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In what ways did the layout of an Eighteenth Century Sugar Plantation reflect the social relations among persons living there?
The layout of an Eighteenth Century Plantation does to a large extent reflect the social relations among the persons living there. Shannon Wint |

TABLE OF CONTENT

Acknowledgement 3
Introduction 4
Body of Research 5-10
Conclusion 11
Bibliography 12

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my profound thanks to the following: God who gave me the strength to do this S.B.A.; my mother and my aunt who have supported me through my endeavours, and especially my mother who has nurtured my mind to where as to go to gather my information.

INTRODUCTION After the slaves arrived in the New World, they were disposed of like cattle. Their bodies were cleaned, greased with palm oil to make them attractive to potential buyers. Then they were paraded naked in front of prospective buyers. They were sold either in an auction or a “scramble” where buyers in a chase grabbed the slaves they wanted to purchased. Following the buy, the slaves were taken to their owner’s estate where they were again branded, this time with their owner’s mark. They were then ready to begin a new life among strange new people, in a new environment, that of a New World sugar estate. I intend to collect my following data from books at the parish library and also from my notebook. The layout of an Eighteenth Century Sugar Plantation does to a large extent reflect the social relations among the persons living there.

BODY OF RESEARCH The estate population was made up of whites, colored and blacks. At the top of the social ladder was a small group of whites, that is the owner or, in his absence, the attorney, the overseer, and the bookkeeper, below who were the indentured servants. The whites were responsible for: (i) planning the estate work, (ii) supervising the labour and (iii) administering punishment whenever it was necessary (iv) the white indentured servants, usually skilled craftsmen were responsible for providing skills like carpentry for the estate, and (v) teaching the slaves these skills. The slaves, colored and black were at the bottom of the social ladder, classified according to the type of work that they did. At the top of their social ladder was (i) the domestic slaves who worked in and around the house, and who generally had closer and more frequent contact with the whites. They were followed by, (ii) the skilled slaves, which are craftsmen like carpenters, as well as those who had the responsibility of working in the factory, helping with the manufacture of sugar. The lowest group of slaves were (iii) those who worked in the fields, headed by the driver who was responsible for providing supervision for his fellow slaves to ensure their continuous labour. These slaves did the back breaking tasks, including the cleansing of the land, the planting, weeding, and reaping of the cane. The race of the individual, that is, whether the person was European or African, his social and economic status, and skills which he had, or those which the planter perceived that he had, were factors which helped to determine that kind of work to which he was assigned on the estate. Free coloureds in the society had a lower social status than the white because of the following (i) their heritage of slavery and hence race was extremely important in determining an individual’s status. (ii) Many discriminatory laws were passed against coloreds that limited their movement and activities. (iii) Very few had property comparable to whites and (iv) they were generally less educated then the whites of the society. The slaves, at the bottom of the social ladder, rated one another according to the following (i) the kind of work that they did, (ii) their place of birth, (iii) the cultural group to which they belonged. African born slaves were more highly rated than the Creoles, since African born slaves were once free. Creoles know nothing other than slavery. Those who had a claim to royal ancestry were also highly rated. In addition, (iv) literacy, (v) the possession of leadership qualities, (vi) special skills like the knowledge of herbal medicine, and (vii) manual skills like carpentry, (viii) the slave’s age, (ix) gender, whether or not they had, as well as (x) the treatment which they enjoyed on the estate, helped to determine the kind of status which they had among their colleagues. The slaves’ an assessment of their status coincided in some instance with that of their masters who generally determined the social rank of their slaves by factors such as (i) their place of birth, (ii) their age, (iii) gender, (iv) special skills and (v) leadership qualities. Younger male slaves with special manual skills like that of masonry, those who had positions of leadership and authority like that of a head carpenter would have a higher status slaves with special medicinal skills were also rated highly because their medicinal knowledge often had to be relied upon when the skills of the European doctors, employed to the estates, failed were the illness of the slaves. The slaves’ (vi) health, (vii) strength, (viii) size, (ix) their contribution to the estate, (x) the degree of loyalty which they demonstrated to their master, and (xi) the shade of their complexion were other factors that affected the slaves’ social status in the view of their masters. The small group of whites persons at the top of the social ladder enjoyed many privileges denied the other people on the estate, for example: (i) they ate better food, (ii) they were better clothed, (iii) their housing was superior to that of the other groups. (iv) Their jobs were less physically demanding and provided remuneration (v) they were generally educated and so were able to wield their influence socially. (vi) They owned the wealth of the islands, that is, slaves and land, and all that went along with them. Because of their wealth and social influence, (vii) they had the right of bearing arms, and they were able to command a high rank in the militia. (viii) They had the right to vote, (ix) they could become members of local legislature where they were able to influence the political decisions, (x) they served in civic institutions. (xi) Their wealth allowed them the privilege of visiting their homeland whenever they chose, and (xii) they generally benefited from the discriminatory laws, which were passed against the other people in the society. The coloured slaves (mulattoes), the offspring of the planter or his white employees and female slaves were generally treated better than most of the other slaves. The privileges they enjoyed included the following: (i) they were generally made personal servants of the whites and so worked in and around the Great House where the jobs were less strenuous, or sometimes they did skilled jobs. (ii) Some of them lived in the Great House, or lived in quarters separated from those of the field slaves. (iii) They were generally better fed because they got the ‘leftovers’ from the masters’ table. (iv) They were better clothed, often with their owners’ “hand me downs”. (v) Because of the access which some of them had to the Great House, they had access to books, and some might have learnt how to read. (vi) They were even allowed to have their own entertainment like balls. These privileges, however, did not spare them the wrath of the white women or mistresses who might have felt threatened by the presence of an attractive coloured girl who was likely to capture the attention of the master. These slaves often suffered severe beatings from the white women, and sometimes to remove them from the presence of their husbands, they had them demoted to the fields. The coloureds slaves were not only slaves who enjoyed privileges on the estates, since there were factors other than colour, which helped to determine how much privilege slaves enjoyed. Creoles were preferred above African born slaves because of their greater degree of acculturation into white culture, and a sense that they would be more submissive and so would be given privileges denied the African born slaves. Seasoned slaves, that is, those residents on the estate for a long time, would enjoy more privileges than the newly arrived ones. The slaves’ skills and occupation would also allow them to enjoy certain privileges, including the following: (i) they were allowed to find their own employment, and hire themselves out away from the estate, when there were no jobs for them on their own estate. (ii) They would be allowed to keep, for themselves, a part of the money, which they earned, to provide for their own upkeep, (iii) sometimes, they were allowed to find their own accommodation. (iv) Slave women who were attractive to the white men often enjoyed the privileges of being their mistresses, along with trappings that went along with this position, for example, greater freedom movement and personal gift. (v) Those women who bore more than six children were rewarded with exemption the from more difficult and back breaking tasks, and picking up trash. (vi) Slaves in the urban areas enjoyed a greater freedom of movement and less supervision than their rural dwelling counterparts since, often, they were hired out, doing jobs away from their permanent base. Social contact between whites and slaves on the estate involved the following: (i) contact in the field, or in the factory where the whites assumed the role of instructors, supervisors and disciplinarians. (ii) There was the weekly distribution of rations and the yearly distribution of clothing by the whites. This provided the opportunity to relate to the slaves in another capacity. (iii) Slaves in the Great House were in constant contact with its occupants for whom they provided personal service, which was sometimes extended to the sexual exploitation of the females by the owner, and sometimes by the white employees on the estate. (iv) Whites and blacks enjoyed each other’s celebrations, for example, the white enjoyed the slaves’. John Canoe dance at Christmas, and the slaves enjoyed wedding and birthday celebrations at the Great House, and together they enjoyed the crop over celebration at the end of the sugar crop. (v) There was contact between slaves and whites at the Sunday Market, and (vi) on very rare occasions, at church. (viii) Some slaves even sought further contact with the whites by becoming “informers” about their fellow slaves, thus thwarting attempts of the brace-hearted to free themselves. The whites and slaves had a district fear of one another. The whites feared the slaves for the following reasons: (i) the relatively small number of Europeans recognized their vulnerability among such a large number of slaves, and so were fearful of, and constantly on the alert for, slave rebellions. (ii) Rebellions posed a threat, not only to their lives, but also to their property. (iii) They recognized that the slaves in the Great House could poison, and so the workers were always made to prove the wholesomeness of the food before the white would partake it. (iv) Planters were fearful that slaves would damage or destroy plantation equipment, burn down estates, or run away. These would mean considerable loss to them. (v) There were those who feared that male slaves could pose a potential danger of rape or unthinkable consensual sex with white women. (vi) Many feared the African practices of slaves, such as obeah, which they did not understand. They felt that obeah could be used to cause great harm to them. In an effort to alleviate this fear, they banned this cultural practice, and so slaves resorted to practicing it secretly. Slaves feared the whites for the following reasons: (i) the planter class deliberately instilled fear in the enslaved population’s mind through the oppressive laws and regulations which they instituted, and the severe punishment which they meted out. (ii) The whites had superior weapons like guns. (iii) They had the backing of the army and the militia, so slaves were fearful of resorting to actions, which could lead to their constant death at the hands of the whites. (iv) Women were often afraid of the sexual exploitation of the whites from which they had little or no protection, and which could result in severe punishment for them at the hands of jealous wives. (v) There was always the fear that they could be sold away from their plantation at any time, thus disrupting their family life. For this reason, slaves preferred to keep personal possessions, which they could move easily with them it such a transfer became inevitable. (vi) Slaves were fearful of the whites’ ridiculing their culture, a strategy used o make them full inferior. The slave masters’ ignorance and fear of, and thus their hostilities to, the slaves’ culture caused them to seek suppress visible aspects of it, such as the beating of drums.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion the social composition on the sugar estate depends on the class your situated. At the top were the whites, followed by the slaves which was divided up into three parts which were first the domestic slaves, skilled slaves then the field slaves. The whites and the slaves feared each other. The researchers based on the evidences found have proven beyond reasonable doubt that the layout of an eighteenth century sugar plantation does to a large extent reflect the social relations among the persons living there.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

* Hamilton-Wille, Doris, Lest You Forget (Jamaica Publishers House Limited, Jamaica, 2001) 25-32