Economic measures taken by slaves

• Slaves were often given a small parcel of land/provision grounds to grow foods such as ackee, okra, black-eyed peas, yam, plantains, bananas, eddoes, potatoes and pineapples; and raise animals such as pigs and chickens.
• Much of the produce and animals grown on the provision grounds were consumed by the slaves, but some of the excess was used to earn money.
• Slaves were often given free time on Saturdays and Sundays which they used to work on their provision grounds and to sell the excess in the slave market, which was usually held on Sundays.
• Slaves also sold items stolen from the plantations including cane, rum, molasses, articles of clothing, and any other personal property belonging to the planters’ families and other whites who worked on the plantations.
• Slave markets were patronised by slaves, freed mulattoes and blacks, and poor whites.
• The money earned from selling stolen items allowed the slaves to buy the clothes they wore when they were not in the fields and factories, buy food to supplement what was provided by the planters, and purchase freedom for themselves and their immediate family members.