belizean studies

• Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade


  The mass exchange of goods and human capital across the Atlantic Ocean from the 1500's to the 1800's
• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was responsible for the mass displacement of around 15,000,000 African people
• Triangular Trade


  1. Taking manufactured goods from Europe to Africa

  2. Shipping the slaves to the Americas

  3. Return to Europe with produce from the slave-labour plantations
• Middle Passage


  • Journey from Africa to America
  • Slaves experienced limited space, being bound, poor hygiene, diseases, violence, rape, depression, and suffocation
• Slave Resistance in the Caribbean

  • Active/insurrectionary Resistance (sabotage, revolts, killing, poisoning, burning)
  • Passive/non-insurrectionary Resistance (malingering, feigning illness, obeah, abstinence, maroonage, abortion)
• Maroons


  Run-away slaves who fled to the mountains or nearby countries
• How maroon communities affected plantation owners

  • Raided plantations for food
  • Symbol of freedom for the enslaved
  • Launched wars and took slaves and weapons
  • Created safe havens for escaped slaves
• Forms of slave control

  • Social/cultural control
  • Religious control
  • Physical control
  • Mental/psychological control
  • Slave laws
• Chattel Slavery


  The enslavement and owning of people and their children as property that can be bought, sold, and made to work for no pay
• Active Resistance


  When a slave defies his owner that can cause harm to the master and his property
• Passive Resistance


  The resistance of a slave that causes no direct harm to the master and his property
• Manumission


  Released from slavery
• Emancipation


  The freeing of someone from slavery
• Hunters/Huntsmen


  Highly skilled and valued slaves
• Axe Men


  Valued slaves that cut trees while standing on a springy platform four to five meters' high
• Domestic Slaves


  Slaves that lived in better quarters and received better food than other slaves
• Abolition


  The political movement centered around ending slavery
• Slavery did not depend as much on plantation agriculture in Belize as it did in other Caribbean countries. Rather, logging and mahogany extraction were two common uses of slaves in Belize, which resulted in a more diverse labor system and economy.
• Slave jobs/work in Belize

  • Axe-men (clearing forests and building structures)
  • Cattlemen (working on British ranches)
  • Huntsmen (capturing runaway slaves and wild animals)
  • Domestic (working in wealthy landowners' homes)
  • Artisans (skilled craftsmen)
• Abolition Act


  1834
• Apprenticeship Period


  1834-1838
• Emancipation Act


  1863
• Planters were granted £20 million in compensation under the terms of the Emancipation Act
• Ways the system of slavery was under attack in the British Colonies

  • Rise of abolitionist movements
  • Legal challenges
  • Slave rebellions
  • Economic factors
• Ways planters ensured slaves remained dependent

  • Restricting access to education and information
  • Enforcing strict control over movements and interactions
  • Limiting ability to form independent relationships or seek outside support
• Ways slaves were obtained for transport via trade

  • Warfare
  • Kidnapping
  • Raids on villages
• Groups of slaves who worked on timber plantations in Belize

  • Miskito
  • Garifuna
  • Maya
  • African slaves
• Active Resistance


  Direct and overt actions taken by slaves to resist their oppressors
• Passive Resistance


  Subtle forms of resistance, such as a fake illness or slowing down work
• Slavery officially abolished in Belize


  August 1, 1838
• Middle Passage


  Journey for enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America
• Horrors faced by slaves during the Middle Passage


  • Overcrowded conditions
  • Malnutrition
  • Physical abuse
• Slaves in Belize resisted slavery through rebellion, uprisings, and passive resistance, asserting their freedom and challenging the oppressive system through acts of running away, forming maroon communities, and practicing cultural traditions
• What were traded in the middle passage

  Slaves
• What were traded in the first stage(1st leg)


  Cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, cowrie shells, metal goods, and guns
• What were traded in the third stage(3rd leg) 


  cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum
• What can be derived about the nature of Slavery in British Honduras?

  British Honduras and Spain made a treaty to allow the cutting of timber only.
• The Treaty of Madrid (1786) was signed between Britain and Spain which allowed the British to cut logwood on the coastline of Spanish Central America.
• Two ways slaves were sold in the Caribbean.

  Auction & Scramble
• The 3 Ways Slaves were obtained are trading, selling, and kidnapping