THEME 3: RESISTANCE AND REVOLT

1. explain the various forms of slave control in the British, French and Spanish
Caribbean.
As a means of suppressing the fighting spirit of enslaved Africans, local assemblies and
planters introduced measures to control the enslaved population. These measures could be
categorized under broad headings, such as legal, economic, social and psychological control.

LEGAL CONTROL MEASURES BRITISH LAWS

The British Caribbean had no universal slave code but rather, individual colonies created
their own laws. Throughout the colonies, however, there was a common thread with some of
the legal slave control measures. These included:

a) Slaves were not allowed to congregate in large numbers.

b) Slaves were not allowed to beat drums, blow horns and carry weapons.

c) Slaves were not allowed to leave the estate without permission.

d) Slaves were not allowed to rent houses or land, or buy liquor, without the masters’
consent.

e) Slaves were not allowed to attend group meetings.

f) Slaves were forbidden from reading and writing, and getting married.

g) Slaves were discouraged from manumissions (the ability to purchase one’s freedom).

FRENCH LAWS (CODE NOIR/ BLACK CODE)

These laws were directly drawn up in France. The articles in the code included:

a) Allowing enslaved Africans to marry with their masters’ consent.

b) Providing slaves with the ability to appeal to legal offices, known as procureur-général
(attorney general), to complain against ill-treatment and neglect, but at the same time the
code stated that the slaves could be punished by means of flogging, branding, mutilation and
execution for theft, assault and attempts to escape.

SPANISH LAWS (LAS SIETEPARTIDAS)

These laws governed the treatment of enslaved Africans in the Spanish Caribbean. These
laws included:
a) Outlining that enslaved peoples should not be overworked, starved or unlawfully punished
by their masters.

b) Allowing enslaved Africans to buy their freedom, to marry, and appeal to the court
against illegal treatment.

ECONOMIC CONTROL MEASURES

In addition to physical bondage, enslaved Africans also experienced economic bondage

primarily by the planters restricting their ability to provide their own sustenance, thereby
limiting their opportunity to regain their freedom. The planters did this by limiting their ‘free
time’. Though there was the development of an internal marketing system by the enslaved
population, the planters instituted several measures that sought to limit its viability. Severe
restriction was placed on the ability of the enslaved Africans to carve an economic
livelihood; for instance, growing provision crops to be sold in the market.

SOCIAL CONTROL MEASURES

In the bid to control the enslaved population, underlying as well as overt social control
measures were encouraged. For instance, there was the creation of a rigid social divide in the
wider society as well as among the slaves. For instance, domestics were usually the ‘lighter-
skinned’ slaves and they were entrusted with their masters’ valuables and children. They
were allowed to wear better clothing; the females were allowed to wear necklaces, bracelets
and earrings. Some also learnt to cook, sew, read, and write. These slaves were loyal to their
masters and were most likely to report plans of rebellion. Also, skilled slaves/artisans were
highly valued by their masters and were sometimes hired out. They also had more freedom
of movement than other slaves on the plantation. The field slaves were seen as the ‘worse
class’ on the sugar estate and were the ones to usually receive the harsher punishments –
reflecting the whole system of divide and rule among enslaved labour.

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL CONTROL MEASURES

Enslaved Africans were also subjected to psychological and ideological control, but they
continued to resist the system of slavery. They did this by running away, malingering, and
rebelling. Enslaved women also participated in the resistance movement and used their
bodies as weapons in resisting slavery; they practiced what was described as ‘gynecological
resistance’. Undoubtedly, the plantation society created a culture whereby the practices of
the whites were seen as superior to that of the Africans’. As a result, African cultural
practices were denigrated.
2. evaluate the various forms of resistance of enslaved men and women
FORMS OF RESISTANCE

Resistance took the form of insurrectionary and non-insurrectionary methods.

a. Insurrectionary methods tended to be violent and caused more damage to the

plantation and whole system of slavery. Such methods included:

1. DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY

Damage to plantation tools and machinery done in such a manner so as to appear accidental.
Over a prolonged period, this caused considerable cost to the plantation in terms of repairs.

2. MURDER OF PLANTATION OWNER(S)

Poisoning was one such method used by the domestics.

3. RUNNING AWAY/MAROONAGE
4. REBELLIONS

b. Non-insurrectionary methods were a prolonged non-violent approach to resisting

slavery. Such methods included:

1. GYNAECOLOGICAL

a) Exaggerating female complaints. b) Inducing abortion. c) Prolonging the period of

gestation, sometimes opting to breastfeed babies for as long as two years. Pretending not to
understand the language to evade working.

2. MALINGERING

Pretending to be ill or exaggerating any existing ailment, or sometimes even injuring

themselves.

3. SUICIDE
3. explain the origins and development of Maroon societies in Jamaica, Suriname and
Guyana.

The word maroon, first recorded in English in 1666, is by varying accounts taken from the
French word marron, which translates to “runaway black slave,” or the American/Spanish
cimarrón, which means “wild runaway slave,” “the beast who cannot be tamed,” or “living
on mountaintops.” The Spanish originally used the word in reference to their stray cattle. It
is further believed that the word cimarrón is from cima or “summit.”

It is important to note that most Africans did not refer to themselves as “maroons.” They
usually opted for liberatory, powerful names such as “Nyankipong Pickibu,” which means
“Children of the Almighty” in Twi, a language widely spoken in Ghana, West Africa. The
Jamaican maroons tend to prefer the monikers “Koromanti,” “Kromanti,” or
“Yungkungkung” to denote their culture and history.

Maroons of Suriname
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/maroons/

Maroons of Jamaica
https://cyber.harvard.edu/eon/marroon/history.html

Maroons of Guyana
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/maroons-under-
assault-suriname-and-french-guiana
https://guyanachronicle.com/2009/02/19/a-special-tribute-to-the-amerindians-and-maroons-
of-guyana/

4. explain the origins and course of the Haitian Revolution up to 1804

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/haitian-revolution-1791-1804/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A_o-nU5s2U&ab_channel=CrashCourse
5. assess the effects of the Revolution on Haiti and the wider Caribbean.

Firstly, History shows that the Haitian revolution had numerous effects on the Caribbean
region socially one of which was that it aroused hope among slaves in the rest of the
Caribbean that freedom was possible. This is evident as many other slaves fought for their
freedom such as the maroons in Jamaica. The Haitian revolution also gave the blacks hope,
the hope that one day they could be free people and to no longer live under captivity and it
also showed them, the slaves, that the whites ‘were not unbeatable after all. The revolution
was seen by all the slaves as a ‘symbol [for] people fighting for their liberty’ The revolution
led to a large number of refugees fleeing their home to reside in other parts of the Caribbean.
The refugees included whites and free people of colour, together with some of their slaves.
‘Although all the territories of the greater Caribbean basin did receive some small
contingents of refugees, the territories that most attracted the refugees were the Spanish part
of Hispaniola, Santo Domingo—for obvious reasons of proximity—as well as Jamaica—
where many refugees followed the British troops after their evacuation from the island—and
Cuba— whose Oriente was within sight of the north western coast of Saint Dominique.’This
then led to an increase in the number of French creole in these territories and also to the
spread ‘of Roman Catholicism in Jamaica’ . Prior to the revolution, Saint-Dominique was
important to the French because it produced half of the ‘world’s premier sugar producer’
and sold nearly as much sugar as Jamaica at the time of the Revolution and was the most
profitable Caribbean colony. The sudden elimination of this exporting centre created a
massive demand for sugar and coffee, which spawned huge increases in slave importation to
Spanish and Portuguese colonies; the number of disembarked slaves in Cuba during this time
rose increasingly. The failure of the Haitian Revolution to positively affect abolition would
be an oversight because of the exit of British colonies from the slave trade. Indeed in the
same time period the number of disembarked slaves in Jamaica dropped from 78,351 to 0
due to the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British importation of slaves.The fact that
this Act occurred in 1807 is significant because the British abolition movement made its first
tangible gains in 1787 with the creation of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade and did not achieve success until after the Haitian Revolution, hence the revolution
could also be blamed for the delaying of this act. Most of all, the revolution deeply affected
the psychology of the whites throughout the Caribbean, the Haitian Revolution undoubtedly
accentuated the sensitivity to race, colour, and status across the Caribbean.

Secondly, the Haitian revolution had effects on the Caribbean region economically. For
one the Haitian revolution led to the collapse of St. Domingue sugar industries. This is so
because during the revolt many of St. Domingue’s sugar plantations were ruined by fire6 by
this all stored and in harvest crop were destroyed and all the skilled planters had already
found refuge in another colony. The Haitian refugees who fled to the other colonies like
Cuba and Jamaica were beneficial to colonies because the French were excellent coffee
planters and these colonies benefitted from their expertise. It was also recorded that the
Haitian refugees ‘[were] responsible for raising Jamaica’s coffee export to over 6000 tons in
1812’. The skills brought by these French migrant workers helped these colonies to meet the
export demands of the market. They then taught these skills to the members of their own
workforce in order to permanently increase productivity. The decline of Haitian exports also
created a high demand for sugar cane. This demand however, was met by surrounding
countries but was led mostly by countries such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, who
excelled in the export of sugar cane after Haiti lost its market. The removal of St. Domingue
from the sugar market also led to an increase in the price of sugar. The price of cotton and
coffee also increased allowing Jamaica to temporarily benefit from all these increases
however, it was Cuba who succeeded Haiti as the world’s leading producer of sugar. Cuba’s
industry was able to do this due to the arrival of French planters and technicians who were
instrumental in introducing new refining technology. Émigrés helped to expand the cocoa
industry in territories like Trinidad. Haitian slaves took their skills in basket making and
straw work to other territories hence a new culture and skilled was formed in the Caribbean.
The Haitian revolution can also be said to be the cause of the abolition of slavery in the
Caribbean on an economical basis. This is so because the adoption of the 1807 Slave Trade
Act, which was preceded by more than twenty years of active abolitionist organizing and
lobbying in Britain, could not have occurred if legislators were worried about French
economic competition. Indeed, the abolitionists had successfully organized millions of
citizens around Britain to pressure legislators. However, they were only able to achieve real
success once France was not deemed as an economic threat. The need to remove France was
compounded by the fact that ending the slave trade was actually economic suicide for major
parts of Britain economy. Thus, in order to keep its economic position in the balance of
power the British economy needed to reduce competition. By removing France from Saint-
Dominique and ultimately thwarting its efforts to regain dominance in the Caribbean, the
Haitian Revolution allowed Britain’s disengagement from slave-trading in 1807 and from
slavery on a whole in 1833.

Lastly, the Haitian revolution also had effects on the Caribbean politically. The Haitian
revolution led to the spread of the 18th century struggle in the Caribbean between Britain
and France with Britain capturing Trinidad from Spain, British Guiana from Holland and
Martinique, Tobago and St. Lucia from the French. The revolution also resulted in the
British troops invading St. Domingue in protecting the planters (of both St. Domingue and
the Caribbean) with/and the hope of them, the British, capturing the territory. The British
saw this as an opening or opportunity to capture Haiti for itself and to try and rebuild the
ruined plantations from their ashes, hence they will keep their newly profound dominancy.
Slave control was tightened in other countries due to this revolution because planters were
fearful of the effects of the revolt on the slaves especially maroons in Jamaica. The planters
feared that what happened in Haiti happened again so because they fear that slave would get
motivated to start their own rebellion they implemented stricter rules to both instinct more
fear into the slaves themselves and to protect them from their fear. The revolution inspired
slave resistance in countries like Guadeloupe, Martinique and Grenada. Slavery was then
abolished Guadeloupe by sonthonax’s proclamation but was restored by Napoleon
Bonaparte. The Haitian revolution also caused the increased slave unrest in Jamaica and
contributed to the second maroon war and also unrest among slaves in St. Kitts. The
 Frenchémigrés spread stories of the atrocities in St. Domingue. These stories were especially
favourable to the abolitionist, like William Wilberforce, who were petitioning for the
abolition of the slave trade. The spread of these stories strengthened the argument for the
abolition of slavery and made planters more cautious and watchful. In conclusion, the
Haitian revolution led to the agricultural development of many countries like Cuba and
Puerto Rico. It caused the abolition of the slave trade in British colonies but inspired hope in
the eyes of all the slaves. It caused fear in the colonies and hence striker slave policies were
implemented in the Caribbean colonies. The Haitian revolution had both positive and
negative impact on the Caribbean socially, politically and economically, these impacts
resulted in the Caribbean we know now.

6. explain the causes, nature and consequences of major revolts.

The 1816 Barbados Slave Revolt
https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/31536/McNaughtL_TPC.pdf?
sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Jamaica’s Baptist War (1831-1832)

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/baptist-war-1831-1832/