Slavery and Freedom in the Caribbean and Latin America

The Lesser Antilles islands of Barbados, St. Kitts, Antigua, Martinique and Guadeloupe,Saint Lucia were the first important slave societies of the Caribbean, switching to 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 and most brutal slave societies of the region, rivaling Brazil as a destination for enslaved Africans.
The death rates for black slaves in these islands were higher than birth rates. The decrease averaged about 3 percent per year in Jamaica and 4 percent a year in the smaller islands. The main causes for this were overwork and malnutrition. Slaves worked from sun up to sun down in harsh conditions. They were supervised under demanding masters, who gave them little medical care. Slaves also had poor living conditions and consequently they contracted many diseases. The diary of slaveowner Thomas Thistlewood of Jamaica details the extreme violence against slaves, and constitutes important historical documentation of the conditions for Caribbean slaves.
For centuries slavery made sugarcane production possible. The low level of technology made production difficult and labor intensive. At the same time, the demand for sugar was rising, particularly in Great Britain. The French colony of Saint-Domingue quickly began to out-produce all of the British islands' sugar combined. Though sugar was driven by slavery, rising costs for the British made it easier for the British abolitionists to be heard.





A leading authority on Latin American slavery has produced a major and original work on the subject. Covering not only Spanish but also Portuguese and French regions, and encompassing the latest research on the plantation system as well as on mining and the urban experience, the book brings together the recent findings on demography, the slave trade, the construction of the slave community and Afro-American culture. The book also sheds new light on the processes of accommodation and rebellion and the experience of emancipation. Klein first traces the evolution of slavery and forced labor systems in Europe, Africa, and America, and then depicts the life and culture which some twelve million slaves transported from Africa over five centuries experiences in the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Particular emphasis is on the evolution of the sugar plantation economy, the single largest user of African slave labor. The book examines attempts of the African and American-born slaves to create a viable and autonomous culture, including their adaptation of European languages, religions, and even kinship systems to their own needs. Klein also describes the type and intensity of slave rebellions. Finally the book considers the important and differing role of the "free colored" under slavery, noting the unique situation of the Brazilian free colored as well as the unusual mobility of the free colored in the French West Indies. The book concludes with a look at the post-emancipation integration patterns in the different societies, analyzing the relative success of the ex-slaves in obtaining control over land and escaping from the old plantation regimes.