Slave Life

As slavery continued and grew, complicated systems of social status developed on plantations. The lowest ranking slaves, the backbone of the plantation economy, were the field slaves. The field slaves were divided into ‘gangs’ according to their physical strength and ability, with the strongest and fittest males and females in the first gang. The highest ranking slaves were the domestic servants who worked in the owner’s house. The difference in status between field and domestic slaves caused a division between the slaves on most plantations.

Field work on the sugar plantations was intense and exhausting, particularly the digging of holes for planting and the cutting of canes when it was time to reap them. The incentive used to encourage hard work, was lashes of the cart whip, which were freely administered by the drivers, who were ‘privileged’ slaves under the overseer's supervision. During crop time, work in the factories was equally intense and the hours were long. The cruel pace at which slaves were driven effectively shortened their lives, and this continued to be the case despite legislation, which claimed to restrict how severely enslaved Africans were treated.

Plantations throughout the Caribbean were organised in much the same way, though there were differences amongst the islands. In Puerto Rico for example, the Spanish established slave codes that gave enslaved Africans more rights than in many other colonies. These codes allowed some enslaved Africans to own pr...