NAME: Adolfo Medina SUBJECT: History DATE OF SUBMISSION: 27 TH MARCH 2010 THEME: Caribbean economy and slavery TASK: Compare the treatment of slaves in Belize to that of other Caribbean Territories in the 19 th Century STIMULUS: Picture SCHOOL NUMBER: 040018 1
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NAME: Adolfo Medina
SUBJECT: History
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 27TH MARCH 2010
THEME: Caribbean economy and slavery
TASK: Compare the treatment of slaves in Belize to that of other Caribbean Territories in the 19th Century
STIMULUS: Picture
SCHOOL NUMBER: 040018
INDEX NUMBER: 0170
PROFICIENCY: General
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Table of Content
Introduction pg3
Master slave relationship pg4
Overseeing of slaves pg5
Feeding of slaves pg6
View of society pg7
Punishments pg8
Conclusion pg9
References pg10
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I ntroduction
If you think that that in the 19th century things were easy and elegant your
way off because in the 19th century there were many difficulties, slavery, extreme
cruelty, much racial tension, and disorder in the workplace form slaves. If you
were a rich white with a lot of land things would be easier, but few of the
population in the Caribbean was. I chose to do the treatment of slaves in the
Caribbean in the 19th century because the way in which they were treated is a
fascinating topic. In the 19th century slaves were treated worse than animals. In
the 19th century slaves were unjustified and treated brutally wrong by the way in
which there white master acted towards them, the way they were looked after, the
way they were fed, the way they were seen in society, the way they were punished.
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M aster- S lave R elationship
The master of an estate had no concern towards the slaves who worked
there; his main concern was his income, and the amount of sugar that was
exported. The master of an estate usually didn’t deal much with the colored males-
mostly the colored females by making the do demeaning sexual activities for his
pleasure. The master wouldn’t care if the colored woman was married or had
children, he would still make and or force the woman to pleasure him if he wanted
pleasure. The women that had pleasured the master would vex him by singing a
song describing the things that they had done. The master didn’t like this because
it humiliated him, as to get back at the woman for what she had done he would
punish her by hanging and then flogging her.
4Woman hung & flogged
O verseeing O f S laves
Within the 19th century the people who looked after the slaves as they
worked were known as the overseers. Overseers were usually a colored person
himself, yet he thought himself greater than the other slaves. The overseer liked
the position of overseer because they were above slavery. To keep a job as
overseer the overseer would have to know how to deal with disobedience, with was
dealt by instigating a punishment. When a slave became injured in the plantation
they did not have proper medical facilities because the overseers didn’t care much
for their help since the cost of a slave was “cheap”. In Belize, since there was no
plantation, instead they when logwood cutting but then it changed to mahogany
cutting which was mush more dangerous and lead to many deaths. While out
Mahogany cutting there was no overseer to whip the slave and the slave who were
out such as the huntsmen, and the oxen and the others who helped in the mahogany
production were seen as very important.
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F eeding O f S laves
In the past, slaves where at the bottom of the list of priorities. Slaves were
treated worse than the pets whereby they weren’t feed at times and during the time
they were feed they were feed with small meals that were unsatisfactory and not
nutritional. This diet that was forcefully given to the slaves caused many of them to
pass away because of all the lack of nutrition. Masters did not want to feed the
slaves with the crops being grown so instead they gave imported food; this was
given in moderation and sometimes not given. Slaves realized that they needed
more food so the started to plant food in their own little garden with was given to
them by the master.
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V iew O f T he S ociety
The majority of the populations in the Caribbean where made up of colored
people, yet the ones in control were the wealthy whites. The small population as is
saw the slaves as inferior and vile and also saw it normal to kill slaves. Society
saw them so inferior that they didn’t care for them and wore them out working in
sugar industries and by implementation of brutal punishments. The society saw
them so low that they were mare objects that they could be sold at a cheap price to
the society.
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P unishments
There were many types of punishments done to the slaves such as physical
punishment, mental punishment and even sexual punishment. In some cases such
as in physical punishment men were punished with more brutality than women.
Thomas Thistlewood clamed “Gave him a moderate whipping, pickles him well,
made Hector shit in his mouth, immediately put a gag whilst his mouth was full &
made him wear it 4 or 5 hours.” In Miserable Slavery by Thomas Thistle Wood
edited by Douglass Hall (page 70-71).Whenever a slave misbehaved he/she was
punished by being flogged, hanged, or even killed. Sometimes the slaves were just
killed for the amusement of the whites. When this was done it was done with an
audience watching the slave being killed. The slaves residing in Belize did not
have such punishments because they had no work in plantations, yet they did have
some sort of cruelty placed upon them. They had the deadly task of having to find
mahogany in a danger infested forest and not only that, they also had to cut down
the mahogany when found. The cutting of the mahogany was life-threatening
since they had to build a support that held them four to five meters high. The
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grave proportion of the cutting is that the mahogany could not be controlled when
falling down and this lead to many deaths.
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C onclusion
In conclusion, it is seen that slaves were treated with extreme cruelty even
though they formed the majority of the population, did majority of the brutal labor.
In the past, just by observing how the masters treated the slaves, how the slaves
were overseen, how the slaves were feed, how the slaves were seen by the society,
and how the slaves were punished it can be easily noted how the masters had no
sort of mercy towards the slaves even though they were the ones who did all the
work for him and his income. I conclusion, the Caribbean slaves of the 19th century
suffered a great deal of pain and torture while in Belize slaves suffered, but they
had more privileges and freedom granted to them.
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References
Chapter 5-Slavery in Belize. Retrieved December 14, 2009, from Website: http://www.belizenet.com/history/chap5.html
Green wood, R and Hamber, S. (2003 2ed).Emancipation to Emigration. Macmillan Publisher
Hall, D. (1999). In Miserable Slavery Thomas Thistlewood , in Jamaica 1750-1786, University of the West Indies
Slavery in the Settlement, 1794-1838. Retrieved December 14, 2009, from Web site: http://countrystudies.us/belize/7.htm