Following on from our work last week, part of this session will be aboutĀ specific parts of the Caribbean. We will begin with brief discussions about the histories and geographies of the following:
- Barbados
- The Leeward Islands (Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis)
- Jamaica
- The āCeded Islandsā (Dominica, Grenada, St Vincent)
- Trinidad
- Demerara/British Guyana
We will also aim to provide ourselves with a basic understanding of the slave trade and how it worked as well as about the British colonial slave system. Our main questions are:
- What was the slave trade? Who was involved? Why did slaveholders argue that it was necessary? What did slavery in the Caribbean entail for those involved (as slaves or as slaveholders)? What did slaves do? Who benefitted from their work? How did masters seek to perpetuate and maintain the system, and how did its victims cope with the realities of enslavement?
- What makes (or made) slavery different to other methods of labour management or oppression: is it the idea of human property, the violence, the social status of enslaved people, or their legal status? Were enslaved people able to fight back and resist slavery, and, if so, in what ways did they do it? Did slavery in the British Caribbean rely entirely on violence and terror?
These are some useful books:
Burnard, T. Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and his Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (2004).
Da Costa, E. Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823 (1997) (especially introduction and first two chapters).
Craton, M. Testing the Chains: Resistance to Slavery in the British West Indies (1982).
Klein, H. The Atlantic Slave Trade (1999).
Smallwood, S. Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (2007).