Freedom and Oppression of Slaves in the Eighteenth-Century Caribbean

Abstract

Characteristics oftwo different social systems, island government and the particular master-slave relationship, jointly determined the degree offreedom of slaves in the Caribbean in the late eighteenth century. The degree to which an island was "a slave society" depended on the dominance of sugar cane in the island economy, and whether planters were internally well-organized and were powerful in the empire government. The Bahamas and Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) had low planter power on both criteria; Barbados and Antigua had high on both. Within a slave society, the degree to which a slave was treated like a free man or woman was determined by the slave owner's need for the slave's consent and enthusiasm as a trusted agent. This varied within islands: Slave pearl divers, dock workers, fisher­ men, mistresses, hucksters, soldiers, or cowboys tended to be nearlyfree when slaves and were likely to be formally or informally set free, even if island governments strongly limited their freedom.