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Empires: power, resistance, legacies
Empires: power, resistance, legacies

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2 Everyday resistance: enslavement in the Caribbean

The plantation system was designed to ensure compliance through intense supervision, violent discipline, and the creation of internal hierarchies. Enslaved people were able to find ways to subvert the absolute exercise of power through ‘everyday resistance’.

But what does this concept mean? It was theorised by anthropologist James C. Scott in relation to class struggle as an integral tool of dissent for relatively powerless groups. He gave some examples: ‘foot-dragging, dissimulations, false compliance, feigned ignorance, desertion, pilfering, smuggling, poaching, arson, slander, sabotage, surreptitious assault and murder, anonymous threats’ (Scott, 1985, p. 34). He stated that these are ‘the techniques of “first resort” in those common historical circumstances in which open defiance is impossible or entails mortal danger’.

Described image
Figure 3 Plate 17 in Richard Bridgens, West India Scenery...from sketches taken during a voyage to, and residence of seven years in ... Trinidad (London, 1836). Stocks were kept on plantations as punishment for less serious infractions of discipline such as being late for work or not finishing a task. Visible in the background is a metal mask which was used for punishments such as insubordination.

Enslaved people engaged in acts which enabled them to undermine the system of labour and the ideas that underpinned it. These activities allowed them to exercise some limited forms of autonomy. Working slowly, losing or breaking tools, arriving late, completing tasks poorly or sabotaging them were all ways that enslaved people could exert some influence on the labour regime.

For enslaved domestic workers there were many ways they could discomfort their captors whilst performing service. Frequently in accounts written by slave-owners they described enslaved people as lazy, clumsy, or artful. In 1770, when Thomas Thistlewood flogged an enslaved man Jimmy for setting fire to the piazza, he recorded in his diary his anger at Jimmy’s ‘impudence, laziness, carelessness, lying’. Slave-owners suspected that enslaved people performed inadequately but their own ideological insistence on Black people as inferior meant that they could be tricked by their own beliefs. One area of concern for slave-owners was the preparation of food. Accusations of poisoning were common in the Caribbean and were sometimes linked to the practice of Obeah. The degree to which these fears were founded is uncertain given the lack of evidence which criminal convictions rested upon.

What evidence do we have for the kinds of ‘everyday resistance’ that Scott outlined? One set of records that sheds light on these practices come from Berbice (in what is now Guyana). In 1826 it introduced its own slave code which created the position of ‘protector of slaves’. This individual was tasked with collecting and analysing the legally mandated forms filled out by slave-owners which documented any punishments meted out on the plantations. Failure to cooperate resulted in a fine. This created a bureaucratic record of the subversive activities of enslaved people and the response from slave-owners. We do not know how complete or accurate these records were, and they cannot tell us everything we might want to know about the motivations of enslaved people, but they do offer a partial view into these behaviours.

Activity 2 Resistance reading plantation punishments

Timing: This should take you 40 minutes

Use these questions to help you navigate the record of ‘everyday resistance’ below.

  1. Which of the ‘offenses’ relate to the disruption or denial of labour?
  2. Which were the most common forms of resistance?
  3. Which ‘offenses’ can be understood as the exercise of bodily autonomy?
  4. What ‘offenses’ were punished the most harshly? Why?
  5. Are there any notably gendered forms of behaviour?

If you’d prefer, you can access a PDF version of this table here [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Table 1 Abstract of offenses committed by male and female plantation slaves, 1 January – 14 May 1830.
Nature of offense Male offenders Female offenders Males flogged Males / females in stocks or otherwise Total Punishment inflicted on men maximum Punishment inflicted on men minimum Punishment inflicted on women maximum Punishment inflicted on women minimum
Cutting others with cutlass 2 0 2 0 2 25 lashes 17 lashes    
Incendiaries 2 0 2 0 2 25 lashes 15 lashes    
Killing and destroying stock 1 0 1 0 1 25 lashes      
Cruelty to animals 3 0 2 1 3 25 lashes 3 days confinement    
House breaking and stealing 8 0 4 4 8 25 lashes 1 hour public stocks    
Theft. Petty larceny 131 11 69 73 142 25 lashes ½ hour public stocks 3 days solitary confinement 10 minutes public stock
Sheep, hog and poultry stealing 4 0 2 2 4 25 lashes 1 night bed stocks    
Conniving at theft and attempting to steal 8 1 6 3 9 25 lashes 3 days solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks  
Receiving stolen goods 1 0 1 0 1 10 lashes      
Striking driver 2 1 2 1 3 25 lashes 3 lashes 1 night bed stocks  
Resisting manager in discharge of duty 1 0 1 0 1 19 lashes      
Refusing to work 44 41 21 64 85 25 lashes ½ hour confinement 3 days and 3 nights confinement ¼ hour public stocks
Disobedience 168 77 54 191 245 25 lashes ½ hour public stocks 4 hours house stocks 1 night solitary confinement
Insolence 123 107 53 177 230 25 lashes ¼ hour public stocks 3 days and nights solitary confinement 5 minutes public stock
Insubordination 35 44 23 56 79 25 lashes 47 hours confinement 6 hours house stocks 1 night bed stocks
Abusive language to owners 0 6 0 6 6     2 days confinement 1 night bed stocks
Absconding from work 123 16 78 61 139 25 lashes ½ hour public stocks    
Encouraging others to abscond 4 0 4 0 4 18 lashes 24 hours solitary confinement    
Contemptuous behaviour and language 7 2 2 7 9 20 lashes ¼ hour public stocks 3 days confinement 1 night bed stocks
Mutinous language 1 0 1 0 1 25 lashes      
Quarrelling 8 13 1 20 21 20 lashes 5 minutes public stocks 1 night bed stocks 5 minutes public stocks
Ditto and fighting 21 46 6 61 67 25 lashes 2 ½ hours public stocks 3 days and nights solitary confinement 1 hour public stocks
Beating others 12 5 8 9 17 25 lashes 3 lashes 6 hours house stocks 1 night bed stocks
Biting others 0 2 0 2 2     3 days confinement 1 hour public stocks
Maltreating children 1 0 0 4 4 10 lashes   1 night bed stocks 1 hour bed stocks
Attempting to strike a white man 1 0 1 0 1 25 lashes      
Lying with other men’s wives 3 0 3 0 3 25 lashes 16 lashes    
Seducing and attempting to seduce othermen’s wives 2 0 2 0 2 22 lashes 10 lashes    
Fornication 1 1 1 1 2 15 lashes   1 night bed stocks  
Infidelity to husbands 0 3 0 3 3     1 night bed stocks ½ hour public stocks
Drunkenness 40 3 19 24 43 25 lashes 1 night bed stocks

6 hours solitary confinement

 
Bad work and not finishing the task 480 451 171 760 931 25 lashes ½ hour public stocks 1 night and day solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks
Neglect of duty 528 298 216 610 826 25 lashes 1 night bed stocks 3 nights and days solitary confinement 5 minutes public stocks
Neglecting stock 26 0 14 12 26 15 lashes 1 hour public stocks    
Neglecting to throw grass 7 0 0 7 7 3 days and nights solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks    
Not coming to work in proper time 58 106 12 152 164 24 lashes ½ hour public stocks 1 night bed stocks ½ hour public stocks
Idleness, laziness and indolence 167 100 39 228 267 25 lashes ½ hour public stocks 1 night bed stocks ¼ hour public stocks
Leaving the estate at night 22 17 7 32 39 25 lashes 1 hour public stocks 2 days confinement 1 night bed stocks
Absenting from hospitals 9 4 1 12 13 6 lashes 3 days confinement 1 night bed stocks  
Neglecting sores 6 1 3 4 7 3 days and nights solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks 3 days confinement 1 day confined
Refusing to take medicine 2 1 2 1 3 20 lashes 1 night bed stocks 1 night bed stocks  
Neglecting person 0 3 0 3 3     3 days solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks
Selling and destroying clothes furnished by owners 3 0 2 1 3 25 lashes 1 hour public stocks    
Selling working utensils 1 0 0 1 1 1 night bed stocks      
Riotous conduct 8 17 1 24 25 25 lashes 1 hour public stocks

3 days and nights solitary confinement

20 minutes public stocks
Breaking carts and punts 2 0 0 2 2 2 hours house stocks 1 night bed stocks    
Harbouring runaways 2 0 2 0 2 25 lashes 18 lashes    
Preventing others from working 4 0 4 0 4 25 lashes 1 night bed stocks    

Breaking hospital, and aiding others to get out of stocks

4 1 4 1 5 25 lashes 7 lashes 1 night bed stocks  
Cutting and stealing cane 2 2 1 3 4 22 lashes 1 ½ days solitary confinement 30 hours solitary confinement ½ hour public stocks
Practicing obeah 1 0 1 0 1 25 lashes      
Lying and false swearing 3 3 2 4 6 18 lashes 1 hour public stocks    
False complaint 8 9 5 12 17 25 lashes

1 day and night solitary confinement

3 days solitary confinement 1 night bed stocks
Indecent behaviour and language 3 9 0 12 12 2 days solitary confinement ½ hour public stocks 2 hours public stocks 1 night confined
False pretence of sickness 5 1 3 3 6 15 lashes 1 hour public stocks 1 night bed stocks  
Cutting and eating dead cattle 2 1 0 3 3 3 days and nights solitary confinement ½ hour public stocks 1 night bed stocks  
Ill-treating women and wives 8 0 7 1 8 25 lashes 1 hour public stocks 1 night bed stocks  
Total 2118 1403 866 2658 3524        

Footnotes  

Reprinted from CO 116/145, 266-67. Appendix, Brown, 2017, 195-204.

Comment

  1. The offences which relate most directly to labour include refusing to work, disobedience, insolence, insubordination, absconding from work, bad work, neglecting duties, neglecting stock, idleness and breaking or selling plantation equipment.
  2. By far the most common ‘offense’ was bad work or not finishing a task. This was followed by neglecting work. Enslaved people were under immense physical strain – they were overworked, and their labour was relentless therefore failing to complete work must have been a regular occurrence. The refusal to adhere to the standards expected could have been resistance or it might have been survival – keeping something back to be able to work again the next day.
  3. ‘Offenses’ related to the exercise of bodily autonomy included sex, drunkenness, absconding from hospital, neglecting sores, refusing medicine, neglecting person, and eating cattle and crops. These were choices that enslaved people made about how to pleasure, nourish, and heal their bodies.
  4. The offenses with the harshest punishment – 25 lashes – with no minimum punishment were killing and destroying stock, mutinous language, attempting to strike a white man, and Obeah. The destruction of stock represented a trespass on the sacred tenet of property ownership. It was also an expensive commodity to replace which might impact on the productivity of the plantation. Both mutinous language and assault threatened the racialised power structure of the plantation. Obeah was linked to resistance – its practice signified cultural autonomy and the potential for an alternative powerbase.
  5. Absconding from work was a notably masculine ‘offense’. Was it more difficult for women to leave the plantation? Did family ties or caring responsibilities emotionally bind them to their place of enslavement? Did they just not have the same kinds of opportunities to abscond because of the nature of their work?