COMMODITY CULTURE: THE ENSLAVED EXPERIENCE Flashcards
What is the key takeaway?
The demand for commodities was so large it incentivizes the expansion of slave trade and abuse of enslaved people
What was the basis for discrimination with Medieval slavery?
Religion not race
What does the Development of the caravel (small fast ship) let people do?
sail greater distances faster and more safely
*1441: Portuguese traders sailing down the African coast first capture and enslave Africans
*C. 1502: the first African enslaved people are transported to South America
How do the debates over who can be enslaved change over time?
*16th century: Valladolid debates exclude Africans (see lectures on the New World for a refresher)
*17th century: John Locke argues that enemies defeated in a “just war” can be enslaved
*18th century: Rise of scientific racis
What was “race” first used for?
Complexion
What is Code Noir (1685) ?
governs the institution of slavery in all French colonies
*Writes that slaves can be of any race or religion, but the subtitle of the document directly refers to Black people
Rise of the Curse of Ham justification for slavery, what is it?
Thing with Noah
had three sons in bible
- He cursed one of his sons and made him black
- So all black ppl are cursed? (some logic like that)
Which country is the big slave trader?
Portugal
Where are enslaved africans from in africa?
West africa
Where does sugar grow?
*Sugar requires a tropical climate
*Grows best on flat land, close to water
*Initially grown on the South American continent, but Caribbean islands eclipse the continent by the 1650
How is sugar grown?
*Sugarcane is a kind of grass & can be propagated from cuttings of the cane
*A majority of the world’s sugar cane was still harvested by hand (or by machete) as of 2016
What is a Sugar island?
an island whose economy was either entirely or principally devoted to the production of sugar
*Sugar grows well at scale, you can grow more of it by clear-cutting land and building massive plantations
Were plantations and refineries at the same spot, or separate businesses?
Initially, plantations and refineries were separate businesses but, on the Caribbean sugar island, planters realized that they can also refine sugar on their own premises
What were the two kinds of labour for enslaved men on sugar plants?
- On the plantation = healthy men and boys
*Cutting and propagating sticky sugarcane in the hot sun (often disease or machete accidents) - In the boiling house = injured men, older men, young boys
*Supervising the boiling sugar syrup in the dark, smoky, humid boiling house
(Sugar sticks to you as it burns you)
What did enslaved women do on sugar plants?
ancillary work (support work)
*Enslaved women gave birth to the next generation of slaves = this is an area of resistance
Where did the enslaved people live on sugar plants?
Enslaved people lived in “slave villages,” where they had to cultivate subsistence crops in their spare time; some of these villages demonstrate hierarchy among enslaved people
*3-6 person per dwelling
What can we learn from the case study (Newton Plantation Barbatos)?
Low life expectancy= 29 years
Low infant mortality = contradicts a lot of previous scholarship
A lot of culture was retained (ex. cultural burials)
Where is tobacco grown?
Tobacco can be grown throughout the America (espc. Virginia - George Washington)
How is tobacco harvested?
Whole stalks harvested, dried, before leaves are picked off and cured
*Different cures produce different flavours and aromas
Who does tobacco work?
indentured workers (bound people) regardless of skin colour
What is “Foot-dragging” in tobacco work?
deliberately slowing down the work in the field as a form of resistance (as demands went u, you tried to slow it down)
What was different about Tobacco? (versus sugar and coffee)
tobacco was treated as an “artisanal” product which required careful cultivation and curing by skilled labourers
*Less “turnover” in tobacco plantations = higher life expectancy
*Sought young men to be trained in the work; women and children were often separated from men
How were tobacco plantations run?
one white overseer would supervise the work of about a dozen enslaved men = not possible on a Caribbean sugar plantation
What does coffee need to grow?
*Nutrient rich soil = volcanic is best
*Indirect sunlight
*Warm weather and moist climate
*It can take 3-4 years for a coffee plant to produce fruit
How to harvest coffee?
Picked by hand
Beans roasted
In Caribbean where does coffee grow well?
Up hill
How was the coffee plantation enslaved people different from sugar plant enslaved people?
Coffee planters tended to rely on enslaved workers that sugar planters did not want (more women, and more Central African than West African or creole)
How was the labour at the coffee plantation?
Number of enslaved workers varied dramatically from ~15 – ~300
*Depending on size of plantation: 1 enslaved worker per 1,000 trees
Almost all coffee plantation labour is outdoors = no boiling house for the sick or injured (if sick / injured, no reason to keep you)
*Birth rates on coffee plantations are low for reasons we don’t perfectly understan
Tactics of resistance:
What is Affecting the product?
(e.g. foot-dragging, sabotaging the product) often at a high cost
Tactics of resistance:
What is preserving culture?
Preserving original culture and language or cultivating African plants for food
Tactics of resistance:
What is Refusing to participate?
Refusing to participate in growing the unfree labour force (birth control, abortifacients, etc)
Tactics of resistance:
What is Self liberation?
Often goes together with, e.g. stealing seeds or tools to carry to self-liberated communities
Freeing yourself (running away)
Tactics of resistance:
What is Active rebellion?
Communities of self-liberated enslaved people, often residing in areas Europeans found inhospitable and often in community with Indigenous people
- Farming and crafts people
- Growing via reproduction or welcoming other self liberated people
What happened when Maroon communities grew to the point where they are a legitimate threat to planter society?
1740: Following the First Maroon War, Jamaican Maroons sign a treaty with the British that promises the Maroons 2,500 acres (including 2 towns) in exchange for capturing and returning escaped enslaved people
*These Maroons are effectively free at this point but they can no longer grow through self-liberation
What is important about the Berbice Uprising?
enslaved people in Berbice took over the plantation
- Set up government
- Taken down by dutch
But almost first black run plantation!
What is important about Haitian Revolution?
Successful rebellion, largest slave revolt of the modern era, Haiti is the first free Black republic
