Slavery In The Caribbean

Name: Quetta Daniel

Subject: Caribbean History

School: Nevis Sixth Form College

Candidate Number:

Topic: The main methods in which the enslaved Africans in the British Caribbean was able to survive slavery.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction Slavery is a condition in which persons were owned by others, who controlled the way in which they lived and worked. Africans were captured and were forced to work on plantations in the Caribbean. The owners were white while the Africans were black. (Browne & Carter , 2013) To justify enslavement, the blacks were treated differently to the whites. According to Browne & Carter (2013) the ways the Africans were

This crushed their spirits, damaged their bodies and was pressured with a hard labour. The damages were severe which caused many death however some survived and this is research will explain the main methods of how they survived. The Main things they survived through were Sexual Harassment, Keeping the spirit live through culture, Hitting back after the planters: Physical and Verbal attacks, Illness through the use of herbs and Religion. The sexual harassment of the females started on the journey of the middle passage and continued during enslavement on the Caribbean plantations. They were forced and raped by planters , some resisted but other were concubines of the whites this is forcing them into relationship that they were not interested in. These forced relationships came around differently to the females after they developed , they took advantage to get certain things from the management of the plantation. In some cases the relationship between the planter and the enslaved women gave more freedom to the woman. According to (Browne & Carter , 2013)Thistlewood and an enslaved woman, Phibbah was in a relationship and she received gifts from him and she also received more freedom within the plantation. Others used the relationship to gain protection for them and their children also for personal favours. In cases where the white men raped the enslaved women, the women took abortion

Some enslaved blacks that came from Africa, kept their culture while the others were interested in services organised by the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Others became members of the non-conformist organisations such as the Baptist, Moravian and Methodist churches. Another way of survival was the adoption of voodoo. The association with the missionaries allowed them to be exposed to religious teachings and education. For most of them the social gathering created good fellowship. In the case of Jamaica the association with the Baptist gave the enslaved blacks plots of land and a measure of independence from the plantation in 1838.

Conclusion

The most difficult situations experienced by the human being were the enslavement in the Americas. There was horror, pain, emotional abuse and death. The enslaved engaged themselves with cultural activities which allowed them to show their talent and the peasant activities gave them money to purchase personal items such as jewellery and accessories and even their freedom .The use of herbs to cure illnesses, religion, keeping the spirit alive through culture ,hitting back at the planter: Physical and verbal attacks and sexual harassment. These were the ways they survived the horrors, pain and emotional