UNIT 4

Beyond the Rivers of Babylon:

Enslavement and Freedom of West
Africans in the Caribbean

By Friedrech Nietzsche

The Hunted Slaves

Source: http://tinyurl.com/qjbvqez

Overview

The terms “slavery” and “slaves” are loaded ones that often make us sad as we reflect
on the horrible conditions under which enslaved Africans were forced to work. We
need to understand though that, even though unpleasant, slavery has always been
associated with all human civilisations and its occurrence has been well documented
throughout most parts of the world. This statement means that human slavery existed
in such diverse areas as Greece, China, India, Africa and even in England itself. This last
location may come as a shock to many of us as we often associate this form of servitude
with dominated colonies. However, human slavery existed in different forms and by
different names at different times and locations throughout the entire world. For
example, in some systems, the right of the enslaved person to liberty was severely
curtailed while in other systems the enslaved person was allowed much autonomy of
movement and responsibility. (John Thornton, 1992, p.74)

The unifying point in all these systems of slavery however, was the procurement of
captive labour – working without wages and usually under compulsion. In this session,
we will examine how West Africans were used in Caribbean chattel slavery and the
legacy they left to the present day Caribbean Civilisation.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 1

Learning Objectives

By the end of this Unit you will be able to:

1. Elaborate on the meaning of “Caribbean Chattel” Slavery
2. Discuss how enslavement affected the demography of Caribbean Civilisation.
3. Value the legacy of West Africans through their inclusion into the Caribbean.

This Unit is divided into one session as follows:

Session 4.1: The introduction of West Africans into the Caribbean and their
subsequent contributions.

Reading Resources

Required Reading

Campbell, J. F. (2015). “Fixed melancholy”: Suicide on an 18

th Century British West Indian plantation.

– (Unpublished work available on the FOUN1101 course page)

Additional
Spencer, (2013).The Mighty Sparrow Slave [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://tinyurl.com/np5arcb

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 2

Session 4.1

The Introduction of West Africans into

the Caribbean and their Subsequent
Contributions

Introduction
When focusing on the practice of enslavement in Africa, one notes the variations among
scholars’ views concerning its creation and spread. Scholars note especially the
instituting of codes of conduct to limit abuses on the enslaved people. On the one hand,
this was seen as good as it sought to protect some of the rights of the enslaved but, at
the same time, by creating laws for slavery it sought also to legitimise the practice and
made it easier for the system to spread as a legitimate (codified) system of labour
exploitation. This came about largely because of the modifying influence of Islam on its
early implementation in Africa. Therefore, in order to properly understand Caribbean
chattel slavery, we will need to understand also its antecedents in West Africa and how
these antecedents affected the West Africans that were brought to the Caribbean as
enslaved people.

Caribbean ‘Chattel’ Slavery

The sugar planters of Barbados, Jamaica, and the Leeward Islands were the first English
people to practice slavery on a large scale. They had no real antecedents or laws to go by
to direct the institution of slavery in the Caribbean. The practice that subsequently
resulted and the laws that were created to guide the sugar planters only emerged out of
necessity. Since the planters themselves were central to the laws that were made, and
since the enslaved person had no rights whatsoever in the spirit and letter of the law,
what emerged was a system that did not even recognise the enslaved West African as a
person. The term ‘chattel’ slavery has often been used to describe the type of
enslavement practiced in the Caribbean. Within this system the enslaved West Africans
were ‘chattel’, i.e. property that could be bought and sold with impunity. As property,
they had no rights before the law and could be murdered or raped without any form of
redress. The most that was done on the death or mutilation of an enslaved person was
that some form of compensation was given to owners for the destruction of their
property in case of death or injury to the West

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 3

African by another white person. As a result, the reality of enslavement on a Caribbean
sugar estate was, in fact, the destruction of the person both mentally and physically.

On arrival in the Caribbean, and after being displayed and subjected to inspection by
potential buyers, the enslaved people were sold and taken to the sugar plantations, in
many cases never to leave alive. On the plantation a necessary process of social de-
personification continued, which was engendered to keep the enslaved people

LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.1

After the failure of the system of white bonded labour to effectively contribute to the
development of a thriving sugar economy in the Caribbean, Africans were transplanted
from West Africa to the Caribbean.
A. Was bonded white labour equivalent to chattel slavery?
B. In what ways did the practice of Caribbean chattel slavery differ from traditional West
African slavery?
C. Do you think that skin colour provided benefit within Caribbean slave society?

Give your answer in approximately 300 words.

PORTFOLIO LEARNING ACTIVITY 4.2

Listen to the following song and give your analysis using the questions that
follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH-UUCvVab8

How relevant are the lyrics of the song “Sexy Employers” (1987) Sandra “Singing
Sandra” Des Vignes:
A. to the life of an enslaved woman during 18 century Caribbean chattel slavery?
B. to women in a 21st century Caribbean society with which you are familiar?
Give your answer in approximately 300 words.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 4

tractable and amenable to the dictates of management. Daily floggings, brutal and
unregulated till the nineteenth century, and the possibility of mutilations and death, meant
that enslaved life was always an unpleasant and risky affair. Indeed, even when laws were
brought to regulate the treatment of enslaved people, these were implemented to protect
and preserve ‘property’ in the colonies rather than for genuinely humane reasons.
Whatever the intent of the sugar planters however it is clear that the large scale importation
of millions of Africans added to the demographic diversity of the region as this race of
people have continued to diversify the region to this very day.

The System of Enslavement in West Africa

Empowered Man

Source: http://tinyurl.com/p9we4zb

Slavery existed in West Africa long before it was brought to the Caribbean. However,
surviving evidence shows that in many cases the nature and tone of traditional West
African slavery differed remarkably from the type of enslavement instituted by the
sugar planters in the Caribbean. As pointed out by John Thornton (1992), “... slavery
was rooted in deep-seated legal and institutional structures of African societies, and it
functioned quite differently from the way it functioned in European societies” (p.74).
Thornton’s point concerned the extensive and influential role of the enslaved person as
steward of the master’s business and recognition of kinship ties and autonomy that
respected the right of personhood, even within the context of worker/master
subordination.

1
Although ordinances were passed as early as 1823 (which included the abolition of the whip), the implementation of these laws in
sugar colonies like Jamaica was impossible because of the strenuous objections of the resident planter class. Williams (1961, p. 197).

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 5

Thornton’s assertion was based on first person accounts of the West African system of
African slavery and is a good comparative view for us, especially in the context of what
would emerge later in the Caribbean as ‘chattel’ slavery. These accounts are in the form
of records left by contemporary observers of the West African practice like Giacinto
Brugiotti da Vetralla and Valentin Fernandes who recorded African slave customs in
Central Africa and Senegambia around the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Their
observations led them to believe that African slaves were “slaves in name only” (p 88).

To be noted here is that traditional West African slavery, in all periods, differed from
Atlantic/Caribbean “chattel” slavery in that there was no dominant race factor to it.
Since master and slave shared the same skin colour, the basis for enslaved status was
more determined by other social, political and economic criteria. One way that a person
obtained enslaved status was by birth. In this regard, and unlike Caribbean systems of
enslavement, “being born into slavery provided the slave with some added rights and
protections in comparison to those enslaved after birth …” Manning (1990) p.88. Slaves
were sometimes the result of debt payment by masters or by the enslaved themselves.
In this sense a form of voluntary enslavement was common. Slaves were also the result
of the transfer of people, as slaves, from one lineage group to another through pawning
(short term loans) or bride price (permanent) (Manning 1990).

Enslaved people were also criminals who became “slaves” as a punishment for their
crimes or witchcraft. Above all, warfare was the chief means by which enslaved people
were obtained. Enslaved people were also obtained through kidnapping on an
individual level; witchcraft accusations in which persons were enslaved for carrying on
illicit supernatural activities; exaction of tribute, in which tributaries were required to
render up some of their own to a higher authority; and self-enslavement or sale of one’s
kin in the wake of famine or epidemic. (Manning, 1990)

The very nature of enslavement in West Africa meant also that enslaved people were
not just traded commodities to be worked to death, but were also skilled producers in
agriculture, crafts, mineral processing, domestic activities and animal rearing. Although
the mode of production was similar, the social relationships that underpinned the
productive mode differed between West African and Caribbean practices. This is not to
say that in West African slavery there were no abuses to the system. Rather, the point is
that, in general, unlike Caribbean slavery, enslaved people in West African society were
also valued as social beings as well as economic
FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 6
factors.

In West Africa, therefore, the value of the enslaved person was understood beyond
capital terms. African slave masters knew that enslaved people were the basis of their
wealth and, in a society where land did not have the private value that it commanded in
Europe, emphasis was transferred to the value and person of the enslaved within the
economy. West African laws and customs allowed a more relaxed appreciation of the
enslaved person within the society. Islamic law, for example, decreed that the children
of slave mothers were to be freed and historical evidence showed that even caliphs
(traditional rulers) were born of slave mothers/concubines (Lovejoy 1986).

Learning Activity A

In what ways did the practice of Caribbean Chattel slavery differ from
traditional West African slavery?

With the increasing demand for enslaved people to fuel the labour demand of
Caribbean sugar estates, the system of traditional West African slavery was disrupted.
‘Disruption’, in this sense, meant that a greater emphasis was placed on securing
particular types of enslaved people and disruption also occurred in the attempt within
the Caribbean to strip these enslaved persons of their cultural, religious and social
legacies (Campbell, 2012) Thankfully however and, as our study of Caribbean
Civilisation shows, this total stripping away of their humanity ultimately…. never fully
succeeded. As a result their legacy can be found in every
island of the West Indies where their descendants not only practiced their traditional
cultural artifacts like, dancing, cooking, music, funeral and birth observances etc, but
today their descendants take prominent roles in all spheres of our Caribbean societies.
For example, many West African people exist in our contemporary society as successful
businessmen, lawyers; teachers, doctors, priests, politicians, nurses, soldiers etc. Indeed
even socio economic systems that foreshadowed many of our common day institutions
like Credit Unions and Banks were legacies brought by the West Africans. Many even
exist to the present day in their original forms as “su-su/lend hand” and death and
funeral societies. Additionally many religious based movements and lodges/secret
societies are also reflective of this early West African influence.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 7

 I asked a lawyer friend of mine to explain to me the
meaning of the term “chattel”. I did this because I was told
that the term was a legal one and commonly used by
lawyers. After some research he sent me back an email in
which he explained the meaning of the term. When I read
Control
Source: http//tinyurl.com/pxpcl2s
it I understood a lot about Caribbean chattel slavery.

West African Contributions to the Caribbean after Enslavement –

to the Present Day

The freedom enjoyed by the enslaved people, in an economic sense, came (for example)
from the fact that they were able to participate in a money and barter economy which,
technically was the kind of activity the Europeans only attributed to “civilized people”.
This is an important point to note because under the system of chattel slavery the
enslaved were not supposed to be recognised as people but as property. (Campbell
2012)

Additionally, by being given provision plots on the estate, they (the enslaved) had
rights of ownership, which became so entrenched in custom that after the end of
enslavement, problems were created when the plantation owners attempted to take
these plots away from them. Not only did the enslaved gardens afford them the rights
of people in terms of economics but in a real way, it also afforded the possibility,
though rare, of the enslaved being able to save enough to buy complete freedom.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 8

 Enslaved “Provision grounds” or “Slave gardens”
offered the enslaved person the opportunity to
produce goods to sell at market. These
opportunities, to meet other enslaved people at
slave markets and also during the preparation of the
slave gardens, were crucial for resistance planning
as well as social adjustment. This socialising could
sometimes lead to procurement of a mate; however,
Farm it always allowed the enslaved people the
Source: http://tinyurl.cm/pftkchr
opportunity to talk shop and to plan
revolt. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, through enslaved gardens and the
associated tasks of market, the enslaved people had time away from the plantation and
the ‘cracking’ tempo of sugar production. (Beckles, 869-77) Indeed the activities associated
with traditional West African markets such as “huckstering” and “vending” are today
commonplace in many of our Caribbean islands.

Learning Activity B

Debate the idea that during Caribbean Chattel slavery, enslaved women faced greater
exploitation or greater privileges than enslaved men on plantations.

The End of Enslavement

There has been much debate over the reasons why the horrendous system of Caribbean
enslavement eventually came to an end in 1838. The leading historian in this debate, the
late Dr. Eric Williams, argued convincingly that the ending of the system of
enslavement came about largely because the system was no longer profitable for the
English market. (Williams, 1994). This was as a result of cheaper sources and types of
sugar entering the English market than that offered by the Caribbean sugar planter. He
also pointed out that the ending of the system was in no small way the result of the
constant opposition of the enslaved people themselves to bring down the system
throughout the entire time of its operation.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 9

Session 4.1 Summary
This session compared the social and economic structures behind various systems of
slavery, focusing on West African slavery and Caribbean chattel slavery. It was noted
that, in general, the West African system allowed for better integration of enslaved
people into society and even with “slave” status many people were skilled producers
and artisans.

The dehumanising aspects of Caribbean chattel slavery, that distinguish this system
from other forms of slavery was discussed. These included the legal structures that
allowed Caribbean planters to treat enslaved people as nothing more than property and
the economic framework that supported the form of chattel slavery. Ultimately
however it was pointed out that even though initially brought under compulsion the
descendants of these enslaved Africans today contribute significantly to our
contemporary Caribbean civilisation.

Unit 4 Summary

In this Unit, we established that the period of Caribbean enslavement was one of the
most horrific periods within any civilisation’s history. However we were clear to point
out that while Caribbean Chattel slavery was indeed cruel, the ultimate transplanting of
millions of West Africans to the Caribbean and to every island in it, resulted in
contributions to the region’s diverse culture and economy. Results which are evident
even to this day.

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 10

References
Beckles, H. (2000). Caribbean anti-slavery: The self-liberation ethos of enslaved blacks. In
Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World: A Student Reader. Edited by V. Shepherd
Beckles. London & Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers Ltd., pp. 869 – 877.

Campbell, J. F. (2000). How free is free? The limits of manumission for enslaved West Africans
in 18th century British West Indian sugar society. Manumissions in the Atlantic World.
College of Charleston. S. Carolina, US.

Campbell, J. F. (2001). Reassessing the consciousness of labour and the role of the
confidentials in slave society: Jamaica 1750 –-1834. The Jamaican Historical Review
XXI, (2001): 23 – 30.

Control [Online image]. Retrieved from http//tinyurl.com/pxpcl2s - public domain image

Lovejoy, P (1986). Fugitive Slaves: Resistance to Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate carried in
Gary Y Okihiro ed. In Resistance. Studies in African, Caribbean, and Afro-American
History The University of Massachusetts Press. USA 1986,78.

Shepherd, V. (n.d.). Rejecting Slavery; Stages in the development of anti-slavery; Slave

narratives and resistance; gender; resistance; emancipation
processes. Retrieved from: http://courses.sta.uwi.edu February 2004.

Sheppard, V. (n.d.). The Trade in and Sources of African Captives. Retrieved from:
http://courses.sta.uwi.edu February 2004.

The Hunted Slaves [Online image]. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/qjbvqez -Public domain
image

Empowered Man [Online image]. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/p9we4zb - Public

domain image.

Farm [Online image]. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/pftkchr - Public domain image

Thornton, J. (1992). Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic World, 1400-
1680. Cambridge University Press. USA.

Lovejoy. P. E. (1986). Fugitive Slaves: Resistance to Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate carried in Gary
Y Okihiro Ed. In Resistance. Studies in African, Caribbean, and Afro-American History the
University of Massachusetts Press. USA.

Spencer, (2013).The Mighty Sparrow Slave [Video file]. Retrieved from

http://www.quietyoutube.com/watch?v=oVHF3spGbXg&feature=youtu.be

Williams, E. (1994). Capitalism and slavery. The University of North Carolina Press

FOUN1101 Caribbean Civilisation Unit 4 2018 Page 11