General History oj the Ca ribbean

Gu ya na, a nd Aim e Cesa ire a nd Edo ua rd G lissa nt o f Ma rtiniqLl e '1 I D

9
. • ' nc e re k
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Wa lcott o f t LUCia, o r th e no ve ls o f Roge r Ma is o f J a ma ica J o ' L .

, ' . ' se UIS
Go nza lez o f Pu e rto RI CO, Al e jo Ca rpe nti e r o f Cuba a nd Wil son H . " SL AV E RY AN D E MA C IP ATIO N I N
' . , . all IS of
Guya na . In th e Canbbea n , as In mu c h o f Latin Am e ri ca hi sto ri a ns '
' . ,. . p lese nt CARIBB E A N HI ST O RY
o nl y o ne n: el ~d y III th e cho Ir o f vo ices a nn o un cing the discove ry of se lf an d
t~le reconcIlIatio n o f the ce~trifu ga l te nde nc ies of ra ce, cl ass and e thnicity. To
liste n to th e m a lo ne, es pec Iall y selective ly, is to lose mu ch o f th e vital story. Fran cisco A. Scaran o

t sho uld come as littl e surpri se th at, rega rding th e Ca ribbea n area, o f a ll

I poss ibl e to p ics o f histo ri ca l investi gatio n , s lave ry has c1~ im e d by fa r the
grea test atte nti o n. Th e th e me 's impo rta nce to Ca ribbea n histo ri ogra phy
cl earl y mirrors the institutio n 's ove ra ll hi sto rica l s ig nifi ca nce a nd we ig ht. Fo r
nea rly fo ur ce nturi es a fte r th e Euro pea n conqu est, the vast majo rity o f th e
Ca ribbea n's res ide nts were laves. Eve n no w , o n th e threshold o f the twe nty-
first ce ntury - th e second w ith o ut fo rma l, lega l slave ry - poss ibl y mo re th an
half o f the regio n's inh a bita nts a re desce nd e d fro m th ese e ns lave d people.
Moreove r, the qua lity o f th e hum a n ex pe ri e nces invo lved a mpl y justifies
slave ry's centra lity in hi sto ri ca l writings abo ut th e reg io n , The chatte l slaves
of the Ca ribbea n and e lsew h re e ndure d a n extre me victimi za ti o n. By con-
te mpo ra ry sta nd ard s of c ivil a nd huma n ri ghts, the bo nd age to w hi ch so
many people we re subj ect was bi za rre, as we re th e soc ie ti e,s th at we re built
upo n th e instituti o n . It was , a fte r a ll , a bo nd age whi ch di s ho no ured its sub-
jects as it alie nate d th e m fro m labo ur a nd kin in a pe rpe tu a l a nd inh e ritabl e
fashio n,l
Und e rsta nda bl y, th e n , no o th e r in stitutio n o r hum a n expe rie nce has
bee n as compl e te ly id e ntifi e d with th e Ca ribbea n isla nds a nd th e surro und-
ing contine nta l lo wl a nds, in bo th th e p o pul a r a nd acad e mic im agin ati o ns .
Th e o rig ins , rise, a nd fa ll o f th e reg io n 's s lave syste ms, th e pe rsonaliti es and
cultures o f bo th slaveh o lde rs a nd slaves, th e mea nin g a nd conte nt o f rac ial
id eologies a lig ne d with th e in stitutio n , th e nature a nd impact o f the
regim e n's di sc iplining vio le nce a nd o f its co ro lla ry, slave res ista nce, a nd the
stru gg les lea din g to e ma ncipatio n ha ve a ll bee n th e subject o f inte nse
de bate, While slave ry ex isted , o f co urse, d e bates of this sort we re of curre nt

1 Fo r a d e finiti o n o f slaves as d isho no ure d , nata ll y a lie nated, a nd 'soc ia ll y dea d '
individua ls, see Orla ndo Patte rson, 1982, pp. 1-14.

232 233
 Genera l History q( the Caribbean
po liti ca l, lega l, socia l, econ o mi c , and ve n mili ta ry impo rta nce. Afte r its
d e finit ive e limina ti o n in the nine tee nth ce ntury, the discuss io n turned o n th e
legacies o f soc ia l practices whi ch many be lie ved had le ft d e bilitating scars On
th e victims a nd th e ir d esce nd a nts. Histo ry a nd histo ri ca l unde rsta nding have
been key e le me nts o f d e bate throug ho ut.
Thi s cha pte r pro vid es a n o ve rvie w o f th e hi sto ri ca l lite rature On
Caribbean slave ry. Becau se that lite rature is vast, co mpl ex a nd mUltiling ua l, it
prese nts a cha ll e nge tha t ca n o nly be fully addressed in a mo re compre hen-
s ive fo rm at. He re, I o nl y atte mpt to present a sy no psis of re prese ntat ive
w o rks across a lo ng s pa n o f tim e, with a n e mphas is o n w ri tings o f th e last
ha lf-ce ntury. Rea d e rs a re directe d to o th e r so urces fo r g uid a nce abo ut
s pec ifi c countri es, impe ri al zo nes, and histo ri cal e poc hs , as w e ll as Chap te rs
11-21 o f thi s vo lum .2
Seve ra l ass umpti o ns a bo ut th e regio n , and abo ut th e hi sto riog raphy
co nce rn ed with it, info rm this exe rcise. Th e first is that, d es pite a ll o f its geo-
g ra phi c, cultura l, ling ui sti c, po liti cal a nd racial dive rs ity , o n ~ ca n (a nd m ust)
trea t th e Ca ribbea n as a soc io-cultura l a rea w h ose fund 'lm e nta l co he rence
d e rives fro m a set of comm o n histori ca l expe ri e nces: Euro pea n co lo ni za ti o n,
Ame rindi an d e mographi c co ll a pse, eco no mi c expl o itati o n fo r the be nefit of
me tro po lita n econo mies, d eve lo pm e nt o f pl a ntati o n ag riculture, e me rgence
o f sma llh o lding peasa ntri es, slave ry a nd e ma nc ipati o n , rac ial stratifi cat io n,
co mmo n pla ce me nt in th e co nte mpo ra ry inte rna ti o na l eco no mi c o rd e r, a nd
man y o th e rs .3 In Jea n Be noist's w e lco me phrase , e ach Ca ribbea n isla nd , fo r
a ll its appa re nt uniqu e ness, is lik e ' un caSQ p a rticula r de una estructura
general; es un punta en el itinerm-ia de u n mismo ca minanle ' C'a pa rticul ar
case o f a ge ne ra l stru cture; like a po int o n the itine ralY o f a sing le voyager')."
Th e seco nd ass umpti o n is tha t, a lth o ug h th e inte ns ity o f s lave ex plo itati o n
2 See Gord o n K. Lew is, 1983; H o racio Gutierrez and Jo hn M . Monteiro , 1990 ;
Charl es E. O rser, Jr., 1992; Joseph C. Mill er, 1977 , 1985 , 1993; Jo hn David Smith,
\ e ra liza ti o ns abo ut 'Ca ri b bea n slave ry' as if it w e re a co mpl e te ly unifi e d
1982. Th e jo urnal Slavel:Y and AboliLion p ublishes annu al suppl ements to
Mill er's comprehensive slave ry b ibli ographies , and Ca ri bbea n materi als are
classifi ed sep arately th erein . Fo r th e D utch Wes t Indies , see Pi eter C. Emmer,
1972 ; M . A. P. Meilink-Roe lo fsz, 1982 ; Jo hannes Postm a, 1997. For th e Bri tish
coloni es , see Micha el Crato n, 1974 b , 1982b ; Raym o nd D acey, 1976 ; Elsa V.
Gove ia, 1964; Gad J. H euman , 1978; Phili p D. Morga n , 1980 ; Kev in D. Smith ,
1995. O n the Spanish colo ni es , see Magnus Marn er , 1976; Fern ando Ro mero,
194 1; Roger Basti de, 1974 ; Fred eri ck P. Bo w se r, 1972; Ruben Mald o nado
Jimenez, ] 99 1-2. For th e French coloni es , see Leon V igno ls, 1928; Ga briel
Debien, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1963, 1965 , 1978 .
3 O n th e Ca ri b b ea n as a single unit of histori ca l and social analys is, see Sidn ey
W . Mintz, 197 1.
4 Jea n Beno ist, 1985, p . 78 .
234
stavelY and ema ncipation
varied fro m o ne impe ri a l a rea o r unit to an o th e r, a nd within a re as a nd units
acrosS tim , writings o n slavery have exhibite d re ma rkable unifo rmity across
langu age zones, so that o ne ca n , with o nl y slight difficulty, pe rio di ze the his-
toriogra phy and trea t its d eve lo pme nt in a cohe re nt ch ro no logica l fashio n . As
Elsa V. Go ve ia a nd Go rd o n K. Lew is admirably recogni zed , th e prin cipa l
divide in Ca ribbea n inte llectu al hi sto ry fo r ma ny ce nturi es was no t ling ui sti c ,
impe ri a l, o r eve n econo mi c, b ut ideological: w rite rs w e re e ithe r fo r the socia l
ord e r s usta in ed b y slave ry or th ey w e re aga inst it , with a pre po nd e ra nce o f
auth o rs in the ea rly centuries fa lling in the first ca mp , a nd an in creas in g
numbe r, as time passed , be lo ng ing to the second. s Viewed fro m a Wide-a ngle,
compa rati ve va ntage po int, it is sta rtling to find th at hi sto ria ns o f Cuba a nd
Jamai ca , Surin a me a nd Martiniqu e we re in broad agreeme nt o ve r w hat w e re
th e cru cial qu esti o ns to as k in the ir investiga tio ns o f slavery a nd ove r what
answ e rs to draw . Th e fact that wh ate ve r the ir o rig ins, Euro pea n o r creole, a ll
sha red in the sa me ge neral ma rket o f id eas, he lps to ex pla in this affinit y.
The third ass umpti o n is that, for reaso ns that I s ha ll exa min e b e lo w ,
th e last fifty yea rs have w itn essed an expl osio n in th e numbe r a nd scho la rly
ability o f pe rsons inte reste d in Ca ribbea n soc ia l histo ry in ge ne ra l, and in
slave ry in particul a r. That the main co nseque nce o f this has been a sharp rise
in th e vo lume a nd compl exity o f scho larl y o utput goes with o ut say in g. Wh at
is less evide nt, p e rh a ps, b ut no less impo rta nt , is th a t thi s scho la rl y tid e h as
give n impetu s to a he ighte ne d se nse o f Ca ribbea n unity amo ng histo rians, so
th at tod ay th e qu esti o ns as ke d a bo ut slave ry, a nd th e a ns we rs prov id e d ,
fte n fo rmul ate d a fte r patie nt investi gati o n o f sha rpl y disparate sources, te nd
to und e rsco re th e co mm o na lity o f the Ca ribbea n slave ex pe ri e nce , eve n as
th ey mig ht a lso d we ll o n continge nt a nd uniqu e eve nts a nd c ircumsta nces.
Many yea rs ago, Gove ia rig htl y po inte d o ut the g ulf whi ch se pa rate d la ws
gove rning slave ry in the Spa ni sh , Englis h , Fre nch and Dutch co lo nies during
th e e ig hteenth centuly 6 In so d o ing, she ca utio usly wa rne d about facil e ge n-
in stituti o n . Mo re rece ntl y, o th e r sc ho lars ha ve ec hoed the sa me vie w
7
No ne th e less, it was Gove ia he rself w ho, in a brilli a nt a na lys is o f pre- 1900
writing o n th e Britis h Ca ribbea n , a ffirm ed th at as scho la rs looke d beyo nd
the maste rs' li ves and foc used o n the slaves instead , they wo uld find a mu ch
mo re appea ling a nd unive rsa l sto ry; a sto ry o f surviva l aga in st fo rbidding
o dds . By und e rsco ring just th ese as pects o f th e histo ry of slavery - th e
e nslaved peopl es' re le ntless affirmatio n of the ir humanity - the sc ho la rs hip of
5 Gord o n K . Lew is, 1983; Elsa V. Goveia, 1956.
6 Elsa V. Goveia, 1960; W illiam A. Gree n, 1977.
7 See, for exam pl e, M ichael Craton , 1975.
235
 General His/DIY a/ the Caribbean
the last half-century has begun to fu lfill Gove ia's hope for a history which
sh ines a brighter light on what she ca ll ed 'fundamenta l human prob lems'. In
so doing, it has often broken down the u ual barriers of politics , language
and soc io-econom ic status, and made the Caribbea n seem ever more li ke a
sing le itinerary, gu iding a sing le traveller.
The problelll of slavelY in the early histories
Writings about slavery in the context of the Europea n co lon izat ion of the
Caribbean date from so me of the ea rli est moments of contact between th e
in vade rs and the origin al inh ab itants. In hi s famous letter to Ferd in and and
I sabe ll a of 4 March 1493, Co lum bus described the many va lu ab le sp ices and
minerals that he encountered, most of which he believed to possess commer-
c ial va lu e and therefore of interest to the Spa ni sh monarchs. To thi s list of
potentially profitable materials he added 'so many slaves that they are innu-
merable, and they will come from the id ohte rs . .. ' The mariner believed that
he could distinguish between Ind ians of different disposition o r character;
from this perception he deduced the rat io nale for enslaveme nt of one group
o r another. Thus, eve n w ith out encou nterin g them in person, he rega rd ed
m em be rs of o ne supposed 'g roup' of natives , the caribe o r caribo, residents
of an island ca ll ed Cardo, as coward ly, flesh-eating, and fierce bowmen. 'And
when Your Highnesses g i ve the o rd er for me to se nd slaves,' he concluded,
'I hope to bring or send [you) th ese for the most pa rt. .. ,8
Ove r the succeedi ng decades, of course, panish col o ni ze rs enslaved
thousands of A rawaks and other o ri gina l inhabitants of the Caribbea n region .
Almost concu rrentl y they introd uced the instituti o n of Africa n chatte l slavery
in the New World , which sp read quickly to all co rn e rs of their budding
9
empire. With the initiation of slav ing on a large sca le, of Indi ans first and
later of Africans , there also began a s ri es of g reat m o ral and lega l debates
about slave ry , debates which would define th e limits of European views
about the institution fo r centuries to come. IO
While the moral terrain delimited by these ea rl y di scuss io ns wou ld n o
doubt info rm historical w ritings abo ut slavery in the future , they did not
immediate ly spawn a historiography of slave r y. Within th e Spa nish empire,
and ind eed throughout the Europea n wo rld , it would not be until the
8 Marga rita Zamora, 1993, pp. 194, 196-7.
9 For a recent a na lysis of the ea rl y p hases of African slavery on Hispaniola, see
Genaro Rodriguez Morel, 1993.
10 David Brion Davis, 1966. See a lso Lewis Hanke, 1949.
236
SlauelY and emancipat ion
eighteenth century that the subject of slave ry b eca me worthy of historical
investigati o n . In the intervening period , eve n those who , like the Jesuit
A lonso de Sa nd ova l , were genuin ely interested in slaves as human beings
and in slave ry as a problem with both pra ctica l and confessio nal impli ca-
tio ns, d evoted little atte nti on to the story of how Europea ns came to regard
Afri can s as enslavable beings and how they went about spread ing the institu-
tion thro ug ho ut thei r New World co lo ni es. 11 David Brion Davis has observed
that it was o nl y in the genera l histories published in the eig htee nth centu ry,
most of th em by writers insp ired by the En lig htenment, that slavery became a
subject of se ri ous historical inquiry. 'Fo r as the Western mind increasingly
looked to histo ry for moral guid ance and self-und erstandi ng,' Davis exp lains,
'it becam e imperative to reco ncil e the rev ival of slavery in modern times w ith
various theori e of human progress. ' 12
This is not to suggest, of course, that before the age of Montesquieu ,
Roussea u and Raynal th ere had not been any interest in c hron icling the ri se
of Ameri ca n slavery o r understanding the slaveho lding soc ial formations as
historica lly distinct entities . Beginning in the seco nd quarter of the seven-
teenth century , and especia lly after an initial surge of sma ll-farming colon iza-
tion gave way to large-sca le suga r production based o n slave labour, authors
like Charles de Rochefo rt , Jea n Baptiste Du Tertre and Richard Ligon con-
cerned themselves , in varying measure, w ith the colo ni al transformations wit-
nessed by them. For these transformations , the adopti o n of slavery o n a vast
scale had been pivotal. 13 As Du Tertre himse lf put it, no ' histo ri an ' of these
Europea n possessions in the Ca ribbean cou ld fail to write abo ut the institu-
tion and the people upo n whom the wea lth of the new colo nies rested.
Of these auth ors, Rochefo rt was perhaps the k ee nest observer of the
manne rs and ways of life of th e n o n-E uropea ns h e met, Du Tertre th e o ne
who se sharp moral critiqu es of slavery set the tone for a success io n of anti-
slavery histories yet to come, and Ligon the precursor of a hi sto ri ograp h y
unabashed ly suppo rti ve of the slave ho lding system and m ostly co nce rn ed
with slaves as age nts of production I 4 It is true th at in Roc hefort 'S Histoire
naturalle et morale des Antilles de l'Amerique (Natu ral and m ora l history of
the American Antilles) of 1658 slaves do not occ upy as prominent a place as
do the island Ca ribs, native inhab itants of the islands settl ed by Frenchmen
11 A wonderful new translation of Sa ndova l's work now ex ists: Alonso de
Sa ndova l, 1987.
12 David Brion Davis, 1966, p. 13.
13 Cha rles de Rochefort, 1658; Jean Baptiste Du Tertre , 1667-71 ; Richa rd Ligon,
1657.
14 Gordon K. Lewis, 1983, p. 63, cred its Rochefort'S origina lity as a student of
culture and society , despite his a lleged plagiarism of Du Tertre.
237
\
 General His/ory a/the Caribbean
after 1624. But in a few we ll -written pages he sketches an evocative pi cture
of the sl aves' lives, from their capture and sa le in Africa to their habits of
work, le i. ure and family life in the Antilles. I
'; Du Tertre , for his part, dedi-
cated a much more extensive part of his Histoire generale des Antilles
(Genera l history of the Antilles) (1654) to the subject of slave ry, which he
condemned in th e strongest possible manner. The slaves' experience and
cu lture come aliv in these pages. Furthermore, with a keen eye for the asso-
ciation betwee n th e French presence in the Antilles as a mercantile venture
and the moral affront of slavery, Du Tertre referred to the tragic cycle of v io-
len ce inh erent to the soc iety that was taking shape all around him. Th e
French settlers' physical and moral abuse of the Africans led to a fierce resist-
ance on the part of the ens laved; on ly a char itable treatment of the latter
would prevent a whirlwind of repress ion and rebellion. In this way , as
Goveia has remarked, Du Tertre captured the esse ntial tension of Caribbean
slave society, better, no doubt, than many other eyewitnesses and historians
who lived during the 's ugar islands ' apogee in the mid- to late-1700s. Th ese
subsequent writers were often imbued with a pro-slavery bias. 16
Of the three seventeenth-century writers discussed here, Ligon , an
Englishman, was at his best when narrating th e business ve ntures of his com-
patriots and of other Europeans in mid-seventeenth-century Barbados. 17 His
A True and 6xact History of /h e Island of Barbadoes (1657) records a strong
predilection for economi c themes and a full, unequivocal endorsement of
slave ry. In this way it anticipated th e more voluminous and sophisticated
Caribbean histories of th e e ig hteenth century, of which the works of Jean -
Baptiste Labat and Mederic Morea u de Saint-Mery in th e French islands, Fray
Inigo Abbad and Antonio Sanchez V al verde in the Spanish, and Edward Long
and Blyan Edwards in th e English are amon g the m ost notable. I II
It was in the eighteenth ce ntury, as Davis noted , that slavery becam e a
top ic for serious histori ca l inquiry. Rati o nalist philoso ph y and a growing
curiosity in human variation, ush ered in by a new secularism, acce ntuated
Europeans ' moral awareness about th e plight o f enslaved bla cks in the ew
15 Spanish-language reade rs may consu lt the passages from Rochefort and Du
Tertre relating to slaves in the French West Indies in Eugenio Fernandez
M~ndez , 1996, pp. 95-130.
16 Elsa V. Goveia , 1956, pp. 19-26 , 32. See p. 167 , this vo lume.
17 Rich ard S. Dunn , 1972, p . 25 , writes that '[m uch) of the early literature o n the
island settlements was econo mic in characte r, for the sugar co lonies were busi -
ness ventures primarily. ' The same ca n be said o f th e histo ri ography of th e
'sugar islands' more generally, including writings o n slavery .
18 Jean Baptiste Labat, 1722 (724); M~deric Louis Elie Moreau de Saint-Mery ,
1797-8; Fray Inigo Abbad y Las ierra, 1777(966) ; Antonio Sanchez Valverde ,
1784 (1947); Edward Lo ng , 1774; Bryan Edwards, 18 19.
238
SlavelJl and emancipa/ ion
World coloni es. The massive increase in the sca le of slave exp loitation in the
p lantation and mining zones of the Americas , as well as in the volume of
human cargoes traded ac ross the Atlantic , also heightened th e urgency and
importance of discussions about slavery and its place in European co loniza-
tion.1 9 By the mid-eighteenth century slavery had not only become a
complex moral issue in and of itself, it was also the foundation of a m ercan-
tile comp lex of vast proportions , and hence , a subject of current business ,
politica l and moral/religious significance. The Caribbean was at the centre of
many of the discussions of co lonia l slavery which drew upon history for
support and justification; little wonder, since in the 1700s the slave plantation
societies of British Jamaica and French St Domingue led the way, in succes-
20
sion as the world 's rich est slave socia l formations As these large co lon ies
toOk their bizarre shape - 85 to 90 per cent slave and hundreds of thou'sands
of bonded beings in each - discussions regarding the moral underpinnings of
colonial ventures of this odd sort naturally hea ted up. Under th ese c ircum -
stances, historical knowledge was a valuable weapon in the greatest moral
dispute about the Americas since the famous mid-sixtee nth-century d eba tes
in the Spanish court between Las Casas and SepCtlveda regarding th e Native
Americans' humanity. 21
In v iew of slavery 's va lu e and Significance, it is not surpris in g that
Caribbean historians, especia ll y those who li ved and wrote in the area, were
willing to justify it, eve n as they b elieved in the Enlightenment idea that Man
is possessed of natural rights , in c luding p ersonal fre edom. Only the d egree
of pro-sl ave ry sentiment seems to set apart th e historians of this p eriod , a
statement th at is especia ll y tru e of those who li ved and wrote in th e West
Indies, for they generally tried to justify and d efend the interests of the plan -
tocratic elites. While a 'creole ' p ersp ect ive did not necessa ril y m ean a pro-
slavery inclination, before the Age of Revolution (1776-1825) , one is hard
pressed to find th e c reo le viewpoint associated with a rad ica l critiqu e of
slavery. Among th e Enlightenment histo ri ans who treated the Caribbean Lo
any extent , it was primarily the metro pole-based authors, like th e Abbe
Raynal - th e most progressive of all, an ea rly radica l aboliti o nist - who co n-
22
demned th e practi ce on moral and politica l grounds Whether born in the
colon ies or not, authors who wrote se lf-co nsc io usly as creoles tended to find
justification for the system which grounded the entire colo nial enterprise.
--'
19 For th e classic statement on the volume of th e transatlantic slave trade, see
Philip D. Curtin , 1969.
20 For th e best economic history of the English West Indi es during th eir apogee ,
see Ri chard B. Sheridan, 1974. See also Elsa V. Gove ia , 1965 .
21 Lewis Hanke , 1949.
22 Guillaume T. Raynal , 1770. -
239
 General His/ory qfthe Ca ribbean
Th ese o bse rva ti o ns generall y ho ld tru e fo r all o f th e majo r imperi al seg-
m ents. Fo r th e sa ke o f brevit y , I w ill illu strate th em with exa mpl es drawn
fro m th e Briti sh W est Indies , th o ug h the Fre nc h and , to a lesse r extent, th e
Spanish A ntilles prov ide examples also. In the British sph ere, o f course , Lo ng
and Ed wa rd s have lo ng b een taken as th e p aradi g mati c auth o rs. On e of the
ea rli es t hi sto ri ans o f Jamaica and an acute o bse rve r o f its rece nt eco no mi c
and soc ial hi sto ry , Lo ng unconditi o nall y d efend ed slaver y and stood fo r the
ri g hts o f th e pl ante r cl ass . Hi s 1774 Hist01Y of j ama ica revea ls an Eng lish-
bo rn auth o r w ho has ad o pted th e v iewp o ints and sensibiliti es o f th e co lonial
rulin g cl ass. A s Goveia has p o inted o ut, he was m o re co ncern ed abo ut
slav ery's effects o n th e edifice o f state th an o n th e in stituti o n 'S effects o n th e
slaves, wh o m he v iew ed as inferi o r by nature. 25 His pro-s lavery biases w ere,
th erefo re, o penl y expr ssed and unqu alifi ed .
Lo ng 's unprobl em ati ca l d efence o f slavery stands in o m e contrast to
that es p o used b y th e o th er g rea t Eng li sh hi sto ri an o f th e W es t Indies ,
Edwards .. On th e surface, the intell ectu al p os iti o n o f bo th authors w as quite
sll11ll ar. LIke Lo ng, hi s imm edi ate pl anter- histo ri an pred ecesso r, from wh ose
Jam aica n w o rk he too k m ateri als fo r his o wn History of the West Indies
( 793) , Ed wa rd s had b een b o rn and edu ca ted in Eng land . A s a yo ung m an ,
he too k up res Id ence in Jamaica amo n g the island 's w ea lthi est suga r pl anters
and later inh erited hi s uncl e's large suga r fo rtun e. G ive n his asce nt into th e
Jam aica n pl antoc racy and his influ ence within th e pl anter-I d A ssembl y , of
whIc h he w as a distin g ui sh ed m ember , he naturall y embraced pl anter v iews
o n th e necess ity o f slavery and o f th e slave trad e. Hi s pl anter p ersp ecti ve
also co nv inced him o f the n eed fo r free r co mm erce betwee n th e W est Indies,
the ho me country, and th e impo rta nt U nited States m ark et after that co untry 's
24
indep endence Hi s History refl ected these practica l, if unstated , imperati ves.
But ev en as he fo rce full y d efend ed th e fo und ati o n o f th e co lo nies '
w ealth fro m some o f th e earl y attacks o f the anti -slavery movem ent, Edward s
held a co ntradi cto ry o pini o n o n th e m o ral fo und ation s o f th e slave system .
H e w as an ard ent advoca te of slave ry and th e slav e trad e. But in writing
ab~ ut th e C~ rib~ea n 's ea rl y co lo ni al past, he suggested th at th e slav ery to
w hIc h Am enndl ans had bee n subjected w as immo ral , a vio latio n of their
n atural ri g hts. Thu s, slave ry could be a m o ral ev il in o ne case but no t in
an o ther, a parad ox th at, as Gove ia has shown, revea ls ho w d ee pl y ingrained
th e ration ale fo r pl antation slavery w as in th e minds o f c reo les 25 Whil e
upho lding a humanitari an view o f the Antill e ' o rig in al peopl es , Edwards rea-
23 Elsa V. Go ve ia, 1956, pp . 58- 64. See pp . 206-10, this volume .
24 Lowell Joseph Raga tz, 1932.
25 Elsa V. Goveia, 1956, pp . 80-9.
240
SlavelY and emcmcipa/ioll
so ned th at slave r y was justifi ed in hi s own context b y b lack s' rac ial in fe ri o r-
ity. In m akin g thi s fin e di stinctio n he ech oed seve ral impo rtant Ca rib b ea n
chro nicl ers and hi sto ri ans b ef o re him , m ost no tabl y Las Casas , w ho, in h is
earliest wo rks, ad voca ted th e impo rtati o n o f A fri ca n slaves in o rd er to all ev i-
ate th e Indian s' b urd e n , a p os iti o n fro m w hic h he later retracted. It was
Fern and O rti z, th e g rea t stud e nt o f Afro-C uba n culture , w h o b est ca ptured
the prev ailin g ambiva lence of ea rl y Ca ribb ea n writers ab o ut slave ry ac ross
the spectrum o f subaltern peoples.
Sin embargo, Las mismas razones que con eLtiemp o Logra ron triunf ar ,
p ara Los indios jileron deso fdas p ara los negros, y bubo en fa doctrinay
en La p ractica del coLoniaj e dos criterios d islinlos y sucesivos, uno feve
para eLindigena de America y olro grave para ef negro de Africa. (The
sa m e reaso ns that over tim e preva il ed w ith rega rd to [In d ian slaver y]
we re no t recogni zed in th e case o f bl ac k s, and in th e d octrin e and
practi ce o f co lo ni ali sm there were two distinct and success ive criteri a, a
mild o ne fo r Indians and a severe o ne fo r b lack s.) 26
Histo ri ans of Latin Ame ri ca o ften recogni ze in this ambi va lence the diffe ren t
27
locati o ns that A fri can s and Amerindi ans occupied in th e co lo ni al o rd er
Abolitionism and historiography: towards a more
'scientific history' in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries
With th e ri se o f ab o liti o nist se ntime nt in Euro p e, and es pec iall y in G rea t
Britain , w ritings o n Ca ribbea n slavery took o n an increasingly d efensive char-
acter. A s Goveia has o bse rved , a striking intell ectu al tensio n is present in hi s-
to ri ca l w o rk s ab o ut th e Ca ribb ea n written in th e late 1700s and ea rl y 1800s.
The so urce o f thi te nsio n was sli g htl y differe nt in each o f the imperi al
zo nes, however. In the B ritish Ca ribbea n , it was bo rn o f the in creas in g likeli -
hood th at the slave system would com e to an end under the we ig ht o f ab o li-
ti o nist press ure 2H In the Sp anish co lo nies, th e ab o liti o ni st o nslau ght,
combined with a gro wing natio nalist sentiment, fo rced liberal w riters to try tor
und erstand and assess th e sig nifi ca nce o f slave ry f o r their nati o n-building
26 Fernando O rti z, 1938, p . lvii .
27 Pete r Wade , 1997 , p . 27 .
28 Elsa V. Gove ia , 1956 , refe rs he re to wo rks li ke Th o mas Atwood , 1791; Willi a m
Youn g, 1795 ; Robert Charles Dall as, 1803.
241
 Gen eral His/ory qf the Caribbean
pro jects . The cru cial qu estio ns he re were: If we a re to beco me a n ind e pe n-
de nt nati o n , what d oes th e existe nce o f s lave ry p o rte nd ? And how do we
turn slaves in to active c iti ze ns? In bo th th e British a nd Spanish co lon ies, of
course, e ma nc ipati o n radica ll y cha nged the nature of th e prob le m o f slave ry
a ltogether; co ncomitant ch a nges in how it was re presente d in histo rica l na r-
ratives na turall y e nsued. It was thi s watershed e vent, which in the Caribbea n
occurre d at diffe re nt mo me nts across a lmost a ce ntury, that marked the most
sig nifi ca nt shift eve r in ho w historians co nce ive d of slave ry a nd its de mi se.
o o ne better re presents the immediate pre-emancipatio n generati o n of
Ca ribbean histo ri a ns and its contradicti o ns tha n the Cuba n Jose Antonio Saco
(1797-1879). As a yo ung man gro wing up in Hava na am id st the s uga r a nd
slave ry boom th at transformed th e Spa nis h co lo ny into th e Ca ribbea n's most
exploitative slave SOCiety, Saco beca me convinced of the practica l and political
necess ity o f abo li shing th e slave trade and of a g radua l mo ve to ward fin a l
e ma ncipatio n. For these be liefs, a nd fo r espo using the colo ny's inde pe nde nce,
he was ex il ed in 1831; re turning brie fl y thirty years later, he was qui ckl y
banned again , this time for life . Whil e conside ring himself a 'negro phil e', Saco
was no t in favour of immediate e ma ncipatio n; hi s race prejudice did no t allow
it. 29 His attitude towa rd slavelY hinged o n his nati o na li sm. He was o pposed to
slavery o n the grounds that its existe nce would guara ntee Cuba's colo nia l sub-
jugati o n to Spa in . But he prefe rred to think that sla ves and the ir descendants
would exting uish th e mse lves natura lly, by th e combine d e ffect of th eir ow n
mo rtality a nd w hite immig rati o n. An arde nt advocate of European immig ratio n
to Cuba, even hi s unpublis he d text o n th e histo ry of sla ve ry in the .French
West Indies was colo ured by this prefe re nce. In it, he wrote favourably abo ut
the engages a nd their contributio n to the ea rl y French Ca ribbea n , a pl anned
labo ur mig rati o n that he saw as a mode l for co nte mpo ra ry Cuba. 30
Saco's g rea test work , written in exil e between the 1830s a nd 1870s, was
a s ix-volume hi sto ry o f slave ry from a ntiquity to 'his ow n times' (in rea lity, it
covers o nl y until about the 1830s, and th en mostl y in Cuba) .31 The first three
volumes discuss Old World histo ry , w hil e the last three centre o n the StOIY of
Ibe ro-Ame ri ca n slavery a nd , pa rti cula rl y, o n th e a utho r's ho me land Y Saco's
fa raway Cuba was ind e d the m a in subj ect of the fin a l volume , in which th e
exil e d wri ter c hasti ed the Spani a rds fo r 'dumping ' slaves o n his co untry to
preve nt its people from seek ing ind e pe nd e nce a lo ngs ide o th e r Sp a nish
29 See Go rdon K. Lewis , 1983, pp. 149-54, for a sca thing critiq ue of Sa co a nd his
wo rk , anc ho red in a recogn ition of his racism. See p. 213 , this volume.
30 O restes Ga rciga, 1986.
31 Jose Anton io Saco, 1875-7.
32 The volumes trea ting the New World have been published sepa rate ly as Jose
Anton io Saco, 1879 (938) .
242
lauel"y and emancipation
colonies . It was the geo politi cs o f slave ry that o bsessed the libe ra l patri c ia n.
The contrast between English a nd Spa ni sh effo rts at abo li s hin g the s lave
trade was c ru c ial to his analysis o f wh a t had gone wrong in Cuba . Whe reas
in En gla nd pressure fo r aboliti o n had arisen from w ithin , a nd beca use o f
that, the 1807 abo litio n decree had been obse rve d in le tte r a nd in spirit, in
Spain the press ure to cease the traffi c had come fro m ab road - fro m England .
itse lf. Madrid had not harboure d inte ntio ns o f ab iding by the Anglo-Spanish
treaties for abolition o f the colo nia l slave trad e, beca use, Saco a rg ued , a ll
a long th e me tropo le 's inte rests lay in kee ping Cuba a colo ny. Ma nipula tin g
the fea r of slave revolt was the key to atta ining this political o bjective .33
If Saco's bitte r critiqu e o f colo niali s m, with slave ry at the ce ntre of his
conce rn , exe mplifi e d th e libe ral-re fo rmi st views o f Spanish Ca ribbea n - in
reality, o f Cu ban34 - natio na lists vis-a-vis slave ry, his Hist01-ia ca n be see n as
emblematic of an ea rlie r, pre-e ma nc ipatio n Ca ribbea n histo rica l lite rature for
anothe r reason: mod e rn crite ri a o f histo rica l ana lysis were nota bly abse nt
from th e wo rk. Ortiz correctl y saw th at Saco, who wrote hi s slave ry trea tise
in the middl e deca d es o f th e nine teenth ce ntury , was no t inte reste d in th e
economic o r soc io log ica l as pects of slave ry. Rathe r, he put his e ntire a tte n-
tion on th e instituti o na l and po liti ca l a ngles. 35 Later histo ria ns of Spa nish
Am e ri ca n sla ve ry, like Georges Sce lle a ro und 1900, despite treating the
Historia as a n indispe nsa bl e source, wo uld find fa ult in its e pisodic quality .36
Yet , eve n as it lacked in th e sta nda rd co nce ptu a l and me thod ological fea-
tures of pro fess io na l histo ry , Sa co's effort would be pivotal to future gene ra-
tions o f histo rians of slave ry in the Spanish colo nies. Late r Cuban schola rs, in
parti cul a r, would see k mu ch g uida nce in it; that Cuban scho la rship on th e
nin e tee nth century would co ntinu e to focus o n the political impli ca ti o ns of
slavelY attests to this connectio n Y
33 Jose Antonio Saco, 1879 (938) , vo l. 3, pp. 136 ff.
34 Pue rto Ri ca n libe ral reformists were ge ne rall y mo re inclined to favour immediate
e manc ipatio n tha n the ir Cuba n counterpa rts . Their w ritings o n isla nd histo ry
refl ected this mo re rad ica l stance. See, for exa mpl e, Jose Julia n Acosta 's exten -
s ive historica l a nno tatio ns in Fray Iii igo Abbad y Las ie rra , 1866 . Another
exa mple, representing by now a post-e ma ncipatio n senSibility, a re the w ritings
o f Sa lvad o r Bra u. His most inc isive histori ca l essays, w ritte n in the 1880s a nd
1890s, were collecte d in Sa lvador Brau , 1956.
35 Fe rn ando Ortiz, 1938.
36 See Georges Scelle, 1906.
37 Tn the second ha lf o f th e twe ntie th century, the debate o n slave ry's implicatio ns
fo r nati o na lism begins with Ra(d Ce pe ro Bo nill a, 1948. The most fo rce ful state-
me nt abo ut this issue from a Ma rx ist perspective is Manuel Moreno Frag ina ls,
1964 (1978). Rece nt discussions include Ro be rt L. Paq uette, 1988; Maria del
Ca rm e n Barcia, 1987; Ada Ferrer, 1991; Aline He lg, 1995.
243
 General His/olY q( /he Carihhean
Afte r emanc ipati o n , and es pec iall y in th e latter d eca d es o f th e nine-
tee nth ce ntury, writings ab o ut Ca ribb ea n hi sto ry und elwent sig nifi ca nt
gro wth and maturatio n. Three sp ec ifi c Occurrences marked this change. First,
histo ri ans b ega n using m o d ern tec hniqu es o f resea rch , textual analys is and
represe ntatio n. Th e d eve lo pme nt o f a 'scientifi c' histo ry in Eu rop e hel ps to
acco unt fo r thiS , as d oes th e grea ter access th at sch o lars ga ined to o rga ni zed
hi sto ri ca l archives and librari es . Seco nd , in rega rd to th e subject o f slavery,
em an c ipati o n rend ered anachro nisti c th e unthinking d efe nce of property
ri g hts in m an w hi c h had characte ri zed virtu all y all 'nati ve ' w ritin gs in the
past. H ence fo rth , altho ugh m an y auth o rs did no t esca pe race preju d ice, th ere
w o uld be littl e in th e wa y o f an o utrig ht pro-sl ave ry hi sto ri og raphy . An d
third , po liti ca l econo m y became an increaS ing ly po pul ar idi o m fo r disc uss ing
th e compl ex iss ues surro unding co lo nial lab o ur system s, including the
b ygo ne instituti o n o f slaver y . Thu s, b y the ea rl y twe nti eth ce ntury , no t o nl y
the th em es, but m an y o f th e usual epistem o log ies and m o d es o f represe n ta-
tio n empl o yed by co ntemporary hi sto ri an s o f Ca ribb ea n slavery had had
the ir d ebut in th e w ritin gs o f bo th native and imperi al hi stori ans.
U nderstandably , the more profess io nal and 'sc ientifi c' histo ri ograph y of
th e late nin etee nth ce ntury tend ed to be metro p o le-ce ntred. 3H There were
few ce ntres of hig her lea rning in th e Ca ribb ea n at the time, and fo r m ost stu-
d ents, eve n from the elite, co nta ct with Euro p ea n intell ectu al currents
occurred o nly sp o radi ca ll y , such as w h en stud y in g abroad . Thu s, th e n ew
ways o f approac hing th e stud y o f hi sto ry th at we re he lping to build an hi s-
to ri ca l pro fess io n in Euro p e an d th e U nited States we re b o und to arrive i n
th Ca ribbea n all too slo wl y . In additi o n , som e o f thi s new ly-profess ional li t-
erature w as driven b y a d esire to conceptu ali ze the ro le th at slavery , and th e
co lo ni es w hose fo rtun es w e re based o n th e slave syste m , had pl ayed in
imperi al affairs. In so m e cases , th e o ld empires , at o ne tim e ce ntred o n th e
Ca ribbea n , w ere g iving w ay to b ehem o ths sp annin g co nstell atio ns of
co lo ni es and d ep end ent areas across the g lo be. Briti sh au tho rs, esp ec iall y,
w ere pro vo k ed by this tran siti o n to p o nd er impe ri ali sm and its l abo ur
system s th eoreti ca ll y and widely (for exa mpl e, H erman M erivale's Lectures on
Colonization and Colonies, published in 1841-2, a se min al wo rk o n th e
po liti ca l eco no m y o f slav ery and imperi alism)39 and to write co mprehen si ve
38 Some exce ptio ns to thi s rul e incl ude creole nati o nalist writin gs by Sp anish
Ca ri bbea n autho rs, such as Sa lvado r B rau .
39 H erm an M eri va le, 184 1-2. A later work , by th e Dutchman Herm an Jeremias
ieboer, 1900, g rappled w ith th e q ues ti o n o f w h y if slavery had bee n so ubiq ui-
to us in mankind 's hi sto ry , it had been proscribed in m ost places b y th e nin e-
teenth ce ntury. N ieboer ca me up w ith an econ o mic th eo ry o f the o rig ins o f
slave ry and free lab o ur th at ascribes th e sprea d o f free lab o ur to th e closing o f
o nce 'o pen resources', parti cularl y land .
244
Slavery and ema ncipalion
histories o f th e British co lo nies (su ch as Ro b ert M o ntgom ery M artin 's Th e
British Colonies o f 185 1-7 and C. P. Lu cas ' A Historical Geography of the
British Colonies publi shed between 1888 and 1907) . Slave ry was a sig nifi ca n t
subj ect in all o f these.
Th e d aw n o f th e twe nti eth ce ntury witn essed m ajo r changes in
Caribbea n po litica l econo my and , with it, sensibilities and concern s abo ut th e
regi o n 's past. With its co lo ni al tak eover o f Pu erto Ri co and neo-co lo ni al
occupatio n o f Cuba, th e U nited States established itse lf firml y as th e lea ding
imperi al p owe r in th e reg io n . Inves to rs fo ll o w ed in th e so ldi ers' wa k e. As
corpo rate suga r pl antatio ns owned b y b o th m etro p o litan and loca l ca pital
rapidly reorgani zed a d ecay ing suga r indu stly, they r ig nited qu estio ns ab o ut
how labo ur in th e exp o rt secto r wo uld b e o rga ni zed and appro pri ated , and
what large r soc ial effects w o uld deri ve from such dec isio ns. Prev io us w ays o f
organi zin g labo ur in th e exp o rt secto r we re, o f co urse, p ertin ent to di scus-
sio n o f contempo rar y mo d es o f expl o itati o n.
Aro und th e turn o f th e ce ntury sev eral influ enti al works o n Ca ribb ea n
slavery appea red in Eu ro p e and th e U nited States . Co nce ived fo r th e m ost
part as pro feSSio nal co ntributio n s, th ey we re, in the m ost pro minent o f cases,
written by p erson s w ho p ossessed ad va nced d egrees in histo ry. Clea rl y ,
some had bee n p rompted b y the issues and qu estio ns raised by the transiti o n
toward U nited States hege m o n y in th e reg io n . And , wh ereas at o th er su ch
mo ments o f con cern fo r the slave p ast Eng lish au tho rs had tak en the lea d , o n
this occasio n the pio nee rs we re Frenc h and Am eri ca n autho rs.
In its comprehensive sweep and brea dth of resea rc h , Lu cien Peytraud 's
1897 general treatise o n slave ry in the French Antilles stands o ut as the g rea t-
est o f these contributio ns. 4o Written b y a pro fessio nal histo ri an wh had ca re-
full y combed France 's co lo ni al archives , this pa no rami C wo rk o n French
Caribbea n slave ry prese nted a sweeping inte rpretati o n o f its instituti o nal ,
leg al , relig iOUS, soc io-econo mi c and p o liti ca l histo ry. U p-to-d ate in its
approach , method o logy and eruditi o n , it contain s in its nea rl y 500 p ages di s-
crete units and ch apters o n leg islati o n , th e slave trad e , Afri ca n o ri g ins and
cultures , slaves' m ateri al co nditio ns, m arro nage and reb elli o ns, d em ograph y ,
relig io n , social contro l , and m anumi ss io n , am o ng o ther to pics . Peytraud was
mired in the racism o f his time, to be sure. His book p ropa ga tes m an y o f th e
ra cist beli efs ( in Afri ca n w o m en 's imm o ral di srega rd f o r c hastity and innate
disp OS iti o n toward p ros titutio n , fo r in stan ce) th at w ere stand ard fare in th e
writings o f th e slave era. But o ne ca nn ot loo k at this work as simpl y ano ther
rac ist tract. In co nce i ving o f co lo ni al slave SOC iety as a compl ex soc ial
40 Lu c ien Pierre Peytraud, 1897. A second va lu abl e contributi o n w ritten in French
at th e turn o f th e ce ntury was Georges Scelle, 1906.
245
 General His/olY q/ /he Caribbean
formation and in d emo nstrating the value of patient archival research
Peytraud 's book set a va lu able precede nt in French Ca ribbea n histo ri ogra phy. '
Of lesser ove rall quality and m o re te nd enti o us than Peytraud's treatise
was Hubert H . Aimes ' A History oj Slavery in Cuba, 1511-1868, publish ed
in 1907 during th e seco nd U nited States occ upati o n of the island. Written by
a profess io nal hi sto ri an who ho p ed th at a well-researched book o n Cuban
hi sto ry in Eng lish - th e first o ne of its kind, he gathered - would 'a id in
so lvin g so me of the prob lem s co nn ected with that island ,' th e work was
clearly attun ed to th imperi alist d emands of th e m o m ent. Like Saco, from
whom he d e riv ed mu ch info rmat io n , Aimes focused o n the p eri od between
the War of Spa ni sh Success io n (1700-13) and th e beginning of Cuba's Ten
Years' War in 1868. He m ainly argued that in this p e ri od Cuba's stunning
'progress' had ste mm ed directly from policies d es ig ned to in crease the infl ow
o f slaves at the lowest possible cos t. H e saw Eng lish attempts at suppress ion
after about 1820 as h armful to the slaves th em se lves, for in keeping th e ir
number artifiCiall y low, suppress ion efforts preve nted a m o re intensive culti -
vation of the island and thus blocked the natural transition from slave to free
labo ur. For Aimes, then, Cuba's und erd eve lo pment and the alleged vices th at
beset its peo pl e Cof which 'vagrancy' was the worst) were th e direct conse-
quence of misguid ed slave-trad e suppressio n poliCies which had thwarted the
island's 'prog ress'.ll A logi ca l outgrowth of this arg ume nt would be to advo-
ca te the freest ope rati o n possible of all factors o f prod ucti o n in the 'new '
Cuba, and with it, the unfettered development of the co rp o rat plantation
econ omy. Aimes' work o n slavery appea rs clearly slanted in that direction .
It was the Cuban ethno logist Fernando Ortiz who in 191 6 publish ed
Hampa afro-cubana CAfro-Cuban sub-c ulture) , a work o n slavery that in its
breadth and sop histi catio n approac hed Peytraud 's co ntributio n eve n as it
shared in m an y of th e ra cist dogmas of the age. Steeped in th e anthropo lo-
g ica l crimin o logy of Cesare Lo mbroso, Ortiz had embarked o n an investiga-
tion into what he termed 'Afro-Cuban fetishi sm ' - African-derived relig ious
practices th at, in his view , fostered crimin al behaviour. Like Lombroso, he
believed th at Cuba's c rim e pro bl em co uld be attributed to heredity, and th at
som e of society ' m embers were genetically pred isposed to it. But co ntrary to
th e white c riminal s whose delinqu ncy, acco rding to Lombroso , was an
atavistic and individu al response, Ortiz beli eved that Afro-C ubans as a group
'we re l asc ivio us love rs, g ive n to p o lygamy , and had no coh es ive famili es;
41 Aimes' racia l bi ases we re a rti culated w ith a discourse of economic efficie ncy.
'The free negro o r mul atto was genera ll y a parasite,' he conclud ed. 'They
re fu sed to app ly themselves a n y mo re tha n was absolute ly necessa ry to ga in
sufficie nt to li ve o n.' I-rube rt H. Aimes, 1907, pp. 263-4 .
246
Slavery and emancipation
their reli g ion led them to hum an sacrifi ce , anthropop h agy , and the most
brutal supe rst itio ns,' in the apt summary of an hi sto ri an of Cuba n race rela-
tions 4 2 Tn order to understa nd Afro-Cubans' all eged propensity toward crim e,
which Ortiz believed could be remedied by o ngoing contact w ith whites , he
need ed to exp lo re their history . His g reat work o n slave ry, Hampa c~lro­
cubana, res ulted from this quest. Like Peytraud 's, OrtiZ'S genera l synthesis of
Cuban slave ry cove red mu ch ground: from its in stituti o nal and political
aspects , to the African cultural background o f impo rted slaves , th e slave
trade , the nature of labo ur on plantations and in othe r econom ic sp he res ,
manumi ss io n , and many o th er themes. U nlike Peytraud, howeve r , Ortiz
emphasized slaves' l ega l and juridica l co nditi o n , a fact th at hints at the
author'S fund am ental emph as is o n iss ues of crim e and punishment. J3 In
keeping with th e no ti o n th at a sublimin al primitivi sm g uid ed Afro-Cubans'
behavi o ur, the founder of Afro-Cuban studi es co ncluded that all 'p urely
b lack' rebelli o ns in Cuban history were 'exp los ions of a p ote nt and l o ng-
repressed impu lsive ness. ' Leade rl ess , and finding little resonance in the rest
of th e societ y , they we re bound to fail. O rti z refe rs in thi s p assage to all
' purely black ' rebe lli o ns so as to includ e a recent (1912) uprisin g in the
eastern provinces led by the Partido Indep endi ente de Co lo r (Independent
Party of Co lo ur) . The insurrection had triggered a bloody gove rnm ental
repression which took the li ves of seve ral thousand Cubans, the vast majority
of th em of Afri ca n d esce nt.
Worker radicalism, nationalism and historiography:
slavery in Caribbean historical writing, 1920-45
Caribbean hi sto ry-w ritin g abo ut slave ry underw ent yet an o th er epoc hal
transiti o n in the 1920s and 1930s. Three co ncurrent developments in society
and politics influ enced thi s sh ift: first, the rad ica li zation of soc ial movements
and p o litica l p arti es, parti ularly th ose which mob ilized the working classes ;
second , an upsurge in nat io nali sm and anti- imperiali sm , movements w h ose
existence and demands ca ll ed f r a reinterpretation of th e soc ial past; and
42 Aline Helg, 1990, p. 52.
43 At a bout the sa me time that Ortiz was stud ying Cuban sla very, Cayeta no Co li y
Toste was publishing valuable articl es in a n historica l jo urn a l he ed ited, the
Boletin his/o"ico de Puerto Rico, on the history of Pu e rto Rican slave ry. Coll y
Toste was o ld e r than Ortiz a nd was not steeped in anthropo logica l theory.
None the less, his essays were o ri ginal and ground-break ing. The collected essays
o n slave ry were later published as Cayeta no Coll y Toste , 1972.
247
 General HistolY q( the Caribbean
third , the emergence of a small but influential g ro up of Caribbean-based hi s-
torians - most of th em profess ion ally train ed - who, in ev in cing m ore
authentic hi sto ri ca l n arrati ves, chall enged an histo ri ography th at was st ill ,
with only few exce ptio ns, grounded in m etropolitan , or at l east impe ri al ,
concerns and 'en ibiliti es . It is clear that the m ass-based mob ilizatio ns which
swept throu g h th e Ca ribbea n in th e 1930s and 1940s fo reve r c hanged the
reg io n 's socio-economic, political and cultural land sca p e. Wh at is p erhaps
less kn ow n is th at they also helped propel new ve rsio ns o f nati o nal and
reg ional histori es . Reinte rpreting the slave era from the vantage p o int o f sub-
o rdinate groups, and es peciall y fro m that o f the slaves them selves , was a key
asp ect o f this intell ectual effo rt and one of its most lasting legac ies.
Given that so mu ch written about th e Ca ribbea n p ast, and parti c ul arl y
ab o ut slavery, had been stee p ed in th e histo ri ograp hies of empire, it was
p erhap s inevitabl e that m any influ ential writings fro m the 1920s to the 1940s
would still b e in direct dialogue with imperial hi sto ry. This was es p ec iall y
tru e of th e Briti sh W est Indi es, where th e m ain hi sto ri og raphi c trajecto ry o f
those years was m ark ed by an acute sense of th e col o nies ' ro le in the larger
fram ew o rk o f th e British empire. A rece ntl y em erged (s in ce the ea rly 1900s)
American sc hoo l of Briti sh imperi al histo ry compri sed o ne of the m ost
sig nifica nt links in this trajectory, and the o ne that paid th e g rea test attenti o n
to th e co ntrast betwee n the W est Indies and th e British North Ameri can
44
co lo nies. Thus , Frank Wesley Pitman 's impo rtant gen eral hi sto ry of the
W est Indies, publi shed in 19 17, bega n with a refl ecti o n o n the differences
which h eld between th e co lo ni zatio n o f th ese islands and that of New
England, a consid erati o n which drew heav ily o n M erivale's fam o us paradigm
of explo itation versus settl em ent societies in the hi sto ry o f British ove rseas
45
colo niza ti o n Despite its rac ist ove rto nes, Pitman 's book was an impo rtant
co ntribution to an und erstanding o f slave ry and th e plantati o n system in
socio-eco no mi c term s. His narrative, drawn from an abund ance of primary
so urces in Britain and th e United States - Pitman w as a U nited States citizen
who tau g ht at an American co ll ege - d ocumented bo th th e stru ctural o r sys-
temic characteri stics of the Ca ribbea n colo nies and the sp ecifi city o f the co lo-
ni al exp ri ence in Barbados, Jamaica and th e Leewa rds during th e apogee o f
the slave system.
Following cl ose ly upo n Pitm an 's them es , sources and m eth o ds within
th e tradition of American imperi al histo ry, Lowell Jose ph Raga tz publish ed in
1928 an influ ential study o n the plantati o n fortunes and trade relati o ns of th e
44 For a fuller discussion o f th e sc hool o f American imperi al history, see Richard B.
Sherid an , 1987.
45 Frank W esley Pitman , 1917; H erman M erivale, 184 ]-2.
248
Slauel:V a nd ema11cipatio n
British West Indi es : The Pall of the Planter Class in the British Ca7'ihhean,
J 763-1833 .• 6 In it , he arg ued that an o utmo d ed and st ru cturall y un so und
system o f p rod u cti o n , b ased o n slave ry and dependent upon imperi al subsi-
dies, had d oomed the British W est Indian planters. An infl ex ibl e labo ur fo rce,
poor agri cultural practices, planter abse ntee ism , the rea lignment of America n
trad e after Indepe nd en ce, co mpetitio n from newe r co lo ni es like Trinidad ,
Demerara and Esseq uibo , and a host of oth e r factors had se nt th e islands'
fortun es into a tailspin afte r the Treaty of Paris of 1763 , w hi ch end ed the
Seven Years' War. The political influ ence of British West Indian pl anters had
suffered a co ncomitant decline. Thus , w hen em anc ipati o n finally cam e in
1834, it was mo re the co nsequ ence of eco no mic d eclin e th an its ca use.'1l
Written , like Pitman's , in dialogue w ith both British impe ri al and
Am eri ca n historiographi es , Ragatz 's boo k was alm ost excl usively focused o n
the affairs of the masters and th eir white subo rdin ates. Slaves and the institu-
tions o f bondage were o f n o co nce rn to thi s American hi storian. On th e few
occasions when Raga tz discussed slaves at all , he exp ressed eno rm o us con-
tempt for th em . 'The West Indian negro had all th e ch aracte ri st ics of his
race,' h e no ted in an infam o us p assage. 'H e sto le, he li ed , he was simpl e,
sLlspicious , inefficient, irrespo nsibl e, lazy , superstiti ous , and loose in his sex
relations. ' Raga tz's strid ent rac ism ech oe d th at of th e lea ding eig htee nth -
century pl anter-hi sto ri ans, like Lo ng and Edwa rd s, fro m whom he d eri ved
mu ch info rm atio n and insig ht o n W st Indian conditi o ns. U nlike them ,
however, but lik e Pitman ju st b efo re him , the professo r at George
W as hington U niversity presumed that sex ual relati o ns between w hites and
black s, and th e res ulting o ffspring of mixed d esc nt, proved th e m o ral
4H
d ege neracy o f the British subj ects w ho li ved o n the suga r isiand s
Whil e represen tati o ns o f slaves , slave ry and race like th ose found in
Pitman and Ra ga tz reso nated w ith those of an ea rli e r period, when rac ial
ideas and im ages once used to p rop up slave ry set the tone of histo ri ca l dis-
course , th e 1930s saw a radi ca l new d ep arture. Amidst all th e soc ial and
politi ca l turmo il of th e Ca ribbea n durin g the Great Depression, and in close
dial ogue with th e burning iss ues o f th e d ay, so m e hi sto ri ans set o ut to chal-
lenge the prevailing mode of und erstanding the p'ast , p arti cu larl y th e slaver y
era. For th e first time eve r , histori ans born in the region , some o f whom held
advan ced d egrees in histo ry and all o f whom wrote fro m a Ca ribb ea n
46 Lowell J. Raga tz, 1928. This stu dy was presented as a doctoral dissertation at the
U niversity of Wisconsin in 1925.
47 A particularly valuable b y-pro du ct of Raga tz's m o n ograph o n West Indian
decline was hi s an notated bibliography of p rinted sources o n thts penod of
Ca ribbea n histo ry. Lowell J. Ragatz, ] 932.
48 Lowell J. Ragatz, 1928, pp. 27 , 33.
249
 General History q! tbe Ca ribbean
pe rspective , bega n in vestiga ting the slave co nditi o n a nd th e la rge r
s ig nifi ca nce o f th e produ ctio n syste m w hich created it. Som of these histori-
a ns , like th e Trinid adi a ns C. L. R. J a mes a nd Eri c Willi a ms , soug ht to unde r-
sta nd slaves as age nts o f the ir own histo ry and as s ig nifi ca nt acto rs in the
la rge r histo ri ca l pa no ra ma o f th e Atl a nti c wo rld . J a mes a nd Willi a ms we re
the m se lves desce nd ed fro m sla ves a nd be lo nged to a n asce nding Afro-creole
middle class, a fe w o f wh ose brig htest children we re now a ble to atte nd uni-
ve rsities in Eng la nd a nd e lse wh e re. Othe rs, like the Cuba n Ra mi ro Gue rra y
Sa nchez, w ro te fro m th e va ntage po in t of subo rd ina te but no t ne cessa ril y
bl ack g ro ups; in Gue rra y Sa nchez 's case, fro m that o f the colonos o r satell ite
ca ne fa rm e rs , ma ny o f th e m d esce nd e d from pl a nte rs w ho had lost the ir
capac ity to ma nufacture suga r. Hi g hl y c ritica l o f th e mo re powe rful mi ll
o wn e rs , by th e 1920s Cuba n colon os spun the ir critiqu e o f ca pita l w ith the
threa ds o f a strong ly fe lt nati o nalist sentime nt 49
Pe rha ps the most s ig nifi ca nt a nd radica l o f a ll wo rks within this e me rg-
ing c riti ca l histo ri og raphy w as J a mes ' The Black Jacohins: Touissan t
L'Ouvertu re a n d the San Domingo Revolution, pu b li s he d in 1938 . A
Trinid adia n nati o na li st, a me mbe r of th e Pan-Afri ca n move me nt a nd a
Ma rx ist, James wove togeth e r in life and th o ught the three radi ca l se nsib ili ties
(nati o na lism, Pan-Africa nism a nd socia lism) w hich , in multi p le co mbinatio ns,
swe pt th ro ug h the Ca ribbea n soc ia l a nd politica l pano ra ma during the 1930s ,
fo rever tra nsfo rmin g it.50 Above a ll , hi s boo k soug ht to counte r the im age ,
lo ng c ulti va te d both by hi sto ri a ns a nd pamphle tee rs , o f th e Ha itia n
Re vo luti o n as a p rod uct o f ill -pre pa re d a nd unthinking s laves a nd free
peo ple o f cOIOUr. 51 Th e need to co unte r thi s inte rpre tati o n ste mm ed in pa rt
fro m de bates within th e West Indi an n atio nalist a nd wo rk e r movem e nts of
th e 1930s - yet a no the r insta nce o f co nte mpo ra ry struggles info rming th e his-
to ria n's se nsibilities. Fo r, as Archie Sin g ham has arg ued , w ith this new inte r-
pre tation o f th e grea t Afro-Ca ril bea n res ista nce e pic James soug ht to de bun k
th e myth tha t West Indi a n conditio ns imposed a g radu a l a nd s low pa th
to wa rd inde pende nce. With The Black j acohins, a rg ues Sing ha m, Ja mes tri ed
to 'de mo nstra te to hi s fe ll ow West Indi a ns a t th at time th at th ey co uld a nd
sho uld w rest contro l o f th e ir ow n des tin y, as Ha iti had d o ne o ve r a ce ntury
earlie r. '52
49 Ram iro G uerra y Sa nchez, 1927a (1964).
50 For ins ig htful commentary o n James' life and work , see Paget Henry and Paul
Suhle, 1992. See pp. 222-4, thi s volume.
51 Fo r a wonderfull y suggesti ve cri tiq ue of th e ideologica l limitat io ns inherent to
most w ritings o n th e H aitian Revolutio n , see M ichel-Ro lp h T ro uillo t, 1995.
52 Archie Singh am , 1970, p . 83.
250
Slauel:Y and emancipation
This ri chl y evoca ti ve boo k abo ut th e birth of Ha iti ce ntre d o n th e pe r-
son ality a nd accomplis hm e nts of Toui ssa nt, w ho m James po rtrayed as a b ril-
liant lea de r w hose b lata nL contradi ctio ns re fl ected the complex psyc ho log ica l
imprint of slave ry, the w hirl w ind co nditi o ns of the 1790s and ea rl y 18005 in
a convul sed St Do min g ue , a nd th e extre me tactica l diffi c ulti es o f th e
Revolutio n . But it was mo re th a n a biog ra ph y o f the grea t Ha iti a n lea de r. In
its o p e ning c hal te rs es pec ia ll y, it o ffe re d a ne w readin g o f va rio us o th e r
issu es o f key s ig nifi ca nce to a n und e rsta nding o f Ca rib bea n slave ry. O ne
su ch inn ova ti o n I w ish to hi g hlig ht is th e we ig ht th a t J ames acco rded the
Caribbea n slave system in Euro pea n cap ita l accumul atio n. He uneq ui vocab ly
linke d th e exp lo itat io n of St Do ming ue 's ha lf- millio n slaves to th e deve lo p-
me nt o f th e Fre nc h p ro pe rti e d classes . Echo ing a po int ofte n made by Ma rx
and Ma rx ist scho la rs abo ut primiti ve accumul atio n , he no te d th at th e e nri ch-
me nt of Fra nce 's ' ma ri tim e bo urgeo isie ' had de pe nde d o n co lo ni a l p ro fits ,
pa rti cul a rl y from St Do ming ue. Fro m thi s o bserva ti o n Ja mes de du ced
an o th e r, w hi c h placed the Caribbea n's 'peo pl es with o ut hi sto ry' at the e pi-
ce ntre o f world eve nts: that '(tlhe slave trad e a nd slave ry we re the econo mic
bas is of th e Fre nc h Revo lutio n.'53 With this cla im a bo ut th e histo rica l tra n-
sce nde nce of the Ca ri bbea n's expl o ited masses , a nd w ith his resourceful evo-
catio n of To uissa nt's pe rso na lity as a n e mbl e m o f black rati o na lity,
purposefuln ess a nd dedica ti o n to freedo m, James o pe ned up a wo rld o f new
inte rpretive poss ibilities fo r Ca ribbea n histo ri a ns . Indeed , so fec und we re his
insig hts , a nd so mu c h a t odds w ith th e hi sto ri ogra phica l assumpti o ns of hi s
day , that it would be decades befo re the ir po te ntial was full y rea li zed.
This is no t to s uggest, of co urse, th at Ja mes ' boo k fa il e d to ha ve a n
immediate impact o n w riting abo ut Caribbea n histo ry. Ampl e testimo ny to its
influ e nce is th e ma nne r in w hich fell ow Trinid adian , Eri c Willi a ms, stud ying
fo r his doctorate in hi sto ry at Oxfo rd w he n Ja mes ' book first a ppea red , built
upo n a nd expa nd e d Ja mes ' a rg um e nts ca usa ll y conn ecting colo ni a l slave ry
to Euro pea n primiti ve acc umulati o n. Williams' 1938 docto ral disse rtatio n ,
w hi ch a ppea re d in rev ised and exp a nde d fo rm as Cap italism and Slavery in
1944, deve lo pe d th e Marxia n insig ht co nta in e d in th e first few c hapte rs of
The Black j acohins into a broade r thes is abo ut the significa nce of the tria ngu-
la r trad e (th e inte rco nnected compl ex cons isting o f the slave, suga r a nd
suppl y trades) to Britis h indu stri ali zati o n. s4 Willi a ms had go ne to Engla nd to
study impe rial histo ry at a time wh e n the Ca ribbea n 's impe ri al lu stre had a ll
but faded , and bo th colo nized and colo ni zer we re explo ring ways o ut of the
53 c. L. R. James , 1938 (1963), p . 47 .
54 Eri c Willi ams, 1944. Fo r a percepti ve intellectu al history o f t his work , and o f th e
debate it spawned , see Ri chard B. Sherid an , 1987.
251
 General History o/ the Ca ribbean
morass of econom ic d epress io n and soc ial prostrati o n . His sw eeping acco unt
o f three ce nturi es o f Ca ribb ea n hi sto ry in th e Atl anti c co ntext ca ll ed fo r an
understanding o f th e reg io n 's fo rtun es as intri ca te ly d ep end ent upo n the
d eve lo pm ent o f ca pitalism in two o f its 'stages ' : th e m e rca ntili st and the
indu stri al. O ne had see n the British W est Indies ri se to imperi al p ro mine nce
o n th e back s of milli o n s o f slaves; the o th er had witn essed its fateful d ecl in e.
Capitalism and Slavery roam ed o ver a vas t hi sto ri ca l pano ram a, offer-
ing b o ld inte rpretati o ns at every turn. Th e ri se as we ll as th e d ecl in e ph ases
rece ived attentio n , alth o ug h Willi am s see m ed m o re k ee n o n ad va nc ing an
expl anatio n fo r th e latter . Durin g th e m e rca ntilist era, he arg ued , the
Ca ribb ean 's vas t suga r and slave-trad e w ea lth had b ee n erected th anks to
B ritain 's acti ve p romo ti o n o f the slave trad e and its enactm ent o f tariffs w hi ch
gave preference to co lo ni al stapl es , p arti cul arl y suga r . T o ju sti fy th e seve re
expl o itatio n o f enslav ed Afri ca ns, Willi ams indi ca ted in an impo rtant as id e,
Euro p ea ns had co nstru cted an elabo rate racist ideology; rath er than preced-
ing slavery , he arg ued , rac ism w as th e co nsequ en ce o f an econo mi c syste m
w hi ch necess itated bo und labo ur. Pro flts amassed in th e triang ular trad e had
g ive n ri se to eno rm o us fo rtun es in Britain . Such w ea lth ca tapul ted th e large ly
abse ntee pro p erti ed class to a p OS iti o n o f influ e nce in Pa rli ame nt, th roug h
the o p erati o n o f a 'suga r lo bby ' . Eve ntu all y , h o w ever , Wes t Indian eco no mi c
d eclin e ( whi c h Willi am s, fo ll ow ing Raga tz, d ated fro m the A m erica n
Revo luti o n) had und ermin ed th e p owe r and p o liti ca l influ ence o f th e suga r
interests at abo u t th e time that th e indu stri al b o urgeoisie had in creased its
p rominence in soc iety and governm e nt. Ma teri all y wea k en ed and p o liti ca ll y
d efea ted , th e suga r interests could no t co unter the di sm antling o f the syste m
o f co lo ni al preferences and suppo rt fo r slave r y w hi c h had ke pt W est Indian
sl ave ho lders pros p e ro us during th e m erca ntilist age. O ne b y o ne th e pill ars
o f W est Indian pros p erity fell: first, the slave trad e in 1807 , then slave ry itse l f
in 1834 and, fln ally , the tariff subsidies fo r colo nial p rod uce in 1846.
In du e course , Capitalism and Slavery w o uld sp aw n o ne o f th e m ost
inw nse d ebates in m o d ern Ca ribbea n histo ri ograph y. It would b e the subject
o f m an y b oo k s and articl es, and o f seve ral sympos ia. ')'; Its imm edi ate rece p -
tio n was mu ch m o re m o d est , h oweve r , and w hil e th e boo k so ld an un ex-
p ectedl y large number o f co pies in th e nea r term , it was no t until the 1960s
that sc ho lars gave it pro per recog nitio n . W e sh all have the occas io n late r to
sk etc h th e ebb and fl ow o f th e d ebate th at Willi am s' wo rk pro mpted , unfo r-
tunate ly o ne in w hi ch th e auth o r, turn ed p o liti cian and n ati o nali st lead er ,
wo uld no t p arti cipate mu ch .
55 Fo r th e content of thi s debate , see espec iall y Barba ra L. So low an d Stan ley L.
Engerm an , 1987; T ho mas Bender, 1992.
252
lavery a nd emancipation
History and the dilemmas of race , dependency and
development: writings fron1 the Spanish-speaking
Caribbean, 1940s to c.1980
With the cri ses o f w ar , d epress io n and soc ial strife behind them , p ost-1945
Ca ribbea n sc ho lars turned th eir attenti o n to sh o ring up th eir co untri es ' insti -
tutio nal framewo rks fo r resea rch , teachin g and scho larl y d isse minati o n . In all
fo ur m ajo r lang uage areas th e immedi ate p ost-w ar yea rs saw th e fo undin g
and/ o r stre ngth enin g o f uni versiti es , co ll eges , in stitu tes, sc ho larl y assoc ia-
tio ns, jo urn als and libraries , all gea red to w ard enh anc ing th e countri es ' edu -
ca ti o nal and resea rc h ca p abilities . In som e cases ( fo r exa mpl e, the B riti sh ,
Fre nc h and Dutch Ca ribbea n , and Pu erto Ri co) , th ese efforts we re lin ke d to
an ti-co lo nial o r p o puli st stru ggles , w hose lea d e rs recog ni zed th e need fo r a
m o re edu cated po pul atio n and an inv igorated ci vil soc iety. >6 In o th ers (s uch
as th e D o mini ca n Re publi c b efo re 196 1 and Cuba after 1952) th ey ran up
aga inst auth o ritari an regimes intent o n curtailing free express io n. Rega rdl ess
o f th e p ath tak en , after 1945 humanities and soc ial sc ience sch o larship o n
th e Ca ribb ea n too k o n a d eCid edl y profess io nal c haracte r as it g rew
imm ense ly in volume and so phisti ca ti o n . A m o ng h isto ri ans, a g row ing
p o rti o n o f thi s sch o larship was n o w gene rated by native sch o lars empl oyed
b y loca l instituti o ns o f hi g her edu ca tio n . Fo r th e flrst tim e in Ca ribb ea n
hi sto ry, o ne co uld refer b y th e 1960s to th e ex istence o f a generation o f hi s-
tori ans workin g w ithin a se lf-con SC io usly national traditi o n , b ut at th e sa m e
tim e o pe n to , and in dialogue w ith , the m ajo r histo ri ographi ca l c urre nts
coming fro m Euro p e and the Am eri cas. 57 In fact, b eca use th e hi sto ry o f
slave ry and its legac ies of rac ism and seg rega ti o n b eca m e afte r th e Seco nd
W o rld W ar o ne o f th e m ost sig nifl cant areas o f sc h o larship in th e U nited
56 See A nto ni o Ri ve ra an d A rtu ro Morales Ca rri 6 n , 1953 , fo r a refl ectio n o n th e
relatio nsh ip betwee n populism , university reform , and th e maki ng of t he fi rst
pro fess io nal generatio n of Pu erto Ri ca n histori ans in th e 1940s and 19505.
57 O n t he fo un d ing of th e UWI in 1948 and its im pact o n Jam aica n cul ture, Rex
Nettl efo rd , 1978, p. 160 , w rites th at ' ... pro babl y the g rea test and most telling
effo rt of th e U ni ve rsity 's prese nce in respect o f raising th e co nscio usness o f th e
fi rst post-1938 ge nerati o n aro und to its creati ve potential as " first persons" in the
regio n was th e release o f a strea m of g radu ates stee ped in new know ledge of
the histo ry and social stu d ies o f th e Ca ribbea n .' H e sp eCifi ca ll y mentio ns several
histori ans: Elsa Gove ia, Roy A ug ier, Jo hn Parry and Doug las H all . A ll bu t Parry ,
w h o hail ed fro m th e U nited Kin gd o m , w ere W est Indi ans w ho rece ived th eir
d octorates in history in the 1950s . For a useful , albeit incompl ete, bi b li ograph y
of docto ral and m as ter's th eses o n th e Ca ribbea n presented b efore th e late
1960s , see Enid M . Baa , 1970.
253
 General His/ory Q( the Carihbea n
Sta tes, Brazil, a nd e lsew he re, co ntact with these inte rn atio na l curre nts
foc used Ca ribbea n histo ri a ns' atte nti o n eve r mo re o n th ir own soc iet ies'
experie nce of e nslaveme nt , res istance a nd li beratio n.5H
I wish to hig hlig ht he re two of th e lin es of inquiry that ma rk ed
Ca ribbea n w ritings o n slave ry in th e immed iate post-wa r yea rs: a body of
work ce ntred o n th e question o f how socia l interactions und e r s lavery
shaped the character o f post-emancipation race relations - a debate predom-
inantly focused o n the Span ish-speak in g countries - a nd a scho la rship o n the
econo mi c and soc ia l histo ry of slavery a nd its assoc iated institutions of pl an-
tati o n life, a lite rature proportionately mo re a bundant for th e Eng li s h-,
French- and Dutc h-spea kin g co untries than for the panish-speaking o nes.
While the cho ice of d ebates is so mew ha t a rbitra ry, J believe that it a ll ows a
p ano ra mi c discussion of th ese pro lifi c twenty-five yea rs of s lave ry histo ri-
ograp hy in the Ca ribbea n.
The debate ove r slavery and post-emancipation race re lati o ns had its
roots in pre-Second Wo rld Wa r discussions ove r race a nd nati o nh ood in
Latin America. For seve ra l gene ratio ns, e lites throughout the reg io n had tried
to co nstru ct nati o na l se lf-ima ges that mig ht be reco nc il ed with sc ie ntifi c
racism, th e n curre nt in Europe. Because id eo logies of white sup re macy
pos ited the mo ra l a nd inte ll ectua l infe rio rity of th e Amerindi a n and African
e le me nts, a nd because th ey presumed that people of mixed descent would
ass um e the 'corrupting' traits of their no n-E uropea n forebears , so me Latin
America ns found it necessa ry to contest and mod ify them. The myth of mes-
fizaje - the belief in an hi storica ll y continu o us bl e nding of rac ia l ing red ie nts
whose o utco me is a racia ll y 'be tte red ' population - th o ug h no t born of th ese
effo rts, rece ive d a substa nti a l boost from the m. By the 1920s faith in mesli-
zaj e as th e rac ia l foundation of seve ra l Latin American natio ns was pe rvas ive
a mo ng the region 's inte ll ectu als. 59
o o ne expl a in ed th e hi storica l roots of mestizaje as pe rsuas ive ly as
the Brazilian socio logist Gilberto Freyre , whose 1933 Casa grande e senzala
(tra ns lated as Th e Masters and the Slaves) portrayed a Brazilian slave regim e
defined by patriarchal bonds and lax sexual bounda ries between maste rs a nd
slaves. Freyre se nsua ll y evo ke d im ages o f a s lavocrat ic Brazil whose most
distinctive creatio n - a loca lly- prod uced hybrid culture - had been jo intl y
forged by Africans and Europea ns thro ug h th e ir frequent a nd intim ate inte r-
actio ns. His ima ge of a society re lative ly devoid of race prejudice gave
stimulus to ne w work o n Latin American sla ve ry that so ug ht to esta blish th e
58 For a re fl ectio n o n writings o n United States s lave ry in this pe riod, see David
Brion Davis, 1974.
59 Pe te r Wade, 1997; Na ncy Leys Stepa n, 1991 ; Ca ro l A. Smith, 1996.
254
Slavery and emancipation
distinctive nature of the slave regimes c rea ted by Spaniard s and Portuguese,
in compa riso n to th ose of othe r European colo ni zers.
Of th e re inte rpre tatio ns of slavery insp ired by Freyre 's masterpiece , the
most influ e nti a l was Frank Tannenbaum's s ho rt 1946 essay, Slave and
Citizen: The Negm in the Americas. 60 Viewing the Americas as a whole ,
Tannenbaum recogni zed a sha rp break between th e United States, w he re, he
claimed , 'we have de nie d o urse lves th e accepta nce of the Negro as a ma n
because we have denied him th e mo ra l compe te nce to become o ne ,' a nd
Latin America , where s laves a nd th e ir descendants had always possessed a
recog ni zab le mo ra l sta nding. Diffe re nces in the lega l and re lig io us fra me-
works o f slave ry , a nd in traditions assoc iate d with e nslave me nt in th e home
co untri es, accounted for this . In the e nd , Ta nn e nba um a rg ued, Eu ropea ns
had crea ted two modes o r syste ms of e nslaveme nt in th e Americas, o ne re la-
tive ly o pe n , th e othe r re lative ly cl osed : 'In Bra zil a nd Spa ni sh America ,' he
concluded, 'the law, the church , a nd custo m put few impedime nts in the way
of vertical mob ility o f race a nd cl ass, and in some measure favoured it. In the
British , French a nd United Sta tes s lave syste ms the law a tte mpted to fix the
patte rn and stratify the soc ia l classes and the racial groups.,6 1
The Freyre-Tannenbaum th es is found an echo in works by histori ans of
the Spanish Ca ribbea n. The first hi sto ri a n to fully e ngage th e a rg ume nt was
Luis Manuel Dlaz Soler, whose 195 3 ge ne ral trea tise o n slave ry in Pu e rto
Rico went farther than Tannenbaum in co nte nding that a mild slavery, full of
o pportunities for ma numissio n a nd social ascent, had characte rized the isla nd
thro ug ho ut the lo ng slave ry pe ri od th e re (1508-1873). Basing his work o n
published prima ry so urces, Dlaz Sole r claimed that because in Pu e rto Ri co
slaves had been so few as a percentage of tota l popul atio n , the ir ow ne rs had
treated them with the ca re that o ne gives a valued instrum ent. The result had
bee n o ne of the mild est regim es in th e Americas, where slave insurrections
were ra re, racial strife a lmost unkn own , a nd race prej udi ce had ex isted o nl y
in the beginning, before widespread miscegenati o n had g ive n ri se to '{un
pueblo} jundamentalmente mulato ' ('a fundame nta lly mul atto people')62 This
inte rpre tati o n agreed not o nly with Freyre a nd Tannenbaum, but a lso w ith
60 Frank Tannenbaum, 1946. Tannenbaum a lso ex pressed the view, lo ng he ld by
observers of ew World soc ieties, that a fundamental d ifference had existed in
the slave regimes of Anglo-Saxons a nd other Euro pea ns. For a perceptive
com me nt o n the inte ll ectua l lineage of this view , see Franklin W. Knight, 1970,
pp. xiii-xix .
61 Frank Tannenbaum , 1946, pp. 126-7. For a more nuan ced treatment of slave
legislatio n , which is no nethe less in ge ne ra l ag reeme nt with Ta nne nbaum , see
Elsa V. Gove ia, 1960.
62 Luis Manu e l Diaz Sole r, 1953 (970) , p . 23.
255
 General History of the Caribbean
Pu e rto Ri ca n inte ll ectu a ls wh o had bee n de ba tin g (and la rge ly negating)
since th e 1930s th e exi ste nce o f race prejudice o n th e island and advanc ing a
loca l ve rs io n of mestiz aje myth 63 It wo uld be th e 1970s a nd 1980s be fo re
ne w wo rk o n Pu e rto Ri co unea rth e d the soc ia l d yna mics o f Pu e rto Ri ca n
pl antatio ns, chall e nging Dlaz So le r's de picti o n o f a mild sl ave ry a nd a soc iety
devoid o f rac ism.
As a test case fo r th e Frey re-Ta nn e nba um th es is, Cuba, with its mu c h
large r pro po rti o n o f s laves in the e ig htee nth a nd nin teenth ce nturi es, wo uld
see m a be tte r c ho ice th a n Pu e rto Ri co. Mo reover, beca use Ta nn e nba um 's
me th od was impli c itly co mpa ra tive, no study o f a s in gle co untry o r c ulture
area could do it full justi ce . In this rega rd , He rbe rt Kl e in 's Slavery in the
Americas ( 967) comparative stud y o f th e s lave co nditio n in Cuba a nd
Virgini a a ppea re d to cove r th e requi site g round. Agree ing with Ta nn e nba um
and th e Ame rica n histo ria n Stanl ey Elkin s th at slaves in th e Unite d States
were subjected to a qu alitative ly di stinct (a nd decidedl y mo re seve re) fo rm o f
bond age, Kle in co ntraste d Virginia 's 'caste system ' with Cuba 's mo re fluid ,
albe it no t full y de ve lo ped , 'class syste m,64 Kl e in 's book fl es hed o ut many o f
th e po ints that Tanne nbaum had me re ly o utlin ed in his essay, pro vidin g th e
necessa ry nu ances o f a rg ume ntati o n a nd so me o f the histo ri ca l evid e nce to
bolste r th e latte r's o ve ra ll thesis. Kl e in be lie ved , fo ll o wing Tanne nbaum , th at
eccles iastical prescripti o ns and lega l tradition s ca rri e d o ve r from Spa in had
mad e fo r a Cuban s lave syste m whi ch e mphas ized the sl aves' we ll-be ing.
This co ntrasted with a Virg inia n co ntext in whi ch a ll o f th e lega l e mph as is
was o n th e maste rs' unfe tte re d exe rc ise o f prope rty rig hts . But Kl e in pa id
mu ch mo re atte ntio n tha n Ta nnenbaum to the econo mic a nd social histo ry o f
th e two co lo nies. Wh e reas earl y co lo ni a l Cuba had b e n c haracte ri zed by a
dive rsifi e d econ o my (s ma ll to bacco fa rming, ca ttl e g razing, suga r pl antin g,
and a ric hly va rie d co mme rcia l and a rtisa na l eco no my in Hava na), Virgini a's
ea rl y co lo ni a l pe ri od had been do minated by the plantatio n syste m. Th e con-
trast had been dec isive in setting do wn co nditio ns whi c h in Cuba re inforced
the lega l and eccl esia sti ca l prescriptio ns o n s lavery, a nd in Virg inia a ll o we d
the pl a nte rs free re in in de fining th e institutio n in co nce rt with the ir e co n-
omic needs. Mo reove r, fo ll o wing Elkins, Kle in arg ued th at th e tru e baro me te r
of the milde r race re lati o ns occ urrin g in Cuba during s la ve ry wa s the large
and mobile free bl ack populatio n th e re, whose Virg ini a co unte rpart w as
small a nd socially isolate d.
To ass umptio ns o f a milde r slave ry, a na tura lly decay in g slave syste m
in th e nin e teenth ce ntury (a cl a im mad e b y bo th Dlaz Sole r a nd Kl e in), a nd
63 Arca di o Diaz Quino nes, 1985, pp . 15-91.
64 Sta nley M. Elkins, 1959.
256
Slavery ellid el1lClllcipation
the abse nce of caste- like distincti o ns in Cuba a nd Pu e rto Rico, seve ral histo ri-
ans prese nte d se ri o us cha lle nges, beg inning in th e 1960s . Rega rdin g Cuba,
for insta nce, Ma nu e l Mo re no Fragin a ls publishe d in 1964 th e first vo lume o f
an eve ntu a l three-vo lum e work o n th e eco no mi c a nd soc ia l histo ry o f suga r
pl a ntatio n ag ri culture be twee n th e mid-e ig htee nth a nd the mid -nin etee nth
centuries, aptly titled EI ingenio (Th e suga rmill) . Writte n in a pe ne trating, sa r-
do ni c prose, this Ma rxist inquiry into th e techni ca l, econ o mi c a nd soc ia l
c ha racte ri sti cs o f th e Cuba n slave pl a nta tio n co mpl ex qu a lifi ed the
Ta nne nba um-E lkin s-Kl e in mod e l o n th e qu esti o n o f how seve re ly Cuban
sl aves had bee n ex pl Oite d . Mo re no Fragin a ls stressed th at during the
country 's most inte nse pe rio d of pl a ntatio n de ve lo pm e nt (c. 1790- 1860), the
su ga roc racy had bee n implacabl e in its pursuit o f pro fit according to a log ic
of ca pita list labo ur expl o itatio n. It had the refo re ex hibited few o f the huma n-
ita ria n a nd mo ra l restra ints poss ibl y inh e rite d fro m Spanish leg islatio n a nd
Church prescriptio ns 61
Des pite di sse ntin g fro m Tanne nbaum-Elkins-Kl e in ove r slave trea tme nt
at the he ig ht o f the pl a ntati o n econo my, Mo re no Frag inals see me d to agree
with th e m o n key po ints. The co ncurre nce was es pec ia lly no tewo rth y in his
po rtraya l o f the fo rces e ffecting c ha nge in nin etee nth-century Cuba . In
esse nce, bo th Mo re no Fra ginals and Kl e in p o rtrayed th e colo ny as turning
inexorably toward ca pitalism (Kle in 's 'cl ass soc iety') and thu s towa rd e manci-
patio n. Ec ho ing o ne o f the domin a nt the mes o f Eri c Willia ms' g rea t wo rk ,
bo th sc ho la rs cla im ed th at industria l ca pita lism had doo me d Cuba n slave ry.
The Cuba n a uthor sta ke d this cla im mo re fo rcefull y th a n did Kle in , asse rting
that th e no ve l tec hn o log ies forced upon th e suga r indu stry b y inte rn ati o nal
competitio n with beet suga r could no t be ope rate d with slave labo ur. By the
1860s th e sha rpe ning contradi cti o n between tec hno logy a nd unfree la bo ur
had alrea d y pro du ced 'pocke ts' o f free labo ur insid e th e most tec hno lo-
gica ll y-a d va nced estates . Soo ne r o r late r, the e ntire slave syste m wo uld ha ve
co ll a pse d unde r its we ig ht, ha d it no t bee n fo r o th e r inte rve nin g facto rs
(such as th e o utbreak o f an inde pe nd e nce w a r in 1868).
Mo re no Fragin a ls' a nd Kl e in 's pos iti o n vis-a-vis the log ic of Cuba n
e mancipati o n wo uld no t lo ng pre va il in th e histo riography. By th e late 1960s
histo rian s had o pe ned too many vistas o n the socia l a nd econo mic hi sto ry o f
65 El ingenio po rtrayed nineteenth-century Cuba as a country re markabl y adva nced
in th e techno logy o f its leadin g indu stry but hig hl y regress ive in its soc ial stru c-
ture. lt was rul ed b y a 'sacarocracid ('s uga rocracy'). Mo re no Frag ina ls' e mpha-
s is o n th e po litica l co nsequ e nces o f sla ve ry fo ll owed in a lo ng traditio n o f
Cuba n hi sto ri ogra ph y da ting as fa r bac k as Saco. The best o f this traditio n was
re presente d b y a no the r post-wa r histp ria n of s lave ry a nd natio na lism in Cuba :
Ra(iI Cepe ro Bo nilla, 1948.
257
 General His/ory a/the Ca ribbean
individual s lave regio ns o f the Am e ricas to fully c re dit the Ta nn e nba um-
Elkins-Kle in hypothes is and its rel ated a rg ume nts. Ope nly pos itio ning himself
aga inst this hyp o thes is, fo r exa mpl e, the Ja maica n histo ri a n Fra nklin W.
Knig ht wro te in his 1970 Slave Society in Cuba during the Nin teenth Centwy
that whil e '[it] is unde niabl e that the Cuba n pl a ntati o n soc ie ty o f the nine-
teenth century had some peculiarities ... what is really impo rta nt is the way in
whi ch the develo pme nt of the suga r pl antatio ns c rea te d stresses within bo th
the society a nd its traditio ns. As Cuba beca me a sugar co lo ny,' he concluded ,
'it beca me in cre asingly s imil a r to o the r ea rli e r suga r isla nds, o r to th e pl a nta-
ti o n soc ie ty in the Unite d Sta tes. ' This w as o ne o f th e first sal vos in a b road
histo riogra phical o ffe nsive aga inst the du al inte rpretation o f sla ve reg imes in
the Weste rn Hemisph e re. Steeped in bo th Latin Ame ri ca n and Africa n histo ry,
a nd o ne o f the first scho la rs to ta ke an ecume nica l sta nce, Kni g ht wrote se lf-
consc io usly in the manne r of Willi ams, in w hose 'eco no mic inte rpre tati o n of
racism' he fo und the key to a new de pi ctio n o f slave ry and race in Cuba, o ne
less simplistic and static than in preva iling ve rsions. Knight's book pro vid ed a
ge ne ra l narrative o f the conversio n o f Cuba into a pl a nta tio n SOC ie ty, pay ing
close atte ntio n to the g ulf which se pa rated th eo ry a nd practi ce. nd e r th e
w e ight o f inte nse econo mic de ma nds, ne ithe r th e Church no r be ne fi ce nt
Spa nis h leg islati o n co uld atte nuate the brutality o f e ns la ve me nt. 'It is kn ow-
ledge o f the socie ty as a whole with all its econo mic ramifi ca tio ns,' he al e rted
histo ri a ns, ' rathe r tha n the na rrowe r segme nts o f lega l and c ultura l he ritage,
w hic h w ill lea d to a be tte r und e rsta nding o f co nditio ns durin g a nd a fte r
slavery .'66
Slave economy, society and culture: writings on the
French- and English-speaking Caribbean from the
1940s to the 1970s
By the late 1960s Knight's cautio n seemed justified in lig ht o f a g ro wing bod y
of resea rch o n the social and econo mic histo ry of slave ry in the reg io n. Since
the e nd o f th e Second Wo rld Wa r, nume ro us sc ho la rs fro m a ll la ngu age
a reas had e ndea vo ure d to re vea l th e 'inne r workings' o f the in stituti o n - its
actual, 're al ' manifestatio ns , whi ch could eas ily be at va riance with lega l and
instituti o na l norm s. This research dre w important insig hts fro m pl a nta ti o n
re cords a nd o the r loca l docume nts, as it tri e d to di scover ho w sla ve socie ty
was actually stru ctured . Moreove r, fo r some pra ctiti o ne rs o f this a pproach , it
66 Franklin W . Kni ght, 1970, pp. xv iii , 194.
258
StavelY and emancip a l'ion
became an impo rta nt pa rt of the research age nd a to di scove r no t o nl y struc-
ture, but agency. The y deeme d it appro priate to ga uge what th e slaves actu-
ally tho ught , ho w they o rga ni zed the ir social and s piritu a l lives, ho w they
resiste d do minati o n, a nd how all o f th ese actio ns affected broa d ~ r soc ia l a nd
political deve lo pme nts . By th e time Kni ght published his book o n Cuba, this
lite rature wa s quite deve lo p ed , es pec ially in rega rd to ·th e Fre nch- a nd
English-spea king Ca ribbea n. It wo uld soo n ove rta ke in vo lume a nd inte ll ec-
tu al signifi ca nce the histori es that focused o n lega l a nd instituti o na l issues.
It was pe rha ps fittin g th at a Fre nch scho la r o f th e Ca ribbea n provide
one o f th e most no ta bl e exa mples o f this ne w schola rship , sin ce the syste m-
atic study o f the s lave co nditi o n had witnessed , sin ce Pe ytra ud , a vi goro us
deve lopme nt in Fra nce. Beginning in th e 1940s, Ga brie l Deb ie n published a
stea d y strea m o f books a nd a rticl es o n e ig hteenth -ce ntury St Do min g ue and
the o the r Fre nch West Indian co lo nies, which revea le d in rich de ta il th e
texture o f life a nd labo ur o n suga r pla ntati o ns a nd co ffee esta tes 6 7 Using
pla ntati o n reco rds and corres po nd e nce as we ll as co lo nia l doc ume nts,
De bi e n was abl e to reco nstru ct s ig nifi ca nt d eta ils abo ut life o n th e estates:
slave work ro utines a nd the impact of techn o logy o n th e m, die t a nd clothing,
disease a nd mo rta lity, a nd th e fl ows o f ma numi ss io n , ma rro nage a nd re be l-
lion. His writings illuminated the myri ad socia l te nsio ns at pl ay in pre- re vo lu-
tio na ry St Do ming ue a nd cl a rifi ed th e root ca uses o f th e Ha iti a n Re vo lutio n.
Fro m the sta ndpo int o f me tho do logy, his wo rk pro mpte d histo ri a ns to look
with g reate r inte rest upo n th e see min gly munda ne docume nts ge ne rate d
by pl a nta ti o n o wne rs a nd ove rsee rs. 6H Thro ug ho ut hi s lo ng ca ree r, a nd
es pec ia lly in scores o f a rticl es publishe d in th e Revue Jra nt;;aise d 'bistoire
d 'ou tre-mer (Fren ch o ve rseas histo ry re vi ew ), o f whi ch he w as a lo ng-time
e ditor, De bie n co ntribute d to a th o ro ug h re-exa min ati o n o f th e Fre nch
Ca ribbea n , as he a lso influ e nced the way in w hic h hi sto ri a ns practised the ir
craft. 69
Vari o us o th e r influ e nti a l wo rks o n Ca ribbea n slave soc ie ty and
econo my a ppeare d in the post-wa r yea rs. In truth , most focused o n stru cture
rathe r tha n age ncy, a lth o ug h in a fe w o f th e m th e ho pes, d es ires a nd ideas
o f the slaves th e mselves occupi ed ce ntre stage. Th e stru ctura list bi as
refl ecte d ho w th e g rea t pro bl e ms o f th e age we re be in g expe rie nced, and
solve d , by Ca ribbea n peo pl es. At a time w he n the majo rity see med to be
67 For exa mples of his ea rl y wo rks, see Gabri el Debie n , 194 1, 1944-5.
68 Plantati o n records had been used before, of course. O ne ea rl y exa mpie of their
f ruitful employm ent was U lrich Bonnell Phillips, 1914, based o n th e ex trao rd i -
nary documents o f Jamaica's W o rth y Park p lantatio n .
69 Fo r an attem p t at sy ntheS is ab out all of the Frenc h Ca rib bea n , see Gabriel
D ebien , 1974. Similar in scope is A nto ine G isler, 1965 (981).
259
 Gellerat HislOlY oI lbe Caribbean
facing with renewed vigour th e c ha ll e nges of natio n-b uilding am id st wide-
spread poverty, historia ns we re read il y a ttracted to an inst itution (s lave ry)
a nd a n histori ca l epoc h (th e s lave ho lding period) that, more th an any other,
had sha ped the region 's soc ia l and po liti call an dscapes 7o
Of the post-war writings that found insp irati o n in th e decolonization
a nd populist thru sts of the age, a few looked at parti cul a r estates in o rd er to
throw lig ht o n the la rge r syste m; fo r insta nce , J. Ha rry Bennett's revea ling
book on the Codringto n esta tes of Barbados J ' The majority , however, fo l-
lowing a now well-established hi storiograp hi c current, soug ht to apprehend
th e syste m in its tota lity. 'System ' was defined both soc io log ica ll y (largely in
terms of class) o r anthropo logica ll y (largely in te rms of culture) . In this ca te-
gory we re fi ve highly-influenti a l studies o n the British West Indies that
appeared during a fifteen yea r spa n betwee n the mid-1950s a nd the early
1970s, and which he lped define the tenor of sc ho lars hip o n those colonies
for at least the next two ge ne rati o ns: Elsa Gove ia 's Slave Society in the British
Leeward Islands at the End of the Eighteenth Centwy, written as a dissertation
in 1952 and publis he d in 1965, Philip Curtin 's Two j amaicas: The Role of
Ideas in a Tmpical Colony, 1830-1865(955), Douglas Hall's Freejamaica,
1838-1865 (959), O rl a nd o Patterson's The Sociology of Slavery (967 ),
Edward Brathwaite 's The Development of Creole Society in jamaica
1770-1820(971), a nd Ri c ha rd Sherid an's Sugar and Slavery: An Econom ic
History of the British West Ind ies, 162]-1775(974).
Of all these gro undbrea king books, o ne can not fa il to be particularly
impressed w ith Goveia 's se nsitive a nd profo und study of slave socie ty in the
British Leewards. It is doubtless o ne o f the g rea t works o n Ca ribbea n histo ry
in a ny la ng uage. The Guyanese hi sto rian revea le d th e ways in which , in a
rac iali zed s lave SOCie ty , the impe rative of slave subo rdin atio n pe rmea ted all
contexts of soc ia l interacti o n , from th e lega l system to ed uca ti o n a nd from
re ligio n to le isure. Eve rything was predicated o n th e vio lence necessary to
ma intain the s laveoc ratic o rder. 'When the who le econo my rested o n forced
labour,' she noted, 'bo th the workers a nd the ir owne rs and supe rvisors soon
became habitu ated to the use o f coe rcio n, whether by the driver in the field ,
th e maste r in admini ste ring private punis hme nt, o r by th e gove rnme nt in
e nfo rcing publi c o rd e r. ' She a lso saw with clarity how race, as the most
Signifi ca nt crite rion of diffe re nce be twee n individu a ls, unite d poo r whites ,
re ta ine rs and maste rs, a nd se parate d a ll of th e m from s laves a nd free blacks.
70 For a clear exposition of the connection betwee n social project a nd hi stori -
ography, see the concluding re marks in Elsa V. Gove ia, 1965, pp. 337-8.
71 J. Harry Ben nett, 1958. Another impo rta nt, if late r, wo rk in this vei n is Mic hae l
Craton and James Walvin , 1970.
260
stavelY and emancipation
And in a brilliant insig ht which a ntic ipated by a ge neratio n o r mo re the use
of th e G ra msc ia n co ncept of hegemony to und e rstand slave soc iety, she
pointed o ut th at so mu ch e ne rgy was expend ed to prop up re latio ns of dom-
inati o n a nd subo rdin atio n that, in th e e nd , the diffe re nces between maste rs
and slaves , whites a nd blacks, were pe rce ived as 'natura l':
Th e co mbin ati o n o f so ma ny distin ct ive liffe re nces between th e races
mad e their se pa ra ti o n seem not o nl y co mpl ete but natura l a nd ri g ht.
Thus the sa nct io n of ra c ia li st be li efs was added to the sa nctio ns of
force, law a nd hab it w hi ch supported the slave syste m. The bruta l con-
trasts created by e nslavement could th e n be inte rpreted as proof of the
esse ntia l rac ia l infe ri o rity o f Negroes a nd the intrinsic rac ia l supe riority
of whites 72
Thus, Goveia saw that a seeming separati o n o f the 'races' in fact re fl ected the
socia l dista nce o pe ned up by a most seve re, yet most intimate, ex pl o itatio n.
In co ntrast to Slave Society's soc iol og ica l turn , Curtin 's Two j amaicas,
which a lso g rew o ut o f a disse rtati o n , a pproac hed the J amaica of th e 1830s
to 1860s - a soc ie ty und e rgo ing profound c ha nge - as a cultura l syste m
where co ntrast in g id eas, gro und ed in di screte g ro ups, ente red into co nfli ct.
In stud ying Jamaica 's ' revolutio n' of e ma nc ipatio n , thi s author , an Africanist
by tra ining, posited the existe nce o f two cultura l sphe res: one Euro pea n ,
which includ ed most whites and mul a ttos, a nd o ne African , which includ ed
most of th e sla ves , a ppre ntices (a fte r 1834) a nd freed p eopl e Ca fte r 1838).
EmanC ipati o n in the 1830s fo und eac h o f the conte ndin g cu ltura l groups
holding irreco ncil able ideas about a Jama ica without slave ry. It was the
ina bility o f th e co nte nd e rs to achieve comm o n gro und that expl a in s th e dis-
astrous eve nts of the 1860s, when in th e a fte rma th o f the Morant Bay rebe l-
lio n (865) Britain se ized the re ins o f J a ma ica n governme nt fro m th e pla nter
oligarchy . At its co re, th e n , Curtin 's boo k was as mu ch about the po liti cs of
e ma nCipatio n as it was abo ut id eas g ro und e d in two differe nt Ja ma ica n cul-
tures. Since he rega rd ed th e West Indi es durin g e mancipatio n as so mew hat
analogo us to Africa during its decoloni za tion drive afte r the Second Wo rld
Wa r, from the study of post-emancipation Jamai ca Curtin hoped to draw
valuable lessons fo r the rece ntly-constituted African nations about th e pitfalls
and o ppo rtunities of th e ir new statu s.
Curtin's id ea li st view o f J ama ica n e ma nc ipation drew an imm edi a te
reactio n from Douglas Ha ll in his Free jamaica, 1838-1865: An Economic
Histo lY , published in 1959. Better described as a ge ne ral treatme nt o f the
72 Elsa V. Goveia, 1965 , pp . 322-3.
261
 General History of the Ca ribbean
p erio d th an as an eco no mi c histo ry , H all 's book d escribed a society that was
split by m o re than race, ancestry and 'culture' . Process s o f cl ass f o rmatio n ,
sh ap ed by the eco no mics and p o liti cs o f em anc ipati o n , m attered also , with
m an y fo rmer slaves hav ing attained sig nifi ca nt prog ress thro ug h the ir estab-
lishm ent as indep ende nt farm ers and urban wo rk e rs. H all did no t believe
that th e fi asco at M o rant B ay w as th e preo rd ain ed res ult o f two confli ctin g
w o rld view s that Curtin had painted. Rath er , he sa w it as the result o f contin -
gent fo rces, esp eciall y econ o mi c cri sis in the pl antatio n secto r, freedmen 's
d es ires to becom e p easa nt c ulti vato rs, and in competent governm ent. In th e
end , alth o ug h M o rant B ay m ay have prompted a c hange to w ard less l oca l
control , th e p olitica l di sempo w erm ent o f the planter class sho uld no t obscure
the freedmen 's attainment of a substanti al and secure measure o f freed o m 75
M erg in g th e soc io logi ca l app roach o f Gov ia and H all with Curtin 's
h y po thes is o f a Jamaica n society split into two distin ct cultures , seve ral yea rs
later Orl and o Patterso n provided a swee ping account o f the d eve lo pm ent o f
Jam ai ca n slavery in hi s b ook , Th e Sociology of Slavery ( 967). Patters o n , a
socio logist, saw Jam aica n slave society as having deve lo p ed th roug h fo ur dis-
tinct pe ri o d s ( Di sintegrati o n , Ad aptati o n , Co nso lid ati o n , and Disjun cti o n ).
The end result, at th e time o f em ancipatio n , w as a soc iety bi furca ted , as
Curtin had see n it, between an 'Afro-Jamaica n ' and a 'Euro p ea n-o ri ented ' cul-
tural system . Influenced , no d o ubt, b y M elville J. H ersk o vits, Patterson recog-
ni zed th at in o rd e r to und erstand th e histo ry o f the AfrO-Jam aica n peopl e it
was necessa ry to recog ni ze traits th at m ay h ave o ri g in ated in the p arti cul ar
Afri ca n cultures fro m w hi ch the ir ancesto rs ca m e. Moreove r, he foc used o n
th e ex isten ce in j amaica o f a gen e ral slave p erso nality p attern o r 'p sych o lo-
g ica l co mpl ex' named 'Q uash ee ' (a term alrea d y used in Edward Lo ng). In
w riting abo ut the U nited States , Elkins had revea led a ve ry simil ar ph en o m e-
n o n , w hi ch was th ere te rm ed 'Sa m bo ' . Evas i ve , d istru stful , ca pri c io us, lazy,
c hildlike, possessed of ill jud gem e nt - these we re so me of th e c haracteri sti cs
o f the Qu as hee pe rson ality. Patte rso n b eli eved th at Q uas hee ex isted as a
co nce pti o n in the minds of w hites , as a role pl ayed b y m an y slaves , and as a
psyc ho logica l phe no m en o n related to the ext rem e harshn ess o f the slave
conditio n , ' in w hich there was a complete b rea k down o f all ma jo r institutio ns
- the fa mil y , m arri age, relig io n , o rga ni zed m o rality.,74 Alth o ug h he b e lieved
th at ex planati o ns fo r Q u ash ee could be fo und o n all three levels, Patterso n
ultim ately stressed th e impo rtan ce o f ro le- pl ay in g: Qu as hee was a co ncli-
ti o ned res p o nse to th e m asters' ex p ectat io ns, a 'pla y ing of th e stereotyp e'
73 Do ug las Ha ll , 1959 , p. 264.
74 Me lville J. He rskov its, 1941; Sta nl ey M. Elk ins, 1959; O rla ndo Patte rso n, 1967,
p . 178.
262
Slavery an d ema ncipation
whi ch he lped the m asters affirm th e ir superi o rity and their se nse o f h o w
things o ug ht to b e.
B eg innin g in th e late 1960s and ea rl y 1970s a g ro wing number o f
scho lars ex pressed dissatisfactio n with the du alist thes is o f slave society
ad va n ced b y Curtin and ratifi ed b y Patterson . Like the plural society m o d el
which f o rm ed its natural co unterp art in soc io logy and anthro po logy, the 'two
j am aicas ' arg um ent see m ed increasing ly unten abl e b y th e 1970s 7S Noto nl y
did it appea r to cas t a lo ng shad o w ove r th e n ati o n-building process th en in
full swing , it also co n tradi cted established tenets o f soc ial sc ie nce ab o ut th e
m akin g o f new cultures in co lo ni al en v iro nm ents. Fo r th e Ca ribbea n in p ar-
ti cul ar , Fern and o Orti z and o th ers had al rea d y emplo y ed the con ce pt o f
transculturation to ex pl ain how in the Caribbea n a b lending o f disparate ele-
ments had resulted in new cultural crea tio ns 76 It was in this ve in that Ed wa rd
Brath wa ite wro te his c riti q ue o f th e Curtin thes is, p os iting th at Jam aica n
hi sto ry durin g th e slave era had see n an ' interculturati o n ' o r creolization o f
all th e o ri g in al co mpo nents o f the p o pulati o n . The entire stru cture o f
Euro p ea n and Euro p ea n-d eri ved institutio nal life in th e Ca ribbea n ,'
Brath wa ite o b se rved in co ntradi stin ctio n to Curtin , ' was d etermin ed b y its
"c reo le" d eve lo pm e nt. ' With unu sual se nsiti v ity towa rd b o th e lite and fo lk
express io n , Brath wa ite arg ued co n v in c in g ly th at o ne mu st go beyo nd th e
surface o f th e usual ste reoty p es to find th e co ntradi ctio ns o f a soc iety in
w hi c h d o min an t and subo rdin ate acto rs are loc k ed in a cl ose em b race. Fo r
'[w )hite atti tudes to slaves and to slavery ,' he no ted , ' we re ... in a subtl e, inti-
m ate m ann er , also w hi te attitud es and se ntim en ts abou t themse lves. T hey
simpl y look ed into a bl ack mirro r of su bo rd in ate fl es h. ' Loo kin g at eig ht-
ee nth-ce ntury Jamaica thro ug h this lens, B rath wa ite rejected its characteri za-
ti o n as a 'slave socie ty ' and ca ll ed fo r an ap p roac h th at saw it, ' no t in term s
o f w hi te and b lack , master and slave , in sepa rate nu clea r units, bu t as co n-
tribu tory parts of a who le.' A few yea rs after B rath wa ite wrote thiS, th e
anthro p o log ists Sid ney W . M intz and Ri chard Pri ce elab o rated upo n the
co nce pt of creo li za ti o n , u ndersco rin g its ex planato ry utility and linking it
w ith a H erskov i ts ian ana lys is of slave cul tu ral ca rryove rs from Afri ca.
'Creo li za ti o n ' and 'creo le cul ture' have sin ce become standm d co ncepts for
interp reting Ca ri bbea n cul tu ra l p rocesses d uring th e era o f slave ry 77
75 The class ic stateme nt o n social p luralism in the Ca ri bbea n is M. G. Smi th , 1965.
76 O lt iz had coi ned the term to explain 'the highl y va ried phenomena that have come
abo ul in Cuba as a res ult of the extremely complex tra nsmu ta tio ns of culture that
have take n place Ithe re].' He we nt o n to ad d: 'The rea l histo ry of Cuba is the
history o f intermeshed transcul turalio ns.' Fernando O rti z, 1940a (970), p . 98.
77 Ed wa rd Brath wa ite , 197 1a , p p . v ii , 179, 307; Sid ney W. Mintz a nd Ri chard Pri ce ,
1976.
263
 General Hislory of tbe Caribbean
Another pre-1975 work o n the British West Indi es th at dese rves atte n-
ti o n is Richard She rid an's masterful Sugar and Slavery (1973). Written , like
Gove ia's classic, as a doctoral dissertation in the ea rly 1950s but not pub-
lis hed until mu ch later, She rida n's expa nsive and comp lex book offers a
sweep ing account of th e s lave economy of the British West Indies , from the
ea rli est colo ni zation to th e American Revolution. His analyses of production,
trade and finance revea led in great detail the economic forces and trends that
underlay the explo itatio n o f millions of enslaved Africans during the apogee
of the 's uga r islands '. She rid an 's model of the slave economy would soon be
e mulated by eco nom ic historians of the slavery comp lex in the Caribbea n
and other New World slaveholding areas.
The rising tide of slavery scholarship c.1975-1995
By the mid-1970s , Caribbean historiog raphy had crossed seve ra l impo rtant
milestones a nd achieved a d egree of maturity a nd sophisticat ion unim ag-
ined a few decades ea rli er. The first gen e ration of professional hi sto rian s ,
ed ucated in the imm e di ate post-war years, had by now trained a seco nd
coh ort. Most of its membe rs ha iled from the region a nd ta ug ht in its co l-
leges and universiti es. Moreover, a spec ia li zed scho la rly society, the
Association of Caribbea n Historians, had taken shape a nd begun spo nso r-
ing annu al co nfere nces in the region s ince 1969; within a few yea rs, it was
m eeting alternately in Spanish-, English- a nd French-speaking loca les . And
finally, because of th e atten ti o n paid to slavery in o th er parts of the
Americas, many sc ho lars whose main focus lay e lsewhe re had begun con-
tributing significant new stud ies. These te nd ed to cove r s lave eco no mi cs,
the slave trade, the ea rl y colo nization period, ema ncipatio n , and o the r
topics that le nd themselves nice ly to compa rative stud y . As a result, the
Caribbean now figured prominently in comparat ive studi es of New World
coloni a l soc ial formations.
From the 1970s to the mid-1990s a virtual explos io n in historica l writ-
ings on Caribbean slavery and ema nc ipati o n took place. The numbers give
e loqu e nt testimony : the total of books and articl es published ove r two
d ecades is in the thousands , written by hundreds of authors in a ll the major
lan gua ges of the region. An annual bibliography of slavery studi es around
the world, published in Slavery and Abolition, now ro utine ly co unts dozens
of e ntri es for the Ca ribbea n each year. For some co untries th e boom has
been nothing short of a revelatio n. In th e Dominican Republi c, for examp le,
the re is now a thriving histo riog raph y on a subj ect that was virtually
264
Slauel:Y and emanCIpation
un breached just a few decades ag0 7H And in neighbouring Puerto Rico ,
where intellectuals had often minimized the African imprint on island history ,
sc ho lars now routine ly talk about the importance of studying the tercera raiz
('third root'), that is, the third ethn ic component of the population in addition
to Span iards and Indians. 79
A change in thematic emphasis and approach has a lso characterized
the recent boom. Although historians occasionally still write genera l treatises
on particular slavehold ing societies,HOthey now prefer to tackle more discrete
questions and to fo ll ow a monographic approach that results in finer-grained
ana lysis and all ows for a deeper engagement of the primary sources. Thus ,
of the severa l thousands of titles extant in the b ibliograp hy of the last coup le
of decades, the vast majority are about specific aspects of the slave ry and
ema ncipation experience . Most of them cover shorter periods than had been
customary in prev io us scho lars hip . Some of the topics around w hi ch the
more recent stud ies concentrate are: the slave trade; labour processes in
slave econom ies; transitions into s lavery and from s lavery to free labo ur;
slave demography and family life ; peasant adaptations und er slavery; resist-
ance, rebellion and marronage; women and gender; free people of co lour
and manumission; free time , leisure and expressions of popular culture; the
Atla nti c Comp lex and its imp ortance for European history (the Capitalism
and SlavelY debate); ca uses and processes of abo liti on and emancipation;
and slave ry and the Atlantic Revolutions. In the following discussion, I w ill
atte mpt to o utlin e the more significant recent advances und er each of these
rubrics.
THE SLAVE TRADE
Before there was African slavery in the Americas, people were transported as
slaves from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe , the eastern Atlantic islands co lo-
78 The historiography of the Dominican Republic suffered greatly from the dictator-
ship of Rafael L. Trujillo 0930-61) and its officia l ideology of 'Hispanicity' (' bis-
panidad). Research that wou ld unveil the country's African past was largely
forbidden. For examples of the new research, see Carl os Larrazabal Blanco, 1975;
Ca rl os Esteba n Deive, 1980; Roberto Cassa and Genaro Rodriguez Morel , 1993.
79 See Juan Flores, 1993, pp. 92-107; La lercera raiz, 1992. The latter is a catalogue
whic h accompanied a Quincentennia l exh ibit o n the African presence in Puerto
Rican history and cu lture. For another examp le of the attempt to popularize the
notion of Puerto Rico as an Afro-Caribbean country, see Guillermo Baralt, Lydia
Milagros Gonza lez, Ca rl os Coll azo and Ana Lydia Vega, 1989.
80 Michael Craton , 1974a; Ca rl os Esteban Deive, 1980; Ruud [Rudi Otto]
Beeldsn ijder, 1994.
265
 General HisI01:Y o/ the Caribbea n

nized by Euro pea ns, No rth Africa and th e Midd le East. With the o pe ning of a
westwa rd Atla ntic ro ute at th e d awn of th e sixtee nth ce ntu ry, howeve r,
Euro pea ns a nd th e ir ind igeno us associates vas tly ex pand e d th e sca le o f
Africa n ex po rts. Th e traffi c reache d histo ric pea ks in th e e ig hteenth ce ntury,
unde r Fre nch a nd British co ntro l. The Ca ribbea n, alo ng with BraZ il, would be
o ne o f th e ma in destin a tio ns o f this vastl y-ex pa nd e d traffi c. Altogethe r, the
regio n rece ived we ll over three milli o n of th e 10.5-12.0 milli o n peo p le w ho
a rrived o n e w Wo rld sho res via this ne fari o us comme rce.
Not s urprising ly, o ve r the last few deca des d ozens o f hi sto ri ans have
contributed to a be tte r unde rsta nd ing o f the Ca ribbea n slave trade in its mul -
tiple as pect. To a Ja rge exte nt , the o pe ning sa lvo in this cha rge was th e
publi ca ti o n in 1969 o f Curtin 's mo num e nta l 'ce nsus' o f the Atl a nti c slave
trade thro ug h fo ur ce nturi es 8 1 Th e book set the stage fo r mo nog ra phi c as
we ll as synth e ti c trea tm ents o f specifi c 'bran ches' o f th e trad e a nd fo r a g rea t
numbe r o f qua ntitative studies based , fo r the most pa rt, o n the masses of se ri al
data th at re fl ected the business's day-to-day o pe rati o ns 82 Th e res ult fo r a ll o f
the Americas was a stead y o utput of studies w hich too k Curtin's numbe rs as a
baseline from wh ich to jump to a variety o f qu estio ns, ranging from th e ethni c,
de mogra phic and e pid e mio logica l profil e o f the e nslaved , to the econo mi c,
inte ll ectua l a nd po liti ca l reaso ns for its disma ntling in the nineteenth ce ntury. Pla te 12 Jacques Adeli ide- Merlande Plate 13 Alex Beaubrun Ardo uin
By the mid -1990s o ur kn ow ledge had clea rly reac he d a maturati o n po int, so
that a no n-s pecialist could atte mpt to put it a ll togethe r in a swee ping narrative
o f the e ntire trade's histo ry fo r the edu ca ted gene ral reade r. R3
Studies at the le ve l o f individu a l 'branches ' have usua lly strive n fo r th e
b roa dest coverage; typica ll y th e Ca ribbea n is subsumed und e r ge ne riC impe r-
ia l ca tegories 84 Ofte n , ho w e ve r, histo rians have dea lt with o ne pa rti cul a r
co lo ny o r g ro up o f co lo n ies in a compre he nsive ma nn e r 8S ingle th e mati c
approaches ha ve no t bee n lacking, e ith e r, of whi c h th e e nding of th e slave
trad e has always been by fa r the single most attractive subject.H6 This latte r

81 Phili p D. Curtin , 1969. For slig htl y mo re precise da ta, afte r mo re than a decade
of resea rch into Curtin 's fi gures , see Paul E. Lovejoy, 1982.
82 David Eltis and Dav id Richa rdson, 1997a.
83 Hugh Tho mas, 1997.
84 See, fo r insta nce, Ro be rt Lo uis Stein , 1979; Jo hannes M. Postma, 1990; Enriq ueta
Vila Vil aI', 1977; David Eltis and Dav id Ric ha rdso n, 1997a.
85 La rry Gragg, 1995; Aleja ndro de la Fu e nte Ga rda, 1986 , 1990b ; Hugo To le ntino
Dipp a nd Rube n Silie, 1979.
86 Recent exa mpl es of the matic coverage include La ird W. Be rgad , Fe Iglesias
Ga rc ia a nd Ma ria de l Ca rme n Ba rcia , 1995. An o the r title that me ri ts me nti o n is
He rbe rt S. Kle in , 1978 . Some o f the most impo rta nt mo nogra phs o n the e nding
o f the prac tice incl ude Arturo Mo ra les Ca rri6 n , 1978 ; Dav id R. Murray , 1980 ; Plate 14 Roy Augier Plate 15 Pedro Francisco Bo n6
Roger Anstey, 1975; David Eltis, 1987.

266
Place 16 Juan Bosch Place 17 Kamau Brachwaice
Place 20 Bridge c Brerero n Place 2 1 Ca rl Campbell

SA IX IDOIl L.!IRAU

LA COLONIZACI0N
DE PUERTO RICO
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Place 18 Salvador Brau

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Place 19 T ide page from Brau's La Place 22 Mi chael C raro n Place 23 Isaac Dookhan
Colonizacion de Puerto Rico
(firsc published 1907)
 'HISTOIRE
GENERALE DES

ANTILLES
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DIVISE'E EN DEVX TOMES,
Er .enrichie de Canes & de Figures.
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s'eH: palfe dans l'eltablilfement des
Colonies Francroi[es.
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M . D C, LXVI r-. - - -
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Plare 34 Johann es Harrog

Plare 30 Elsa V. Goveia Plare 3 1 Jacker of Goveia's Slave Society Plare 37 Euge nio Marla de Hosros
(1965)

Plare 35 Alberr Helman (Lou Lichrveld)

Plare 32 Douglas Hall Plare 33 Neville Hall Plare 38 Laennec Hurbon

Plare 36 Harry Hoerink

 SlcwelY a nd emancipation

to pi c often involves qu esti o ns abo ut how ca pitalism o r 'ca pitalist se nsibilities'

may have b ee n invo lved in th e o verall cessa ti o n o f th e practice o f slaving,
and thus conn ects with o ngoing d ebates surrounding th e so-ca ll ed 'Willi am s
Th es is' (di scussed belo w ).

L ABOU R PR OCESSES I N S LA VE ECONOM I ES

Lo ng a favo urite subj ect o f pol emi cists and hi sto rian s, the m ann er in w hi ch
slav es worked has continu ed to attract hi sto ri ans' attentio n . Rece nt co ntribu -
tio n s have emph as ized th e gend ered nature o f w o rk ass ig nm ents and th e
p aram o unt co ntribution o f wo m en to fi e ldwork o n suga r plantati o ns.tl7 Th ey
also und ers co re th e d eg ree to whi ch w o rk wa s a sph ere o f res istance and
co ntestatio n. Slaves and m asters engaged in a d ail y stru ggle to d efin e th e
Place 39 C. L. R. James te rm s o f w o rk , a co ntest that helped shape all o th er stru ggles b etwee n
them .HH Som e autho rs have also co rrelated labo ur processes and th eir associ-
ated environmental facto rs with differenti al p atterns o f sl ave m o rtality and
m o rbidit y. Barry Hi g m an 's boo k s o n th e d em ograph y o f th e British W est
Indi es, and sp ecifi call y o n Jam aica , in th e d ecad es preceding em anc ipati o n
Place 42 Amon de Kom are d o ubtl ess the m ost sati sfy in g and so phisti ca ted o f th ese studies, hav in g
set a hig h stand ard fo r th e process ing o f m asses o f d ata abo ut slaves ' lives .H9
In the Ca ribbean , d espite an o verwh elming concentrati o n o n large-sca le
ex p o rt ag ri c ulture (es p eC iall y suga r), m an y slaves li ved and wo rk ed in no n-
plantati o n settin gs: cities and tow ns, ca ttl e pens, and small er exp o rt-ori ented
units such as co ffee- and tobacco-gro win g f arm s. U nd ersta nd abl y, histo ri ans
WIJ SLAVEN have fo reg ro und ed th e slave exp eri ence in and aro und pl an ta ti o ns. But an
increas ing number are loo kin g beyond th e m o re o b v io us se ttin gs to revea l
VAN SURINAME how mu ch m o re co mpl ex such an exp eri ence appea rs w hen loo k ed at fro m
DOOR
the standpo int o f urban and o th er no n-plantatio n slaves 90
Place 40 Juan Isidro Jimenes Grull on A. DE KOM

TR ANS I T I ONS I NTO AND OU T O F SLAVE RY

Building o n th e so lid fo und ati o n o f preV io usly-publi shed eco no mi c histo ri es,
but discl aiming th e ir rath er stati c v iew o f slav e eco no mi CS, rece nt studi es o f

87 Fo r exam ples, see Alex va n Stipriaa n, 1989; Michael Crato n, 1989; Ira Be rlin and
Philip D. Mo rga n, 1993 , pp . 1-45; Ri c ha rd S. Dunn , 1987 , 1993 , 1996; Josette
Fa llo pe , 1987 ; Dav id Ba rry Gas par, 1993; Anne Pe ro tin-Dumo n , 1989 ; Dav id
UITGEVERS·MIJ. CONTACT - AMSTl:RDAM
P. Geggus, ] 993.
88 Ira Be rlin a nd Philip D. Mo rga n, 1993 , p . 2.
89 B. W. Hi gma n, 1976b , 1984a.
90 See, fo r exa mpl e , Fe rn a ndo Pi c6, 1984; Ann e Pho tin-Dumo n , 1989; Ma ria no
Place 43 Tide page of de Kom's Wij slaven Negr6 n Po rtillo , 1992; B. W . Higman, 1984b , 1989.
en Suriname (1934)

Place 4 1 Franklin W. Knighc 267

 General Hislot:y of the Caribbean
Ca ribbea n eco no mic life during th e slav ery era have stressed th e fluidity o f
labo ur arrangem ents and , in p arti cul ar , th e m ann er in which slave lab o ur
co uld b e, and was, b o th co nstru cted and m o difi ed. Th at is, th ese studies
have foc used o n transiti o ns 'into slave ry ( fro m a previ o us system suc h as
sm allho lding agri culture), and out a/ slave ry and into wage lab o ur o r p easa nt
pro du cti o n. Th e literature o n these tran siti o ns is impress ive in vo lum e and
sco p e. Fo r th e British W est Indies there have b ee n extensive discussio ns o n
th e emergen ce o f the suga r-a nd-s lavery compl ex in the seventee nth century91
and o n th e d ev elo pm ent o f a w aged lab o ur fo rce after em anc ipati o n .92
Similar discu ss io ns conce rnin g th e Spani sh-s p ea ki ng 93 and Dutc h-sp ea king
areas 94 have also tak en pla ce. Alth o ug h th e brea dth o f thes d ebates and the
va ri ety o f an g les fro m w hi ch histo ri an s are approac hing them mak es it
difficult to ge ne rali ze, o n e thing is cl ea r: sc ho lars have e nd ea vo ured to find
o ut how , and to w hat d eg ree, slaves th em se l ves w ere in vol ved in shaping
th e transiti o ns. While recogni zi ng that th e e nslaved o p erated w ithin th e
n arrow co nstraints o f th e m asters' p ower , hi sto ri ans have und erscored th eir
ability to m anoe uv re aro und the fo rmer 's d es ig ns and to di srupt th e exerc ise
o f their p o w er. This w as esp ecia lly so at th e end o f the slavery peri o d , wh en
th e last gen erati o ns o f slaves , as we ll as th e free dm en , we re abl e to d efin e
m ea ningful sph eres o f freed o m (i n th e wo rkpla ce, the family, th e co mmu -
nity , and eve n th e p o lity) in th e face o f extrao rdin ary o ppos iti o n and
repressio n .
S L AVE DEMOGRAP H Y A N D FAM I LY LI FE
M asters thro ug ho ut th e Am eri cas w o rri ed ab o ut th eir sl aves' surv i va l and
reprodu ctio n . In tim es o f hig h slave pri ces , they so ug ht to counter the nea rl y
universa l tend ency o f slave po pul ati o ns to d ecline naturall y, as d ea th rates
exceed ed birth rates ove r th e lo ng run . It is easy to im ag ine, also , th at th e
slaves worri ed intense ly abo ut this problem th em selves , all the m o re so since
it affli cted their children disp ro po rti o natel y; an atroCio usly hig h infant m o rtal-
91 For exa mpl es o f this lite rature , see Hil a ry McD. Beckl es , 1985b , 1989b ; Russe ll
R. Me na rd , 1991.
92 See Mi chael Crato n, 1992 , 1994 , ] 996; Mic hae l Twaddl e , 1993 ; Richa rd B.
She rid an , 1993; Sta nl ey L. Enge rm a n, 1984 , 1996; Tho mas C. Ho lt, 1992; Fra nk
McG lynn and Seymo ur Dresche r, 1992; Kevin D. Smith , 1995.
93 Fra nc isco A. Sca ra no , 1977 , 1984 ; J ose Cure t, 1982; Re becca J. Scott , 1994. In
pa rtia l res po nse to Mo re no Frag ina ls, El ingenio, Re becca Scott a nd La ird
W. Be rgad have adva nced new inte rpretatio ns o f the 'coming unstu ck' o f slave ry
in Cuba . See Rebecca J. Scott, 1985; La ird W. Be rga d , 1990.
94 Waldo He ilbro n, 1992 (1 993).
268
SlavelY and emancipation
i ty w as th e main reason fo r th e nega ti ve rep rodu ctio n rates of the majo rity o f
Caribbea n slave societies 9 )
That scho lars have acco rd ed slave d e m ograph y a k ey pl ace in th eir
investiga ti o ns, the n , sho uld no t surprise us. Th e b oo m yea rs o f th e 1970s to
th e 1990s sa w g rea t fo rwa rd strid es in und erstandin g th e dim ensio ns o f
di sease, m o rtalit y and fertility w hi c h d efin ed th e d em ographic reg im ens o f
Caribbea n slave p o pulatio ns. V ari o us investiga tio ns o n th e British and Dutch
Ca ribbea n have sho ne brig ht lig ht o n diseases and th eir correlati o n w ith di et,
w o rk and enviro nmental facto rs. 96 W e no w have a better g ras p , mo reov er, o f
how individu al co lo ni es and g ro ups o f co lo ni es diffe red fro m eac h o th er in
term s o f o v erall p o pul ati o n d ynamics , and how co lo n y-s p ec ifi c p attern s
evolved ove r time 97
The parall el stud y o f famil y life has reg istered m ea ning ful ad va nces, in
p art b eca use o f its link with the exc itin g subj ect o f w o m e n and ge nde r ( di s-
cussed be low). ewer in ves tiga tio ns have revea led a ve ritab le k aleidosco p e
of family arrangem ents und er slavery . In so d Oing, th ey have fo rced us to re-
eva lu ate th e ass umptio n o f a 'm atri archal' (o r, at least, 'm atrifoca l ') p ost-
em anc ipati o n Caribbea n whi c h bad to have evo lved fro m an equi va len t
Afro-Ca rib bea n famil y under siavery 9H In thi s rega rd , discuss io ns abo ut past
Ca ribbea n famil y stru cture have mirro red d eb ates in the U nited States abo ut
th e hi sto ry o f th e Afri ca n -Am eri ca n famil y.99 Evid ence un co vered in pl anta-
ti o n and no n- pl antati o n areas of the Ca ribbea n suggests th at sin ce slave
famil y stru cture vari ed acco rdin g to m an y extraneo us facto rs (cro ps g ro w n ,
stage o f the ex p o rt cycl e , o ppo rtuniti es fo r indep endent culti va ti o n , si ze and
distributio n o f the slave p o pul ati o n , and man y o the rs) , th e m ain characteris-
tics o f th e slave famil y in thi s reg io n w ere its vari ety , ad aptability and
reso urcefulness. l oo 0 sing le p o rtraya l o f 'th e famil y und er slave ry ' ca n d o
ju stice to the ri chn ess o f fo rm s o ne find s ac ross spa ce and time. Furtherm o re,
95 Mary Butl e r, 1984; A. Me re dith J o hn , 1988; Ma nu e l Sa lvado r V{lsq uez a nd
Ca rm e n Me ne ndez de Leon , 1986; Ruud [Ru d i Otto l Beelds n ijde r, 1994.
96 Ke nne th F. Kip le, 1984; Richa rd B. She ridan , 1985b ; Michael Crato n , 1976; Ma ry
Butle r, 1984; Ke ith Maso n, 1986 ; Hum p hrey E. La mur, 1981, 1987a , 1987 b; Alex
va n Stipriaa n, 1995.
97 In additio n to B. W. Hig ma n's wo rk , see , fo r Eng lish-spea king a reas, Mic hae l
Cra to n, 1975 , 1978a . Fo r the Spa nish-spea kin g a reas , see Fra ncisco A. Sca ra no ,
1986; Benja min Nista l-Mo re t, 1985; Pabl o To rnero, 1987 ; Al e ja ndro de la Fue nte
Ga rcia , 1990c; Dav id M. Sta rk , 1996; Rube n Silie , 1986. Fo r the Fre nch-spea kin g
a reas , see Raymo nd Bo utin , 1988b ; Jacques Ho uda ille, 1963; Dale W. To mi ch,
1990a.
98 Ma ria 1. Q uino nes Aroc ho , 1997; Cla ire Robe rtson, 1996; Ve re na Stolcke, 1992.
99 See He rbert G. G utma n, 1976 , fo r the most impo rta nt state me nt in that d e bate.
100 Michael Crato n, 1979; B. W . Higma n, 1978; Humphrey E. La mur, 1992.
269
 General History q( the Caribbean
w e are no w k ee nly aw are th at an y discuss io n o f 'famil y fo rm s' tend s to
co ncea l a g rea t d ea l ab o ut th e hum an interacti o ns th at actu all y occurred in
famil y and community contexts. 10 1 U nea rthin g those interacti on s, discove rin g
what they m eant to those who lived th em , and assess ing their soc ial and cul-
tural impli ca ti o ns rem ains an exciting frontier o f Ca ribbea n studi es.
P EAS A N T A D A PT ATI ONS A ND I N D E P EN D EN T ECONOM I C AC TI V ITI ES
UN D E R SL AVE RY
Buildin g o n the pi o nee rin g w o rk o f Mintz, 102 slavery hi stori an s o f th e last
gen erati o n hav e p aid in creas in g attenti o n to wh at h e has ca ll ed 'pro to-
p easa nts', that is, small-scale culti va to rs and marketee rs who w ere also slaves.
Th e pheno meno n was fairly extensive in the Ca ribb ea n , th o ugh co nsiderably
less prevalent in the Spani sh and Dutch colo ni es th an in th e British and
French . The practice o f independent produ ctio n b y slaves usually in volved the
ma ster's assignment o f pl o ts to them o n an individu al b as is, o n which th ey
g rew p art o r most o f their food . They co uld se ll th e rem ainder , usuall y in
nea r by urban markets, and kee p all o r most o f the proceed s. 'Indep endent
produ ctio n' , ho w eve r, also encompasses man y different acti vities carried
o ut by slaves o n th eir o wn , o r beyo nd th e ma sters' imm edi ate o verSig ht and
contro l. Th ese include such commo n practi ces as marketing agri cultural p rod-
ucts C' higglerin g' in the British W est Indies , a hig hl y gendered acti vity), m anu-
facturing fini shed goods, and providing a vari ety o f se rvi ces to urban residents.
T ogeth er these activiti es fall und er the rubri c of the 'slaves' eco no m y'.
Ira Berlin and Philip M o rgan have eloq uently stated the histo ri ca l Sig nifi ca nce
o f slaves' independ ent p rodu ctio n :
T he wo rk th e slaves did fo r th e ir masters acco un ted fo r m ost of the ir
lab o uring tim e, but the ind ep e nd ent eco no mi c acti v ities o f slaves -
w hat has bee n ca ll ed th e 'intern al econ o m y ', 'p easa nt breac h ', o r m o re
simpl y th e slaves' eco nomy - had far-reac hin g co nsequ en ces . B y p ro-
du c in g food fo r them se l ves and fo r o th ers, tendin g cash cro p s, raising
livestock , m anufacturing fini shed good s, marketing their ow n produ cts,
co nsuming and sav ing the proceed s, and beq uea thing prop erty to their
d esce nd ants, sl aves too k co ntro l o f a large p art of th eir li ves. In m an y
ways the slaves ' ind ep end e nt eco no mic end eavours offered a fo und a-
tio n fo r th eir d o m esti c and co mmunity li fe , shaping the soc ial stru cture
101 For va lu able insig hts, see B. W . Hig man , 1984 11 .
102 Th e wo rk o f M in tz o n Ca ribbea n peasa nts is ex ten sive. For som e o f his m os t
impo rtant contribu tio n s, see Sidney W. Mintz, 1964, 1973 , 1974b 0984, 1989),
1979.
270
Slavery a lld emanCipation
o f slave society and providing a materi al b asis fo r the slaves' distincti ve
culture. M o reove r, th e character o f the slaves' eco no m y and the mo d est
eco no mi c success bl ack m en and w o m en achi eved durin g slavery
influ en ced th e ho pes and as pirati o ns th ey ca rri ed into freed o m , g iving
directi o n to th e post-e m an cipati o n stru ggle fo r equ ality. Th e legacy o f
slavery ca nn o t b e und erstood with o ut a full apprec iati o n o f th e slaves '
eco n o my w.~
An approach to the Ca ribbea n p ast th at valu es th ese activities and strives to
docum ent them will shed brig ht li g ht o n ho w th e slaves experi enced slavery.
In so d o ing, it will d o ubtl ess prove that the sp ace fo r agency and auto no m y
which slaves ca rved o ut in pro to- peasa nt and urban activities was a mu ch
more Signifi ca nt part o f the slave experi ence than w e had previo usly tho ught.
A pi cture quite like thi s is b eg inning to em erge fo r th e Caribbea n ,
th anks to w o rk s b y Hilary M cD . Beckles, W oodvill e K . M arshall , Rod eri ck A.
M cD o nald , and Mi chel-Ro lph Tro uill o t o n th e British W est Indies, D ale W .
T o mi ch o n M artiniqu e , and Fern and o Pi c6 o n Pu e rto Rico, am o ng o th ers. 10 1
Th ese auth o rs pl ace emph as is o n th e ability o f slaves and freedm en , b ased
o n th eir extra in com e and pro tected time to th emse lves , to defl ect o r miti ga te
d em ands pl aced o n th em . Whil e seve ral auth o rs are ca reful to p o int o ut th at
ind ep end ent pro du ctio n could also se rv e to rep ro du ce slave ry - ph ys ica ll y ,
by using th e slaves' ow n ' leisure-time' lab o ur to suppl y th e necessa ry susten-
an ce, and p o liti ca ll y, b y giving slaves a stak e in the system - they ri g htl y
emph as ize its transfo rm ati ve and liberating p o te nti al. Mu c h m o re resea rch
need s to b e d o ne, ho w eve r , to ga uge th e ex te nt to w hi ch slaves and freed -
m en actu ally rea li zed this p o tenti al , and th e co nditi o ns und e r w hi ch th ey
co uld o r co uld no t use th e ir o wn eco no mi c acti v ity to ca r ve o ut m o re
au to no m o us sp aces . A m o re syste m ati c acco unting o f the p ro to- p easa ntry 's
eme rgence ac ross th e Ca ribbea n w o uld also seem necessa ry. W e still d o not
know ho w preval ent th e practi ce was across large p o rti o ns o f the reg io n and
how it fared over time in ce rtain loca tio ns. 10';
103 Ira Berlin and Phili p D. Morga n , 199 1, p. 1.
104 Hil ary McD. Beckl es , 1989a ; Wood ville K. Ma rshall , 199 1; Roderick A.
M c D o nald , 1993; D ale W. To mic h , 199 1a, 1995; Fe rn ando Pico, j 989; M ic hel-
Ro lp h T ro uillo t, 1988.
105 T he practi ce o f all otting p lots to slaves appears to have bee n m uch less freq uen t
in wes tern Cuba, w hi ch was b y far the largest o f the slaveho lding areas of th e
nineteenth-century Ca ribbea n . Th e lite rature not o nl y fa ils to men tio n th e slaves'
econo m y, bu t it also stresses th e pri son- like en viro nment w hi ch p lantati o n
slaves endured , increasing l y so as th e suga r revo lutio n p rogresse d . See, for
exa mpl e , M anu el M o reno Fraginals , 1978 , vo l. 2, pp . 57-82; Ju an Perez d e la
Riva, 1975; Laird W . Berga cl , 1990, pp. 141-57.
271
 Gen eral Hist01:Ji of the Caribbean stavelY a nd emancipation

R ES I ST ANCE, REBE LLI ON AND MARR ON A GE it no ne th e less has mad e us e ve r mo re awa re o f the need to vie w bo th kind s
o f be hav io ur as part o f the same d ynamic.
No s in gle as pect of th e Ca ribbe an expe ri e n ce under slave ry has me rite d
Sig nifica nt writings o n these to pics h ave fo ll owed bo th mo n ogra phi c
mo re atte ntio n o ve r the last tw o d ecades than ' res ista nce' in its multipl e
and gene ralizing a pproac hes. Mo nographs o n individu a l re be llio ns loHa nd o n
form s. Th e te rm captures a ra the r large a rra y of be havi o urs, fro m e ve ryd ay
re be llio ns in particular co lo nies o ve r time l09 still comprise th e bulk o f th e lit-
acts of e vas io n o r sa bota ge to full-blo wn fli g ht (ma rronage) and re be lli o n. At
e rature. But b roa de r studi es o n th e na ture o f slave resista nce a nd compa ra-
all times, in eve ry place whe re bo ndage was practi sed , slaves resisted , that is,
tive studi es of two o r mo re socie ties have a lso appea re d o f late . Crato n's o n
th e y co nteste d coe rcio n a nd sou g ht no t o nly to miti gate sl ave ry , but to e nd
th e Britis h West Indi es a nd Euge ne D . Ge no vese's o n s lave revo lts in a ll th e
it, wh e the r fo r th e m as individuals o r fo r the e ntire po pulati o n o f th e
Am e ri cas a re by fa r the most a mbiti o us o f th ese , a lth o ug h o the rs a re no te-
e nsl aved. Fea r of retaliato ry vio le nce always marked the lives o f slave holde rs
worth y as we ll fo r the ir theo re ti ca l reach .ll o Mo reove r, res ista nce specifi ca ll y
and was only de li cate ly counterbalanced , in the minds o f the mo re po we rful ,
cre dited to wome n has bee n a n es pec ia ll y a lluring to pi C o ve r th e last two
by the ir ex pecta ti o n o f pro fit from the labour of the ir hum a n chatte ls . Suc h
deca d es . Studi es by Ba rba ra Bush a nd o the rs have yie lde d impo rta nt ne w
fea rs became especially ac ute afte r the Haiti a n Re vo lutio n o f 1791- 1804
info rmati o n a nd inSig ht o n the large ro le ofte n played by wome n in res ist-
bloodily de mo nstrate d the blacks' resolve .
an ce, in bo th th e mo re 'o pe n ' fo rm a nd in e ve ryd ay co ntestati o n. III By
This grue lling contest of will s has lon g s pawn e d e ngross ing na rra tives
focusing o n the mann e r in w hi ch ce rta in wo me n's acti o ns subve rted powe r,
o f expl o itation, surviva l and affirmation. Such na rratives have existed as lo ng
eve n (o r pe rh a ps es pec ia ll y) th at o f male slaves, these a uth o rs have co n-
as peopl e have been writing on the Ca ribbea n; in fact, th ey date ba ck to six-
tribute d va lu a bl y to o ur und e rsta ndin g o f th e link be twee n ge nd e r a nd th e
tee nth-century Spanish chro nicl e rs like Las Casas . The latest w ave of inte rest
re produ ctio n o f th e slave syste m.
in slave resistance , re be llion and marro nage , h o we ve r, draw s mu ch o f its
Ma rro nage a nd th e hi sto ry o f Maroo n co mmuniti es co mpri se an o th e r
e ne rgy and inte nsity from political and inte llectual issu es and curre nts o f o ur
exc iting a rea o f resea rch. In 1973 Ri cha rd Pri ce pu blis he d a ta nta li zin g
times. The y cl ea rly owe mu ch inspiration to th e Black Po we r mo ve me nt a nd
a ntho logy o n marro nage in th e Am e ri cas , Maroon Societies. Since th e n , a
othe r civil rights struggles of the 1960s and 1970s , as well as to po we rful cur-
g rowing numbe r o f investiga to rs have jo in e d in th e e ffo rt to doc um e nt this
re nts of soc ia l history that, ove r the last thirty yea rs , have pl aced utmost
express io n o f slave res ista nce a nd its atte nd a nt social , cultura l a nd po liti ca l
va lu e on the stories of 'p eopl e with o ut history'. 106
stru ctures and practi ces. As with re be lli o n studi es , resea rch into marro nage
Since the mid-1970s historians have probed the occurre nce o f res ist-
exists fo r virtu ally a ll th e majo r colo ni es. Unde rsta nd a bl y, it is mo re ple ntiful
ance , re be llion and ma rronage in virtually e ve ry co rne r of the Ca ribbea n
fo r countries like Cuba, Sa nto Do mingo , Ha iti , Surina me a nd Ja maica, wh e re
re gion . In so do ing, the y have mad e us kee nly aware of th e fa ct th a t most
large p o pul atio ns of Ma roo ns existe d fro m the sixtee nth ce ntury.11 2
slaves resiste d slave ry at some point in the ir lives, a nd that su c h res istance
w e ighed upon the pra ctice of th e sl ave hold e rs ' powe r and eve n influen ced
impe rial p o litics. lo7 Of course , scholars have a lso shown tha t s la ves accom-
modated to the ir condition , see king to max imize the ir comfort, security a nd 108 Dav id Ba rry Gas pa r, 1985; Emili a Vi o tti d a Costa , 1994; Brac ke tte F. Willia ms,
1990; Da le W. To mich , 1990b.
autonomy , and that o f th e ir kin , with o ut necessarily subve rting the institu -
109 Fo r re leva nt exa mples, see Guill e rmo Bara lt, 1981; RosemalY Bra na-S hute , 1990 ;
tion 's fund amental p o we r e quati o n . Alth o ugh the new e r literature, like its Ro be rto Cassa a nd Ge na ro Ro driguez Mo re l, 1993 ; Charl es Frostin , 1975; Je ro me
pre decessors, pre fe rs res ista nce o ve r accommodation as an o bj ect of inquiry, S. Handle r, 1982; Be rnard Mo itt, 1991.
110 Mi chae l Crato n , 1982a; Euge ne D. Ge no vese , 1979. See also Hil a ry Mc D.
Beckl es, 1988b ; David P. Geggus, 1991.
111 Ba rba ra Bush , 1982, 1985 , 1986 , 1996; Rosa lyn Te rborg-Pe nn , 1986 ; Ste lla
106 Fo r a good intro du cti o n to the imprint o f social theory in conte mpo rary Weste rn Dad zie, 1990 ; Dav id Ba rry Gas pa r, 1996; and Judi th Ka fk a , 1997.
histo ri ogra ph y, see Pete r Burke , 1993 . See al so Eugen e D . Ge novese, 1970. Fo r 11 2 On Cuba , see Jose Luciano Fra nco Ferran , 1973b , 1980b ; Esteba n Mo nte jo , 1968;
a moving acco unt o f histo ry's fo rgotte n m ajo rity , see Eri c Wo lf, 1982. Pe dro Deschamps Cha pea ux , 1983 ; Ga bino La Rosa Co rzo , 1985 , 1986, 1987 ,
107 For exa mples o f th e linkage be tween slave res istan ce a nd impe rial p o lities, th e 1988. O n Sa nto Do mingo , see J ose Ju a n AlTo m a nd Manu e l Anto nio Ga rcia
lite rature o n th e Ha itian Re vo lutio n is , o f course, key . See es p ec ia ll y David Areva lo , 19H6: Carl os Es te ba n De ive, 1989 ; Euclid es G uti e rrez Fe lix , 1987. On
P. Gegg us, 1981b. Othe r s ignifi ca nt exa mples are Ro b e rt L. Paqu e tte , 1988; Pue rto Ri co, see Be nj amin Nista l Mo re t, 1984; Fe rn a nd o Pic6 , 1986a; Angel
Ro na ld Ke nt Ri chardson, 1987. (co ntinued on page 274)

272 273
 General History of /h e Caribbean
Maroon epi cs have ofte n been represe nted as m o rality pla ys , p erh ap s
ri g htl y so. Human beings faced with the most ex pl o itative co nditio ns are pic-
tured striking b ack at th e ir o ppresso rs b y fo rc ibly withdrawing th emselves
and subseq uently founding auto no mo us communiti es. Given the attractive-
ness o f such represe ntati o ns, it sho uld no t surprise us that so me works, eve n
th ose m ost rece ntly auth o red , co ntinue to vi ew M aroo n soc ieti es in a rath er
bl ack -a nd -w hite m anne r , as ' freed o m fighte rs ' wh o refused to g ive in to
European rul e. 11 3
While this may be th e preva iling tone of a good d ea l o f Maroon
histo ri og raph y, a few co ntributio ns o f l ate shine a m o re rea listic light o n
th em. In these, Maroons are seen as p eople w h o ind eed res isted and fo ug ht
but also bargained with pl antocrac ies and governm ent auth o riti es and at all
times d eve lo p ed hi g hly-stratifi ed co mmuniti es. A few hi sto ri ans, inclined to
thi s kind of rev isi o n , have stressed th e gend e rin g of auth o rity in sid e the
better-know n Maroon g ro ups and the sharp subo rdin ati o n o f women th erein.
Som e o f th ese m o re rece nt acco unts, m o reove r, prese nt us with a nec-
essa ry co rrectio n to the o ften sta ti c views of M aroon histo ry to which we had
been acc ustom ed. Ri cha rd Price 's hi gh ly accl aimed Alahi 's World (1990)
typifies this trend. It is a wo rk w hose narrat ive lin e is wove n from prim ary
documents and o ral accounts of a cru cial period in Sa ram ak a history (th e late
eig htee nth and ea rl y nin etee nth ce nturies), ju xta p osed o n each page to
suggest different v iews of th e same even ts. Price intends th e reader to und er-
sta nd the confli cts and co ntrad ictio ns that burdened Maroons eve ryw here,
eve n those who li ved in th e relativc: ly rem o te loca ti o n of the Surinamese
rainfo rest. He shows the lea din g c haracte r, Ca ptain Arabini (A lab i), in th e
rather awkwa rd situ ati o n of hav in g co nve rted to Christianity while most of
the members of his community rejected and even ridi cul ed the Moravian mis-
siona ri es who lived among them. Alabi's conversio n co uld be a metaphor for
the contradictions felt by Maroons in the Ca ribb ea n and all of the Americas.
Fo r alth ough seeking to distance themselves from a world in w hi ch th e ir
dark skin meant perpetual and inh eritab le slave ry , Maroons co uld not escape
(con /i nll ed./i'om page 273)
G. Q uin tero Rive ra , 1990. Work on the French West Indies includes Jean
Fouchard , 1972 ; Leslie G. Desmangles , 1990; David P. Gegg us, 1992b; Ghislaine
Bouchet, Jacq ues Adelaide-Merlande and Josette Fallope, ] 996. On the Dutch and
Danish territories , see Ri chard Price, 1976, 1983a , 1990; Wim S. M. Hoogbergen ,
1990a, 1990b; Nevi ll e A. T. Ha ll , 1985a. OnJamaica and the British West Indies,
see Mavis C. Campbe ll , ]988; Hilary McD. Beckles, 1985a; Richard Ha rt, 1980-5;
Gad Heuman , 1988; E. Kon Agorsa h, 1994.
113 For a critiq ue of Miguel Barnet's 1968 biography of Esteba n Montejo , see
Michael Zeuske, 1997 , pp. 265-79. A response from Barnet follows o n pages
281-9.
274
SlcwelY and emancipaliol1
the fa ct that th eir existe nce was inextricab ly ti ed to that world. Thanks to cre-
ative resea rch like Price 's, we are now able to better assess this contrad ictio n
and weigh its lo ng- range consequ ences .
W OMEN AND GENDER
Just as, worldwide, women's history and ge nd er studi es more generally saw
an expl os io n in sc holarly attention b eg innin g in th e 1970s, so did the stud y
of women in slavery. II. The Caribbean was no exce pti o n to this tre nd.
Understanding how women exp eri enced and co ntested slavery , ho w gend er
served as a prin Cipl e by which to stru cture explo itati o n in slave re g imes , and
how em ancipati o n brought hig hly-va ri ab le conseq uen ces by sex, has in fact
b ee n one of th e m ost exc iting frontiers o f Ca ribb ea n hi story of th e past
twenty years. I I S
I have alrea dy noted four topical areas (labo ur processes , d emography
and the family , proto-peasantry, and res istance) in whi ch a foc us on women
has yielded valu able new inSights. In fact, Virtually evelY topic covered in this
revi ew has rece ntl y been tran sfo rm ed , o r at least re-e nerg ized , by th e pur-
poseful attentio n being paid to women and gender. This is es p ecially true of
the literature o n the British W est Indies , fo r which the contributio ns o f Bush,
Beckles, Marietta Morrissey , Stella D ad zie, Rh od a Redd oc k , and o th ers have
bri g htly lit the p ath that o th er sch o lars mig ht now fo ll ow. 11 6 Moreover,
impo rtant new studi es exist for th e French territories - Arlette Gautier'S Les
soeurs de solitude (Sisters of so litud e) (985) d ese rves a sp ec ial mention in
this reg ard - and, to a sharply lesse r extent, for th e Spanish co lo ni es as
w ell. 117
Thanks to this pionee ring resea rc h , th e gendered dim ensions of the
slave ex p e ri en ce are b eg inning to em erge m o re clearly. By virtue o f th eir
sex, or rather, b eca use of th e way sex was constru cted as an esse nti al and
transce nd ent catego ry o f difference , slave women and freedwomen suffered
the rigo urs of enslavem ent and co lo ur prejudice m ost intense ly. Th ey also
resisted and accommodated in ways th at were both similar to , and slig htl y
114 See Michael Mullin , 1985; David Barry Gas par and Darlene Clark I-line, 1996.
115 For a survey o f some trends in the lite rature , see Bridget Brereton , 1992a.
116 Barbara Bush , 1986, 1989; Hil a ry McD. Beckles, 1989 , 1996a , 1996b; Marietta
Morrissey, 1986 , 1989; Rh oda E. Reddock, 1985.
117 On Sa nto Domingo , see Ce lsa Albert Batista , 1990. For Puerto Rico there is no
compa rab le survey, but Ive tte Perez Vega , 1987-8, treats a s ing le freedwoman 's
case. On the French West Indies, th e best stud y is Arlette Gautier, 1985a , but
others who have contributed s ig nifica ntl y a re Monique Sa inte-Rose, 1985; Susa n
Socolow , 1996 and Judith Kafka , 1997. See p. 118, this volume.
275
 General History qf the Caribbean
diffe re nt fro m , those of me n . Mo re a bstractly, the new resea rc h has all o w ed
us to pro bl e mati ze th e ma nn e r in whi ch , und e r sp ec ifi c c ircumsta nces,
co ntro l o ve r wome n's labo ur, sex ua lity and re produ cti o n a ll owed me n of a ll
co lo urs a nd conditi o ns to ta ke ad va ntage o f the ir supe ri o r powe r and privi-
lege . By virtu e o f thi s in sig ht, o ne is be tte r abl e to see th e way in w hi ch
ge nd e r hi e rarchies he lpe d to sta bili ze th e s lave regime and may have bo l-
ste re d its amazing staying p owe r.
FR EE PEO P LE O F C O L O U R A N D T H E P RO C ESS OF MA NU M I SSI O N
To pi cs o f g reat inte rest fo r a lm ost Sixty yea rs , th e sta tu s, be li efs a nd actio ns
of free people o f colo ur still a ttract Ca ribbea n histo ri ans' attentio n. The most
pre va le nt ass umpti o n co ntinu es to be that the co nditio n of free peo pl e o f
Africa n desce nt ma y be ta ke n as a ga uge o f race re latio ns in a slave o r fo r-
me rly slave soc ie ty. I IS Tho ug h late ly th e free people o f co lour have no t bee n
subjecte d to as mu ch compa rative and th eo re ti ca l stud y as th ey o nce we re ,119
th e ne we r wo rk has wide ne d th e SCO p€ o f investiga tio n to include areas
beyo nd the Spa nish Ca ribbea n.1 2o Hi spa no ph o ne soc ie ti es to ntinu e to draw
inte nse scrutiny, no do ubt beca use th e ir free colo ured po pulatio ns we re pro-
portio nate ly grea te r tha n those of o th e r a reas .l2l
On e o f th e m ost promising a reas o f resea rch conce rns what free
p eo ple o f colo ur did to asce nd soc ia ll y a nd po liti ca ll y, a nd the id e as a nd
im ages th ey used when as piring to o r expl a ining such asce nda nce. Trouill o t
has advanced th e no tio n th at in Ha iti and Do mini ca, facti o ns o f th e colo ure d
(lig hter-skinned) freedme n a nd the ir desce nda nts develo p ed a se nse o f the ir
o wn inte rests as diffe re nt from , o r even o pposed to, bo th whites a nd bl acks .
Th ese colo ureds, ca ll ed 'Th e Mul atto Asce nd a ncy ' in nineteenth-ce ntury
Do mini ca, 'fitted awkw a rdly be tween th e alli ance o f white pla nte rs a nd
offi cia ls and the masses o f cultivato rs bo th be fo re a nd after slave ry. Not sur-
prisingly, [th ey] shifte d pos iti o ns a nd a ll eg ia nces to s uit the ir inte rests of th e
mo me nt.'122 Mo reove r, if J o hn Garrig us is ri g ht , such upwa rdl y-mo bile free
118 See Ha rry Hoetink , 1973b , fo r a diffe re nt view.
119 Two exceptio ns to this generaliza tio n are Arno ld A. Sio , 1987, a nd Ste phe n Sma ll ,
1994. The o lde r literature includes Ca rl N. Degle r, 1971, a nd Ma rvin Ha rris, 1964.
120 J e ro me S. Ha ndl e r, 1974 ; Gad J. He uma n , 1981; Ed wa rd L. Cox, 1984; J e ro me
S. Ha ndl e r and Jo hn T. Po hlmann , 1984 ; Ca rl C. Ca mp bell , 1992a ; Rosema ry
Brana-Shu te , 1989; Rosema rijn Hoefte, 1996; Jo hn D. Ga rrig us, 1993 , 1996; Anne
Pe rotin-Dumo n, 1991b .
121 Ale jandro de la Fue nte Ga rcia , 1990a; Ro be rt L. Paqu e tte , 1988 ; Fern ando Pica,
1986a; Jay Kinsbrun e r, 1990, 1996.
122 Mic he l-Ro lph Tro uill ot, 1988 , p. 98. Fo r a clea re r o utlin e o f thi s a rg ume nt, see
Michel-Ro lph Tro uillot, 1992.
276
s tavelY a nd emancipation
colo ure ds co uld deve lo p , und e r the p ro pe r c ircum sta nces, gro up id e ntities
no t in compatib le w ith a creo le patri o tism o r proto-nati o na lism. 123
FR EE 'rI ME , LE I SU RE A N D POPU L AR C ULT U RE
On e o f the newest fro ntie rs o f resea rc h , no t o nl y o n slaves but o n pre-
industri a l peo pl es mo re gene ra ll y, is the stud y of w hat peo ple did whe n th ey
we re no t wo rking . As J a mes Wa lvin has no ted , hi sto ri a ns we re und e r th e
mista ke n no ti o n that a ny le isure activity worth studyin g mu st have occurred
o n the frin ges o f indu stria l soc iety , with its te nd e ncy to expa nd worke rs' free
time . 124 Th o ug h re la ting mostly to Euro pea n hi sto ry, th at be li ef was a lso
preva le nt amo ng histo rians o f slave societies, who naturall y assumed work to
be the quintesse ntia l acti vity o f the majo rity of the ir subj ects. Le isure was typ-
ica ll y see n as a n a lm ost uninte nti o na l by-produ ct o f the work regime n. As
Ca ri bbea n histo ria ns have beco me mo re se ns itive to social histo ry fro m
be lo w a nd to the cultura l processes o f th e p o pul a r majo rity, howeve r, th ey
have begun to assess le isure diffe re ntl y, rega rdin g it as so me thin g covete d
fo r its own sa ke (th e slaves ' pe rs pecti ve) as we ll as a va lu a bl e too l o f socia l
control a nd wo rk di SCipline (the slave holde rs' inte rpre tati o n). The result has
been a steady tri ckle of studies o n wh at slaves did w ith the ir o wn time, what
dive rsio ns th ey prefe rred a nd why, ho w they mixe d 'eve ryd ay' a nd ce remo-
nial acti viti es , ho w they used dive rs io ns to wa rd po litical e nds, a nd what it
co uld a ll ha ve mea nt to suc h critica l iss ues as creo li za ti o n , th e ma inte na nce
of th e soc ia l o rd e r, re latio ns be twee n urba n a nd rural slaves a nd free
co lo ureds, and ma ny othe rs . 125
TH E C A PI TA LfSM AND S LAVl:.· /? Y DEBATE
Whe n Eric Willi a ms publishe d his Cap italism a nd Sla very in 1944, th e
histo ri ographica l context of th e boo k w as as mu ch Euro pea n a nd British as it
was Ca ribbe an . In o th e r w o rds, o ne o f Willi a ms' chie f a ims w as to give a
Ca ribbea n spin to o ngo ing de bates about British industriali za tio n , cap italism,
impe ri a lism a nd abo litio nism . 126 Since the n , and es peciall y from the mid-
1970s , most atte mpts to ga uge the Ca ribbea n 's positio n in the w o rld-syste m
have had to grappl e with Williams' qu estio ns and the provoca tive answe rs he
gave to them . Ind eed , a live ly and e nduring debate o n th e me rits of Williams'
123 Jo hn D. Ga rri gus, 1996 .
124 James Wal vin , 1995.
125 Da le W. To mi ch, 1987 ; Dav id Ba rry Gas pa r, 1988; Ri cha rd Pri ce , 1991; Mi chae l
Crato n, 1995 ; I-Iowa rd Jo hnson, 1995; Ga brie l Entiope, 1996 .
126 Elsa V. Goveia , 1964. See pp. 83-8 , this volume .
277
 General His/olY a/ the Caribbean
theses has tak en pl ac ,a d ebate fro m w hi ch the book 's ove rall arg um ent has
em erged surpri sing ly unsca th ed d es pite th e di savowal o f se veral o f its
sp ec ifi c po ints. l l7
T he Willi ams deb ate has b ee n ca rri ed o ut, howeve r , so m ew hat o n the
frin ges o f Ca ribb ea n hi sto ri og raph y, fo r und erstandable reaso ns. M ost o f th e
p articipants have been North Am eri ca n , British and Africa n histo ri ans, and o f
these, m ost have bee n sp ec iali sts in Euro p ea n o r Afri ca n hi sto ry. Thi s is so
b eca use th e qu estio n s p osed b y W i lli am s in ev itab ly lea d us in th e directi o n
o f Euro p e and Afri ca, and away fro m th e Ca ribb ea n , in sea rch o f answe rs.
Th ey require th at we stretch o ur fi eld o f v isio n far from Kin gsto n , H avan a o r
Po rt-a u-Prince to w ard th e No rth and So uth Atlanti c en co unters b etween
European s, Africa ns and Am e ri ca ns o f all stripe and latitudes . New answe rs
can o nl y em erge, in fact, fro m docum ents sca tte red all ove r th e Atl anti c
world - m ost o f th em , alas, far fro m th e Ca ribbea n itse lf. O nl y a curso ry
g lance at th e evid e nti ary b ase o f the m ost impo rtant critiqu es and d efenc s
o f Williams thu s far sho uld convin ce us o f th at. ' 2H
This is no t to say that th e d eb ate itse lf lac ks signifi ca nce fo r scho lars o f
Ca ribbea n histo ry. On th e co ntrary, qu esti o ns like 'Did m ost Euro p ea ns
rega rd sub-Sa h aran Afri ca ns as enslavabl e be ings even b efo re th e establi sh-
m ent o f the Atlanti c slav e trad e?' o r 'Did th e ri se o f indu stri al ca pitalism co n-
tribute to the em ergence o f Euro pea n abo l iti o nism , and if so , ho w ?' sho uld
b e co ntinually d eb ated with thi s reg io n in mind . Th e answe rs gi ve n w ill
affect o th er impo rtant qu esti o ns ab o u t Caribbea n soc ial and cultural evo lu -
ti o n. M aking the Willi ams d ebate m o re e ngagin g and p ertin ent to Ca ribb ea n
histo ri ans should th erefo re be o ne o f o ur m ain pri o riti es.
CAUSES AND PROCESSES OF ABO LI T I O AND EMA C IP AT I ON
Histo ri ans have d ebated th e ca uses o f abo liti o n and em ancipati o n fo r m an y
d ecad es n ow . In k ee pin g with a lo ng-standin g ass umpti o n that slav es could
no t partic ipate ratio nall y in their ow n libe rati o n , th e bulk o f th e o lde r litera-
127 The fo ll ow ing wo rks prov ide s na ps ho ts o f th e Willia ms deba te, o r at least o f
pa rts o f it : Ba rb ara L. Solo w a nd Sta nl ey L. Engerm an , e d s, 1987; Ba rba ra
L. So lo w , e d ., ] 99 1; Tho mas Be nde r, 1992; a nd, fo r th e Dutch wo rl d , Cert
Oostind ie, ed ., 1996.
128 In additio n to contributi o ns co nta ine d in the a ntho logies c ited in the prev io us
no te , see Dav id Brio n Dav is , 1975; Seymo ur Dresc he r, 1977, 1987; David Eltis,
1987, 1993; Sta nley L. Engelma n, 1972; Philip D. Curtin , 1977; Willia m A. Darity,
Jr., 1990 ; Hila ry McD. Beckl es, 1989b, 1994 ; Selwyn H. Carrin gto n, 1988b ; Wa lte r
Minchinto n , 1996; Dav id Ri cha rdson, 1987; Ro na ld Ke nt Ri cha rdson , 1987; Da le
W. To mich, 1991b; Jo rd i Ma luque r d e Mo tes, 1976.
278
StavelY a nd em a ncipation
ture, with no tabl e exce pti o ns, emphasized th e ro le o f m etro po litan abo litio n-
ism and the effecti ve ness o f inte rn ati o nal effo rts at suppress io n . 129 [n rece nt
d ecad es, ho w eve r, sc ho lars have attempted m o re nu anced interpretati o ns
that recogni ze subaltern age ncy. Whil e no t di scoun ting th e sig nifi ca nce o f
humanitari an ca mpaig ns, th ey h ave pl aced th em next t o, and in d y nami c
inte racti o n with , loca l factors, o f whi ch th e m ost promin ent w ere th e sl aves '
res istant, po litica ll y-conscio us attempts to bring ab o ut em ancipati o n.
Inte resting ly, so m e o f the m ost fo rce ful statem e nts o f loca l (Ca ribbea n)
in volve ment have co m e fro m histo ri ans still prim aril y co nce rn ed w ith w hat
happen ed o n th e m etropo litan sid e. A no tabl e exa mpl e o f thi s literature is
Ro bin Bl ackburn 's impress ive Th e Qvel"throw of Colonia l Slavery (1 988). In
m akin g th e case th at slavery end ed o nl y wh ere it h ad b eco m e ' p o liti ca ll y
unviabl e', Bl ackburn co ncludes th at '[tlh e progress o f abo liti o n cru ciall y
d ep end ed o n bl ac k w itn ess , o n slave res istance, and o n the 'Bl ac k ] acobin '
brea kthro ug h o f th e 1790s [the H aiti an Revo luti o n]. Wheth er sm all o r large,
and th e propo rti o ns vari ed in different times and places, th e bl ack contribu -
tio n to anti-slavery was absolutely criti ca l to establishing a w ider resp o nse. '130
Intro du c ing loca l facto rs into th e ab o litio n and em ancipati o n equ ati o ns
is not a simpl e m atter. Econ o mi c c hange, m etro p o litan instability, w ar, mis-
sio nary ca mpaig ns, and p o liti ca l activism by free co lo ured s and dise nfran-
c hi sed whites, as w ell as pl o tting by slaves, all n eed to b e w e ig hed
ad equ ately in the expl anati o n . So m an y co n ve rgent f acto rs ca n m ak e fo r a
b ewild erin g co nfi g urati o n o f f o rces. Ce rtain elem ents o f th e hi sto rica l con-
juncture, o f course , will al ways stand o ut; di stinct sig nifi ca nce rests, fo r
in stance, o n the fact th at Fren c h em anc ipati o n occ urred in th e w ak e o f th e
1848 revo lts in Paris and M artiniqu e, and that the Cuban and Pu erto Rica n
emanc ipati o ns we re pro mpted b y fi ssures in the slaveho ld ers' powe r o p ened
u,
up b y nati o nali st revolt in the island s and republi ca nism in th e m etrop o le.
But wh at to m ak e o f o ther kind s o f loca l acti o n , su ch as th e d ail y stru ggles
o f individu al slav es? In con siderin g this qu esti o n , Reb ecca J. Sco tt's Slave
Emancip a tion in Cu ba (1 985) pro vides an arresting acco unt o f ho w loca l
129 O n the idea that slaves we re no t rati o na l ac to rs, see Miche l-Ro lph Tro uill o t,
1995. A sharpl y di ffe re nt vie w is o ffe red in C. 1. R. Ja mes, 1938. For examples of
date d e ma nci patio n histo ri es which stressed me tro po lita n ca uses , see Willi am
Law Mathi eson, 1926; Luis Ma nu e l Diaz Sole r, 1953 (1970) ; Arthur F. Corw in ,
1967.
130 Ro bin Bl ac kburn , 1988 , p. 527 . See a lso Dav id Ri cha rdso n, ed., 1985 ; Ro na ld
Ke nt Ri chardson, 1987.
131 O n 1848 in Ma rtiniqu e , see Ma rie -He le ne Leo ntine, 1991. O n th e impo rta nce o f
natio na list revolt a nd o the r po litica l fac to rs in Cuba a nd Pu e rto Ri co, see Ra(d
Ce pe ro Bo nilla, 1948 ; Re becca J. Scott, 1985; Ma ria d e l Ca rm e n Ba rc ia, 1987;
Ka re n Ro be rt, 1992; Centro de In vestigacio nes Histo ri cas, 1974-8.
279
 General HistOlY 0/ the Caribbean
facto rs ( fo remost, a natio nali st rebelli o n) influ enced m etro po litan legisl ati o n ,
whose exi ste nce indi v idu al slaves th en used to o btain freed o m. H ere in li es
an impli cit recog niti o n o f multipl e cycl es o f ca use and effect, all o f whi ch
add up to a hig hly-va ri abl e and contingent transa tlanti c tu g-of-wa r. On e
mig ht conclude at this po int that to tell the sto ry o f em anc ipatio n w ell histo r-
ians o ught to consider the mea ning ful (a lbeit o ften insc rutabl e) relati o ns th at
ex isted alo ng three pl anes o r axes o f co nfli ct and/ o r coo p erati o n : b etwee n
the slaves th em se l ves , betwee n slaves and all d o minant acto rs ( no t ju st th e
slaveh o ld ers and th eir retain ers) , and b etwee n p o liti ca ll y acti ve g roups in
b o th m etropo le and d ep endency. A s p o liti cs o pe ned up to new acto rs in
nin eteenth-century Eu rope, and sometimes in the co lo ni es as w ell, it becomes
es pecia ll y Sig nifica nt to we ig h the impact o f interactio n s occurring within th e
d o min ant g ro ups - eac h with its o wn spec ifi c g rav ity , o f course - upo n th e
vast m atrix o f ca uses and effects that bro ught abo ut slave emancipatio n.1 32
Histo ri ans w ho va lu e these approaches typica ll y disdain trea ting em an-
cipatio n as a narrative end po int. Rather th an vi ewing freed o m as the sp o nta-
n eous o utcom e o f fo rm al, l ega l libe ratio n , th ey see it as som ething freedmen
and freedwo me n had to stri ve fo r and con stru ct , o ften thro ug h a sh arpl y
un equal co ntest fo r resources w ith pl anter o li ga rc hi es . 13:\ Large ly negl ected
o nl y a few d eca d es ago , th e stud y o f the p ost-em anc ipati o n Ca ribb ea n has
begun to shed co nsid erabl e lig ht o n th e co ntradi cto ry and o fte n v io le nt
processes o f constru ctin g m ea ningful freed o m in th e midst o f co ntinu ed
pl anter hege m o n y and (with few exce pti o ns) co lo nial rul e. '34 In the sing ul ar
case o f H aiti , where emancipati o n , independen ce , and th e making o f peasa nt
lifeways w ere interwoven , the emphasis has large ly fallen o n th e ra cializa tio n
of p o liti cs and th e m akin g o f a mul atto-d o minated n atio n al state.1 35
CA RI I3B EA N SLAVERY AND T il E A TLA T I C R EVO L U T I O NS
B etwee n th e mid -1970s and ea rl y 1990s , bi ce ntennial o bse r va n ces o f the
eightee nth-century revo lutio ns in th e U nited States, France and Haiti helped
focus attenti o n o n th e m y ri ad links between slave ry , empire and revo lutio n .
Th e U nited States Bi c ntenni al , f o r instan ce , sparked ren ew ed interest in
relatio ns betwee n the British continental and W est Indian colo ni es. Of p arti c-
132 Aside fro m Re becca J. Scott's wo rk a lread y c ite d , a boo k that fo ll ows this
ge ne ra l ap p roac h, a lbeit fo r the a fte rmath of e manci pati o n , is Tho mas C. Ho lt,
1992. See a lso Walte r Ro dney, 1981.
133 Re becca ] . Scott, 1994. See a lso Ma ry Turne r, ed. , 1995.
134 Gad J. He uman, 1994; Alin e He lg, 1995 ; Fra nk McG lynn a nd Sey mo ur D resche r,
1992 ; Pi ete r Emme r, 1993.
135 Miche l-Ro lph Tro uiliot, 1990, 1992; Alex Dupu y, 1982; David Nicho lls, 1979, 1985.
280
stavelY and emancipation
ular con ce rn we re the timing and volume of U ni ted States trading relati o ns in
th e Ca ri bbea n , th e w ith d rawa l of w hich from th e B ri tish co lo ni al sphe re
Willi am s had dee m ed impo rtant to his arg ument ab o ut the econo mi c d ecline
o f the pl antatio n eco no m y .136 T he French and H aitian commemo rati o ns were
far m o re fruitful an d provoca ti ve , howeve r , as sc ho l ars o n b o th sides o f th e
colo ni al eq uatio n tri ed to un ea rth rec iprocal influ ences across the A tl an tic as
w ell as indigeno u s ca usa l facto rs. Co nferen ce pa p ers and ot her studi es th at
d eb ate th ese influ ences now fill seve ral vo lumes. ' 37 T he revo lu tio ns' b ice n-
tenni al likew ise in spired new expl anatio ns fo r the o ri g ins of the H ait ian
Revo luti o n , w ith sc ho lars lik e Caro ly n E. Fick , Pie rre Plu cho n and D av id P.
Gegg us offerin g m o re ev id ence o f th e slaves ' pro tago n ism and, in ge ne ral ,
placing greater emphas is than p ri o r sc ho lars o n the connecti o n between spir-
itu al beliefs, reli gio us practices and revolt. ' 3H
Conclusion
Th e to rrent o f sc ho larship surveyed in the preceding pages pertains to a par-
ti CLdar m o m ent in Ca ribb ea n and world histo ry. It g rew o ut o f, and in
respo nse to , a sp ecifi c confi gurati o n o f cultural , socio -econo mic, po liti ca l and
geop o liti ca l factors. Th at co nfi g urati o n , th e histo rica l co ntext of th e sc ho lar-
ship , w ill neve r be dupli ca ted . T o eva lu ate it full y, o ne w o uld have to del ve
d ee pl y into th e compl ex matri ces of Ca ri bbea n li fe fro m w hence o ri g in ated
the intell ectu al impulses fo r the in q uiry. That task is beyo nd the scop e o f this
ch apter.
Fro m the va ntage p o int o f th e end o f th e twe nti eth ce ntury , it mig ht be
prem ature to attempt suc h an appraisa l. O ne thing is fo r sure, th o ug h . In
m ov ing beyond current practice , future Ca rib bea n histo ri ans w ill find mu ch to
criti ci ze in the m anner that prese nt-d ay histo rians have gone abo ut their craft;
p arti cularl y, in the approaches tak en to the lives o f th e milli o ns of slaves w ho
h ave b ee n th e sub ject o f so mu ch attenti o n . Indeed , so m e stud ents have
alread y expressed a des ire to leave behind the relati ve 'sa fety' o f slave studies
in o rd er to venture into the m o re difficult and treachero us terrain o f race
studies - a neglected area of post-e m an c ipati o n histo ry , to be sure. O th er
equ all y fo rgotten to pi cs w ill d o ubtless vi e fo r attentio n in the future.
136 Selwy n H. Ca rrin gto n, 1988a. Fo r a n even broade r view, see Peggy K. Liss , 1983.
137 Mi chel L. Ma rtin a nd Ala in Yacou , 1989; David Ba rry Gas pa r a nd David Patri ck
Gegg us, 1997. See a lso essays by He nri Ba ngo u , Vasco Ca bra l, Leo Eli zabeth
anc! Jean-Claude Halpe rn in Cathe rine Coq ue ry-Vidrovitch, 1990 .
138 Ca ro lyn E. Pick, 1990 , 1991; Pie rre Plu cho n , 1979 ; Dav id P. Gegg us, 1992a ,
1992b
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10
But if th e pa st is any guid e at all , th e ri ch co rpus that is th e hi sto ri -
o graphy o n slavery and slave life in th e Caribb ean will se rv e as a sec ure
spring boa rd fo r in ves tiga ti o ns ye t to be con ce i ved. Hi sto ri ans o f to mo rrow LABO U R MOV E ME TS IN CARIBB E AN HI ST O R Y
will ho m e in o n new to pics, use tried -a nd-tru e meth od s o n new ly-discovered
o r ca talogued so urces , and d evise n ew techniqu es to interroga te w ell-w o rn Kusha Haraksingh
doc ume nts. Y et, at th e end o f thi s o vervi ew , o ne ca n harb o ur no d o ubt
whatsoeve r that th ose future sc ho lars will b e in frequ ent and intimate dia-
lo gu e with th e man y ge nerati o ns who preced ed th em. Th e fac t th at to d ay ,
like neve r befo re , w e ca n hea r the multipl e individu al voices o f o ur enslaved
foreb ea rs, to imag in e th e d ark recesses o f th e ir so rrow , and to share in th eir
dream s o f meaningful freed o m is th e surest sig n o f th e literature's vitality and
enduran ce .

T
he c ircumstances o f th e p eo pling o f th e Ca ribb ea n naturall y e no ug h
lead us to ex pect th at studi es o f th e lab o urin g p o pul ati o n wo uld
fi g ure pro minentl y in Ca ribb ea n sch o l arship; after all , peo pl e w ere
brou g ht here to w o rk. A s it turn s o ut, th at ho p e is n o t mispl aced , th o ug h it
would appea r th at it is fo rm s o f o rga ni za tio n o f labo ur, in p arti cul ar slav e ,
contract and p easa nt end ea vo ur, whi ch have bee n th e m ajo r focus o f atten-
ti o n . Simil arl y, it would no t be unreasonabl e to expect th at investiga ti o ns into
the rise and d eve lo pm ent o f loca l labo ur m ove me nts w o uld be imbu ed w ith
an apprec iati o n o f th e peculiar rea liti es o f th e Ca ribbean , but here ho pes are
less eaS il y sustainabl e. Fo r the gene ral impress io n to be d eriv ed from th e lit-
erature is th at, no tWithstandin g th e fairl y o bli ga to lY references to th e
Cari b bea n p ast , th e app roach to this to pi c has bee n heav il y in spired b y th e
Ang lO-Am eri ca n traditi o n . In th at ve in , whi ch in a fo rmativ e p eri o d o f
Caribbea n writing w as shap ed es pec ially in th e British W est Indies by Fabian
thinking , th e lab o ur m ove m e nt w as see n as m o re o r less co-termin o us w ith
th e ri se o f trad e uni o ns; indeed , those b odi es w ere rega rd ed as an inev itabl e
crystalli za ti o n o f labo ur activity alo ng a linea r p ath o f progress. If no w ad ays
hi stori ans and o th er scho lars are in creaS ingl y di sinclin ed to see m atters in
this li g ht, th eir relu ctance apparentl y ha s less to d o with the Caribbea n b ack -
gro und th an with d eve lo pm ents in lab o ur studi es else where whi ch have
soug ht to fo ll ow th e work er beyond wo rkpl ace , unio n hall and po litica l ca m-
p aig n in an attempt to see him in th e ro und. Thu s, an appraisa l o f lab o ur
m ovem ents in uniquely Caribbea n term s is yet to be written . I
Thi s chapter see k s to justify th at co nclu sio n by exa mining th e fo ll ow-
ing: firstl y , the d efiniti o n o f lab o ur m o vem en ts empl oyed in Ca ribb ea n
writing; seco ndl y, th e m ajo r th em es revea led in cove rage o f th e to pi c w ith
reference to the ninetee nth ce ntury , th e p eri o d 1900- 38 and th e p ost- 1938

1 Fo r exa mple , Eri c Ho bsbaw l11 , 1984 ; A. Ha wkins, 1990 .

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