domestic punishment inflicted by white mistresses on enslaved women was to have the domestics kneel with their bare knees on pebbles and work that at the same time in that manner. In one graphic incident, two white sisters in Barbados were displeased at one of their female slaves: "With their own garters they tied the young womans neck and heels, and then beat her almost to death with the heels of their shoes, one of her eyes continued a long while afterward in danger of being lost.16 The female slaves misery was endless and her fate uncertain.

The white woman consumed

As Lucille Mair states, white women in the Caribbean contributed little and many benefitted shamelessly from slave labour.17 In history, black women were paid more attention to than white women which rose jealously among these white women, as well as the fact that white men in the Caribbean preferred black/coloured women for sexual
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The History of slavery and the slave trade, W.D Blake, 1862. Intro to Black Studies, Maulana Karenga, 1993. 17 A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica from 1655 to 1844, Lucille Mair

pleasure and only valued white women for their reproduction of patriarchy. This led to many white women exerting revenge in the most brutal of manners. Framing the female slaves was quite common as well as overworking them, particularly domestic slaves because the white women had more control over them than field slaves. Their spite was especially for the domestic slaves because it is they who were preferred by the white men. White women were not very many in the Caribbean (which was one of the reasons leading to white men pursuing black women) because the conditions were unfavorable. However, many unmarried white women in urban areas, like Bridgetown, Barbados, dominated the ownership and management of enterprises in the service sector such as taverns, sex-houses, slave rental services, petty shop keeping and huckstering.18 Although prostitution was illegal, white women made a thriving business for rental of black and coloured women for sexual services in port towns. White women often added to the evils of slavery and should be regarded as pro-slavery agents.

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Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009