How were enslaved Africans treated in the Caribbean?

After the transatlantic crossing from Africa to the Americas, enslaved people faced a new, brutal life.

They were sold at auctions:

• sold to the highest bidder at a traditional auction
• taken by whoever grabbed them first at a scramble auction

They were branded to show whose property they were and sent to work on plantations.

Life on the plantation was harsh.

• enslaved people had to build their own homes
• living conditions were poor
• food was of poor quality and lacked nutrition
• basic clothing was provided once a year

Enslaved people were treated badly and were often punished.

• enslaved people were seen as property and had no rights
• enslaved workers could be whipped or beaten if not thought to be working hard enough
• attempting to escape was punishable by death by hanging.

After surviving confinement in the slave fortresses of the West African coast, enslaved Africans then had to endure the horrific and potentially fatal ordeal of the Middle age.

When they arrived in the Caribbean, enslaved people then had to undergo the frightening experience of their auction.

Friends and families were separated, often never to see each other again.

Enslaved people who were judged to be disobedient or difficult could be sent to ‘seasoning camps’ where they were physically punished.

As many as half of the enslaved people sent to these camps died in them. Those who were too weak or sick to be sold were sometimes just left to die.

In order to ensure that maximum profit was made, the enslaved Africans needed to be prepared for auction.

This involved an extensive amount of cosmetic work that took place to hide the damage inflicted upon them by the journey:

• Wounds and sores would be covered in tar to hide signs of damage.
• Skin would be covered in beeswax or oil to make it shine and look healthy.
• Heads would be shaved to get rid of any grey hair so enslaved people looked younger.

After this preparation, the enslaved Africans were ready to be sold. There were two different types of auction:

• traditional auctions
• scramble auctions

Traditional auctions

In a traditional auction, the auctioneer would describe the characteristics of the enslaved African and suggest what work on the plantation that they would be best used for.

The auctioneer then set a starting price and the successful buyer would be the one that placed the highest bid.

During the auction process, it was quite common for families to be split up, as buyers favoured younger Africans, believing that they would be able to work for a longer period of time.

Scramble auctions

A scramble was a more chaotic form of auction in which prospective buyers paid a set fee to enter an enclosed space and have freedom to choose the Africans they wanted before someone else grabbed them.

Olaudah Equiano was a formerly enslaved person who published his own life story in 1789.

He described his experience of being sold at a scramble auction:

On a signal given the buyers rushed into the yard where the slaves were kept, and chose the ones they liked the best. The noise and eagerness shown in the faces of the buyers increased the fear of the terrified Africans. In this way relations and friends were separated, most of them never to see each other again.
– The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Olaudah Equiano, 1789.

He also described the common punishments that enslaved people had to endure:

• Enslaved people branded with the initial letter of the master’s name.
• Enslaved people were loaded with heavy chains and often instruments of torture were added.
• An iron muzzle, thumb screws were sometimes applied as punishments for the slightest fault.

Many plantation owners wanted to avoid any resistance and sought to strip enslaved people of any sense of rebelliousness or other loyalties:

• Families were separated, removing connections between them
• People from the same region or culture were often separated - without common language or experience, enslaved people found it more difficult to communicate and act together
• Enslaved people were given new names

Many newly-bought enslaved people were sent to 'seasoning camps'.

Here they were adapted to their new living and working conditions. Mental and physical torture was used to break their spirit and make them obedient.

The seasoning process could last a year or more and as many as half of the enslaved people sent to these camps died in them.

Those who survived the process were seen as more valuable, having shown they could survive both unfamiliar diseases of the Caribbean, and the harsh life of plantation work.

Enslaved Africans were often expected to build their own housing.

These were basic wooden huts located close to the plantation owner’s house so that they could keep a constant watch over them.

…consisting most frequently of wattle or stick huts, which were roofed with palm thatch. Furnishings within were always sparse and crude, most occupants sleeping in hammocks, or on the earth floor.
– Source: Liverpool Museums: Slavery in the Caribbean.

The houses had little furniture in them and were often not big enough for the families that lived in them.

Enslaved Africans were provided with basic clothes. The Barbados Slave Code from 1661, sets out that that enslaved people should "have Clothes to cover their Nakednesse once every yeare (that is to say) Drawes and Capps for Men, and Petticoates for Women."

Plantation owners were interested in profit over anything else. The health and wellbeing of enslaved people was of little concern, and the food they were given was limited. In general workers often only had just enough food to stay alive and working.

To maximise profits, plantation owners used any fertile land to grow sugar:

• On some islands, including Jamaica, poorer land in the hills was set aside as provision grounds, where enslaved people were expected to grow their own food.
• Smaller, flatter islands, including Barbados and Nevis, turned to importing foods – relying on supplies of corn, peas, and beans from North America, or from Europe.

Most enslaved people had no meat or fresh fish. Protein in their diet came from imported salted fish.

Some plantations land was set aside as provision grounds, where foods such as corn and yams were grown to add to the enslaved workers diet. Laws were introduced in Jamaica in 1678, and Nevis in 1682, to make plantation owners set aside land as provision grounds.

Enslaved people also used the small amount of ground round their huts to grow more food.

The diet of enslaved people was heavily based on starchy foods, like sweet potatoes and corn, so even if they had enough to eat, they lacked essential nutrition.

Analysis of skeletal remains at Newton plantation cemetery in Barbados shows that enslaved workers suffered from malnutrition for much of each year.

Shortages caused by natural disasters or poor harvests resulted in starvation.

Imports of food supplies were not always secure. When the American Revolution broke out in 1776, food supplies to many Caribbean islands ended.

On the island of Nevis alone, 300-400 enslaved people died a result of starvation in 1777.

White masters had complete control over the lives of enslaved people and treated them like mere property.

• Enslaved people had no rights
• Enslaved people who disobeyed or resisted even in small ways were violently punished
• On the island of Antigua it was not a crime to kill an enslaved people until 1723

The lawyers and judges of the island were slave owners, so there was little interest in prosecuting for the mistreatment of enslaved people.

The punishments handed out to enslaved people varied in severity.

• Captured runaways could be hanged or maimed.
• Enslaved people were often flogged with a whip for any wrongdoing.
• The number of lashes received depended upon the seriousness of their ‘crime’.

The wharfs of Kingston are crowded every Monday morning with poor slaves who are brought here to be whipped for the offences of the preceding week. They are generally tied up by the wrists and stretched out. In that manner they receive their punishment.
– Source: An essay on the comparative efficiency of regulation or abolition, as applied to the slave trade, Thomas Clarkson, 1789.

Punishments towards enslaved people were often brutal. Severe punishments included:

• nose slit
• loss of limb (a runaway - Antigua)
• whipping
• stocks
• death penalty for theft (of items worth more than 12 pence - Barbados)
• death penalty by burning (for striking a white person - Jamaica)

In 1798 the British Parliament ed the Amelioration Act, which applied to the British Caribbean colonies.

The Amelioration Act aimed to protect enslaved people from cruel punishments by introducing fines for owners who mistreated them. It also meant that enslaved people could only be forced to work for fourteen hours a day.

In reality, the act did little to protect the rights of enslaved populations.

Enslaved people were sold at two types of auction:

• at traditional auctions people were sold to the highest bidder
• at scramble auctions plantation owners would pay a flat fee and race to grab the best workforce.

Once bought, enslaved people were branded to show who 'owned' them.

Many were sent to seasoning camps where mental and physical torture was used to break their spirit and make them obedient.

Living conditions for enslaved people were hard:

• most had to build their own homes from basic materials
• they had to grow a lot of their own food on provision grounds
• they were given minimum food, often lacking essential nutrition
• one set of basic clothing was provided each year

Not working hard enough, disobedience, resistance and attempted escape were punished harshly

• enslaved people had no rights
• enslaved people could be whipped and beaten for very little reason
• attempting to escape could be punished by death