Slavery in the Caribbean in terms of their social structure... (laws, punishments, responsibilities, manumission etc.)

1. CARIBBEA
N HISTORY
(2104)
TOPIC:
THE SOCIAL
STRUCTURE OF THE
CARIBBEAN SLAVE
SOCIETY
“GROUP #3”

2. GENERAL INFO ABOUT
SLAVES OF THE CARIBBEAN
Generally, slaves were treated better in colonies
of the catholic & Latin countries, Portugal, Spain
and France, than those of the Protestant (free)
and Teutonic (Germanic) countries, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Britain.
WHY???

3. 1. A strong relationship existed between the Mother
countries and the colonies, due to them having a
thriving centralized government. For instance, Spain,
France and Portugal all had detailed slave codes of
law.
2. The clergy had a major influence in the drafting of the
slave codes. E.g. the Catholic Church encouraged the
marriage of slaves and forbid the separation of slave
families. However, in the British colonies slave marriage
was prohibited.

4. 3. The Spaniards and Portuguese colonies did not pay as
much attention to the race and color of its people,
unlike those of the British colonies. The Spaniards &
Portuguese colonies allowed courtship between white
and black. One example of racial tolerance in the New
World, was in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Children
born of these relationships in Latin colonies, were often
manumitted by the master, and in some cases so was
the mother.

5. 3. In British colonies manumission was either
prohibited or made difficult. The French stood
somewhat in the middle of the Spaniards and
British.

6. Slave Societies in the British
West Indies
British West Indian colonization began with:
o St. Kitts in 1623
o Barbados in 1627.
The former was used as a base for British colonization of:
o Nevis (1628)
o Antigua (1632)
o Montserrat (1632)
o Anguilla (1650)
o Tortola (1672)
The English admiral William Penn seized Jamaica in 1655

7. Slaves in the “British Islands”
Slave legislation within the British islands was
considered to be their own affair. For instance
when the British Government proposed some
measures that would aid in the betterment of slave
life within the British colonies, the colonial
legislatures ignored their proposals.

8. The legal position of slaves under the British colonies was
that “they had no rights under the law”, while for the
Spaniards and French, there was an official known as the
“Protector Of Slaves”. However, such a man did not usually
meet up to his name, especially when it came to problems
arising between the master and slave.

9. Slave Laws
Slave laws were said to have been established due to fear
of the slaves. The severity of the laws increased over
centuries as the number of slaves increased, this not only
applied to British but also the Spaniards and French. There
were laws known as “Deficiency Laws” which basically
aimed in keep a safe ratio 10:1 between slaves and whites
respectively. These laws were however disregarded by the
18th century.

10. In Jamaica
1700 : 15:1
1700+ : 20:1
With the continuous increase of the number of slaves, the
fear of revolt or rebellion was great.

11. Humanitarians & Punishments of
Slaves
Occasionally they were governors and slave
masters who were humanitarians. Their aim was
to increase the standard of living of slaves and
to ensure better treatment of them. Some
humanitarians succeeded with their aim while
others did not.

12.  Christopher Coordington
In 1699 he became the Governor of the Leewards.
He issued instructions “to endeavor to get a law
restraining inhuman severities and punishing the
willful killing of negroes by death, and to also
encourage the conversion of negroes”. This met with no
response from the legislature.

13.  Joshua Steele
He was a humanitarian slave master, that owned
three plantations in Barbados from 1773 to 1790. He vastly
improved the living conditions and way of life of slaves on
his plantation. He allowed them to:
1. Rent land from him and repay with labor. He even
payed them for some of their services.
2. In 1783, he abolished arbitrary punishments on
his estates.
Sadly he died in 1791. 

14. Severe punishments continued after his death. Slaves were
executed and mutilated for minor offences.
 The most cruel treatment of slaves was in Jamaica. Also
in Haiti and Cuba. However in Belize, the slave
conditions was comparable to that of the free white
slaves who were generally poor.
 Despite the harsh slave codes in Barbados , the slaves
were treated generally well.

15. The Powers & Responsibilities of
the master over the slave
A master had absolute authority over his slave. A
slave was considered a property, “a thing” . In
1674 in Jamaica slaves were considered as
“goods and chattels”.
Chattel – is defined as a movable possession, or
something to be used for a mortgage for a debt.

16. The level of authority that the master had over his slave
was “almost” absolute, due to the fact that the master did
not have the power of life and death over his slave.
It was not a capital offence for a master to kill his slave.
However, in 1724 Governor Hart of Antigua tried to have
the execution of a slave made a capital offence, but
unfortunately the Antiguan Legislature did not agree.

17. The 1724 Act in Antigua aimed to prevent the inhumane
treatment of slaves, by laying a fine on those found guilty.
However, the offence was so lightly regarded that the fine
in Antigua was between £100 and £300.

18. This got better with time, a law was passed in Jamaica in
1739, which stated;
“Whoever shall kill a slave out of willfulness,
wantonness, or bloody-mindedness, shall suffer three
months imprisonment and pay £50 to the owner of the
slave. If the party so offending be a servant he or she shall
have on the bare back thirty-nine (39) lashes.”
The execution of a slave, later
became a capital offence.

19. The first known instant of the enforcement of this law, was
the hanging of a white planter for murdering a slave in the
British West Indies in 1776 in Grenada.
A more famous case was that of Arthur Hodge in
1811. He was well known for his cruelty towards slaves. He
murdered a slave through excessive punishment and
brought to justice. The driving force for justice being
served in this case was by Governor Elliot. He ordered the
execution of Hodge who was hanged in May, 1811.

20. Another equally famous case, was that of Edward Huggins
a planter, who basically got a way with murder. Reason
being, in 1810 he marched twenty of his slaves to the
marketplace in Charlestown and had them whipped by two
expert whippers in the presence of his two sons. It is said
that one female died while others were mutilated. This man
was so cruel and merciless that he let one of his slave men
receive 365 lashes (that’s lashes for everyday in a year),
while a woman received 292. Despite all of this, this man
was yet “acquitted”.

21. In 1817 he was again acquitted for his cruelty towards
slaves.
These two cases show that even after abolition, (1807) the
whites had no regards for the law as it pertains to the
execution of a slave.
The law stated that a man could not legally, “maim,
emasculate, dismember or mutilate” his slaves.

22. In Jamaica, mutilation of slaves was allowed, however an
attempt was made to band this in 1784, but was rejected by
the Assembly.
In Bahamas, an person guilty of performing inhumane acts
against a slave, had to pay £2 to the church.

23.  A master was responsible for the slaves’ food, shelter,
clothes, medical treatment and care in old age. When
food was in high quantities, slaves were usually given an
adequate amount of food.
 However, when their was scarcity in food, the slaves
were usually the first to be affected.
 The master was also responsible for providing building
materials, so as to allow the slaves to build their living
quarters.

24. Manumission
 Manumission was entirely dependent on the owner.
 In Barbados, in order for a slave to be manumitted, it
was by law in 1739 that deposits had to be made
before any slave be manumitted.
 This was copied by Antigua in 1761 and St Vincent in
1767.

25.  Manumission was not always popular among the slave
society, due to it being hard for them.
 In Jamaica, a law of 1717 stated that a manumitted slave
had to carry a certificate of freedom and wear a badge
with the blue cross on the right shoulder at all times. The
certificate would often times be misplaced, so authorities
took advantage of this by making it difficult and
dangerous for manumitted slaves to move form parish to
parish.

26. It was illegal for a manumitted slave, to work along side a
slave, as it was felt that this would lead to rebellion and
resentment.
HOW WAS A SLAVE
MANUMTTIED????

27.  In some parts of the Caribbean, a slave could buy
his manumission with his owner’s consent, and the
price being fixed by the owner himself.
 However, the Spaniards law of manumission
allowed a slave to buy his manumission without the
owner’s consent at the price the owner bought
him/her for at the time of purchase.

28. Marriage
In the British Islands, slave marriage on the whole was
prohibited. There were four main reasons why colonial
legislatures did not approve of slave marriages:
1. According to the colonial legislatures, slaves basically
had no rights outside of what his master permitted him to
do. Slave marriage was no exception, since slaves had no
right to a wife and a family.

29. 2. If a slave was to build a family, he would be
provided with the sense of love and security that
comes with family ties. This was feared due to the
fact that the master would not entirely have control
of his slave.
3. According to the law, a slave could not enter any
contract or promise, which is basically a
commitment, and that somewhat makes up a
marriage.

30. 4. It was another step in degrading the slave by denying
him basic human needs and feelings.
In a lot of cases a slave woman had to accept a union
between herself and a freeman (white man), because the
proportion of white females to white males was low, and it
was considered unnatural for a white man to live on his
own.

31. Education
In most of the Islands, slaves were not allowed to be taught
how to read and write. Because according to the masters, if
the slaves were taught they would be more willing to obey if
kept ignorant, and would have no knowledge of freedom or
even the word itself.

32. Slaves being taught how to read and write was
resisted right up to the time of emancipation. For
instance, General Murray, Governor of Demerara,
told John Smith that he would be banished from
the territory if he taught slave to read.

33. Despite their resistance, towards slaves being taught to read
and write, after some time slaves did successfully learn to
read and write. As feared by the planters, ideas of equality
and freedom were thought and spoken about among the
slaves.
‘Daddy’ Sharpe, the Jamaican hero, is a very famous
example of a literate slave who used the education he
acquired to educate other slaves about freedom in 1831 and
1832.

34. Religion (Christianity)
In the British Islands, slaves were with no doubt
forbidden from becoming Christians, because the
planters felt that Christianity would lead to
emancipation, or deprive the owner of full rights over
his slaves.
 A law in Jamaica, said that slave can be baptised but
it did not make them free.

35.  According to the Mother country it was the duty of the
planters to convert their slaves to Christianity.
 In 1685 King James II of England, stated that all
Negroes should be baptized, and if the master did not
allow this, he is said to be committing a sin.
 The Anglican church had no play in the above, since this
was the church of planters, and obviously took their
sides on this matter.

36.  In 1658 the first Quaker missionaries arrived to convert
slaves. However, in 1676 the Barbados Assembly
prohibited Quaker missions from having slaves at their
meetings.
 In the 18th century Methodists, Moravians and Baptists
tried to convert the slaves to Christianity, but this was not
successful because they were persecuted by the
planters. It got to such an extent that the planters stoned
one of the Methodist Meeting houses in Barbados, in
1786.

37.  The Governor of British Guiana described missionaries,
as “ignorant and hot-headed fanatics anxious to convert
everything intro persecution…they degraded the white
inhabitants…they produced discontent among the
negroes”.

38. Punishments
All punishments that slaves had to deal with were very
severe, despite who it came from.
The death penalty was awarded just by a click of a
finger, for some very minor offences.
 For instance one of the laws of Barbados in 1688
made slave thefts of more than shilling punishable
by death.

39.  The death penalty was not only given in the form of
hanging, but also by breaking slaves into pieces, and
even burning them, which occurred in Montserrat in 1699.
These forms of punishment were also applied to runaway
slaves.
 In Jamaica in 1740, if a slave so happen to strike a white
man, he was put death by burning. Another common
punishment for this act, was the cutting off of the hand.

40. These barbarous methods of punishing slaves were chiefly
applied to slaves that rebelled in some way or those that ran
away.
 With respect to punishment for runaway slaves, there was a
scale for the severity of the punishment depending on how
long the slaved absented himself from work. For instance, in
1717 The Barbados Legislature prescribed cutting off of the
foot for one month’s absence, which rose to death for a
year’s absence.

41.  Penalties for harboring runaways were also sever. In
St. Vincent by a law of 1767, 50 lashes were given
for the first offence, rising to 150 for the third
offence.
 They were even punishments for revolting, or even
plotting revolt. The maximum penalty for this action
was death by hanging. One of the earliest slave
revolts was in Barbados in 1649. Eighteen (18) of
the rebels were executed.

42.  Despite burning, hanging etc., whipping was still the main
form of inflicting punishment upon a slave. If a slave did not
step aside for a white man in the street he was whipped.
Usually had to be whipped 39 times, however this was
rarely abide by, which therefore lead to the mutilation or
death of that slave.
The act of fining or imprisonment were not applicable
punishments for slaves, due to obvious reasons.

43. Slave Societies in the Spanish
West Indies
o Hispaniola (1493)
o Puerto Rico (1508)
o Jamaica (1509)
o Cuba(1511)
o Trinidad (1530)

44. The other European powers established a presence
in the Caribbean after the Spanish Empire declined,
partly due to the reduced native population of the
area from European diseases. The Dutch, the
French, and the British followed one another to the
region and established a long-term presence. They
brought with them millions of slaves imported from
Africa to support the tropical plantation system that
spread through the Caribbean islands.

45. Spanish Slave Codes
o The Spanish had a slave code called Las Siete Partidas.
o It was a body of normative rules drawn up in the thirteenth
century, based on the Code of Justinian, a Christian Roman
Emperor.
o The Spanish Code acknowledge that slavery was an evil but a
necessary evil for the economic development of the colonies.
o The Partidas envisaged the slave as a "persona" and not as
"mere property“. The master was regarded as having duties
towards his slaves, as well as rights over them.

46.  The Spanish slave code was probably the most
humane in its principles ever to be introduced in
the West Indies. It appears to have been the one
section of the West India slave law in which was
made the unequivocal assertion that liberty is the
natural and proper condition of man.

47. The code dictated the following aspects of slaves lives:
Manumission
 Slaves can be manumitted without owner’s consent at the
price of the slave at the time of purchase
Marriage
 According to the Partidas, slave marriages were allowed
without the consent of the owner.
Impact of the Code on the Life of
a Slave

48. Religion/ Christianity
 The master was responsible for instructing the slave
in Christian faith and had to set aside certain days
for this purpose.
 Slaves had to be given Sundays and Holy Days free
from work.

49. Punishments
 The owner could not kill his slave or ill-treat him
to the point of suffering.
 Also, he could not overwork or underfeed his
slaves.
 A slave could appeal to the courts against ill-
treatments.

50. Other Stipulations of Las Siete
Partidas
 The master had to provide clothing, clothing and care for
the slave in his old age.
 The slave had a right to his ground with the consent of his
owner.
 A slave could purchase his freedom without the consent
of his owner by merely repaying his purchase price, if
necessary by periodic repayments.

51. French colonisation too began on St. Kitts, the British and
the French splitting the island amongst themselves in 1625.
It was used as a base to colonise :
o Guadeloupe (1635) and Martinique (1635)
o St. Martin (1648)
o St Barts (1648)
o St. Lucia(1643)
Slave Societies in the French West
Indies

52. o Grenada (1649)
o St Croix (1650), but was lost completely to Britain in
1713.
o Dominica (1715)
o St. Vincent (1719)

53. Code Noir
The control and treatment of slaves in the French
West Indies was dictated by Code Noir from France.
It was created in 1685 and lasted until 1804 when it
was replaced by Code Napoleon.

54. Manumission
 Manumitted slaves have the same rights as free
persons
Religion/ Christianity
 All slaves must be baptised.
 Slaves should not work on Sundays or Holy Days.
Stipulations of Code Noir as it relate
to Basic Aspects of a Slave’s Life

55. Marriage
 Slave marriage was allowed but the owner’s
consent must be given.
Punishment
 Sexual intercourse between master and his slave
to be punished by confiscation of the slave
 Death penalty to be inflicted for striking master or
mistress

56.  Absenteeism of one month to be punished by
cutting off ears and branding on the shoulder.
Absent twice in one month to be punished by
cutting off the buttock and branding the other
shoulder. Absent thrice in one month to be
punished by death.
 Torture and mutilation to be prohibited under
penalty of confiscation of slave

57. Other Stipulations of Code Noir
 Rations and clothing are to be provided by owner
 Old and sick slaves are to be fed and maintained
 Slaves are forbidden to sell sugar or any other
produce without owner’s permission
 Owners have the right to free a slave after twenty
years of service

58. Socio-Economic System
 A socio-economic system was used by slave
owners in the West Indies to control slaves.
 This was a class system whereby a slave can be
promoted as reward for loyalty, obedience and
good service.

59. Classes of Slaves
o Domestic Slaves
o Artisans Slaves
o Factory Slaves
o Field Slaves