Slavery in the British and French Caribbean
England colonised the islands of St. Kitts and Barbados in 1623 and 1627 respectively, and later, Jamaica in 1655. In these islands and England's other Caribbean colonies, white colonists would gradually introduce a system of slave-based labor to underpin a new economy based on cash crop production. The Lesser Antilles islands of Barbados, St. Kitts, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia and Dominica were the first important slave societies of the Caribbean. They switched to the institution of slavery by the end of the 17th century as their economies converted from tobacco to sugar production. By the middle of the 18th century, British Jamaica and French Saint-Domingue had become the largest slave societies of the region, rivaling Brazil as a destination for enslaved Africans.
As of 1778, French slave trade transported approximately 13,000 Africans as slaves to the French West Indies as well as Saint-Domingue each year. The French slave trade ran along a triangular route, wherein ships would travel from France to colonized African countries, and then to the Caribbean colonies. This commerce triangulaire referred to this Atlantic economy based on the trafficking of slaves from Africa. France aimed to bring the African laborers to the New World, where their labor was of higher value because of the natural and cheap resources cultivated from the land, and then bring the product back to France. In France, the slaving interest was based in Nantes, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Le Havre during the years 1763 to 1792. The men involved defended their business against the abolition movement of 1789. They were merchants who specialized in funding and directing cargoes of stolen Black captives to the Caribbean colonies, which had high death rates. Caribbean plantations relied on a continuous supply of newly trafficked slaves.
On Jamaica from 1829 to 1832 the average mortality rate for slaves on sugar plantations was 35.1 deaths per 1000 enslaved people. The most dangerous part of the sugar plantation was the cane planting. Cane planting during this era consisted of clearing land, digging the holes for the plants, and more. Overseers used the whip in an attempt to both motivate and punish slaves. The slaves themselves were also working and living with barely adequate nourishment and in times of hard work would often be starved. This contributed to low birth rates and the extremely high mortality rates for the slaves. Some experts believe that the average infant mortality at plantations to be 50% or even higher. The diary of slaveowner Thomas Thistlewood of Jamaica details violence against enslaved people, and constitutes important historical documentation of the conditions for enslaved people from the Caribbean. The average lifespan of a slave after adjusting to the climate and environmental conditions of Jamaica was expected to be less than two decades.
In 1787, Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp, and other abolitionists founded the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, considering the termination of the transatlantic slave trade a necessary precursor to the complete abolition of slavery. The society employed various methods to advance its cause, including the dissemination of firsthand accounts from formerly enslaved individuals such as Olaudah Equiano. In 1811 on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, Arthur William Hodge, a wealthy slaveholder, plantation owner and Council member, became the first person to be hanged for the murder of an enslaved person. On the 1st of August 1834 in Trinidad, an unarmed group of mainly elderly Black people being addressed by the Governor at Government House about the new apprenticeship laws, began chanting: Pas de six ans. Point de six ans (Not six years. No six years), drowning out the voice of the Governor. Peaceful protests continued until a resolution to abolish apprenticeship was passed and de facto freedom was achieved. This made Trinidad the first British colony with a slave population to completely abolish the institution of slavery.
The institution of Black slavery was first abolished by the French Republic in 1794, but Napoleon revoked that decree in 1802. France re-abolished the institution of slavery in its colonies in 1848 with a general and unconditional emancipation. William Wilberforce's Slave Trade Act 1807 abolished the trafficking of slaves in the British Empire. It was not until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 that the institution was finally abolished, but on a gradual basis. The Act also stipulated that all formerly enslaved people would undergo a system of apprenticeship whereby they would work for their former owners for a period of time; how long this would last would be up to the government authorities in each British colony. Since slave owners in the various colonies were losing their unpaid labourers, the government set aside £20 million for compensation but it did not offer the former slaves any reparations. Haiti became the first country to abolish slavery following the colony of Saint Domingue's independence from France on the 1st of January 1804 after the Haitian Revolution had ended by the Declaration of Independence where Haiti became the world's first and oldest free black-led republic in the modern era which was the only black nation to free itself from French rule.
The colony of Trinidad was left with a shortage of labour. This shortage became worse after the abolition of the institution of slavery in 1833. To deal with this, plantation owners on Trinidad transported indentured servants from the 1810s until 1917. Initially Chinese people, free West African people, and Portuguese people from the island of Madeira were imported, but they were soon supplanted by Indian people who started arriving from 1845. Indentured Indians would prove to be an adequate alternative for the plantations that formerly relied upon slave labour. In addition, numerous former slaves migrated from the Lesser Antilles to Trinidad to work. The successful resistance of the implementation of the full six-year term of the Apprenticeship system and Abolition of Slavery in Trinidad was marked by ex-slaves and free people of colour joining in celebrations through the streets in what became known as their annual Canboulay celebrations. This event in Trinidad influenced full emancipation in the other British colonies which was legally granted two years ahead of schedule on the 1st of August 1838.
Common questions
When did England colonise the islands of St. Kitts and Barbados?
England colonised the island of St. Kitts in 1623 and the island of Barbados in 1627.
What was the average mortality rate for slaves on sugar plantations in Jamaica from 1829 to 1832?
The average mortality rate for slaves on sugar plantations in Jamaica from 1829 to 1832 was 35.1 deaths per 1000 enslaved people.
Which year did France re-abolish slavery in its colonies after Napoleon revoked the initial decree?
France re-abolished the institution of slavery in its colonies in 1848 with a general and unconditional emancipation.
Who became the first person to be hanged for the murder of an enslaved person in the British Virgin Islands?
Arthur William Hodge, a wealthy slaveholder and Council member, became the first person to be hanged for the murder of an enslaved person in 1811 on the island of Tortola.
When did Haiti become the world's first free black-led republic following independence from France?
Haiti became the world's first and oldest free black-led republic in the modern era on the 1st of January 1804 after the Haitian Revolution ended by the Declaration of Independence.