Main laws used to control slaves

• In the British Caribbean, the laws to regulate the slave system were made directly by the slave owning ruling class and not by the metropolitan government in Europe.
• The slave laws in Barbados were an immediate reflection of what the slave owners thought was necessary to keep the slaves under their control.
• Slave laws in Barbados and the rest of the British Caribbean classified the slave as a special kind of property.
• A slave was merchandise to be bought and sold and once acquired by a planter, a slave became his private property and were regarded as both chattel and real property/land.
• There were laws which dealt with the pursuit, capture and punishment of runaway slaves.
• The laws also dealt with the control of the slaves.
• Some of the slave laws stated that slaves could not carry firearms; could not leave their plantations without written passes; were forbidden to beat drums and blow horns; could be whipped, mutilated or put to death if they hit or insulted a white person; were not to receive religious instruction; could not be taught to read and write and could not give evidence against whites but the court could allow a slave to give evidence against another slave.