Hello everyone!
We are presenting this week on West Indian plantation slavery. You can click on the links along the way to go back to the source of the information, and learn more about each topic. To begin, we will provide some background information on the broader topic of colonization, which also applies to the readings for this week. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines colonialism as “a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.” It further explains that colonialism can not be pin-pointed to a particular place or time. However, it was the sixteenth century when technological changes in Europe intensified colonial exploits (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/. ).
In the 17th century Europeans began to establish settlements in the Americas. The land was divided into smaller units and was under private ownership, these lands became known as the plantation system. Beginning in Virginia, the system spread to the New England colonies. European immigrants who had gone to America to own their own land were reluctant to work for others. In order to accommodate this, convicts were sent over from Britain to provide labour, but this was short lived as convicts were in short supply. Planters then began to purchase slaves, first coming from the West Indies but quickly coming directly from Africa by the 18th century, these slave markets were established in Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and New Orleans. Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to sunset, and during harvest time would work an eighteen hour day. They grew the following crops in the plantations: tobacco, rice, sugar cane, cotton.
The death rate amongst slaves was high. In order to replace their losses, plantation owners ‘encouraged’ the slaves to have children. Child-bearing started around the age of thirteen, and women were expected to have four or five children by the age of twenty.
HYPERLINK "http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASplantation.htm"
HYPERLINK "http://blog.mailasail.com/beezneez/230"
From the 17th century to the 19th century, approximately twelve million Africans were brought to the Americas. Africans were sold to traders by other Africans, and eventually forced into slavery by men with guns. Slaves were then placed aboard ships to be taken across the Atlantic on a voyage that was eventually coined “the middle passage.”
HYPERLINK "http://scholar.library.miami.edu/slaves/slave_trade/slave_trade.html"
HYPERLINK "http://blog.mailasail.com/beezneez/230"
HYPERLINK "http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/00_01/ca/sla1.htm"
Slaves were controlled through various methods:
Divide and Rule – members of the same tribe were separated on different plantations to prevent communication.
Religion – slaves were not allowed to practice their own religions, they were however turned towards Christianity and many were converted.
Class system – Field slaves were the lowest group, factory slaves (who worked in the sugar boiling process) were higher, artisan slaves (blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, etc.) were even higher, and the highest was a house slave, servants to their masters and even held contempt over other slaves.
Colour – mixtures occurred through the birth of children, and slaves with white fathers or white relatives were placed in higher positions than pure African.
HYPERLINK "http://www.guyana.org/features/guyanastory/chapter26.html"
HYPERLINK "http://blog.mailasail.com/beezneez/230"
This is a definition of “White Man’s Burden” to read before tackling the readings: “the supposed responsibility of the white race to provide care for their non-white subjects” (Wordnetweb.princeton.edu).
1) The White Man’s Burden, Rudyard Kipling (p. 966)
The Broadview Anthology of British Literature states that Rudyard Kipling was a strong proponent of imperialism, and “believed it was Britain’s duty to govern and civilize colonized lands” (962). This background helps us understand the imperialist mentality behind this poem. It takes on a grandiose tone with the strong iambic tetrameter and rhyme scheme, that supports much of the colonialist discourse found in the poem with regards to human superiority, British capitalism, and slavery.
2) Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, Thomas Carlyle (p. 982)
Here we see the blatant dehumanization of slaves in the West Indies, often reducing them to that of horses, with the sole purposes of breeding and hard labour. We also see that a culture’s internal diversity is ignored, as Carlyle refers to the Black people as “Quashee.”
3) The Negro Question, John Stuart Mill (p. 984)
This text can be seen as a critical response to the previous texts. Mill points out the types of discourse we should be aware of in colonialist texts, re-evaluates the way we view the ‘work’ that slaves do, and criticizes teleological views of colonized cultures.
4) Minute on Indian Education, Thomas Babington Macaulay (p. 978)
Here we see further rhetoric on cultural superiority by the British belief that the English language was superior to all others and should become the lingua franca in Indian native cultures, as their native language lacks the complexity to communicate “literary nor scientific information” (978)
5) Decolonizing the Mind, Ngugi wa Thiong’O (p. 1477)
This text can be seen as a response to Macaulay. Written by an African man (which adds a new dimension as opposed to the White European authors of the other texts), this book advocates the importance of native African language. He explains that language plays a role in communication and cultural transmission, and because of the coerced use of English, many Africans face identity crises because they are trying to understand themselves through the eyes of another (the English language).
For further reading, we have posted a link to a book called “West Indian Culture” by Michael Garfield Smith. Especially on pages 5-6, the author addresses the effects of slavery and post-colonialism on the West Indies, as well as the “cultural identity” crisis that Thiong’O addresses in Decolonizing the Mind.
Works Cited:
Black, Joseph, et al. “Race, Empire, and a Wider World.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press 2007. Print.
Blog.mailasail.com. 22 April 2009. Beez Neez. Web.
Carlyle, Thomas. “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2007. 1849. Print.
Kipling, Rudyard. “The White Man’s Burden.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press 2007. 1899. Print.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. “Minute on Indian Education.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2007. 1835. Print.
Plato.standord.edu. 9 May, 2006. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Web.
Scholar.library.miami.edu. n.d. Slave Resistance: A Caribbean Study. Web.
Simkin, John. Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. n.d. Spartacus Educational. Web.
Stuart Mill, John. “The Negro Question.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press 2007. 1850. Print.
Smith, Michael Garfield. The Plural Society in the British West Indies. London, England: U of California P 1974. 11 Mar. 2011. http://books.google.com/books? hl=en&lr=&id=pdNi0h3l4D0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=West+Indian+Plantation+Slavery&ots=fn_H6S8WLj&sig=QoaRFOhvx8E6S7LHWs8022Ykkno#v=onepage&q=West%20Indian%20Plantation%20Slavery&f=false. Web.
Thiong’o, Ngugi Wa. “Decolonising the Mind.” The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Concise Edition, Volume B. Joseph Black et al. Peterborough: Broadview Press 2007. 1986. Print.
Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. 2011. Princeton University:WordNet: A Lexical Database for English. Web.
www.east-buc. n.d. The Slave Trade. Web.
www.guyana.org. n.d. Slavery on the Plantation. Web.
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