Those Africans who endured and survived the horrors of the Middle Passage would then begin a life of inhumane treatment on the plantations, which included working without pay, whipping, torture and sexual abuse. Many were maimed or killed as punishment for daring to seek freedom.
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Contents
What did slaves in Jamaica eat?
The slaves’ diet consisted of a mix of traditional African foods brought over to the Caribbean (including okra, blackeyed peas, saltfish, ackee, mangos, kidney beans and rice), vegetables and fruits native to the Caribbean (such as papaya, yams, guavas and cassava).
How were slaves punished in the Caribbean?
Punishments could include amputation, disfiguring, branding and more. Slaves could also be put to death – a penalty most often enforced during the aftermath of rebellions. And they were rarely killed quickly.
What did slaves do on Sundays?
During their limited leisure hours, particularly on Sundays and holidays, slaves engaged in singing and dancing. Though slaves used a variety of musical instruments, they also engaged in the practice of “patting juba” or the clapping of hands in a highly complex and rhythmic fashion.
How was slaves treated?
Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, rape, and imprisonment. Punishment was often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was performed to re-assert the dominance of the master (or overseer) over the slave.
What did slaves do in Jamaica?
Many of the former slaves settled in peasant or small farm communities in the interior of the island, the “yam belt,” where they engaged in subsistence and some cash crop farming. The second half of the 19th century was a period of severe economic decline for Jamaica.
How long did slaves usually live?
As a result of this high infant and childhood death rate, the average life expectancy of a slave at birth was just 21 or 22 years, compared to 40 to 43 years for antebellum whites. Compared to whites, relatively few slaves lived into old age.
What did slaves eat?
Weekly food rations — usually corn meal, lard, some meat, molasses, peas, greens, and flour — were distributed every Saturday. Vegetable patches or gardens, if permitted by the owner, supplied fresh produce to add to the rations. Morning meals were prepared and consumed at daybreak in the slaves’ cabins.
How did slaves talk to each other?
Slaves from different countries, tribes and cultures used singing as a way to communicate during the voyage. They were able to look for kin, countrymen and women through song.Music was a way for slaves to express their feelings whether it was sorrow, joy, inspiration or hope.
What did slaves do for Easter?
Some slaves were given an hour or two every Sunday for religious observance; for the many who were not, Easter was an important ritual and celebration. Easter observance among slaves also fulfilled slaveholders’ demands that slaves practice Christianity.
What did slaves do on their free time?
When they could, slaves spent their limited free time visiting friends or family nearby, telling stories, and making music. Some of these activities combined African traditions with traditions of the Virginia colonists.
Did slaves get days off?
Slaves were generally allowed a day off on Sunday, and on infrequent holidays such as Christmas or the Fourth of July. During their few hours of free time, most slaves performed their own personal work.
How did the slaves resist slavery?
Many resisted slavery in a variety of ways, differing in intensity and methodology. Among the less obvious methods of resistance were actions such as feigning illness, working slowly, producing shoddy work, and misplacing or damaging tools and equipment.
Who freed the slaves in Jamaica?
On May 10, 1655, Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables led a successful attack on Jamaica. The Spaniards surrendered to the English, freed their slaves and then fled to Cuba. It was this set of freed slaves and their descendants who became known as the Maroons.
How did African slaves get to Jamaica?
The first Africans to arrive in Jamaica came in 1513 from the Iberian Peninsula. When the British Empire captured Jamaica in 1655, many of them fought with the Spanish, who gave them their freedom, and then fled to the mountains, resisting the British for many years to maintain their freedom, becoming known as Maroons.
Why are Jamaicans so fast?
The most scientific explanation thus far is the identification of a “speed gene” in Jamaican sprinters, which is also found in athletes from West Africa (where many Jamaicans’ ancestors came from), and makes certain leg muscles twitch faster.
What did slaves do in the winter?
In his 1845 Narrative, Douglass wrote that slaves celebrated the winter holidays by engaging in activities such as “playing ball, wrestling, running foot-races, fiddling, dancing, and drinking whiskey” (p.
At what age did slaves start working?
Boys and girls under ten assisted in the care of the very young enslaved children or worked in and around the main house. From the age of ten, they were assigned to tasks—in the fields, in the Nailery and Textile Workshop, or in the house.
What problems did slaves face?
While working on plantations in the Southern United States, many slaves faced serious health problems. Improper nutrition, the unsanitary living conditions, and excessive labor made them more susceptible to diseases than their owners; the death rates among the slaves were significantly higher due to diseases.
How many hours did slaves work?
On a typical plantation, slaves worked ten or more hours a day, “from day clean to first dark,” six days a week, with only the Sabbath off. At planting or harvesting time, planters required slaves to stay in the fields 15 or 16 hours a day.
Why did slaves not get education?
Most White Southern slaveholders were adamantly opposed to the education of their slaves because they feared an educated slave population would threaten their authority. Williams documents a series of statutes that criminalized any person who taught slaves or supported their efforts to teach themselves.
