Slave Life in The Bahamas

On the Plantation

• 1st January, 1831 to 31st December, 1832 There were no sugar plantations in The Bahamas. Cotton plantations were more usual.

• It was also customary to grow other crops to provide food for the slaves. These included corn, pumpkin, peas, beans etc

• Little is known about actual slave plantations in The Bahamas. The only original account comes from Farquharson’s journal written from

Farquharson’s Estate

• The plantation was said to be about 2000 acres.

• The whites lived in the main house or the dwelling house

• The slave quarters were located about 800 feet northwest of the main house. The houses were built in a row. Each house was enclosed by a stone wall

• At the back of each slave house was a garden and a dumping ground.

• The houses were built of square dry rocks, some had mortar. The roofs were probably thatched.

• Most of the slave houses were self contained. They had either a fire place or raised cooking areas in a corner of the house.

• As stated previously, gardens were at the back of the houses and there were animal pens as well.

• It appears as if single families lived in the houses. Families lived near to each other and this probably accounts for closeness and the fostering of kinship patterns.

• They were far enough from the whites to make their own entertainment, telling old stories, dancing, singing and of course, cooking their own food.

Crops

• The chief crop was guinea corn, known as sorghum. This was a subsistence crop grown as food for the slaves.

• Cotton was the chief commercial crop but by 1831 it had seriously declined.

• Pigeon peas and Indian corn were next in importance.

• Other crops grown on the plantation were red or cow peas, black-eye peas, yams, sweet potatoes, snap beans, castor oil, cabbage and pumpkins.

Stock

• A quantity of stock was raised on the plantation and was shipped periodically to Nassau. The stock included sheep, pigs, cattle and chickens.

• The plantation was fairly self-sufficient. Mules and horses were bred for transport.

• The sea yielded salt, fish, conch and turtles.• Thatch was collected from the woods for the

slave houses. Lignum-vitae (hard wood) was also gathered and exported.

• Lime was made from rock and the beach provided the sand to make the mortar to build and plaster the houses of the plantation owner.

• Castor oil was also made on the plantation.• The slaves made use of bush medicine growing

around their slave huts, for e.g. catnip was grown as a cure for the common cold.

• In fact, the plantation relied on few imports.

Tasks on the plantation

• The first and very important job was to prepare the new land for planting. Weeds and bush had to be cut, heaped and burnt. The “slash and burn” method of clearing the land was utilized.

• After some time, crops were planted and later manured. Crops were constantly thinned. Cotton was planted in February.

• The slaves picked the cotton by hand or it was ginned to separate the wool from the seed.

• Besides planting, tending and harvesting food crops, the animals had to be cared for. Horses had to be groomed and watered.

• Walls and fences were made and mended to prevent cattle from straying.

• The slaves also had to build the houses for their Master, his family and for themselves. Slaves collected the material, burnt the lime and transported sand from the beach to build the walls.

• Slaves also built pathways and roads in order to connect the plantation with other plantations and to the harbour, the lake and the main road. The roads which were not tarred, had to be constantly cut back and cleaned.

• Slaves also raked salt. Salt forms naturally in certain salt water ponds. It was needed for cooking and curing meat and fish.

• Fishing was probably one of the more pleasant tasks for the slaves. Fish, conch and turtles were plentiful.

Entertainment and Customs

• Unfortunately, because there is no recorded documentation of slaves themselves, certain areas of slaves’ lives remain uncertain.

• African survivals today make us believe that slaves entertained themselves with music, dance, story-telling, playing African games and enjoying a religious life different to that of their masters.

• Slaves enjoyed both religious and secular music. According to Clement Bethel (in his study on Bahamian music) the secular music with its heavy emphasis on drumming and dancing, originated in Africa.

• Probably the most popular form of recreation for the slaves was the ring dance which was played to the sound of the goat skin drum.

• There were three types of ring dances: the fire dance, the jumping dance and the ring play.

• Another popular form of entertainment was story telling. The tradition of folk-tales which have been handed down from generation to generation is an African survival.

• The folklore usually concerned animals which, personified, often had thrilling adventures.

• Some African foods such as accara, foo-foo survived slavery. The accara, made from black-eye peas, was a very popular dish.

• The slaves had religious customs different to those of their white masters. Their music and their form of worship was alien to that of the whites. The slaves identified with the early Baptist and Methodist Missionaries who were originally black.

• Death rites also originated in Africa. Death is considered a community affair.

• Wakes were held from settlement to settlement. These were usually held the night before the funeral, with members singing anthems, drinking coffee, rum, and eating johnny cake

• Sometimes, family members and friends gathered at the house of the dying person before death occurred. They would then sin the dying person “into glory.”

• The belief in Obeah, a combination of superstition, medicine and worship, most certainly originated in Africa.

• Wherever African slaves settled, African religious beliefs, healings and superstitions are still in evidence today.

Slave Punishments

• There is evidence of extreme cruelty and brutality inflicted on slaves in The Bahamas. Before the first quarter of the nineteenth century, slave owners could punish slaves as they pleased.

• Slaves were considered chattel- property and were punished for a variety of things.

• Early slave laws laid down that slaves could be punished for running away, wandering abroad without a pass, having firearms, and assembling in groups greater than six,

• There were heavy penalties for slaves committing crimes. For striking a white person, slaves were subject to whipping, mutilation and even death.

• There was little protection for the slave. A slave in The Bahamas in 1784 could suffer death for burglary and rape. He would be whipped if caught selling liquor or shooting dice.

• Whipping was the most common form of punishment.

Slave resistance in The Bahamas

• Although slaves in the British West Indies failed to overthrow their masters as the slaves did in St. Domingue (Haiti) in 1804, their acts of resistance in the form of revolts, played a role in initiating emancipation.

• Like the other British colonies, The Bahamas experienced both day-to-day resistance and also collective violence.

• The slaves on Farquharson’s plantation frequently were sick and sometimes feigned illness.

• Some slaves defied the slave owners. As early as 1787, Governor Dunmore complained that a number of negroes “had for some time not only absented themselves from their owners, but had plundered and committed outrages upon the inhabitants of New Providence and some of the other islands.”

Year # of Slaves Island Nature of Revolt

1829 44 Exuma Objection to being moved

1831 75 Eleuthera Lack of food and clothing

1831 7 Cat Island In sympathy of slave who was

hung

1832 unknown New Providence

Protesting treatment of

slaves

1834 100-200 Exuma Shortage of food