The British Caribbean colonies consisted of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Bahamas, Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Antigua and Barbuda, and Nevis at various times. From 1662-1807 Britain shipped 3.1 mil Africans across Atlantic to British owned colonies in Caribbean [1]. Captured slaves had to endure the Middle Passage from Africa where death rate was high [2].
Slavery in the British colonies was very similar to chattel slavery in the Americas where slaves and their offspring were owned for life and could be punished and sold. Children and parents separated, any black person needed a pass to show they were not a runaway when traveling to a market [4]. |
|
|
Rapid growth of sugar plantations in the Caribbean led to economic reliance on the plantations and slaves were sought to work in the unpleasant conditions. Slave labor was cheap, so eventually all of the plantation workers were slaves and indigenous people were systematically replaced with people of African origins [2].
Tasks ranged from clearing land, planting cane, harvesting, manuring and weeding. The death rate was high due to overwork and poor nutrition as well as work conditions, brutality and disease. The Amelioration Act 1798 forced planters to improve conditions but many just replaced causalities by importing more slaves [2]. |
Constant resistance and rebellions occurred until emancipation in 1834. Examples of resistance were mutiny, starvation, non-working, running away, and organized rebellion [4]. These were met with flogging, dismemberment, and even death by white masters and colonial officials.
Traditionally newly arrived Africans rebelled. Those born into slavery were more aware of consequences but not unknown for Creole slaves to rebel [4]. Tacky’s rebellion in the 1760's in Jamaica was one of the most significant of the time. This rebellion was named for the leader who had been a tribal chief in Ghana before his enslavement. Over 18 months, an estimated 60 whites were killed and over 500 slaves died [1]. In Antigua in 1736 there was a rebellion that was met with six slaves broken on a wheel, five gibbeted alive (hung in metal cages) and 77 burnt alive [1]. Nanny of the Maroons was a woman who symbolized resistance and power in the Caribbean [3]. She and other enslaved people sought refuge from brutal slavery in the mountains of Jamaica where they established a maroon community. Maroons were communities of runaway slaves that developed their own cultures, governments, trade, and military defenses. The British weren’t able to defeat the Maroons in Jamaica and were forced to established a treaty with them [3]. |
|
|
Slave traders sold slaves by delivering them straight to merchants who had placed orders, or they were sold on auction blocks. Some captives were even grabbed in a "scramble" [3]. An interesting note is that the practices of planters in Barbados were influential because they first settled in South Carolina and used the same techniques and legal codes of slavery as were used in the British Caribbean [3]. Although abolition was on the horizon for these slaves, the ideologies of slavery were still deep rooted in the society, and the slaves were not much more free after emancipation than before. |
[1] Archives, The National. “Caribbean Histories Revealed.” Slavery and Negotiating Freedom, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU, 10 Nov. 2006, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/caribbeanhistory/slavery-negotiating-freedom.htm.
[2] “Slavery in the Caribbean.” National Museums Liverpool, www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/archaeology/caribbean/.
[3] “The Caribbean.” Slavery and Remembrance, slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0105.
[4] Archives, The National. “Abolition of Slavery.” Introduction, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU, 29 Mar. 2007, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/slavery.
[2] “Slavery in the Caribbean.” National Museums Liverpool, www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/archaeology/caribbean/.
[3] “The Caribbean.” Slavery and Remembrance, slaveryandremembrance.org/articles/article/?id=A0105.
[4] Archives, The National. “Abolition of Slavery.” Introduction, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey TW9 4DU, 29 Mar. 2007, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/slavery.