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, Jos Mart, 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 around1655, 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
until1807. 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 plantations hospital. Slave revolts and risings were
ever anticipated because man simply wasnt 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 250known 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 1780s. 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 culprits 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 wasnt 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 didnt 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.

Bibliography
Miami Education FoundationHistory.comEncarta
OnlineWikipedia.comRecovered Histories.orgVirginia.edu