Caribbean Economy and Slavery

• Tropical crops


  Luxury goods like tobacco, cotton, cocoa, coffee, indigo and timber that were in demand, suited to the tropical climate of the Caribbean and were not perishable
• Early settlers

  • Faced hardships, hurricanes, disease and drought and attacks from the Spanish and Kalinago
  • Had to grow food crops to survive, crops like cassava and maize became very important
• Tobacco


  Was first introduced by the indigenous people to the Europeans, demand increased as smoking or taking snuff became fashionable, cheaper but better quality Virginian Tobacco flooded the market, prices dropped and tobacco planters moved to sugar cultivation
• Cotton


  Christopher Columbus noticed the cotton garments worn by indigenous people, first grown by the English colonists in St Christopher (St Kitts) and Barbados in the 1620s and by the French in Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Christopher, Sea Island cotton was of high quality, soft and much prized, competition from American cotton caused prices to drop, pests like the boll weevil and chenille severely damaged the industry
• Cocoa

  First used by the Mayan and the Aztec elite as a beverage, carried by Cortez to Spain in 1528, soon became popular in Europe in the 1600s as a confectionery, introduced to Trinidad by the indigenous people and cultivated under Spanish rule, under British rule there was a significant swing to sugar cultivation, large-scale cocoa cultivation occurred from 1870 when tea and confectionery became fashionable in Europe, competition from producers in Africa and Asia caused prices to fall and the industry was plagued by diseases and pests
• Coffee


  First introduced into Martinique in 1720 and from there to Jamaica in 1728, the popularity and demand for coffee grew in the 18th century, putting it in competition with tea, production in St Domingue overtook that of Martinique, after the revolution Cuban coffee became important
• Logwood


  Produced in Belize (then British Honduras), the first lucrative period was between 1600 and 1780, after which a glut caused a price slump and a collapse
• Mahogany


  This hardwood was important for furniture and construction and became lucrative in the 1600s and 1700s, enslaved Africans were brought in to cut mahogany and by the 1770s they were doing the bulk of the work, mahogany was a seasonal job, with the enslaved spending months in the forest housed in makeshift tents, the workforce included gangs of armed huntsmen, axe cutters and cattlemen who were organised in gangs to locate, cut and transport trees, they were unsupervised for extended periods, the relationship between planter and enslaved in the mahogany works had a stronger element of trust because of the nature of the process of mahogany harvesting, there was division of labour with women relegated to the domestic sphere, Belize lumber production continued to be prosperous well into the 1700s
• Sugar revolution


  The changes which occurred in the Caribbean as a result of the change of crop from tobacco to sugar, Caribbean society and economy were transformed by changes in the size of plantations, land-use patterns, demand and price of land, the nature and quantity of labour, the composition of the population, marketing procedures, capital investments, profit generation, social and political organisation
• Tobacco faced competition from Virginia and South Asian tobacco


  Resulted in a glut and prices dropped
• Sugar cane


  Non-perishable, not bulky and easily transported, required a large acreage to be profitable, which caused an increase in demand and prices for land
• Sugar production


  Labour-intensive, resulting in the import of large numbers of workers, enslaved Africans
• West Indian society changed from being a small population of white planters and indentured labourers to a large population of whites and mainly blacks, the white classes were socially and politically dominant and the enslaved Africans were at the base of the hierarchy
• Triangular trade


  A new trading pattern that emerged, linking Europe, Africa and the Caribbean
• Dutch contribution


  Provided capital, expertise, credit and goods, enslaved labour, shipping and markets to get the sugar industry under way
• Social changes

  • The black population increased with the importation of African slaves to produce sugar
  • The white population decreased as the whites returned to Europe or moved onto other islands because they did not want to work alongside the blacks
  • Society changed from a free citizenry to a slave society as the Africans were enslaved on the plantations and the small number of whites ruled society
  • Absenteeism (practice of owning land in one country but living in another) became a feature of West Indian society as planters owned plantations in the West Indies but lived in Europe
• Economic changes


  • The price of land inflated as there was an increasing demand for land
  • The number of landholders decreased, small land owners were put out of business and small plots of land could not accommodate the amount of sugarcane necessary, many small holdings were grouped together into large estates, under the ownership of a rich planter
  • The number of landholdings increased as sugar could only be grown economically on large estates
  • Monoculture (the concentration on the cultivation of a single crop) became the backbone of the Caribbean economy as sugar became the main crop that was relied upon
• Political changes


  The Proprietorship System of Government was replaced by The Old Representative System of Government, the planter-class ruled the assembly and made the decisions as they held many seats
• It is said that the Dutch made the West Indies ''black'' as they provided the labourers from Africa and put up the capital needed by the planters to set up production
• Reasons for using African slaves

  • The Amerindian population had declined so the remaining population could not provide an adequate labour force
  • Africans were available in large numbers
  • Planters saw a cost advantage in the use of African slaves, an African purchased was a slave for life and the children of slaves became the properties of their masters
  • Africans were skilled agriculturists and accustomed to manual labour in a tropical climate, the Caribbean and Africa had similar tropical climates
  • Africa is closer to the Caribbean than Europe and the Trans-Atlantic voyage was assisted by the trade winds blowing east to west
  • As the plantation system developed planters no longer wanted to give prime sugar land as incentives to attract indentured servants and so they began to rely more heavily on African slaves, since there was no need to give them land
• Areas from which slaves were taken


  • West Africa, the forest states (Oyo, Benin, Dahome, and Asante), the section of West Africa stretching from the Senegal River in the north to the Congo River in the south, the Grain Coast, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast, and Slave Coast
• Methods used to acquire slaves

  • Slaves were sold at auction to the highest bidder
  • Slave scramble, Africans were divided into groups for which set prices were fixed, at a signal the planters rushed on board to assess which groups offered the best quality for the least money
• How slaves were captured and their journey to the coast

  The slaves were captured in tribal wars or raids on villages, boys and men between the ages of sixteen and forty were sought especially, old persons, women and children were left behind or killed in the raids, those captured were marched to the coast, the slaves were assembled in coffles and were often chained together, speed was essential as a captain was waiting at the coast for the slaves, those who did not keep up were left behind or punished
• Methods used to capture slaves

  • Surprise attacks, the slave raiders often used the element of surprise, Africans were ambushed and kidnapped as they worked or travelled away from the community
  • The use of trickery, slave hunters enticed people to go with them promising to take them to exciting new places and to see many wonderful things
  • Tribal differences, the animosity which often existed between the tribes was exploited by the slave traders, enemies captured during tribal warfare were sold to the Europeans
• Items used as a medium of exchange for slaves

  Knives, guns, alcohol, beads, cloth, and silk
• What happened to the slaves as they arrived at the coast

  Slave quarters called barracoons were ready to receive them, the initial examination of the slaves took place outside the barracoons, they were stripped naked and placed into two groups: the sound ones and the rejects, the sound ones were branded on the chest with a red hot iron, signifying the country that they will be shipped to, the slave sales then came, after, the slaves were placed on board ships waiting to be transported to the New World
• Organization of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade


  The trade was placed in the hand of a company which was given the sole right by a particular nation to trade in slaves on the coast of West Africa, to erect and maintain forts necessary for the protection of the trade and transport and sell slaves in the West Indies, the British established the Company of Royal Adventurers trading to Africa in 1663 and replaced it in 1672 by the Royal African Company, the French established the French West Indian Company in 1673 and in 1674 it was transferred to the Senegal Company, the Dutch trade was given the name Dutch West Indian Company in 1621, these slaves trading companies established trading forts called factors, factors were in charge of these forts and were responsible for purchasing slaves from the Africans and keeping them
• The Organization of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Factors


  In charge of trading forts, responsible for purchasing slaves from Africans and keeping them in barracoons, overseeing the credit system
• Triangular trade


  1. Ships left European ports carrying textiles, guns and other goods to exchange for slaves in Africa

  2. Slaves taken to the Caribbean

  3. Ships returned to Europe carrying sugar
• Middle Passage


  The journey across the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of West Africa to the New World, lasting 6 weeks to 3 months
• Many slaves saw the ocean for the first time when they arrived on the coast, filled with fear and amazement
• Slaves were packed in the hold of the ship without sufficient room to turn, the heat and stench was overbearing
• Disease spread easily, some slaves jumped overboard, those caught faced severe punishment
• Arrival in the West Indies

  1. Slaves were physically weak and mentally depressed

  2. Captains allowed them a few days of fresh air to refresh themselves

  3. Slaves were fed and oiled to improve their appearance before being sold
• Effects of the slave trade on West Africa

  • Reduction in population
  • Families separated
  • Homes destroyed
  • Young and strong taken, reducing labour force
  • Increased distrust
  • Local production and crafts decreased
  • Guns and ammunition provided extra security to some groups
  • Some chiefs became rich
  • New routes opened up
  • Employment provided for locals as cohorts
• Social effects of slavery in the Caribbean

  • Increase in population size
  • Change in racial composition
  • New laws introduced
  • New culture introduced
  • Emergence of mulattoes
  • Highly stratified society
• Economic effects of slavery in the Caribbean

  • Change in land ownership pattern
  • Increase in land prices
  • Large capital investment
  • Wealth of plantation owners
  • Taxes and duties for England
  • Employment in various areas
• European countries directly involved in the slave trade: France, Portugal, Britain, Netherlands, Denmark. Spain purchased slaves from Portuguese and English traders
• African labour was used in areas other than sugar production, including mahogany, logwood, cotton, coffee, and cocoa production