CSEC CARIBBEAN HISTORY
THEME 3: RESISTANCE AND REVOLT
TOPIC: Forms of Slave Control

Legal Control
Slavery was a legal institution. All the colonies passed laws to control their slaves. The Spanish
instituted the Siete Partidas, the French had the Code Noir, but the English Government left it to
the individual Assemblies to enact their own laws as they thought best. Why? It saved England the
‘trouble' and time of writing these laws that might not even be fit for the colonies. In the same
vein, she felt it best that the planters through their representatives in the House of Assembly
construct these laws since they lived in the colonies. The truth was that at the time she was more
concerned, or shall we say engrossed in the increase in the revenues that she received from the
‘jewels in her Crown'. The British Caribbean had strong Assemblies with a lot of power invested
in them from England. Most if not all the members of the Lower House were sugar planters. They
all had the same attitude towards their slaves and basically agreed on how these slaves should be
treated. The British viewed their slaves as chattel property and as such, they could be sold,
transferred to another estate or used to pay debts. Slave marriage and manumission, therefore, were
not encouraged.
France chose to draw up a slave code because, unlike the English, the French colonies never had
a plantocracy which was fully in control as it was in the British colonies. Until 1785 there were no
French Local Assemblies. Therefore, all laws and policies were decided in France and carried out
by the Governor or the Intendant and the many officials on the islands.
The Spanish, on the other hand, considered the slaves to be human beings-albeit lesser human
beings! They acknowledge that slavery was wrong but argued that it was a necessary evil. The
Spanish felt that they had a Christian duty towards the slaves. This was reflected in the slave laws
themselves and account for the main differences between the Spanish slave laws (Siete Partidas)
and the British Slave Laws. For example, Spanish slaves had rights-they could not be starved,
overworked or unlawfully punished. The law guaranteed them right of entry to the Roman Catholic
Church as well as time for religious instructions. They could also marry without their owners'
permission and were allowed to have a family. One must note however that many of these laws
were just on paper.

Economic Control
Both the British and the French planters tried to control the economic life of their slaves in terms
of property, time and earnings.
- Slaves who stole animals would be put to death.
- Slaves could not legally possess property or legally make contracts.
- Slaves could not be paid for any work that they did.
- As personal property slaves could be sold in debt or left on the will for someone to inherit.
- Slaves could not own land, they were allowed a small plot to plant ground provisions on so as to
save the planter money that would have been used to import food.

Psychological/Ideological Control
The whites argued that the Africans were barbaric and uncivilized heathens. They were doing them
a favour by exposing them to European civilization and Christianity. Most of the psychological
control surrounded the slaves' race and colour which was seen as inferior to the whites. The
planters tried to crush the slaves' spirit, but this was not always easy. The Ashanti and Mandingo
slaves, for example, were known to be fierce and resistant. They were stripped of their identity,
especially the African born slaves who were forced to take the name given to them by their owner.
They were stripped of their dignity- made to feel less than a human. Men were not allowed to have
any ego. When placed in leadership positions it was of such that, the slaves that they oversaw
hated them and saw them as traitors, for example: Slave Drivers.

Social Control
How did the planters control the slaves in the areas of food, clothing, housing, and dress? They
dictated what they should eat and when they should eat. Although they built their own huts, they
were directed to build one room, one window, one door, and huts with dirt floor- signifying and
emphasizing their inferiority. Slaves were not allowed to be educated. Ignorance was a powerful
means of control. Their dress was inferior, of poor quality, lacking in style and of course
inadequate. It is said that children went naked until about age six. The adults were given two suits
of clothing per year. The domestic slaves were often given hand-me-down clothing which they
were expected to relish.

Physical Control
The slaves' every movement was watched by the owners. The overseers, drivers and watchmen had a vital
role to play in this form of control. Punishment was the biggest form of control. The whip was a stimulus
to labour and a constant form of punishment. For fear of the hundreds of lashes the slaves ‘kept in line' and
did basically as they were told. The slaves could not move off the estate without a pass. They worked for
fourteen hours a day under strict and constant supervision.

Cultural Control
The slaves were not allowed to practice their own religion. Instead, they were forced to
acknowledge their owner's religion. They were only allowed to sit at the back of the
Anglican/Catholic Churches. Certain aspects of their culture such as their music and dance were
seen as vulgar, lewd and uncivilized behaviour. The planters openly scoffed at them. Other aspects
such as drumming were banned on penalty of severe punishment, even death. The planters in
colonies with maroon’s settlements in particular would have either known or heard of the
effectiveness of the abeng and drums as instruments of communication in a revolt.
Despite all of these various methods of control, the slaves resisted the system of slavery. The
period of slavery in the Indies is punctuated with acts of resistance as well as bloody violent revolts.
TOPIC: Forms of Resistance of Enslaved Men and Women
Why did the slaves resist the system of slavery?

First and foremost is the basic desire for freedom. They rebelled against their owners- they
did not want to be owned and treated as if they were a mere piece of property.

Abuse of the masters. Women in particular were raped, denied the right and time to bond
with their children, name their children and so on.

Severe Punishments that did not fit the crime but was far greater than the crime or offence.
Methods of punishments included branding, of course whipping, putting them in stocks or
amputating a limb.

Forced labour: The ex-slaves worked without wages or reward for their labour. This was
made even more difficult to bear when they considered that the planters were able to live
in great houses, eat well and wear fine clothes because of the profit from the sugar that the
slaves grew.

Denial of Rights. The slaves were denied the most basic human rights. African slaves were
not allowed to keep the name that they received at birth but were forced to take on the name
that their master gave them. They were forbidden to marry without the master's permission.

African slaves wanted to return home. They longed for their familiar sights and scenes of
Mama Africa. They missed parents and siblings and friends back home. Some of them were
leaders in their homeland and found it more difficult to adjust to a life of bondage: for
example, Tacky was a chief in Ghana.

Inhumane treatment: slaves rebelled against and resisted the inhumane conditions under
which they were forced to live and work. They worked from sunrise to sunset every day
and as much as eighteen (18) hours per day at harvest time. House slaves had to obey the
‘whims and fancies' of the master. Spiteful mistresses often gave the attractive house slave
girls ‘demeaning' tasks to do. They were underfed and overworked.
There were two main types of Resistance: Non-Insurrectionary (Passive) and Insurrectionary
(Active)
Non-Insurrectionary resistance may be defined as the subtle methods used by the slaves to express
their rejection of slavery. It is not easily detected.
Types of Non-Insurrectionary Resistance

Suicide: the African slaves in particular believed that after death their spirit returned to
Africa. They were therefore willing to obtain the ultimate irreversible freedom.

Malingering: we know this as ‘go slow'. The slaves would deliberately work slower or
below their productive capacity.

Ill-treatment of estate animals: the slaves would deliberately wound the estate animal with
intent to harm or kill them. It would cost the planter ‘a pretty penny' to replace these
animals.

Murder by poison: arsenic was probably the most common form of poisoning, but the
slaves also used ‘potions' that they obtained from the obeah men as well as their own
concoction from trees and shrubs. For example, in 1774, an overseer on a Barbadian
plantation was murdered (poisoned) by his slaves.

Feign madness: a slave would pretend to completely misunderstand every order given to
him or her. In essence he would pretend to be ‘stupid' or insane. We refer to this as the
‘Quashie' syndrome. Some planters would keep such a slave for entertainment purposes.

Feigning illness: the slaves would sometimes feign illness, prolong an old illness or even
inflict fresh injuries.

Runaways: running away or ‘pulling foot' was a fairly common means of resistance.
Types of Insurrectionary Resistance
Insurrectionary resistance may be defined as violent acts used by slaves in groups against their
enslavement which caused large scale damage to the plantation and the whole system of slavery.

The main insurrectionary form of resistance was slave revolt. The first revolt on a sugar
colony happened in 1656, on the French island of Guadeloupe. There were more revolts as
time went on with each century having more revolts than the last. This was because as time
went on there were more Creole slaves (slaves born in the Caribbean) than African slaves
which made communication easier and also saw that any ancient African rivalries amongst
different tribes did not get in the way of organising revolts. Revolts involved:
 the burning of canefields
 the killing of estate animals
 the destruction of machinery
 the killing of whites.
What particular ways did female slaves rebel?

They prolonged the weaning process-taking up to two years, so that she could make full
advantage of the one hour in the morning and the one-hour release given before the end of
the day by some planters for breast feeding activities.

Painful though the exercise was some women opted to deliberately miscarry or commit
infanticide.

Her tongue she discovered was also a very effective weapon. Thus, insolence was a
common charge or offence that the slave woman was incessantly charged for and found
guilty.

Concubinage- Some slave women would use their sexuality and their bodies to get into
sexual relations with the planters/ slave masters so that they would be able to improve
their daily condition by getting such benefits as better meals, better accommodation and
better opportunities for their mixed-race children who were always born free. They would
also use their concubine status to undermine the role of the planter's wife and increase
their own status.

Cultural resistance- Mothers would pass on African traditions to their children although
the slave masters forbade it.