ye Trade

' European merchants, banks, etc. invested capital for ventures and govefirments had an
active role in the commercial aspects of the Trade founding by charter Joint Stock
corupanies ex. The Royal A,frican company, the company of senegal and the Dutch
West India Company which were given a monopoly to trade slaves for goods for specific
periods, The were responsible lbr defending slave forts in Africa and could capture rival
powers' merchandise.

West Africa was integral, as such each power built diftbrent forts along the coast ex.
Elmina. These were usecl to store goods from Europe for trading purposes and to house
African future slaves. 'fhese forts were also responsible lor negotiating with chiefs and
emissaries acting on behalf of their states.

Estirnates put the amount of Afiicans kidnappecl at 15 million. Porfuguese were active
mainly the Gold Coast and eventually to Angola. The Dutch in the Slave, Ivory and. Gold
Coasts with smaller settlements. France in Benin and Senegal. Wherever a country settled
it had its own relations within the existing system to safeguard their respective interests.

Initially the Europeans slave raided to get Africans. Later they had to go deeper inland
and form alliances with African groups wiiling to capture and sell fellow Africans.
They
inevitably became involved into domestic mafters of Kingdoms providing guns and
ammunition to their allies.

Once slave ships left the African Coast they began the Midclle Passage across the Atlantic
to the Caribbean and N. America. fhe conclitions on the slaver \,vere so bad that many
died from suffocation due to lack of space per captive. The mbre a slaver couid carry the
higher the profit and if therc was a cap on fatalities per tr:ip more slaves were simple
carried to caxcel it out.

' \[rtren Africans wcre soid they vvere sold in exchange of strgar, rum and molasses and
headed back to ports in Europe such as Loncion, Aprsterdam and Bor.deaux, This was the
finai leg of the complex triangular trad.e.
.
Effects of the Slave Trade

' l"he Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was the single most important process which impacted
thc Caribbcan. It changed pre-existing C)aibbean societies inro slave societies and hacl a
m),riad of other eI'lbcts:

1' The slave trade was directiy tied to the need for lakroul therefore large plantation
econonties tended to have large Aliican populations ex. English. French and Dutch

2. The Spanish hou'ever slou'ly introcluced slaves to plantations in Cuba, Puerto Rico and
Santo Domingo so less Africans initialil'resided. Hou.evcr in the lare 19'i'century
Africans were being irnported after British. Dr,itch and French slar..,ery & its trade rvere
aboiished.

a
The trades in Britain ended in 180,1, The Netherlands in i814 and France in 18,I8.
Slaverv itself was abolishecl in 1834 for the Britisir, in France ln tg+S and in Holland in
1853, Cuba abolished finally in 1886.

4. Though slavery ended in 1886 in l-atin Anrerica lllack populations are no rnajority and
only comprise 12% in most countries. In Puerto Rico however most are mixed race or
 O *::u.rOfv.gtOn<f nt'X'al"n
{t,* d lro- P,'vr, eA q cla s pu,e L rr.+rv1i3r,o.r'(t t^rit/-, Gt L-Qx*m'tn
-
whichthey share a$ emouonal arrElcnmenl'

6. We must not forget that the Caribbean's African diaspora had distinct ethnic differences'
Caribbean many
The French traded a lot of Dahomey, the Cubans Bantu and the eatern
Ibo and Koromanti

Migration of Indentured Labourers

! After siavery was abolished in 1834 many of'the smaller territories
such as Antigua
period of Apprenticeship
became free overnight while others went through a compulsory
indentureship'
until 1g3g. The new issue of prices of labour became major and influenced
. Indentureship was an old concept reintroduced to solve labour
probiems in the Caribbean

rvhere indentured servants agreed to enter into a contract

to rvork in the Caribbean for a
period of 5-7 or 10 years for rhinimum wages, their passage
would be paid for with the
option to return to their country of origin once the period of
time was cver or receiving a
grant of land in the new territorY'

. both 'frinidad and

India proved to be the most satisfactory labour sout:ae and in 1845
Jarraica, following British Guiana began importing indentured labour'

. While irnmigrants came essentially to all Caribbean countries in small

numbers in
had gone to
Trinidad and British Guiana were sustained & large where by 1917 239,000
British Guiana, 144,000 to Trinidad and 36,000 to Jamaica.

. and other parts of

The migrants came from mainly Northem lndia, Bengal, Uttar Pradesh
India and were willing to work for the small wages offered'

. Africans did not trust people who were willing to work for such small
lvages which

hindered efforts at wage bargaining

Effects of Immigration

. IMPACT OF IMMIGMTION INTO TI{E BEGION.

' Opened the Caribbean to Europe' Africa and Asia

. Inroduction ofnew technologies- processing ofsugar cane

New systems of govern-ment

wall, Georgian
Nerv architectural style using ditferent building materials: Spanish

New languages: Spanish, English, Dutch, French

dishes, pakchoi'
New crops/dishes; sugar cane. bananas, citrus, rice, nrangos, ctlIry
tamarind, mango, Chinese dishes, buns. etc

New reli gi ous belie.fls : Chri stian ity, Flinduis rn, Musiirn

Adequate and reliable(although inetficient) use of labourforce-rvhichmaintain

monoculttueproducti on
r!lv,*!"
[rurr'; "' -- L--'#,|ff"--ql*"Jts
'!r o} P3$lqu+uuJ
B#t-,,1d"1Ttpols{3nq'Hutuue3lues
I{lao6 pe}?lnulus '
erst lEclporu /tllercedso socl^'res lelcos Jo"

JoJ &iiuepl Jo ssol e

pesn€) '
- pue s]usriltu
arnlcruls ,{lluieJ paua]€eJq]
€ popoJJ
eJnllnc osreAlp rppr 'tolcos l?ic?J-Illnu
/Y\aN
- uonsnpo'IciJo ulalsfs
(rlqsemruenulry 'fue't Is)
 Ine rrves t-,r ra*rvsre
.SlaveryshapedthelivesofAfricansprimarilybytheattemptsitmadetodehumanizethe
African.
paid for
ochattsl' or property owned by the Europeans who had
. Africans wers legalded as
them.
social and cultural ties
. attempt at dehumanization was done by suppressing the
This
whichhelpedthemtoforrnanidentityandsenseofbelonging.

,r exarnple:
to minimize
, Africans from different racial groups for the plantation
choosing on fear of Africans being
and bonds of f<insrrip Uti"tto them based
communication
together.
them from practicing their
religions and
. Giving them European names and forbidding
was
,o *y
,"*uiance of famiiy life as well as solidarity and iderrtity
customs
discouraged'

.Meetingoutharshphysicalpunishmentincludingtorfweanddealhastosubmitthemto
will of the EuroPeans
prevent a conlmon identity
. Africans against each other to
Playing out different gloups of
and to promote European
values and ways of life'

.Rigidlystratiffingthesocietybasedonpigrnent,relegatingblackstothlbottomand them
whites at the top; dehum anrzing--
Jh*u't"i'tl" *"t* the ones identiffing
t*f'f
as ProPertY

The Plantation SYstem

.{systemofproductionEuropearrsusedintheircolonialempireswheretheybroug}t
their homelands'
rir" *a *ort on plantations far from
different **;;;;;lo
"Groupswereencouragedtodistrusteachotherandwereencouragedtoiookonthe
EuroPeans as suPerior
with slavery as a total inltitut]on the plantation
. Labour was coloured and when
coupled

becameasophisticatedeconomicrnechani***hi,hdominatedthecultrrrearrdsocietyof
European economy'
the Caribbean integrating it into
the raw materials for the
. its labour supply and provided
Relied on the Atiarrtic trade for England'
lsugar, ruln' *d *olu'ues for the port cities of
third leg of the triangular trade
France and Holland'
strength of Europe
. the basis for the growing manufacturing and industrial
Provided
invested European capital)
(plantations were formed througtr

.Wassovaluablethatin165iBritaininstitutedtheNavigationLawswherebyonly nations from getting a

courd fiade with English colonies - pr"r"r,ting olher
English ships with
ciuu** France followed ig 1664
plantations.
share of trade arsing from
Her
similar laws
 uorlsnpordJo rus$ds orliJo sued ourBceq d$JoI ;-o,{Boloepr uu pue ure8
sanlufi
ciluouoca ro3 eidosd pu€ lueutuorllua pue eldoed oIDJo uollulloldxo Eutssells

'u€runqqns se pepre8e.t aroil oliJour lgord oql JoJ oq'l.r

ueltlodo;1eru
eldoed go luoulalglsuo otil uo pepuedop t{1iuo,^6. I{cns Jo sls?q eI{J "ft-lunoc
oqi o1 pelur.r1ude.i srgo.rd e8nq Sursseru€ uo stseqdrue uB I{}$\ sastrd;e1ue 1sr1e1tde3;o
y€.?6q-,1elTtr u€oqqlr?J otll ol uollsnpordSo suieS'{slouodllli riuedomg
Pl9l-,ql
"OUXtlt*S,gf
Chief characteristics:
. Monocropping
. E.<port oriented

. Foreign owned
. BureaucraticallYorganized

. reliance on mefopolitan countries

, Verlical integraiion

. Patterned relationship olpeople to ' Classi-fied peopie into differcnt the

land and determinod how the land statuses togcther with formal people

iive on definition ofthe

with sne between lhem relationshiP another

. Gave rise to peasantry wo

. Itwas both a social and an

experience in the region todaY- economic system

The advantages ofthe plantation system:

. re€illax and efficient production,
. plauring for depreciation

. uniformly high qualitY Produots,

. scientific research and

Indentureship
. Indentureship has been described as a 'new slavery although the Indian
and Chinese
and religions'
inrmigrants weren't defined as chatlel and could practice their own customs
store
They were paid extremely 1ow wages and were always in debt to the company
facilities'
where they were coerced to buy goods with substandard iiving and sanitation

. They vrere not allowed to move around freely and if caught some distance
from the
plantation they could be flogged, charged with vagrancy and
jailed. If they atlempted to
to work'
run away they were hunted down charged with breach of contract and returned
and suffered
They were charged with exorbitant fines & many died from malnutrition
from malaria, Yaws and dYsenterY.

. As a system of production, indentureshrlp was very much related to

African plantation
society.

, The socio-economic influences of the plantation pervaded the society

though some
Africans moved away'

. They now occupied the lowest social stratum and were also discouraged
from interacting
with the Africans to continue disunity arnong iabourers.

. However, times had changed. Towards the end of the 19th century
Caribbean plantations
silgar was under
were no longer as important to Europe had globat empires and the
Eventually the
competition from other larger sugar producers such as Braa|and Cuba'
nationalist Indian movement brought pressure ofl the British to
discontinue immigration
ended Indian
due to dissatisfaction of the trsaftnent of lndians so the British
indentureship inlglT (a similar situation happened in China were
it ended in 1885)

,
t
l(eslstance

Caribbean people have ahva,vs sought ways and means of resisting the
harsh conditions
under u,hich they existed.

They resisted in hi o ways

. 1) active resistance 2) passive resistance

Active resistance included; riots, rebellions, revolutions, development

of peasant groups.