Women Field Workers in

Jamaica During Slavery

LUCILLE MATHURIN MAIR

Introduction
In present times, we find it very difficult to find the true number of

female labourers in Jamaica and the Caribbean as most of the work

provided for this gender mostly goes unnoticed. This is a true reflection
of the information about female slaves during the slave period.
Recent and current scholarship, such as Orlando Pattersons sociology
of Jamaican slavery and Berry Higmans demographic analysis of the
Jamaican slave plantation have finally shed a light on the true
involvement of female slaves in Jamaica.

Sugar placed Jamaica at all time high during the

eighteenth century establishing it as Britains most

prized transatlantic economy.
In 1805 it was the worlds largest exporter of sugar
desiring most of the island labour, capital and land.

In 1832 sugar employed 49.5 per cent of the slave

work force with the majority of these workers being

women. The ratio was 920 males to 1000 females.

According to Patterson, in his study of the labour

force on Rose Hall estates in St. James ,Orange River

and Green Park estates in Trelawny, in 1832, most of
the field work was left to women because men were
spread over a wider variety of skilled and nonpraedial work such as craftsmen, sugar boilers and
carpenters.
On the Rose Hall estate there was a large amount of
female field slaves, 1 to every 2, as opposed to males
with 1 in every 8 due to more job options for males.

Another factor that caused this was the 1807

abolition of the slave trade where the planters no

longer had control over the amount of each gender
was on the plantation. This was then further
impacted by the occurrence of natural increase from
a male to a female excess.
The European traditional idealistic views of sexdifferentiated labour was also seen in the sexual
division of labour.

During the period of white indentureship male slaves

took the more physically demanding work of field

work while the whites were the skilled workers and
women worked as domestic workers.
Because the white indentured servants had the
advantage of race and short-term bondage, this
enabled them to climb the Creole socio-economic
ladder opening opportunity to become property
owners or to migrate.

As they moved up, they took their skills with them

leaving their old areas of work open. Male slaves were

then recruited into those areas of labour
William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London in the
1780s owned a complex of 12 properties throughout
the parishes of Clarendon, Westmorland and St Ann:
majority of which produced sugar with the other
producing livestock and cattle pens. Together they
provided evidence of labour force of 2,204 containing
a slight excess of men- 802 males and 778 females.

A minority of men 291 or 36% of the male total

population and 444 or 57% of the female total

population.
The men who were not field labourers, were among
other things including stonemasons, wharfmen,
coopers, sawyers, doctors assistance and tailors.

Domestic work was the next most significant group

of female labourers and accounted for 59 or 13 per

cent of the sample. This groups comprised of
washerwomen, house women, and cooks.
9/18 of these women were mulatoes, consistent with
the idea that lighter skinned people are incapable of
doing field work and these women according to Elsa
Goveia did not have much skills.

Women with acknowledged skills numbered 34 or

8% of Beckfords slaves, and included housewives,

doctresses, field nurses and seamstresses. The
mulattoes dominated as seamstresses- 11 out of a
total 14.
The other labels were mostly given to the women
who were seen as physically unable to do field work.

Value
The value of slaves also differed by gender. The high

value of female slaves came from their physical

strength and the males value depended on their
skills.
The official valuation of 1789 showed that women
were valued highest between 75 and 85. with the
execption of a mid-wife the costed between 80 and
100
Males were slightly more costly than females costing
between 120 and 300.

Health
The health of field women was mostly poor . On

Beckfords estate 188 or 13 per cent or the 604

women and girls were in various stages of physical
disability.
Of the 199 that were over 40, 68% suffered from
impaired health.
The young female adults were in presumably good
health as they had to manage the harsh work given to
them.

Reproduction
The female population was also pushed to procreate

and multiply.
Consolidated Slave Acts of 1792 stated that: every
woman with six children should be exempt from
hard labour. Several awards were given to mothers,
adopted mothers and midwives who produced
healthy women.

Slaves