TO WHAT EXTENT WERE DOMESTIC SLAVES TREATED BETTER THAN

FIELD SLAVES?

“The black woman produced…”

The harsh sunlight burning into their skin; the brutal hours of sweat and

toil; aching muscles from the physical torment; all endured by the enslaved

Africans. Field slaves were generally those Africans who as the name

implies, worked on the field. Some were creole (those born in the

Caribbean). There were more African women than men working on the field

because it was said that the women lived longer and were already

accustomed to such strenuous labour as it was what they were used to in

Africa.1 There were three levels or gangs in field work. Heavy work was

carried out by those between 16 and 50. Lighter work was carried out by

those between 12 and 16, the ill, pregnant women and new mothers. The

final gang did the weeding and clearing fields of small items and consisted

mostly of children younger than 12. Older trusted women would supervise

these children. Generally, however, all field slaves were supervised by an

overseer who would administer punishment by flogging to those who

committed offence. There was a case where a hole was dug in the ground to

fit the belly of a pregnant woman and she would lay face-down and receive

flogging as punishment.2 Women were overworked and sometimes had to

produce their own food or craft work for the family and market to add to the

1 Women and their forgotten role in Slavery, www.sandsoftimeconsultancy.com2 Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009

work load. Generally, women dominated this production, following the

African tradition where the women looked after the home. All of this took a

great toll on the physical being of a female field slave which regular

punishment did not aid. The psychological torment was no less. Even

though family life was restricted and the threat of family break up was high

due to the selling of children and movement of slaves between plantations

irrespective of family ties, enslaved women tried their best to form families

to create support for one another. This was not very successful; however, it

was more successful than attempts made by domestic slaves. Sometimes

men and women lived on different estates due to different work tasks

making it hard to create a proper family life. The intense labour often led to

miscarriages and stillbirths or sometimes the enslaved women would induce

abortion so that children would not be born into slavery. Many children

were born in to slavery though and were left orphaned due to early deaths

of their mothers due to overwork. Overwork of women also led to the

children being raised by the elderly which further degraded any chance at

family life. The plantation owner did, however, encourage the enslaved

women to reproduce because the children would be his property and

provide labour which was especially essential when the Slave Trade ended

and enslaved Africans could no longer be imported. This led to women

having numerous children for different fathers, the plantation owner

included. Field slaves were often raped by their owners who wanted them

for irresponsible, covert sexual adventurism, although some of the enslaved

women complied because they were offered “payment”.3 An example of this

would be Old Doll who lived on estate Elizath Newton. Newton’s will had

indicated that Old Doll and her family should continue to reside on the

estate where they had a specially carved niche on the property. Sampson

Wood, a manager of the estate after the demise of Newton claimed that the

women in Old Doll’s family “did nothing” on the plantation and William

Yard, another manager on the estate, put the family to work in the field as

punishment but Old Doll used her “power” to make the manager take back

his punishment and place them back in the household to work. Old Doll’s

family was also fairly wealthy and even owned a few slaves of their own. It

was said this wealth came from her selling her body to both white and free-

colourd men. This was supported by the “whitening” of her offspring and

diminishing connection to servitude. It is said that Old Doll became the

controller by the use of her body and a few of her female family members

followed her example.4 With the increase of white men pursuing the black

women, black men began fighting over the white men for these women,

particularly in Jamaica where there was a shortage of white women. This

made white women very jealous of the black women who in turn mocked the

white woman after having affairs with her husband to add insult to injury.

Ironically, it is said that white women influenced the attraction of white

males to black females because the white women would have the enslaved

women practically raise their children from birth. This created a weakness

3Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009 4 Black Breeding Machines, Eddie Donoghue

for black/coloured women in the white men. Baley described that black

women “captivated, with ease, the hearts of English, Irish and Scotch.” This

enraged the white woman so as revenge she would frame the black woman

so that the planter would punish her. To hide the brutality of slavery,

plantation owners would spend excessive money on material things, but this

would squander their profits and the overseer would make the field slaves

work harder to increase profits. Some slaved were even forced to continue

working after injury. The hardship faced by the field slaves was undoubtedly

real and very clear for everyone to see.

“The brown woman served…”

Domestic slaves were often creole women and many were Mulatto. These

mulattos were generally the product of white males having affairs with the

Negro women who worked on the plantation. This was due to a shortage of

white women in the Caribbean, for example, in Jamaica the children would

work with their mothers, and siblings, on the plantation.5 These “brown”

women were specifically chosen as domestic slaves because they were

deemed superior to the blacks because of their lighter skin; also the blacks

had a stigma of being lazy and illiterate while the mulattos were regarded

as otherwise, depending on the character of the owner. Although domestic

slaves were classed as superior to the field slaves, their treatment was no

better (again, depending on the character of the owner). Unlike the field

slaves, the domestics were overseen by the plantation owner’s wife, or

5 Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009

perhaps the housekeeper. Domestic slaves served as nannies, nurses, cooks,

cleaners, washerwomen, hucksters, seamstresses and general labourers.

They were also expected to work in the fields when there was a labour

shortage like in Barbados during the end of the Slave Trade when male

slaves were not easily purchased.6 Quite like the field slaves, domestic

slaves were also separated from their families. In the case of Mary Prince, a

domestic slave in 1788, apart from being sold numerous times, she was

physically, mentally and emotionally abused for years until death claimed

her. “When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and

mourned over us, begging us to keep a good heart. It was a sad parting; one

went one way, one another,”7 said Mary Prince. Not only was she faced with

the loss of her family but physical abuse was endured as stated by the

following extract: “The next morning my mistress set about instructing me

in my tasks… And she taught me (how can I ever forget it!) the exact

difference between the rope and the whip, when applied to my naked body

by her own cruel hand,”8 She also went on to describe some of the work she

was made to do by other owners: “I was immediately sent to work in the salt

water with the rest of the slaves… from four o'clock in the morning till

nine… Our feet and legs, from standing in the salt water for so many hours,

soon became full of dreadful boils, which eat down in some cases to the

bone.” Mary was also psychologically traumatized when she witnessed the

6 The Caribbean Slave: A Biological Slave, Kenneth F. Kiple, 19847 The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006.8 The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006.

abuse that led to the death of another domestic slave who had taught Mary

to do her many jobs. When Mary had saved enough money to purchase her

freedom her owners at that time withheld her freedom from her; she was

lucky enough to have gotten permission to marry.9 Other domestic slaves

were particularly familiar with prostitution. There was female

predominance in urban areas like Bridgetown, Barbados where 58% of

women were slave owners.10 Mainly white women, but also a few freed

slaves, prostituted domestic slaves in port towns and made a thriving

business of it although it was illegal. In a travel book, John Waller, who was

touring Barbados in 1808, related how a very “respectable” matron advised

him in a very serious manner to look out for a young Mulatto girl for his

housekeeper, urging that it would greatly increase his domestic comforts

and diminish his expenses.11 A British Naval Officer in 1806 indicated that a

“respectable” white mistress had her young female slaves to prostitute

themselves to those who could afford to pay. She was said to become irate if

the girls did not come home impregnated.12 White women encouraged

reproduction among these prostituted slaves because their children would

become the property of the whites and were raised like pets.13 Also, rape

was not uncommon too for those domestic slaves on the plantation. White

males wanted these “brown” women for socio-sexual relations. Phibbah, a

9 The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave, Mary Prince, 2006.

10 Slave Populations in the British Caribbean, 1807-1834, B. W. Higman11 A Voyage to the West Indies, John Waller, 182012 Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 200913 A. F. Fenwich (ed) The Fate of the Fenwichs: Letters to Mary Hayes, 1798-1828, 1927

domestic slave in Jamaica, was constantly forced into sexual relations with

her master, Thistlewood, who had engaged in sexual acts with 109 slave

women between 1751 and 1764. After her master died, Phibbah, like every

other slave woman in 18th century Jamaica, had to cope with the constant

fear of sexual molestation from other predatory white men.14 This raised

jealousies among the planters’ wives and when the planter himself was not

around to torture the slaves, the wife would exert revenge. This often led to

overwork of the domestic slaves and brutal punishment at no cause of the

enslaved. Baley gives account for this by saying; “I will state, however, my

convictions that female owners are more cruel than male; their revenge is

more durable and their methods more refined, particularly towards slaves of

their own sex.” However, it was also said that even the female plantation

owners would have sexual relations with their domestic slaves if they were

lesbian. Among all the punishments faced by enslaved women, whippings

were the most common. The whip used was made of plaited cow-skin. Some

overseers report that it was so strong, that it could take the skin off horses

back, or lay marks in a "deal board." At times women ran away to protest

whippings or escape other mistreatment. Running away was looked at as a

serious crime, and many slaves were punished in various ways. Some

female slaves were punished so badly that they were left to die. An observer

remembered "A woman lying down and groaning…her left side, where she

had been most whipped appeared in a most mortifying state, and almost

14 Beyond Bondage: Free Women of Color in the Americas edited by David Barry Gaspar, Darlene Clark Hine

covered with worms."15 Slave owners and overseers also assaulted enslaved

women with ebony brushes, which were known to be far worse than thorn

brushes. The back of one slave woman in Jamaica, flogged with such a

brush, was described as being taken off, down to her heels. Another form of

domestic punishment inflicted by white mistresses on enslaved women was

to have the domestics kneel with their bare knees on pebbles and work that

at the same time in that manner. In one graphic incident, two white sisters

in Barbados were displeased at one of their female slaves: "With their own

garters they tied the young woman’s neck and heels, and then beat her

almost to death with the heels of their shoes, one of her eyes continued a

long while afterward in danger of being lost.”16 The female slave’s misery

was endless and her fate uncertain.

“The white woman consumed…”

As Lucille Mair states, white women in the Caribbean “contributed little”

and many “benefitted shamelessly from slave labour.”17 In history, black

women were paid more attention to than white women which rose jealously

among these white women, as well as the fact that white men in the

Caribbean preferred black/coloured women for sexual pleasure and only

valued white women for their reproduction of patriarchy. This led to many

white women exerting revenge in the most brutal of manners. Framing the

female slaves was quite common as well as overworking them, particularly

15 The History of slavery and the slave trade, W.D Blake, 1862.16 Intro to Black Studies, Maulana Karenga, 1993.17 A Historical Study of Women in Jamaica from 1655 to 1844, Lucille Mair

domestic slaves because the white women had more control over them than

field slaves. Their spite was especially for the domestic slaves because it is

they who were preferred by the white men. White women were not very

many in the Caribbean (which was one of the reasons leading to white men

pursuing black women) because the conditions were unfavorable. However,

many unmarried white women in urban areas, like Bridgetown, Barbados,

dominated the ownership and management of enterprises in the service

sector such as taverns, sex-houses, slave rental services, petty shop keeping

and huckstering.18 Although prostitution was illegal, white women made a

thriving business for rental of black and coloured women for sexual services

in port towns. White women often added to the evils of slavery and should

be regarded as pro-slavery agents.

18 Caribbean History Core Course for CSEC, Dr. Yvette Taylor-Kanarick, 2009