Slaves Belonging to the King on the Isle de France

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Recommended: Caribbean women as producers during slavery

Grand total : 3062 Slaves belonging to the King The number of slave women increased from what can be seen from the tables, between 1785 and 1788. More slave women were being placed at work, although the total number of female slaves remained inferior as compared to the total number of male slaves on the island. It is a fact now, that slaves women in eighteenth century isle de france, were not only employed as domestic workers. Figures show that these slave women were also employed at the port, in the hospitals and in other sectors. However, the eighteenth century did not only witnessed slave women at their occupational roles in Isle de France. Slave women in various colonies were also put at work during this century. 2.2 Occupations of slave women in the Caribbean The presence of women in the Caribbean was due to the fact that they provided a pool for labour. Europeans need slave women in the Caribbean mostly for field works. Slave women were either field workers, ‘house wenches’, cooks or washer. Compared to the slave men who undertook the most difficult tasks on the plantations such as, cane-cutting, holing and sugar boiling, on the other hand slave women were in charge of the less demancding tasks on the plantations. Slave women, cut canes, weeded and manured . As a result, slave women in the Caribbean either worked on the plantations or worked as domestics. They looked after the children, cleaned the house and did the laundry. As such, like in eighteenth century Isle de France, many slave women in Barbados were domestics and had to be at the disposal of their owners anytime. Slave women in Barbados, like in Isle de France ruled the slave-owner’s households, whether on t... ... middle of paper ... ...oss, slave women in cape town, were treated as passive objects of men’s sexual needs. This can be attributed to the fact that slave women were in minority in the eighteenth century cape town. It thus created an unbalanced sex ratio. Moreover, for what concerns the positions of the African and American slave women, slave women worked on the plantations and performed the same difficult work assigned to male slaves. Women worked in the fields alongside the men. However, pregnant women and also nursing mothers were often given lighter work, such as the “trash gang”. Trash gang was a gang of hands which consisted of pregnant, nursing and elderly women. African-American slave women, were given the task of the cook. They cooked for their owners as well as for the slave community, and many of these slave women were attributed the task of sewing. 2.4 Occupations of

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