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Life on the Plantations
Once sold at auction the
slaves were taken to their new home - the Plantation. New slaves took a long time to become used to plantation life and many failed to survive long enough to become used to their new living conditions and climate. Diseases like dysentery and pneumonia killed many in the West Indies sugar plantations. Huts built by the plantation owners for their slaves were flimsy protection against the cold winds of winter. Food was often dull and lacked nourishment. Meat was a rarity ; owners decided it was 'bad for slaves'. Salt Herrings, sent from England instead of meat, had often turned rotten before they arrived. On some plantations slave families were given small gardens where they were expected to grow yams and vegetables and raise pigs and poultry. Often, slaves were given new names, although many hated giving up their African names. Roman names, Scots names and names of famous people were popular amongst plantation owners. Work in the fields Work on the sugar plantations was extremely hard and required large numbers of workers.
All slaves, including children and the old, were expected to work. Discipline was
extremely harsh and, in some cases, very cruel.
First, land had to be cleared and ploughed, then divided into squares of about one metre. Holes six inches (15cm) deep were dug for plants, a back-breaking task for the line of slaves who moved slowly across the field, row by row, with the whips of the overseers hovering over them. At harvest time the cane was cut, stripped, tied in bundles and loaded on to donkeys to be carried to the mills. The Sugar Mills Sugar was extracted from the cane in the mills by crushing the cane then boiling the
juice that drained off. It was not unusual for a slave to have his fingers trapped and
crushed in the giant rollers as he fed in the cane. In the
boilers, the scum that formed on top of the boiling syrup had to be ladled off; a tricky
and dangerous job.
where the sugar crystallised. The refined sugar could now be loaded into large barrels to await transportation back to Bristol or Liverpool on the Return Passage. Working in the boiler houses was very unpleasant. The stench, like sickly manure, was filthy, and the heat terrific. Limbs swelled in the hot, damp atmosphere and even the strongest slaves, specially picked for the job, could not work in the boiler house for more than four hours at a time. The slaves existed for nothing except work. Not all were cruelly treated, but many
suffered savage and horrible punishments.
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The owners branded the slaves with "estate marks
" to show which plantation they belonged to and to make it easier to identify runaway
slaves. These same marks were used on cattle, barrels and other goods.
