FOUN 1101 Caribbean Civilisation

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 (UNIFIED)FOUN 1101:
CARIBBEAN CIVILISATION
Plenary #4

Monday 29 September, 2019

Dr. Rodney Worrell

3
 By the Rivers of Babylon:
Enslavement and Freedom of
West Africans in the
Caribbean
Comparing West African Slavery and
Caribbean Chattel Slavery

Enslavement on Caribbean Sugar

Estates

Freedom Lost, Freedom Regained

on Caribbean Sugar Estates
Source:
http://tinyurl.com/p9we4zb
Comparing West African
Slavery and Caribbean
Chattel Slavery
SECTION 1
 The Concept of Slavery
Slavery existed in most
parts of the world in
ancient and medieval
times:
Africa, Middle East,
Greece, Rome, China and
India
The actual institution of the
system varied and in some
places the labour would be
more restricted than in other
places
Slavery involved the
procurement of captive
labour working without
wages and usually under
compulsion
The location of the enslaved,
whether in the town/urban
area or in the
countryside/plantation
determined the type of work
done and laboriousness
 Ways in which Africans
could be enslaved:
Prisoners of war

As pawns for a debt – people were used as

security for money borrowed. The pawn
person worked for the creditor until the
debt was repaid.

Those who had committed various criminal

offences
Enslavement in West Africa
“…Slavery was rooted in deep-seated legal and
intuitional structures of African societies, and it
functioned quite differently from the way it functioned in
European societies.”’ John Thornton

“There clearly were persons in those societies who had been bought
or captured and subsequently incorporated on a basis different
from those born them. Many of them seemed to live and work just
as their so-called masters did, and Europeans, and often other
Africans could not tell them apart. Many were not even considered
saleable – and were therefore not chattels. In fact sometimes free
people were sold and slaves were not, or both could be sold. Some
slaves became rich and powerful and even bought people for
themselves. Others were put to economic use – sometimes working
on their masters estates – but they did not form a distinct or class
apart.” Suzane Miers & Igor Kopytoff
 How slavery in West
Africa differed from
slavery in the Caribbean?
QUESTION
Enslavement in West Africa
Differed from Atlantic slavery in that there was no
dominant race factor to it

Being born into slavery provided the enslaved with rights

and protections

Slaves were treated as housemaids by their owners and

enjoyed privileges and had rights

Had a right to their names, could marry, own property

and give birth to children who were not considered as
slaves

They lived with their masters under the same roof and
could progress from the status of a servant to a royal
Nature of enslavement in
West Africa
The enslaved people were not just traded commodities to be worked to
death, but were also skilled producers in agriculture, crafts, mineral
processing, domestic activities and animal rearing

Enslaved were valued as social beings as well as economic factors

The owners of the enslaved in West Africa did not own the land but the
labour who worked the land

Value of the enslaved went beyond capital terms

Islamic law decreed that children of slave mothers were to be freed

The system of slavery changed with evolution and development of the

trans-Atlantic Slave trade – Tradition became secondary to profit
making
 Profitability of West
African Slavery
West Africa provided a labour force that was tractable,
relatively immune to New World diseases, had a low
transportation cost and which had also had a low
purchase price.
Because of the low purchase price on the West African
Coast Caribbean slavery was very profitable for the
European traders and planters who took part in this
trade.
Demand for African labour led to the de-population of
people from the West African coast.
Disproportionate number of males taken.
 African chiefs
bartered
African people
for goods

They were
Nature of
accustomed to
Slavery not
Role of domestic
clear to them slavery
African
Chiefs

Economic and
This type of
Political
slavery not
advancement
their main aim degrading
 Slave Coffle

Captives were
linked with
sticks or chains
on the neck to
prevent them
from escaping
whilst being
marched to the
coast
 Slave Dungeons
Cape Castle Cape Elmina
 A great many expired during the
voyage

Middle Extreme overcrowding

Deplorable conditions present aboard

Passage the vessel.

Many suffocated or succumbed to

dysentery

Many died along the voyage due to

epidemics of disease

On board the slavers there were

numerous outbreaks of the dreaded
smallpox

A few of the Africans were driven

insane by the claustrophobic misery

Anyone showing even the slightest

sign of either of these diseases was
thrown overboard alive.

This was done by the captain to

prevent at all costs an epidemic
aboard the ship. (e.g. of slave ship
ZONG)
Middle
passage
Middle
passage
Methods of Loose packing was

Packing the chosen by the slavers

who believed that the

Captives more comfortable the

enslaved were, the
less chance they
Tight packing was based would have of dying.
on the assumption that They preferred to
the slavers would loose at stock their ships up
least 20 per cent of the to about 75 per cent
numbers on board, and of capacity so that
that it was more they could reduce the
economical to pack the death rate to less
ship to full capacity and than 10 per cent
travel as fast as possible
across the Atlantic
 Sale in the Caribbean
Advertisements were made upon landing
identifying the credentials of the slaves
Domestic slavery in Africa
was more humane than
chattel slavery in the
Caribbean
SUMMARY
 Enslavement on
Caribbean Sugar Estates
SECTION 2
 Caribbean Chattel Slavery
Chattel slavery has often been the term
used to describe the type of enslavement
practiced in the Caribbean:
The enslaved were viewed as property that could be bought or
sold with impunity.
Had no rights before the law and could be murdered or raped
without any form of redress.
His children inherited his status.
The enslaved as a group form a class apart, at the bottom of
the social ladder.
Destruction of the enslaved both mentally and physically.
The reality of Caribbean
Chattel Slavery
Caribbean Chattel Slavery
 Manumission
The act of freeing enslaved persons through a legal
document which made them free for the rest of their lives

Manumission rates were relatively high in the Spanish colonies

throughout the period of slavery and much lower in the British colonies
with the French, Dutch and Danish falling between these extremes
Very few slaves were manumitted in the British colonies during the 18th
Century, but large numbers were manumitted in Cuba
In the early 19th Century manumissions occurred in the British
Caribbean at rates less than 2 per 1000 yearly
Manumission became more frequently between 1807 and 1834
Manumission was more common in towns than in rural areas
Manumission
In the British colonies, the majority of the
manumitted slaves tended to be female, creole,
young and coloured

Manumission
In the Spanish and French colonies, in the early
18th century they more often have been male and
African born

Manumission
Offspring of white men and slave mothers always
had better chances of manumission

Manumission
The state manumitted some enslaved persons
who revealed potential rebellions
 Enslavement on Caribbean
Sugar Estates
Sugar Planations comprised of three major categories of
enslaved workers: Skilled, domestic and field
The skilled labourers were mainly males – carpenters,
millwrights, copper smiths, coopers, sawyers, distillers and mid-
wives- the boiler man was one of the most important enslaved
persons on the plantation
The domestics/house enslaved persons were mainly females –
cooks, washerwomen and nurse-maids
A large number of them were coloured women
Had less personal freedom personal freedom than field slaves
Ate and dress better than the field Slaves and had a greater
chance of being manumitted
Enslavement on Caribbean
Sugar Estates
Domestics could be very loyal to their masters- betrayed
many rebellions
The majority of the enslaved were field slaves who did the
manual task on the plantation the majority were females
Field Labour was divided into three work gangs
The first gang was the most important work gang on the
estate and consisted of the most able-bodied individuals
who did the most laborious tasks – cutting the canes and
preparing the ground for planting
The second gang included weaker and pregnant slaves
who performed more minor tasks
Third gang made up mostly of children did less
demanding tasks such as weeding, tending to the animals
Plantation
Slave women were Sexual Jamaican planters
workers’, mothers molestation – indifferent to the needs
and sexual partners. constant. of pregnant women –
flogging normal.
House slaves were More intimate
more with owners
than men. Children doomed to
privileged.(QUALIFY)
slavery.

Daily work The Role of

debilitating, family
life unstable,
Enslaved Women
contact with planter
class miserable and
Slave women were
depressing.
either especially
oppressed or
To rebel they ran comparatively
away or tried to privileged.
abort their children/
infanticide– long They were producers
lactation periods. and reproducers
 Urban
Enslaved
Females operated taverns, eating houses and
lodges

Females worked as laundresses, domestic

labourers and prostitutes

Males worked in the building trades, ship-

building

Skilled slaves had a great

Rachel Polgreen
 Life on the plantation was
very harsh for the
enslaved. They were
deemed and treated as less
than human beings
SUMMARY
 Freedom Lost, Freedom
Regained on Caribbean Sugar
Estates
SECTION 3
 Slave Resistance
The enslaved constantly resisted their
enslavement through:
• Slave rebellions
• Grand Marronage – set up alternative free communities in the
forest and mountains
• Petite Marronage
• Industrial Sabotage
• Malingering
• Abortion
• Suicide
• Infanticide
Haitian Revolution
Queen Nanny
Forms of Slave Resistance
Arson
Retention of:
 African Languages
 Beliefs
 Music
 Customs
 Crafts
 The End of Enslavement
Slavery was abolished in 1834

It has been asserted that slavery ended because the

system was no longer profitable

It was also argued that British humanitarian

intervention - William Wilberforce and others - in the
British parliament led to the country abolishing the
institution

Some historians believed that the enslaved by

constantly fighting against the system contributed to its
ultimate demise
The enslaved constantly
resisted their enslavement
SUMMARY