Life on a sugar plantation

• There were three groups of slaves on a sugar plantation: artisans, domestics and field slaves who were also called praedials.
• The Praedials/ field slaves were further subdivided into three groups called gangs.
• Praedials were summoned to the field before sunrise by the ringing of a bell or the blowing of a conch shell.
• They were checked by the overseer or bookkeeper who, with the slave-driver (another slave), supervised their work.
• Praedials worked for approximately four hours and then had a thirty-minute breakfast break.
• The meal prepared by enslaved females included boiled yams, okra, callaloo and plantains seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.
• After breakfast, Praedials worked until midday when they took a two-hour break for lunch.
• The lunch meal was similar to breakfast, but salted meat or pickled fish was added.
• After the break, Praedials worked until after sunset.
• Most field slaves were women and their duties included preparing the field for planting sugar cane, planting cane stalks, manuring the newly planted canes and keeping weeds from growing among the canes.
• Male field slaves were usually used to catch rats.
• Harvesting the cane stalks and loading them onto carts so that the cut canes could be taken to the mill to be crushed was also a duty of field slaves.
• During the crop time, the slaves went to the fields earlier and worked until later.
• They were given less time for eating and rest.
• Artisan slaves who worked in the mill (used to crush canes) and the boiling house (where the liquid was boiled until sugar crystals were formed) worked in shifts around the clock- e.g., 2, twelve hour shifts OR 3, eight-hour shifts.
• The planters depended on the slaves to cultivate the cane and manufacture sugar and rum, but the slaves depended on the planters who owned them for food, shelter, clothing and medical care.
• The slaves received two suits of clothing a year from the plantation, but they could add clothes by buying cloth if they received money.
• Their clothes were usually made of a coarse linen called osnaburg or another material called Guinee - Bleue.
• On market days and on special occasions, slaves wore bright head ties and coats.
• Two of the festivals celebrated by the slaves were called ‘Kalenda’ and ‘Chicoe’.
• If there was no resident doctor or a hospital, many plantations employed a visiting doctor.
• Many of the slave huts were overcrowded, encouraging the spread of diseases such as malaria and ringworm.
• On very large plantations, the slaves were allowed to grow their own crops and raise chickens and pigs in their spare time, usually on Saturdays and Sundays during the out-of-harvest times.
• There was an obeah man/woman on the plantation and the slaves believed that this person could communicate with the spirits of the dead and solve the problems of the living.
• Slaves were also able to purchase food from the Sunday slave market.
• African religions were kept secretive because planters in the British West Indies believed these religions were magic and could be used to cause harm.
• Slaves lived in slave huts which were located near the fields and factories but far from the planter’s home (Great House).
• The slave huts contained very little furniture, usually a bed which was laid on the ground.
• Music and dance allowed the slaves to develop carnivals with street bands and costumes.
• Examples of the African religions were Shango, Pocomania and Voodoo.
• The drum was the most important instrument, but the slaves also played the African flute, banjos, tambourines, scrapers and shak-shaks.
• These imported foods included salted meat and fish; corn; breadfruit; ackee; and flour.
• The walls of the slave huts were made of rough timber or wattle covered with mud.
• On most plantations, the planters depended on imported foods to feed the slaves.
• The Africans used charms for many reasons and some examples include: [a] wearing heavy anklets to protect weak children; [b] using bamboo whistles to defend against witchcraft; and [c] wearing goatskin pouches to ward off illness.
• The slaves sang songs of joy, worship, sadness, fear and revolt.
• The slave huts were approximately 3-5 metres long and 3 metres wide; with earthen floors and roofs made of thatch.
• Some planters also set aside some of the plantation land to grow food for the slaves.
• The crops usually grown to feed the slaves included yams, sweet potatoes, cassava and eddoes.
• Many plantations had a resident doctor and a hospital to take care of the sick slaves.