What did slaves do in the Caribbean?

What did slaves do in the Caribbean?

Enslaved and unfree workers worked within a system—whether in gold or silver mines or on sugar, coffee, or cotton plantations, for example—that was designed to extract wealth from the region for export to Europe. This generally created relationships in which Caribbean territories were subordinate to European nations.

How were slaves punished in the Caribbean?

Punishments could include amputation, disfiguring, branding and more. Slaves could also be put to death – a penalty most often enforced during the aftermath of rebellions. And they were rarely killed quickly.

How did African slavery affect the Caribbean?

The rise of slavery As planters became more reliant on enslaved workers, the populations of the Caribbean colonies changed, so that people born in Africa, or their descendants, came to form the majority. Their harsh and inhumane treatment was justified by the idea that they were part of an inferior ‘race’.

What were conditions like for most slaves?

Unsanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition and unrelenting hard labor made slaves highly susceptible to disease. Illnesses were generally not treated adequately, and slaves were often forced to work even when sick. The rice plantations were the most deadly.

What was slaves life like?

Life on the fields meant working sunup to sundown six days a week and having food sometimes not suitable for an animal to eat. Plantation slaves lived in small shacks with a dirt floor and little or no furniture. Life on large plantations with a cruel overseer was oftentimes the worst.

How were the slaves treated at that time?

Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, rape, and imprisonment. Punishment was often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was performed to re-assert the dominance of the master (or overseer) over the slave.

How were slaves treated in the Bahamas?

Some Bahamian masters were cruel and whipped their slaves. The work was often exhausting. According to the slave code of 1729, slaves could be whipped for various offences, e.g., carrying a stick or club. A law of the 1780s said they could be killed for striking a white person.

What did slaves cook?

Maize, rice, peanuts, yams and dried beans were found as important staples of slaves on some plantations in West Africa before and after European contact. Keeping the traditional “stew” cooking could have been a form of subtle resistance to the owner’s control.

How did slaves keep clean?

One respondent claimed dirt floors were the “style” upon his plantation, and enslaved people kept them “clean an’ white” with consistent sweeping. Though their cabins presented difficulties in matters of cleanliness, enslaved people persistently cleaned their cabins and garnered a sense of pride in their work.

How was slavery in the Bahamas?

Slavery was outlawed in the Bahamas in 1834, but during the U.S. Civil War Nassau served as a supply base for Confederate blockade runners. Historically, the mostly black population of the Bahamas was dominated by a white minority of wealthy farmers and merchants.

When was slavery abolished in Jamaica?

The slave trade was abolished in 1807. By then, almost 2 million slaves were traded to Jamaica, with tens of thousands dying on slave ships in the brutal middle passage between West Africa and the Caribbean. Then, after almost 250 years of rebellion and resistance, emancipation from slavery was finally won in 1838.