MODULE 1 – CARIBBEAN SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Question 1

Specific Objectives: 2 Content: (c)

The colonizers employed different systems of production in the Caribbean

as a means of increasing production and wealth. For any TWO of the
following systems of production, describe TWO ways in which each system
contributed to oppression of the peoples of the Caribbean:

• Encomienda
• Slavery
• Indentureship

Knowledge and Comprehension [7 marks]

• Colonialism Forced labour

• Racism oppression
• Spanish Colonialism European colonisation
• British Colonialism logwood & mahogany industries
• French Colonialism Starvation
• Plantation (model) Chattels
• Colonial products Stratification among slaves
• Christianity Harsh punishment (overwork)
• Indigenous people (Taino) Vagrancy laws
• Encomienda insanitary living conditions
• Repartimiento Contract labour
• Encomondero Genocide
• Cultural change (religion, language, lifestyle etc.)
• Slavery Displacement
• Apprenticeship Acculturation
• Indentured servants (Indians, Chinese, Madeirans/Portuguese)
• Indian Indentureship Enculturation
• Arkatia Bond servants
• Separation of families and tribal groups Loss of identity
• Spread of European Diseases Sexual exploitation
• Social and economic abuse (Indebtedness to the Planters ‘stores,
low wages)
• Destruction of Indigenous agricultural systems
• Introduction of invasive plants and animals
• Destruction of the oppressed political systems
• White indentureship/bond servants
• British, Irish, Welsh, Scottish
• Javanese, Syrians, Lebansese,
• Germans
• Contracted Africans (esp. from Sierra Leone)

Question 1 cont’d

Use of Knowledge [8 marks]

Candidates should have an understanding of how these systems worked.

Candidates should choose any of the following two systems:

Encomienda:

• This was a system of oppression because the Spaniards colonized the

Caribbean and took away the Amerindians’ land and their freedom. When
the Spaniards arrived in the Caribbean, they were primarily concerned
with finding gold and precious metals. The encomienda was the system
whereby the indigenous population was divided up amongst Spaniards and
put to work. Nicholas Ovando, the first nobleman appointed as Governor
of Hispaniola by the Spanish crown, carried out the first distribution,
or repartimiento of the natives in Hispaniola in 1512. They were
divided into groups of thirty and a Spaniard was then granted
Encomiendas over one or more of these groups.

• A man who had been given an Encomienda became the Amerindians’

Encomondero. In theory he was their protector, responsible for
civilizing them and converting them to Christianity. In return for
‘protection’ Amerindians worked in the tobacco fields and gold and
silver mines of Encomonderos. In reality the system was a form of
slavery. It was free and forced labour for the Spaniards while the
Amerindians lost their freedom. It was also a system of oppression
because the Amerindians were not working for themselves, everything
that they produced was for the Spaniards, who sent the colonial produce
back to Spain.

• Tainos were not free to leave the encomienda and those who fled were
hunted down like animals. The death rate among Tainos shot up as a
result of hunger, weakness and despair. Coupled with the hard work,
new diseases led to the total destruction of Amerindian life. The
Spanish introduced new diseases and pathogens to previously isolated
indigenous populations which contributed to their death. The
Amerindians had no prior exposure to smallpox, measles, influenza and
typhus.

• The Tainos also had less to eat since they were unable to dedicate the
same amount of time to growing their food; the Spaniards’ animals
destroyed their crops and they also had to feed the Spaniards. Those
who did not die from diseases or the hard labour killed themselves.
The native population of Hispaniola in 1492 was around one million
people but by 1595 the majority had died out.
Question 1 cont’d

Slavery

• The decline of the Amerindian population meant that a new labour force
had to be found to replace them. Furthermore colonists, in the
Caribbean began growing sugar cane, and this required a large labour
force. With the transition to sugar came the plantation system. The
plantation system involved the use of non-white labour on agricultural
plantations where Europeans were managers and owners. Colonial
products like sugar, coffee, and cocoa were grown on plantations in
the Caribbean and then sent to Europe to be refined and consumed. When
coupled with slavery the plantation system became a sophisticated
economic mechanism that dominated the culture and society of the
Caribbean, locking it into European economies. Sugar planters became
extremely wealthy in the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of slave
labour.

• Africans were enslaved and were brought to the New World from as early
as the 16th century. The Spanish and then the Portuguese were the
first European colonizers to use enslaved African labour in the
Americas. Each European power followed suit. Approximately fifteen to
twenty million Africans were enslaved for the Americas. The main areas
involved were Senegambia, Upper Guinea, Gold Coast, Benin and West
Central Africa.

• Slavery was oppressive because it was a total institution. It

determined all aspects of the lives of the enslaved people as well as
the social and economic arrangements of the plantation. Slavery formed
the basis of plantation society and it was based on legal,
psychological and physical control.

• Legally Africans were regarded as chattel. They were property, they

were not seen as humans and they did not have any rights. Africans
were dehumanized by enslavement. Planters would brand their slaves,
the same way that they branded cattle, and gave them European names.

• Enslaved Africans lost their identity. On the plantations they were

separated from anything familiar. They cut all ties with relatives,
Africa, and their culture. This isolation was key to the psychological
control of the enslaved.

• Religion was used to teach Africans to accept their positions as

slaves, missionaries came from Europe to convert them to Christianity.

• They were constantly told that they were racially inferior and they
were made to work from sun up to sun down on the estates. Their lives
were dictated by the plantation and a system of brutal physical
punishments were used to keep them in line. They lived under poor
conditions in slave huts or barracks and they were largely dependent
on the estates for food and clothes. Even young children and the
elderly were forced to work.

Question 1 cont’d

• The enslaved Africans were divided into three main categories, each
doing hard work: domestics, skilled slaves and field slaves. Domestic
slaves ranked highest amongst the enslaved population. This was
another divide and rule tactic employed by planters to keep the slaves
obedient. Additionally, the planters used enslaved men to keep the
others in check. These black slave drivers had to ensure that the
other slaves completed their work and they even had to physically
punish those who did not. This was part of the psychological and
physical torture.

Indentureship

• Following the genocide of the Tainos and the decimation of the

Kalinagos the Planters in the Caribbean began a system of White
Indentureship especially in the early 1600’s. These labourers were
mostly from Great Britain especially the Irish. Most of them signed
contracts to work for 4-5 years and were supposed to be paid and given
a plot of land at the end. They were oppressed because the Planters
breached the contracts and treated them almost like slaves. Many of
them died from overwork and tropical diseases. The system did not last
long because it became almost impossible to recruit new labourers.

• When slavery was abolished in the British West Indies planters claimed
that there was a labour shortage in the region and searched for a new
source of labour. However, these claims were erroneous. After almost
four centuries of slavery, it was impossible to have a labour shortage
in the region. The issue was the type of labour the planters wanted.

• Planters in Trinidad argued that they were especially at a disadvantage

since Trinidad did not engage in the slave trade on a large scale for
a long time (only from 1790s to 1806). Furthermore, planters in
Trinidad as well as British Guiana argued that their colonies still
had potential for development and need more labour for the expansion
of the industry.

• Planters in the West Indies tried various labour schemes before they
could arrive at the most suitable one. Indian immigration was
successful because Indians were seen as docile and easy to control.
It was argued that they were familiar with agriculture and were hard
workers.

• While this system was supposed to be closely monitored to ensure that

it did not resemble slavery it was still oppressive.

• Recruitment: In theory, all Indians were supposed to be given the

choice to leave India. However, this was not always the case. The
Arkatias (recruiters) needed a licence to operate and attempts were
made to explain the system to the Indians. However, the Arkatias were
often unscrupulous and many Indians were illiterate and did not
understand what documents they were putting their mark on. In order
to get more recruits, they fooled people into signing up. They promised
them work, fair pay and good treatment, along with free housing and
medical care. These promises were not fully delivered. Some were
promised that they were going to Calcutta. Additionally, due to the
Indian patriarchal system it was difficult to recruit large numbers
 of women to leave India. As a result, the Arkatias resorted to
kidnapping women and sending them to the West Indies.

• Medical care: This was supposed to be provided at the emigration depot

in India, during the voyage to the West Indies, at the immigration
depot in the West Indies and on the plantations themselves. They were
promised free medical care, adjacent provision grounds, minimum wage
rates, food and clothing. In reality Indians died at every point of
the indentureship journey and on plantations because of unsanitary
living conditions, poor nutrition and little medical care.

• Conditions on the voyage from India were poor in terms of treatment,

space, disease and abuse. Women were abused and raped. Conditions for
immigrants however were not as bad as those for enslaved people. It
was worse for the enslaved. This was because by the 19th century there
were more humanitarians speaking out against voyage conditions.

• Working and living conditions: When the Indians began to arrive in

1845 there was no contract to bind their labour to the plantations
thus many of them simply left the estates. After this authorities
implemented laws giving them tight control over the lives of Indians.
Similar to the enslaved, they were not free to leave the plantations.

• While indentured Indians were paid, wages were low, they were not
always paid on time and this left them in a cycle of indebtedness to
the plantation shop.

• The work week was a forty-five hour work week, wages for men were
around twenty-five cents per seven hour working day. Women were paid
less.

• Unlike the enslaved Africans, Indians were allowed to retain their

religion and culture. However, life on the plantation was not easy,
they lived under the same squalid conditions that the enslaved lived
under. On host estates Indians were to be accommodated in groups of
twenty-five to fifty in barracks or cottages with board floors.

• They were often taken advantage off by planters and Indian women were
taken advantage of by Indian men and estate employees. The abuse of
women was a constant issue that lasted for the duration of the system.

• All the other groups (Chinese, Javanese, Contracted Africans, Syrians,

Lebanese, Germans, Portuguese) that came to the Caribbean after
Chattel slavery ended faced oppression through European Institutions
(Political, Legislative, Judicial, Economic, Religious, Penal etc).
The conditions under which they worked were closer to slavery than
freedom.

Enquiry and Communication [5 marks]

Answers should emphasize that these systems of production benefitted the

European colonizers since colonial produce was sent back to Europe. The
colonies and the workers did not benefit from the products that they
cultivated/ mined. Racism was a key feature of plantation society;
Europeans
Question 1 cont’d

saw themselves as superior and this justified their actions in the

Caribbean.

Psychological control was key to maintaining all of these systems, in

order to maintain obedience. In the case of slavery, it was critical
since the enslaved outnumbered the whites vastly. For it to be effective,
slavery had to be brutal.
Answers should be logical and use examples to support statements made.
Total 20 marks
 MARK SCHEME FOR PAPER 02 ESSAYS

Sections A and B

MAXIMUM 20 MARKS

A. Knowledge [Maximum 7 marks]

Level 1. The candidate shows little or no understanding of the

concepts critical to the discussion. Where concepts are
identified, they are presented largely by means of
discrete pieces of information which are not at all, or
only tangentially, related to the question asked. [1–3
marks]

Level 2. The candidate shows adequate understanding of some

concepts critical to the discussion and demonstrates how
these concepts are relevant to the issue being addressed.
[4–5 marks]

Level 3. The candidate shows a sound understanding of all the

concepts critical to the discussion and consistently
shows their relevance to the issue being addressed.
[6–7 marks]

B. Use of knowledge [Maximum 8 marks]

Level 1. The candidate presents a poor discussion of the issues.

Arguments are neither logical nor clear for the most part.
Little supporting evidence is provided for positions
taken.
[1–2 marks]

Level 2. The candidate presents an adequate discussion of the

issues. Arguments are, in some cases, logical and clear.
Some supporting evidence is provided for positions taken.

[3–5 marks]

Level 3. The candidate presents a sound discussion of the issues.

Arguments are logical and clear; strong supporting
evidence is provided for positions taken. [6-8 marks]

C. Enquiry and Communication [Maximum 5 marks]

Level 1. The candidate demonstrates a weak command of the skills

of communication. The candidate shows little mastery of
vocabulary essential to conducting the discussion.
Sentence structure is weak to the point where it obscures
the meaning the candidate wishes to convey. [1-2 marks]

Level 2. The candidate has, to some extent, mastered the

vocabulary appropriate to the explanation and shows an
adequate command of mechanics. There may still be
instances of flaws in sentence structure and paragraphing
but the candidate adequately conveys the ideas and
arguments. [3-4 marks]

Level 3. The candidate demonstrates a sound command of the skills

necessary to convey meaning. Ideas are clearly
sequenced, and the candidate is able to manipulate
vocabulary, sentence structure and paragraphing to convey
ideas effectively.
[5 marks]