HUMA 2310 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Social Mobility, Unbridled, Verbal Behavior
25 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Intro to Caribbean Studies Lecture 6
Plantation Society
LAST WEEK
-The Atlantic trade and the emergence of the plantation economy, emerges when sugars
introduced.
-The middle passage, brought people who were essential to the European goal of profit
maximization
-It speaks to the middle part of that journey from Africa to the USA
-Europe becomes developed and Africa is underdeveloped because of this.
The plantation system
-The sugar plantation in Barbados was established in the 1600’s
-The plantation system became embedded in particular parts of the caribbean lot later even in
the 70’s.
The Birth of the Plantation
Small scale farming
-White servitude, not slavery
-Set the model for African slavery
-The drive of the colonialism is to make big profit
-The settlements that were established were underwritten as business investments
-The cost of a white servant contract was half the cost of the African slave
-We begin to see the shift to slave labour
Increasing size of farms
Indentured servants
Introduction of sugar cane
The Plantation
-Agricultural estate for production for one or a few commodities using a large, unskilled, and
controlled labour force.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Social Structure of the plantation (pyramid)
WHITES - free persons of colour- slaves
-Dual hierarchy based on caste (i.e. race) and class (i.e. master and slave)
-Caste refers to distinctions like hereditary, rank and people are born into their caste their
position is permanent.
-Caste was defined by race in the Caribbean and class was master and slave
-There were class distinctions for example, among the whites the master, the bookkeeper,
among the slaves, skilled slaves, house slaves, field slaves etc. Within each of the castes,
distinctions were made on economic and social status.
-Free persons of colour, the people in the middle were free blacks and generally people of
colour, among this group the distinction was skin colour. This was the determinant of class
position
-Manumission (refers to a freeing of slaves, individually) Granting slave his or her freedom.
-Poorest white person in the plantation had a status superior to any one of colour.
-Slaves born in the Caribbean felt superior to African born slaves due to language differences and
because they fetched a higher price than slaves of Africa. Reinforced by white master by
demonizing African slaves and referring to them as savages and claims the exposure to the
plantation, Caribbean slaves were more “civilized”.
-Managerial slaves, semi-professional slave, hired hands, mechanics and domestic slaves and
field slaves.
-Slave Hierarchy
-Free persons of colour, tended to be largely females and live largely in urban areas as appose to
in rural areas
-This racial structure governed the treatment of slaves. The real purpose was to restrict their
mobility as slaves
Racial Idealogy
Philosophical and religious ideology used to justify system
-People argued that some people are slaves by nature
-Religious part, Ham in the bible some people see Africans as the son of Ham. Ham was the son
of Noah he saw his father naked and was cursed to be a servant.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The atlantic trade and the emergence of the plantation economy, emerges when sugars introduced. The middle passage, brought people who were essential to the european goal of profit maximization. It speaks to the middle part of that journey from africa to the usa. Europe becomes developed and africa is underdeveloped because of this. The sugar plantation in barbados was established in the 1600"s. The plantation system became embedded in particular parts of the caribbean lot later even in the 70"s. The drive of the colonialism is to make big profit. The settlements that were established were underwritten as business investments. The cost of a white servant contract was half the cost of the african slave. We begin to see the shift to slave labour. Agricultural estate for production for one or a few commodities using a large, unskilled, and controlled labour force. Dual hierarchy based on caste (i. e. race) and class (i. e.
