On Plantations
The transformation of the Caribbean islands into a sugar economy was dependent on slaves marshaled into a proto-industrial labor force on the plantations. (In the British North American colonies, however, that transformation came late around 1680 and will be discussed separately in our quarterly Newsletters).
For all who followed them, Barbadian slave-owners cared mainly about the labor they could extract from their Africans. Some slaves, it is true, were worked to death, especially in the brutal pioneering days of settlement and clearing the bush when slaves were pitted against a hostile environment in frontier condition.
Masters and slaves lived cheek by jowl on the plantations; the one enjoying a lifestyle of kings and comprehension of the other; they were separated by more than color and legal status. The masters often lived in great material comfort; slaves lived in primitive housing and wore the simplest of clothes. The master ate lavishly ('high on the hog'), the slave survived on the most basic diets (the guts of the hog).
The Africans were socialized to their new lives as slaves by life on the plantations. But the first problem they faced was simply that of staying alive. Work on sugar fields was extremely hard, especially in the 6 months of the year when crop was harvested.
Plantations which produce the tropical goods for British taste, looked remarkably similar throughout the Americas but were different. And their differences were shaped by their respective crops. The bitterness of most slave experiences in early settlements were to be found in the sweetest of all crops -- sugar.
Like tobacco in Virginia and rice in South Carolina (before the advent of the cotton gin), sugar laid the basis for the wealth in the West Indies. The planters of Barbados, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua and above all, Jamaica (between 1775 and 1824 half the region's sugar came from that island) enriched themselves and transformed the tastes of Europe through the sugar grown by their plantation slaves.
The following are related stories of the various atrocities of slave life on plantations. It is not a chronological account, but seeks instead to explore those major experiences of slavery on the plantations of the Americas:
For all who followed them, Barbadian slave-owners cared mainly about the labor they could extract from their Africans. Some slaves, it is true, were worked to death, especially in the brutal pioneering days of settlement and clearing the bush when slaves were pitted against a hostile environment in frontier condition.
Masters and slaves lived cheek by jowl on the plantations; the one enjoying a lifestyle of kings and comprehension of the other; they were separated by more than color and legal status. The masters often lived in great material comfort; slaves lived in primitive housing and wore the simplest of clothes. The master ate lavishly ('high on the hog'), the slave survived on the most basic diets (the guts of the hog).
The Africans were socialized to their new lives as slaves by life on the plantations. But the first problem they faced was simply that of staying alive. Work on sugar fields was extremely hard, especially in the 6 months of the year when crop was harvested.
Plantations which produce the tropical goods for British taste, looked remarkably similar throughout the Americas but were different. And their differences were shaped by their respective crops. The bitterness of most slave experiences in early settlements were to be found in the sweetest of all crops -- sugar.
Like tobacco in Virginia and rice in South Carolina (before the advent of the cotton gin), sugar laid the basis for the wealth in the West Indies. The planters of Barbados, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Antigua and above all, Jamaica (between 1775 and 1824 half the region's sugar came from that island) enriched themselves and transformed the tastes of Europe through the sugar grown by their plantation slaves.
The following are related stories of the various atrocities of slave life on plantations. It is not a chronological account, but seeks instead to explore those major experiences of slavery on the plantations of the Americas:
Related Newsletter downloads
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"Slavery from a British Perspective" (Part 1)
"Sex Abuse on Plantations"
"Slave Rebellions" (Part 1)
"Slave Rebellions" (Part 3)
"Runaway Slaves" (Part 2)
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"Slavery from a British Perspective" (Part 2)
"Black Religion & Christianity"
"Slave Rebellions" (Part 2)
"Violence of Slavery"
"Runaway Slaves" (Part 1)
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