Slave Plantations
Carribbean was the heart of the British overseas empire.
Spain claimed many of the carribbean Islands in C16th
Europeans mainly French & English came to inhabit the carribbean in C17th
The region was known as the 'West Indies'
Spanish looked for gold & silver & found litlte
The British tried growing different crops. Tobacco was not as successful as sugarcane.
Sugarcane was used to sweeten tea, coffee & chocolate and to make rum.
Planters who grew the sugarcane became very wealthy.
Sugarcane made the west indies valuable
Plantations needed large numbers of slaves to do the work.
Different plantations required different levels of skills from their slaves.
salt water
Sugar
Coffee
rice
Tobacco
Convicts & prisoners
Enslaved africans
Slave Life
Sugar plantations were both farms & factories
Work was arranged according to gangs
White owners watched over the whole process
Bought more slaves when needed
Women slaves also had children which added to the labour numbers
In Jamaica 1748-1788 1,200 ships brought 335,000 enslaved africans
The work was harsh & slaves were only expected to live for 19 years
Overseers watched & used whips to make the slaves work harder.
Enslaved drivers organised & used whips on the slaves.
1st gang
2nd gang
3rd gang
Punishments & incentives
Arrived from ships no family
Plantation gave community and family life to slaves
they typically shared home life together, similar beliefs, customs & culture
Slave life was typically one of broken families & could change in an instant.
Personal Violations were common practice
Slaves - men, women & children could be moved from one house to another separating families
Could lose family, friends & community in an instant
Sold to someone else without notice
Death of the planter
Planter fell on hard times
Sexual exploitation- sexual assault common for women, old, young, wives, sisters, daughters by masters.
Some small incentives to work harder eg extra food, clothing, free time, land to grow food & raise animals
Lash/violence was the main way to make slaves work harder
Britain & France were at war frequently during C18th & C19th with rival empires.
Jamaican census in 1788 recorded only 226,432 men, women, children including children born to slaves.
young men & women, healthy, strong, late teens
older men & women with wrecked bodies typically late 20's +
very old men & women 40+ worn out bodies & young children
Harsh work for 10-12 years
less harsh work for 20 years
lighter work until death & children grew into teens to join first gang
cane holing (back breaking work) using hoes not spades
moving baskets of manure on heads for the squares
weeding the crops, gathering weeds & grass to feed the animals & catching rats
preparation+ planting
export
Harvesting
boiling
milling
removed soil was built into a banks around each square
60-100 squares each day
marked & dug out squares (4-6 sq ft & 6-9 ins deep)
harvesting of sugar cane using billhooks
harvesting of sugar cane using billhooks & tied canes into bundles & loaded wagons
boiling & milling for 24hrs a day for 6 days week two groups 12hr day & night shifts
milling involved feeding cane into rollers to crush cane to get juice collecting in pans & piped to boiling house
boiling involved boiling & skimming for 4-5 times
very dangerous work mens arms could get drawn into rollers due to exhaustion & heaviness of canes, arms would be crushed & need to be cut off by an axe
producing brown sugar which was cooled & put into clay pots, molasses would be removed to become rum. The liquid left was refined sugar ready for export.
Inherited by planters family
There was individual & organised community resistance, opposition & running away typically met with punishment individually & as communities.
Some did escape and gain freedom eg the Maroons in Jamaica