Having a lot slaves, the owners were having a hard time controlling their slaves so they created

methods to help in controlling them, this included whippings, slave laws called slave codes, the
use of religion, as well as constant punishment and intimidation. These methods were designed
to control slaves and keep them working. None of them were completely successful, but they
help explain why slavery lasted for a long time. There were many reasons why the British
planters and these were, the slaves did not accept slavery as a permanent way of life so in an
effort to resist they started revolting, the enslaved population began outnumber the population of
the white planters, the planters lived in constant fear of uprising or revolts among the slaves, the
planters feared losing their lives, livestock, families, and having their properties destroyed.

As slaves, many rebelled, more ran away, and most often slowed down on the job, avoided work,
deliberately broke tools, or pretended not to understand commands, enslaved people everywhere
resisted their exploitation and attempted to gain freedom. They fully understood that rebellions
would bring about massive retaliation from white people and therefore had little chance of
success. Even so, rebellions occurred frequently. These forms of slave resistance presented a real
problem and ever presented problems for the planters/masters. The best way to manage slaves
was often too brought up by the slave owners so they created slave control methods in a sense of
controlling over populated and rebellious slaves and keep them under control to a subservient
position in society.

The first method they used was psychological control where they told the slaves that they were:
simpleminded, impolite and uncivilized slaves who were meant to be used. This caused the
slaves to lose the confidence they had and their self-worth. The second method was social
control, these were ways used to manipulate the slave groups, making them divide themselves up
and conflict would arise between them, this included assigning a level of status which made the
slaves fight to be seen as better in the planter’s eyes. The third method was economic control,
these were ways used by the planters to limit the amount of money the slaves had thus
controlling and made them more consistent in their work. The planters provided all the food,
shelter and clothing given to the slaves which in return made the slaves more dependent on the
owners, this made the slaves having to work twice as hard and long which gave them little time
to provide food for their families and limited amount to sell in the market.

The slaves could not legally own any land and property, they could not sell sugar can. Another
method they used was physical control, this method was used in case the other methods failed
they would resort to physical punishment given to slaves who were hard to control. Examples of
physical control would be torturing the slaves by stripping them then proceed to beating or
humiliating them by leaving them out in public and ridiculing them along with the other slaves.
These actions were often used to discourage the slaves and their disobedience and convince the
slaves to accept the planter’s orders and rules. But physical abuse alone could not keep the
lucrative plantations of the British Caribbean productive. It is impossible to get large groups of
people to perform sustained labor effectively and consistently for years on end simply through
doling out pain and raw terror. Even the most brutal of slaveholders were therefore compelled to
develop a sophisticated system of management that exploited the most human aspirations and
fears of the people they dominated.

Enslaved people greatly outnumbered free whites in the British Caribbean, with ratios as high as
100 to one on some plantations. To effectively manage such large groups, slaveholders divided
them and encouraged a social hierarchy among the slaves. Skilled men at the top of this
hierarchy were materially better-off and responsible for enforcing discipline among the other
slaves. Drivers were the most important members of this enslaved elite and were essential to
effective plantation management.