slavery in the caribbean sugar plantations

In many colonies, there were professional slave-catchers who hunted down those slaves who had managed to escape their plantation. Nevertheless, the plantation system was so successful that it was soon adopted throughout the colonial Americas and for many other crops such as tobacco and cotton. The Portuguese Crown parcelled out land or captaincies (donatarias) to noble settlers, much like they did in the feudal system of Europe. On the St Kitts plantations, the slave villages were usually located downwind of the main house from the prevailing north-easterly wind. William McMahons map drawn in 1828 records shows the landscape of plantation estates shortly before emancipation, after nearly three centuries of development. Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (1737-1808), owned six sugar plantations in Jamaica and was an outspoken anti-abolitionist. They were built with posts driven into the ground, wattle and daub walls, and rooms thatched with palm leaves. Last week, leading figures in the Caribbean Community's Reparations Commission described the Drax Hall plantation as a "killing field" and a "crime scene" from the tens of thousands of . Although slaves had only tools as potential weapons, there was usually no centralised military presence to aid plantation owners who often had to rely on organising militia forces themselves. the Caribbean was . St Kitts is probably the only island in the West Indies that has a map showing the location of all the slave villages. By the early 18th century when sugar production was fully established nearly 80% of the population was Black. The black blast. Ultimately, the Brazilian sugar industry found stiff competition from the Caribbean, first from the tiny island of Barbados, and then a hodgepodge of British-, French . Sugar cane plantations typified Caribbean and Brazil by means of enslaved labourers (Graham 2007). Tasks ranged from clearing land, planting cane, and harvesting canes by hand, to manuring and weeding. The floors were of beaten earth and a fire was lit at night in the middle of one room. The movement of emancipated slave populations and establishment of new villages away from the old plantation lands suggest that some slave villages were abandoned soon after emancipation; others may have remained in use for the labourers who chose to stay on the plantation as paid workers and rented their house and land. In 1724 Father Labat drew his idealised design for an estate layout based on his 12 years experience of managing an estate on the French island of Martinique. It was not uncommon to give new arrivals a whipping just to show them, if they had not already realised, that their owners had no more sympathy for their situation than the cattle they owned. The demographics that the juggernaut economic enterprise of the slave trade and slavery represented are today well known, in large measure thanks to nearly three decades of dedicated scientific and historical research, driven significantly by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and by recent initiatives, including the United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery. New slaves were constantly brought in . A law was passed in Nevis in 1682 to force plantation owners to provide land for food crops to prevent starving slaves from stealing food. Alan H. Adamson, Sugar Without Slaves: The Political Economy of British Guiana, 1838-1904 (New Haven, 1972), 119-21 . By the late 18th century Bryan Edwards drew on his own experience as a British planter in Jamaica to describe cottages of the enslaved workforce. At the time there were some people that argued that the free labor system was more World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. In the 1790s Pinney instructed that the houses in the slave village should be; built at approximate distances in right lines to prevent accidents from fire and to afford each negro a proper piece of land around the house. Douglas V. Armstrong is an anthropologist from New York whose studies on plantation slavery have been focused on the Caribbean. Furnishings within were always sparse and crude, most occupants sleeping in hammocks, or on the earth floor.. The number of enslaved labor crews doubled on sugar plantations. Consequently, slaves were imported from West Africa, particularly the Kingdom of Kongo and Ndongo (Angola). By the time the slave trade fizzled out, following its abolition in England in 1807 and in the United States in 1863, about 4.5 million Africans had ended up as slaves in the Caribbean. They found that thelocations of slave villages shared some common features. However, possible platforms where houses may have stood have been observed at Ottleys and the Hermitage within the areas shown on the McMahon map as slave villages in 1828. By the mid-16th century, African slavery predominated on the sugar plantations of Brazil, although the enslavement of the indigenous people continued well into the 17th century. While colonialism has been in retreat since the nationalist reforms of the mid-20th century, it persists as a political feature of the region. Most people are familiar with slavery in the antebellum US South. Some 12 to 20 million Africans were enslaved in the western hemisphere after an Atlantic voyage of 6 to 10 weeks. The eighteen visible huts of the village are arranged in no particular order within a stone-walled enclosure, which is surrounded by cane fields on three sides. Brewminate: A Bold Blend of News and Ideas. Capitalism and black slavery were intertwined. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 12-22. A They typically lived in family units in rudimentary villages on the plantations where their freedom of movement was severely restricted. Not surprisingly, the remains of wooden huts, with thatched roofs, would in any case leave few traces on the surface. In the 17th and 18th centuries slaves were moved from Africa to the West Indies to work on sugar plantations. The Atlantic economy, in every aspect, was effectively sustained by African enslavement. It shows the enslaved couple with their sparse belongings. Making money from Caribbean sugar plantations was not easy, and men like Simon Taylor had to face many risks. Prints depicting enslaved people producing sugar in Antigua, 1823. Slaveholders encouraged complex social hierarchies on the plantations that amounted to something like a system of 'class'. University of Minnesota Libraries", "The role of sugar cane in Brazil's history and economy", "Sephardic trading connections between Barbados, Curaao and Jamaica, 1670-1720", "Half-Truths and History: The Debate over Jews and Slavery", "How Jewish Immigrants Spurred the Barbadian Rum Trade", "Small Farms, Large Transaction Costs: Haiti's Missing Sugar", "The Greater Caribbean: From Plantations to Tourism", "Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History", "NEW PERSPECTIVES ON SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN", "Sugar Mills, Technology, and Environmental Change: A Case Study of Colonial Agro-Industrial Development in the Caribbean", "El Caribe comparte los impactos causados por industrias azucarera y ganadera", "Sugar and the Environment - Encouraging Better Management Practices in Sugar Production and Processing | WWF", "High dietary fructose intake: Sweet or bitter life? Capitalism and black slavery were intertwined. TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE VOYAGES. In this way, black enslavement became the primary institution for social and economic governance in the hemisphere. The post-colonial, post-modern world will never be the same as a result of this legacy of resistance and the symbolism of racial justicekey elements of humanity rising to its finest and highest potential. Related Content Most Caribbean societies possess large or majority populations of African descendants. Barbados, nearing a half million slaves to work the cane fields in the heyday of Caribbean sugar exportation, used 90 percent of its arable land to grow sugar cane. Archaeology is often the only way to recover detailed information on the possessions of the enslaved workers, since the items were rarely recorded in documents. Before the arrival and devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Caribbean region was buckling under the strain of proliferating, chronic non-communicable diseases. Additionally, the hours were long, especially at harvest time. The first type consists of accounts from travel writers or former residents of the West Indies from the 17th and 18th centuries who describe slave houses that they saw in the Caribbean; the second are contemporary illustrations of slave housing. The Estado da India (1505-1961) was the name the Portuguese gave Sugar & the Rise of the Plantation System, Dibia's World: Life on an Early Sugar Plantation, An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Higman, Slave Populations of the British Caribbean 1807-1834 (1984; Mona, Jamaica, 1995), 217-18. The Black Lives Matter Movement is therefore equally rooted in Caribbean political culture, which served to nurture the indigenous United States upsurge. This other pandemic is discussed in terms of the racist culture of colonialism, in which the black population is generally considered addicted to foods containing high levels of sugar and salt. A hat hangs on the wall, a group of large pots stands on a shelf and there is a small bed in the corner. Although the enslaved Africans were permitted provision grounds and gardens in the villages to grow food, these were not enough to stop them suffering from starvation in times of poor harvests. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sugar_plantations_in_the_Caribbean&oldid=1142688340, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 21:15. The post-colonial, post-modern world will never be the same as a result of this legacy of resistance and the symbolism of racial justicekey elements of humanity rising to its finest and highest potential. Slaves were permitted at weekends to grow food for their own sustenance on small plots of land. The Caribbean is home to the Haitian Revolution, which produced the worlds first black freedom state and the subsequent proliferation of constitutional democracies. The diet was unvaried and meant to be as cheap for the owner as possible. The sugar plantations of the region, owned and operated primarily by English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Danish colonists, consumed black life as quickly as it was imported. Enslaved Africans were often treated harshly. Not only do we pay for our servers, but also for related services such as our content delivery network, Google Workspace, email, and much more. In the 1650s when sugar started to take over from tobacco as the main cash crop on Nevis, enslaved Africans formed only 20% of the population. They were washed and their skin was oiled. In comparison, in the 17th century a white indentured labourer or servant would cost a planter 10 for only a few years work but would cost the same in food, shelter and clothing. Until the Amelioration Act was passed in 1798, which forced planters to improve conditions for enslaved workers, many owners simply replaced the casualties by importing more slaves from West Africa. UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz, United Nations Outreach Programme on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery, Barbados in the Caribbean became the first large-scale colony populated by a black majority, The Caribbean has the lowest youth enrolment in higher education in the hemisphere, The rate of increase in the occurrence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension within the adult population, mostly people of African descent, was galloping, campaign for reparations for the crimes of slavery and colonialism, Supporting National Justice and Security Institutions: The Role of United Nations Peace Operations, The Lack of Gender Equality in Science Is Everyones Problem, Keeping the Spotlight on Pulses: Roots for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security, United Nations Official Document System (ODS), Maintaining International Peace and Security, The Office of the Secretary-Generals Envoy on Youth. Resistance to the oppression of slavery and ethnic colonialism has made the Caribbean a principal site of freedom politics and democratic desire. As the historian M. Newitt notes, Here [So Tom and Principe] the plantation system, dependent on slave labour, was developed and a monoculture established, which made it necessary for the settlers to import everything they needed, including food. The legislators proceeded to define Africans as non-humana form of property to be owned by purchasers and their heirs forever. Another slave village stands beside a fenced compound, connected with the fort. It is for this and related reasons that the Caribbean has emerged as an epicenter of the global reparatory justice movement. We contribute a share of our revenue to remove carbon from the atmosphere and we offset our team's carbon footprint. The location of the provision grounds at the Jessups estate, one of the Nevis plantations studied by the St Kitts-Nevis Digital Archaeology Initiative, is shown on a 1755 plan of the plantation. Enslaved Africans were brought to the Caribbean as an abundant and cheap source of labour for sugar plantations. African slaves became increasingly sought after to work in the unpleasant conditions of heat and humidity. The plantation system was first developed by the Portuguese on their Atlantic island colonies and then transferred to Brazil, beginning with Pernambuco and So Vicente in the 1530s. In recent years, a third source of information, archaeology, has begun to contribute to our understanding. Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The expansion of sugar plantations in the West Indies required a sharp increase in the volume of the slave trade from Africa (see Figure 18.1). The practice of political democracy has been effective in driving a culture of economic equity, but there remains a considerable amount of work to be done in creating a level playing field for all. Irrigation networks had to be built and kept clear. From African Atlantic islands, sugar plantations quickly spread to tropical Caribbean islands with European expansion into the New World. The Slave Codewent viral across the Caribbean, and ultimately became the model applied to slavery in the North American English colonies that would become the United States. The sugar plantations of the region, owned and operated primarily by English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Danish colonists, consumed black life as quickly as it was imported. Our publication has been reviewed for educational use by Common Sense Education, Internet Scout (University of Wisconsin), Merlot (California State University), OER Commons and the School Library Journal. As they are virtually invisible on the landscape today, village locations are particularly liable to destruction or development, unlike the more substantial stone constructed houses of the European plantation owners. A great number of planters and harvesters were required to plant, weed, and cut the cane which was ready for harvest five or six months after planting in the most fertile areas. There were many instances of slave uprisings resulting in the deaths of the plantation owner, their family, and slaves who had remained loyal to their owner. slave frontiers. Cartwright, Mark. His Ten Views, published in 1823, portrays the key steps in the growing, harvesting and processing of sugarcane. Whatever the crop, labouring life was dictated by the cycles of the agricultural year. A watchtower was a feature of many plantations to ensure work schedules and rates were kept and to guard against external attacks. Some 40 per cent of enslaved Africans were shipped to the Caribbean Islands, which, in the seventeenth century, surpassed Portuguese Brazil as the principal market for enslaved labour. Carts had to be loaded and oxen tended to take the cane to the processing plant. Bibliography Constitution Avenue, NW Another constant worry was unfamiliar tropical diseases which often proved fatal with the colonists, and particularly new arrivals. Most were destined for Brazil and the mainland Spanish colonies. On the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, tourists flock to pristine beaches, with little knowledge that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians are under armed guard, a form of slavery on plantations harvesting sugarcane, most of which ends up in US kitchens. Eliminating the toxic contaminant of hierarchical ethnic racism from all societies, and allowing them to embrace a horizontal perspective on ethnic and cultural diversity and ways of living, will enable the twenty-first century to be better than any prior period in modernity. Extreme social and racial inequality is a legacy of slavery in the region that continues to haunt and hinder the development efforts of regional and global institutions. From the 17th century onwards, it became customary for plantation owners to give enslaved Africans Sundays off, even though many were not Christian. After emancipation the actions of many British Caribbean sugar plantation workers created conditions that led to new relations with former masters, separate communities away from the plantations for themselves, and renewed migration from Africa. Revolts on slave ships cascaded into rebellions on plantations and in towns. Find out what the UN in the Caribbean is doing towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Current forms of slavery and extreme social oppression are now identified more clearly and treated with similar public and policy opposition as traditional forms. They are small low rectangular, one room structures, under roofs thatched with leaves. Before the arrival and devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Caribbean region was buckling under the strain of proliferating, chronic non-communicable diseases. (61), Colonial Sugar Cane ManufacturingUnknown Artist (Public Domain). Part of a feature about the archaeology of slavery on St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, from the International Slavery Museum's website. The refined sugar then had to be dried thoroughly if it was to be as white and pure as the top merchants demanded. In Barbados for example, the houses on some plantations were upgraded to wooden cabins covered with shingles (thin wooden tiles) and placed in a common yard to encourage family relations to develop. Once they arrived in the Caribbean islands, the Africans were prepared for sale. Finally, states imposed taxes on sugar. There was a complex division of labor needed to . The introduction of sugar cultivation to St Kitts in the 1640s and its subsequent rapid growth led to the development of the plantation economy which depended on the labour of imported enslaved Africans. New Orleans became the Walmart of people-selling. The great increase in the Black population was feared by the white plantation owners and as a result treatment often became harsher as they felt a growing need to control a larger but discontented and potentially rebellious workforce. London: Heinemann, 1967. Enslaved Africans were forced to engage in a variety of laborious activities, all of them back-breaking. Raising sugar cane could be a very profitable business, but producing refined sugar was a highly labour-intensive process. World History Encyclopedia, 06 Jul 2021. This voyage, now known as the Middle Passage, consumed some 20 per cent of its human cargo. The relevance of Beckfords thesis remains striking today, and conversations about the legitimacy of democracy still reverberate around his research. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. Sugar of lesser quality with a brownish colour tended to be consumed locally or was only used to make preserves and crystallised fruit. Sugar and strife. Most plantation slaves were shipped from Africa, in the case of those destined for Portuguese colonies, to a holding depot like the Cape Verde Islands. Together they laid the foundation for a twenty-first century global contribution to political reform with a democratic sensibility. It was the basis of wealth creation in both production and commerce. William Penn (1644-1718), founder of Pennsylvania, he owned many slaves. Enslaved domestic workers or craftsmen had larger houses, with boarded floors, and; a few have even good beds, linen sheets, and musquito nets, and display a shelf or two of plates and dishes of Queens or Staffordshire ware.. The scourge of racism based on white supremacy, for example, remains virulent in the region. The lack of nutrition, hard working conditions, and regular beatings and whippings meant that the life expectancy of slaves was very low, and the annual mortality rate on plantations was at least 5%. Proceeds are donated to charity. Disease and death were common outcomes in this human tragedy. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. So Tom took on all the characteristics later assumed by the islands of the Lesser Antilles; it was a Caribbean island on the wrong side of the Atlantic. By 1750, British and French plantations produced most of the world's sugar and its byproducts, molasses and rum.At the heart of the plantation system was the labor of millions of enslaved workers . This other pandemic is discussed in terms of the racist culture of colonialism, in which the black population is generally considered addicted to foods containing high levels of sugar and salt. John Pinney (1740-1818) who owned the plantation of Mountravers on Nevis gives two reasons for this layout. The Caribbean was at the core of the crime against humanity induced by the transatlantic slave trade and slavery. 121-158; ibid., Vernacular Houses and Domestic Material Culture on Barbados Sugar Plantations, 1650-1838, Jl of Caribbean History 43 (2009): 1-36. African slaves became increasingly sought after to work in the unpleasant conditions of heat and humidity. Few illustrations survive of slave villages in St Kitts and Nevis. . Before the slave trade ended, the Caribbean had taken approximately 47 percent of the 10 million African slaves brought to the Americas. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade -- 25 March 2022, The "Ark of Return", the permanent memorial to honour the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, located at the Visitors' Plaza of United Nations Headquarters in New York. John Pinney on Nevis gave his boilers check shirts if the sugar was good, while enslaved women who gave birth were presented with baby linen (Pares 1950, 132). The team, Jon Brett and Rob Philpott, with colleagues Lorraine Darton and Eleanor Leech, surveyed a number of sugar plantations in the parishes of St Mary Cayon and Christ Church Nichola Town. The sugar plantations of the region, owned and operated primarily by English, French, Dutch, Spanish and Danish colonists, consumed black life as quickly as it was imported. It is now universally understood and accepted that the transatlantic trade in enchained, enslaved Africans was the greatest crime against humanity committed in what is now defined as the modern era. It is labelled as the Negro Ground attached to Jessups plantation, high up the mountain. In terms of its scale and its social, psychological, spiritual and physical brutality, specifically inflicted upon Africans as a targeted ethnicity, this vastly profitable business, and the considerable subsequent suppression of the inhumanity and criminal nature of slavery, was ubiquitous and usurping of moral values. Then there were the indigenous people who might have been subdued by initial military campaigns but, nevertheless, remained in many places a significant threat to European settlements. Slaves on sugar plantations in the Caribbean had a hard time of it, since growing and processing sugarcane was backbreaking work that killed many. In addition to using the produce to supplement their own diet, slaves sold or exchanged it, as well as livestock such as chickens or pigs, in local markets. Sugar and Slavery. Slave labour has a connetion to sugar production. At the Hermitage the slave village stood beside the high sea-cliff, and was marked by a boundary bank, which perhaps originally supported a fence or hedge. Last modified July 06, 2021. Many plantation owners preferred to import new slaves rather than providing the means and conditions for the survival of their existing slaves. 2 (2000): 213-236. The sugar then had to be packed and transported to ports for shipping. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1795/life-on-a-colonial-sugar-plantation/. In addition, it serves as a model for new forms of equity, including in climate and public health justice. By the mid-16th century, Brazil had become the worlds largest producer of sugar. Placing them in these locations ensured that they did not take up valuable cane-growing land. Presenting evidence of past wrongs now facilitates the call for a new global order that includes fairness in access and equality in participation. Europe remains a colonial power over some 15 per cent of the regions population, and the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico is generally understood as colonialist. The sugar plantations grew exponentially so that 90% of the island consisted of sugar plantations by the year 1680. The Sugar Islands were Antigua, Barbados, St. Christopher, Dominica, and Cuba through Trinidad. In the Caribbean, as well as in the slave states, the shift from small-scale farming to industrial agriculture . Sugar Cane Plantation. This latter group included those who lived in towns and not on their plantations, nobles who never even visited the colony, and religious institutions. Food raised by slaves included manioc, sweet potatoes, maize, and beans, with pigs kept to provide occasional meat. Sometimes land had to be terraced, although not usually in Brazil. The slave houses of the 18th century show a close resemblance to the late 19th century wooden houses with thatched roofs that appear in the earliest photographs of rural houses in St Kitts. Several descriptions survive from the island of Barbados. Once at the plantation, their treatment depended on the plantation owner who had paid to have them transported or bought the slaves at auction locally. The same system was adopted by other colonial powers, notably in the Caribbean. The Atlantic economy, in every aspect, was effectively sustained by African enslavement. Popular and grass-roots activism have created a legacy of opposition to racism and ethnic dominance.

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