Sugar plantations in the West Indies (Caribbean Islands) had enormous needs
for laborers, and the work was so hot and backbreaking that only slaves could
be forced to do it. About 47 percent of all enslaved Africans were taken to
the Caribbean islands. These slaves labored in the tropical heat from sunrise
to sunset. The death rate among Caribbean slaves was high-about one-third of
all blacks died within three years of their arrival in the West Indies. In the
French colony of Saint Domingue, about 860,000 slaves arrived between 1680 and
1791, but the black population was only 480,000 in 1791.
Sugar plantations also required many more slaves than other plantations—about four times as many as cotton plantations, and twenty times as many as corn plantations. A sugar planter needed at least 150 slaves and 300 acres for a successful plantation.
With so many slaves concentrated on each plantation, the likelihood of an uprising was much higher than on North American plantations. Slaves revolted in Antigua, St. John, Cuba, Martinique, Nevis, St. Kitts, Barbados, Guadeloupe, San Domingo and repeatedly in Jamaica.
Very few uprisings succeeded. In Jamaica, runaway blacks called Maroons secured a treaty from the British which gave them their freedom and 1500 acres. In San Domingo, a major revolt led by Toussaint L'Ouverture gained control of the island. L'Ouverture was soon captured, but the struggle continued until France officially recognized the independece of the Republic of Haiti.
Even
where uprisings failed, the blacks—slave and free—on each island soon
outnumbered the white Europeans. As slavery was slowly abolished in the 1800s,
blacks came to dominate the West Indies culturally and eventually politically
as well.
Now learn about other destinations of the slave trade, or go to the Forum to discuss the slave trade and its impact on history.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |