Women Slaves in Rum Distillation and Domestic Roles

Women Slaves in Rum Distillation and Domestic Roles

Women slaves were also employed in rum distillation and domestic roles. Much like mill-feeding, women basically ran the rum distillation operations from cleaning machines to lifting and distilling. They were trusted more so than men to do this job because owners believed that women would be less likely to steal the rum and drink it themselves. However, a negative aspect of being employed in rum distillation is that owners would often substitute the alcohol for meat and other nutritious and essential dietary components, which could only lead to worse stages of malnutrition. In regards to domestic work, the elite slave and plantation owners had a tendency to employ more domestics than they actually needed.

This of course was not negative since domestic and household work was regarded as being of a higher rank than field work and it was the only other position in which females had a chance to escape the tedious, back-breaking work of the fields. Because the nature of this work was much lighter, those slaves who were given it were envied by those who had to work in the field or the sugar mills or rum distillation factories. Both males and females began work as servants from the young age of 7 or 8.

Domestic occupations ranged from cook, servant, washerwoman, laundress, seamstress, nurse, midwife, and doctress. Cooks especially were held in high regard because food was such a powerful weapon on the plantation since it was so scarce and regulated. The females basically managed the household while men were found to be cooks. Nurses and midwives were especially admired and coveted, even by the owner, because they were crucial to maintaining the slave population. Further, midwives were considered to increase the number of live births so they were highly regarded because this too increased the slave population.

Research by Rhoda Reddock (in Kleinberg, 1988) demonstrates that many of the female domestic tasks, such as cooks and servants, were actually performed by males. Furthermore, the number of females in the field still outnumbered the number in household tasks. Extending to the household this dominance of males in more prestigious positions continued where males were head servants and women were still relegated to lower ranks. Reddock examines the composition of the slave population in the British Caribbean and still, the same trend is seen where females outnumber males after 1825.