Name: Jason Dennis

Form: 5A
 Table of Contents

Preface……………………………………………………………………………………1

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………2-3

The British Laws…………………………………………………………………………4

Punishments……………………………………………………………………………5-6

Duties……………………………………………………………………………………...7

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..8

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………...9-12

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………….13
QUESTION: What evidence is there to prove that the Africans, who arrived in the
British West Indies between the years 1655 and 1807, were ill-treated?

THEME: Caribbean Economy and Slavery

OBJECTIVES:

♣ To examine the horrors of British West Indian Slavery

♣ To assess the conditions that slaves worked under in British plantation slavery

♣ To discuss the reason slavery was fought against by humanitarian groups

♣ To investigate why slavery was overly detested by slaves

♣ To see how British West Indian planters abused slaves to the point where they

were treated like animals

RATIONALE:

Slavery was an interesting period in British West Indian History. It was

comprised of various sectors aimed at one goal, which was to make a profit, no matter

what. Slavery was nothing to be adored because it only wrought bitterness for the

enslaved individuals. A simple prognosis is found in the words of the great poetic

philosopher and journalist, José Martí, in one of his writings, “Hatred, slavery's inevitable

aftermath”. The Hinterlands of West Africa was where it started, and it followed through

with a lot of suffering and peril before finally ending in catastrophe for the planters and

initial exultation for the slaves. This research will educate the reader about the conditions

under which slaves produced the various cash crops in the British West Indies.
INTRODUCTION

The horrible treatments of slaves will be forever engraved in the history books.

The obvious effects have been past down to generations and have been expressed through

racist evil behaviors. The hatred spread down through generations like wildfires on a hot

summer day in a wild bush. The evils of slavery were so major that the half could never

have been told. But how all this ill-treatment come to “a head”, was out of the want for a

new labour source in the Sugar Revolution. Planters wanted to invest in free labour and

did not care as much about the black workers as they did the work they yielded. This low

cost, high efficiency production, when finally achieved would have made them rich and

could even secure their place somewhere in the European aristocracy.

Taking the slaves as personal property, planters used and abused them in the most

despicable ways possible. The slaves also fought back, but not ever in a British Colony,

were slaves successful in a resistant action against planters. When slaves slipped up or

fought back, the real wrath of the planters was unleashed. The punishments for certain

simple mistakes were horrible and just furthered the already atrocious conditions under

which these individuals tried to survive. Spain ruled over most of the islands until around

1655, when the British took over some. The change in power also resulted in a change in

laws, and thus slave laws. The evil had just started since the “La Siete Partidas” (Spanish

Laws) were more compassionate in their approach to the dealing with the slaves than the

Police Laws of the British (developed between 1662 and 1705).

 After the takeover of the islands by the British, the Slave Trade continued until

1807. Because of the trade, planters found it easy to replace slaves and thus could treat

them anyway they liked. After the trade, the hope of the abolitionists was not made any

better as the planters realized that buying was not really important as long as the slaves

reproduced, because the children would be property of the planters.

The different methods of punishments continued and were upgraded time after

time in order to keep slaves in order. Some of these included whipping, being put in the

stocks and being put in the plantation’s “hospital”. Slave revolts and risings were ever

anticipated because man simply wasn’t made to live without freedom and would

generally fight anyone who tries to contravene such a right. In these slaves’ cases, there

were no rights such as freedom which belonged to them, because the color of bond

slavery was black.

THE BRITISH LAWS

The British colonies of the 1700s passed laws to control slaves. No slave was free

to marry, vote, move about freely, or meet with friends. On the other hand, slaves legally

could be whipped, starved, tortured, mutilated, or branded. The British took so many of

the slaves’ freewill that the slaves could be forced to have children or to work eighteen

hours a day. Slaves could be abused or murdered or sold at any time since they were

regarded as a piece of property. In spite of the strict laws and punishments, slaves did

rebel against this treatment. From the 1500s to the 1800s, there were more than 250

known slave revolts.

The word “chattel”, used to describe the slaves, is derived from the Latin word

“capitale” which means “property”. The slaves were like objects and were treated like

objects. A scenario that could be related to the slave to master relationship is a man

owning a chair. That man can destroy his chair as much as he wants because the chair is

his. The Codes stated clearly that all slaves were under supreme rule of GOD followed by

the King and their masters and his household.

PUNISHMENTS

Whenever slaves were accused of doing wrong they were punished either

immediately or after their court hearing. In the courts, a slave accused of any crime

against a white person was doomed. No testimony could be made by a slave against a

white person. Therefore, the slave's side of the story could never be told in a court of law.

And of course, slaves were never members of juries as well. The punishment varied on

the type of charge and the zone where they resided (rural or urban).

Punishments for disobeying colonialists, (according to data from records kept on

numerous plantations) differed between men and women. When male slaves were

punished, they received on average 15 to 20 “stripes” from the driver (slave who was

given whip to direct other worker slaves), or by a “Jimmy Jumper” (a slave randomly

appointed by the driver to use the whip). Common punishment for women included a

varied period of time in the stocks, solitary confinement and even whipping. Whipping

was finally abandoned for females in the late 1780’s. The punishment for Caribbean slave

women was generally less physically demanding than that of Caribbean slave men.

If a planter had a slave who was always running away, he was allowed to fit him

with an iron yoke that had three long hooks projecting from it to hinder his future

escapes. Some slaves were forced to hide meat in their cabins. If the planter discovered

that the slave was stealing food rations, he is directed to cut off the culprit’s ear or brand

the letter “S” in his/her forehead or cheek. Any enslaved person was put to death if found

guilty of committing serious offences or even suspected of doing so: for example plotting

slave risings.
 For offenses such as the destruction of goods, the slave, if convicted and found

guilty, was to "be publicly and feverishly whipped, not exceeding forty lashes." If the

slave repeated the said offense they could have the tip of his or her nostrils cut, and be

branded in the forehead with a hot iron, that the mark thereof may remain. If a slave was

found guilty a third time, then that slave shall be judged and be put to death.

Wounds were normally left open and bleeding to bacteria and slaves who were

too severely battered were just finished of with. These kinds of justified killings they did

to spend as less on labor as possible. On certain plantations, mutilation wasn’t allowed

but on others, the deeds done to put slaves in “order” were endless. Most of these

mutilations were instituted to make examples of the slaves who had tried to escape, and

normally in these cases, whole body parts would have been lost.

In the urban areas especially, slaves would be punished sometimes by public

humiliation. Some of these punishments included: being put in stocks, being put in the

pillory, hanging high in an iron gibbet until dead and hanging by body parts (hands, feet,

ribs). Slavery was an establishment of terror, made to drive fear into slaves so that they

would obey their superiors. Whippings were normally done with the culprit tied to a post

or a cartwheel. There were also incidents where a slave who struck a white person was

burnt to death.
DUTIES

The slaves all had to do some unpleasant jobs for their masters at some time

or another. Domestic slaves used to have to act as mimes for the entertainment of guests

and children and would normally be sent back to field duties if the masters didn’t

appreciate the act. The field slaves got the worst of the planters’ wrath, because they did

the hardest work on the plantations. Artisans were normally hired out and received some

percentage of the money paid for their services.

In the fields, whipping was very common as slaves used to try to take breaks.

They always showed their resistance to the masters and were punished dreadfully. If a

slave worked too slowly, the only method used to speed them up, was whipping. This

sometimes resulted in them dying of fatigue. The only breaks they got were breakfast and

supper. The food they received was not much either, so they got tired after sometime in

the field.
CONCLUSION

In conclusion, slaves were badly treated by their undeserving, iniquitous, ruthless

masters. The slaves had done nothing to deserve such treatments. As the ancient Greek

fabulist and author, Aesop said once, “Better to starve free than to be a fat slave”. Slavery

encompassed both the mental and spiritual boundaries. Slaves tried to use “Obeah” and

“Voodoo” to try to release their minds from the clutches of slavery. It is said that the

slaves’ resistance to their condition was similar to, and influenced by, the response of the

Amerindians to being enslaved by the Spanish. This is said because they not only refused

to work but also tried to run away to join other bands of people to help fight the whites.

They would both prefer death to bondage.

 APPENDIX

Three-Hooked Yolk (Representation)

Antigua Cane Cutters (by William Clark)

Cat O’ Nine Tails

 Domestic Slave Boy

Hanging by Ribs (by William Blake)

Jamaican Rising
Jimmy Jumper Whipping

Punishment Mask

Whipping Scars in Back

Pillory In Spanish Town

Stocks

Nose Tip Cut Off

 Bibliography

Miami Education Foundation

History.com

Encarta Online

Wikipedia.com

Recovered Histories.org

Virginia.edu