School Based Assessment

(S.B.A) Caribbean History

Name: Alexi Brooks

Form: 504

Teacher: Mrs. Beckford-Simpson

Institution: Covent of Mercy Academy ‘Alpha’

Centre No: 100022

Registration No: 100022

Jamaica
 Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………… .I

Area of Research.…………………………………………………………………II

Rationale………………………………………………………………………….III

Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 2-4

Chapter 1: Non-insurrectionary Methods of Resistance: Womb

Resistance…………………………………………………………………………5-8

Chapter 2: Insurrectionary Methods of Resistance………………………………..9-11

Chapter 3: Economic Resistance…………………………………………………..12-13

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………14

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..15

Appendices………………………………………………………………………….16
 Introduction

‘Resistance began as soon as enslavement began.’1

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began during the 17th Century as a way to replace the

tobacco industry, which, up to that time was the main source of income for the West Indies

region. However, when competition from Virginia in the USA started, the tobacco industry

plummeted as Virginia was able to grow twice as much tobacco as the West Indies and could

meet the very high demands for it in England. As a result, Caribbean tobacco prices began

declining and to worsen the situation, the quality of the product was inferior to Virginia’s.

The British had to find a quick solution to their dilemma: producing sugar was their next

move and thus, slavery began as people were needed to work on the plantations.

Several arguments have been posited to justify the reason persons were taken from

Africa and no other part of the world: the most common were - slavery already existed in

Africa; slavery was wrong but it was a necessary evil; the Africans were the most able-bodied

to work such treacherous hours and; West Africa was the easiest place to access.

Since the beginning of slavery in the 17 th Century, the enslaved West African men

and women never became complacent, not even for a second, about the inhumane conditions

under which they were forced to live. The Africans were taken from their homeland in West

Africa, through what we call the Middle Passage. This is the journey that was also commonly

referred to as the Triangular Slave Trade: from England, to West Africa, to the Caribbean; the

journey formed a triangular pattern.

1
Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian

Randle Publishers, 2000.

 The enslaved people, especially the women, were treated very poorly. During the

journey, the Middle Passage was the most treacherous part for both men and women,

although the women were worse off as they were sexually abused and raped more than men.

The women were used and thrown to the side as if they were objects.

Despite their circumstance, the enslaved women developed fighting strategies that

slave masters could not control. They fought alongside the men for their freedom through

insurrectionary and non-insurrectionary, or active and passive methods of resistance,

respectively. ‘Her [their] capacity for action, reaction and aggression held firm in the face of

determined white domination.’ 2

Uda defines resistance as an ‘organized, collective action which aims at affecting the

distribution of power in a community’3 . Even before they arrived in the Caribbean, the slaves

often participated in collective resistance and ‘Women…were to be found in the vanguard of

the anti-slavery movement. As non-violent protestors, as maroons, as leaders in the areas of

social culture, and as mothers, black women were critical to the forging of the resistance

strategies; their anti-slavery consciousness functioned at the core of slave communities’

survivalist culture.’4

2
Mair, L. (2006). A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West Indies

Press : Centre for Gender and Development Studies.

3 Uda, Rudy. The Culture of Resistance. 2013 June 2013. <https://iisr.nl/wp-

content/uploads/2016/05/RU_Slavery20130630_Proverbs.pdf>\

4
Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian

Randle Publishers, 2000.

 Focus will be elucidated on the ways in which the enslaved women utilised not only

non-insurrectionary methods of resistance by using their reproductive system, how they did it

and the economic ways this impacted their owners; but also, some insurrectionary methods

employed by them will be examined. We will also see if the research question: ‘Can it be

proven that the tactics used by the enslaved women to gain freedom were effective in the

British West Indies during the 18th Century?’ can be verified.

Chapter 1 – Non-insurrectionary Methods of Resistance: Womb

Resistance

Non-insurrectionary methods of resistance can be defined as non-violent tactics

practised by the enslaved people to resist the harsh treatment meted out to them by their slave

masters.

Since the beginning of slavery, women had to find different methods to defend

themselves from the cruelty of the slave masters as they were used time and time again to

satisfy the sexual needs/desires of plantation owners. One of their main weapons of war was

via their womb (their reproductive system), or as Beckles describes it… ‘gynaecological

warfare’ 5 . Some tactics used were prolonging periods, lengthening pregnancies, aborting

their foetuses and even extending breast feeding. Beckles states that “in general…the

historical sources indicate that during the first few decades of the nineteenth Century,

weaning typically took place no earlier than between eighteen and twenty-four months, and

sometimes even later.” 6

The enslaved women utilised these methods without remorse or fear as they did not

care about the severe punishments that would often follow their action. They were resolute

not to bring a generation into the world that would prolong the Slave Trade and in essence,

reduce women to breeding stock like they were mere animals. For every slave child born in

5
Mair, L. (2006). A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West Indies

Press : Centre for Gender and Development Studies.

6
Sheperd, Verene A. Engendering Caribbean History : Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Kingston ; Miami : Ian Randle

Publishers, 2011.
the Caribbean, slavery would be all they knew, and they would be more docile and therefore

less resistant to the slave master. This relegation of the African to the level of a common

animal was an injustice that the African woman realised was in her power to deter and she

utilised all available measures, some even to the extent of murdering her own child rather

than willingly contribute to this inhumane practice.

Women used the state of their bodies during pregnancy to do the minimum amount of

work and reap the maximum number of benefits. Even though it was the practice to exempt

them from heavy work in the last trimester of pregnancy, some planters still found ways to

demean and overwork them. Prior to 1807 (when the British Slave Trade legally ended),

planters were furious when their strong, agile female slaves got pregnant as they saw this as a

loss of labour which would slow the production of sugar. Therefore, pregnant women were

at times subjected to ill-treatment such as deprivation of holidays, extended working hours,

whippings and other forms of excessive punishment. However, in the post-1807 era, when it

became imperative to replace the ‘stock’ through breeding rather than through the Atlantic

Slave Trade; 7 women were deemed important to the economic growth of the sugar industry

as plantation owners realised that they were a less risky and more affordable source of labour.

Children of the enslaved were usually breast-fed for two to three years and then

weaned by their guardians (the enslaved women). Breast-feeding women were legally entitled

to benefits that one would not have unless with child. For e.g., in the Leeward Islands Slave

Code of 1798, it was stated that women who were pregnant in excess of 5 months could only

be requested to do ‘light’ work.8

7
8 Paton Diana. Enslaved Women and Slavery before and after 1807, Newcastle University.

https://archives.history-in-focus/Slavery/articles/paton.html
 The enslaved woman with a lactating child was to be given extra food allowances,

allowed to commence work an hour after the regular time and allowed to carry the child to

her place of work.9 For the enslaved woman, this was not merely survival, it was also

resistance. But the planters were opposed to prolonging the suckling of the children as the

women who breast-fed extensively were as weak as the children. Not that the food provided

to either was always ideal: as the babies grew, they required more than breast milk to thrive

but mothers saw the cruelty of the planters as a ‘blessing’ in disguise and used the

opportunity to engage in infanticide.

Infanticide, for most, was an act of desperation, selflessness and resistance as the

women refused to allow their children to be born into this horrible and degrading lifestyle

that was slavery. Although infanticide cannot be completely proven in all cases, one can

assume that it was being done based on reports of deaths. According to the pro-slavery

writers such as George Fitzhugh and Thomas Roderick Drew, infanticide was an evil act of

selfishness; while author, Barbara Bush disagreed. She stated that slaves let their infants die

young as opposed to violently killing them as babies were not deemed fully human until eight

days after birth.

The pro-slavery slave owner (the planters) had a misconception of

infanticide/abortion. They claimed that is was done so that the enslaved women could

continue being sexually promiscuous. This accusation can be rebutted with the known fact

that throughout the British and French colonies, White men regularly raped Black women and

9
Jerome S. Handler, Robert S. Corruccini. Weaning among West Indian Slaves: A Historical and

Bioanthropological Evidence from Barbados. Ilinois: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and

Culture, 1986.
infanticide was a way of showing the planters that the Black woman had absolute control

over the next labour supply chain.

Women on the plantation also resisted enslavement through cultural practices.

Although this form of resistance was not unique to women, they did play a significant part in

the singing, dancing, drumming and other such distinctly African or creole practices. In many

cases, an African woman was the ‘obeah woman’ or ‘healer’ and the Slave master feared

their power through these occultic practises. 10

Additionally, women practised resistance by using their tongue (speech) and were

considered to be ‘ferocious’ with this ‘weapon of war’. ‘January 26… It seems that this

morning , the women, one and all, refused to carry away the trash (which is one of the easiest

tasks that can be set), and without the slightest pretence: in consequence, the mill was obliged

to be stopped; and when the driver on that station insisted on doing their duty, a little fierce

young devil of a Miss Whauncia flew at his throat, and endeavoured to strangle him: the

agent was obliged to be called in, and, at length, this petticoat rebellion was subdued, and

everything went on as usual” (M.G. Lewis: 1834 p. 139).11

10
Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian

Randle Publishers, 2000.

11
Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian

Randle Publishers, 2000.

 Chapter 2: Insurrectionary Methods of Resistance

Insurrectionary resistance can be defined as violent tactics used by the enslaved

people and was executed by both sexes on the plantation. In fact, Beckles argues that women

were sometimes more likely to receive “harsher and psychologically more damaging forms of

punishment than men”12 . It is not surprising then that women were not considered to be less

rebellious and plantation owners were “just as fearful, suspicious, and distrustful of women’s

potential activities as anti-slavery agents”13 .

Poisoning Whites was very common and was most likely to be undertaken by the

slave women, who, in the main, were the domestic workers and naturally had closer access to

the Slave Master and his family.

European Botanists wrote extensively about the powerful effect of plant poisons in the

Caribbean and the enslaved people’s vast knowledge of these medicinal plants. They found

that contact with the fruit or sap of the manchineel tree caused intense itching and a burning

sensation. The enslaved people learned how to cut the trees so that they would not succumb

to those reactions and would also use lime juice to protect themselves. Cassava was another

poisonous remedy used by the enslaved people: it contained a toxic substance called

cyanogenic glycoside, which after ingestion of its juice would produce bellyaches, swollen

abdomens, vomiting, headaches, coldness, dizziness, blurred vision and even death within a

12
Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian

Randle Publishers, 2000.

13 ibid
few hours. The juice in the root of the plant, Topeau (worms) were dried and powered and

added to the foods that the whites ate. 14

According to Lucille Mair: Caroline Biggs, a black slave woman of Cenox Estate in

St. George “wilfully, maliciously and feloniously” did put Verdigris into the Decanter of the

Rum on the side board of the Duelling House with the intent to poison Thomas Spices,

Attorney of the estate and the inhabitants of the Duelling.’ All allegations were dropped as

she was discharged when no prosecutor appeared. 15

Historical evidence reveals that the leaders of rebellions were in most cases males,

however women played a defining role in the planning and execution of rebellions across the

West Indies, successful or not. 16

Enslaved women are referred to as ‘anti-slavery feminist vanguards’ by Beckles and

Shepherd and were noted to have been important to Maroonage. In fact, women were more

than mere helpers in this form of resistance. Evidence is there to prove that they were, in

many cases, leaders. Of note, were Nanny of Jamaica (Nanny of the Maroons) and Nanny

Grigg of Barbados. Nanny Grigg was known to report news of slave rebellions that took

place in other territories/countries, such as the revolution in Haiti. This would help to fuel the

14
Museum, Natural History. Natural History Museum. 2006-08. <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources -

www/legacy/slavery-files/chapter-6-resistance.pdf>.

15
Sheperd, V. A. (2011). Engendering Caribbean History : Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Kingston ; Miami : Ian

Randle Publishers.

16
ibid.
rebellious spirit in the local slaves. Nanny of the Maroons directed an army of enslaved men

and women to defend themselves against the British Soldiers. 17

17 Sheperd, V. A. (2011). Engendering Caribbean History : Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Kingston ; Miami : Ian

Randle Publishers.
 Chapter 3 – Economic Resistance

‘In the one, she was a fixed unit of labour and breeder of units of labour; in the other, she

could be a dynamic producer/entrepreneur/person.’ 18

The sole purpose of the enslaved black woman was to reproduce another generation

of labourers who would work on the plantation. As previously discussed in this paper, before

the 1800’s, planters were infuriated when a pregnancy was discovered as time off had to be

given.19 However, in the post-abolition of slavery era, Black women’s reproductive role

became an economic necessity, for if they could not or refused to bear children, the labour

force would naturally decline. Thus, Black women were increasingly pressured to become

sexually involved with not only Black men but also White men: the master, his sons, planters

from other estates and travelling salesmen. However, the women found ways to shift focus

from their bodies to make money by selling goods grown in their gardens. They also sold

cattle, pigs, poultry, dried salted fish, crabs, fresh beef and pork.

Enslaved women formed the majority of household labourers in all British colonies

while the men worked as grooms. “The slaves used such lands to produce a variety of foods

such as tree crops, vegetables, edible herbs and roots, as well as craft materials. This produce

was primarily intended for their own domestic use. But eventually - and the details of the

process are regrettably dim - surpluses came to be taken to local markets and exchanged for

other commodities or sold for cash. The proceeds of this transaction accrued entirely to the

18 Mair, L. (2006). A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West Indies
Press : Centre for Gender and Development Studies.

19
Sheperd, Verene A. Engendering Caribbean History : Cross -Cultural Perspectives. Kingston ; Miami : Ian

Randle Publishers, 2011.

slaves from the very first. Market day, customarily held on Sunday so as to not interfere with

estate cultivation, became an important social and economic institution.”20

Bicknell shares an account of what a market day for the enslaved people was like: “It

was on a Sunday, and I had to pass by the Negro Market, where several thousands of human

beings, of various colours, but principally negroes, instead of worshipping their Maker on His

Holy Day, were busily employed in all kinds of traffick in the open streets. Here were Jews

with shops and standings as at a fair, selling old and new clothes, trinkets and small wares at

cent. per cent. to adorn the Negro person; there were some low Frenchmen and Spaniards,

and people of colour, in petty shops and with stalls; some selling their bad rum, gin, tobacco,

etc.; others, salt provisions, and small articles of dress; and many other bartering with the

Slave or purchasing his surplus provisions to retail again; poor free people and servants also,

from all parts of the city to purchase vegetables, etc., for the following week. (Bickell,

1835:66)

Whilst many were against the enslaved economically providing for themselves, a few

were very supportive of it and wanted it to prosper. Sir Charles Long, who was an English

politician, was one of them and it is said that he did not criticize or objectify to the virtual

monopoly that the slaves had begun to practise in internal marketing. Instead, he suggested

ways in which they could broaden and extend it.21

20 Beckles, H., & Verene, S. (2000). Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader. Ian Randle
Publishers.

21Mair, L. (2006). A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West Indies
Press : Centre for Gender and Development Studies.
 Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the tactics used by the enslaved women in the British

West Indies to gain their freedom in the 18 th Century, were effective. Although the women

faced whippings and other forms of torture as punishment for acts of resistance, and they

were often raped and sexually abused, they never stopped fighting for their freedom. Through

insurrectionary and non-insurrectionary methods of resistance, they posed as much a danger

as men to the peace of mind of the plantation owner and his family, and to the stability of the

economy in which they were treated as first class citizens and the slaves as mere chattel.

Black women were not considered by plantation owners to be less rebellious than men and

they were just as fearful, suspicious and distrustful of them. Women sometimes even

received harsher and psychologically more damaging forms of punishment than men and this

is a strong indication that they were a real threat to the Whites.

 Bibliography

Beckles, Hilary and Sheperd Verene. Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic New World: A Student Reader.

Ian Randle Publishers, 2000.

Hamilton-Willie, Doris V. Lest You Forget: A Study Revision Guide for CXC Caribbean History,

Resistance and Revolt. Kingston: Jamaica Publishing House Ltd., 2003.

Jerome S. Handler, Robert S. Corruccini. Weaning among West Indian Slaves: A Historical and

Bioanthropological Evidence from Barbados. Ilinois: Omohundro Institute of Early American

History and Culture, 1986.

Mair, Lucille. A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica 1655-1844. Kingston: University of the West

Indies Press : Centre for Gender and Development Studies, 2006.

Museum, Natural History. Natural History Museum. 2006-08. <https://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-

www/legacy/slavery-files/chapter-6-resistance.pdf>.

Paton Diana. Enslaved Women and Slavery before and after 1807, Newcastle University.

https://archives.history- in- focus/Slavery/articles/paton.html

Sheperd, Verene A. Engendering Caribbean History : Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Kingston ; Miami :

Ian Randle Publishers, 2011.

Uda, Rudy. The Culture of Resistance. 2013 June 2013. <https://iisr.nl/wp-

content/uploads/2016/05/RU_Slavery20130630_Proverbs.pdf>.
 Appendices

Figure 1. Showing the Occupation of the enslaved based on gender, ethnicity and condition

Figure 2. Showing the Outline of the Caribbean in which the British resided