SLAVERY AND THE

PLANTATION SYSTEM

Group Members: Jodi-Ann

Ellis
**Renice Johnson
Nastacia Morgan
Javier Wilmot
 WHERE DOES THE WORD ‘PLANTATION’
DERIVED FROM ?
• Well, Plantation was originally used by the English to represent any colony
established overseas.
• Then later, Around the mid-to-late seventeenth century that the word
plantation came to mean a large agricultural venture that was overseen by
an owner, used a large labour force and produced crops for exports.
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE
PLANTATION SYSTEM
• One may be aware that with the changeover of tobacco to sugar (1637-
1702), small land-holdings became large land-holdings.
• Also the Dutch were pioneers in providing the labour following the failure of
indentured system(1600-1640) on large farms.
• All of this led to the agricultural mass production, of a few commodity crops
grown on the plantations known as The Plantatiom Economy that rely on
the export of crops as a source of income.
THE PLANTATION AS
AN ECONOMY SYSTEM
 LAND

A typical estate was usually 1,500 hectares, with a third of the lands catering
to sugar cane cultivation, while the other two-thirds would be used for factory
buildings, pasture, woodland for fuel, housing and for food.

Lands were also used for the buildings to house factories used for sugar
production. A few of these factory buildings included the boiling house, trash
house, curing house, distillery, etc.
 LABOUR

• Africans were the main source of labour. Sugar estates operated in two cycles
– these were described as the ‘dead season’ and the ‘crop season’.
• (Here we are seeing circulation)
• The dead season was the period where there was little or no
production and manufacturing of sugar cane. The dead season would
last from August to November, and during this period enslaved Africans were
responsible for holing, manuring, ratooning and weeding of older ratoons.
• As well, there would be the construction of buildings, timber cutting, road
repair and any odd jobs until the crop was ready.
• The crop season was between November and July, and was the busiest and most
important period on the plantation calendar. It would begin with cane cutting and
continue with the manufacturing of the sugar cane.
Age, gender, skills and physical strength were major determinants when assigning tasks
to labourers on a typical sugar estate.(The bulk of the estate labour would be utilised in
the field, since this required no specialized skills) – they would be responsible for
preparing the land for sugar cane cultivation and for the harvesting of the crop.
These slaves were classified as field slaves. This strenuous task was carried out primarily
by women, as men were predominantly used as skilled slaves .Depending on the size of
the estate, the number of gangs that existed would vary. For instance, a small plantation
may have had only two gangs, while a large plantation could have had as many as six
gangs.
It was field labourers who were divided into gangs. The main gang comprised the young
and strong slaves. They were responsible for holing, cutting and carrying the cane. The
secondary gang comprised the sick, youth and pregnant women. They were responsible
for the lighter work, such as weeding and harrowing. The third gang comprised the
young and very old. They were responsible for weeding and caring for the animals.
THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
1. The canes were cut and bundled, they were sent to the mill where they were crushed, the
juice extracted and the trash sent to the trash house.
2. The cane juice was then sent to the boiling house, where it was passed through a series
of boilers and the trash sent to the trash house. The trash would be used as manure for
fields, or its by-product, bagasse, was used as fuel to heat the boilers.
3. The cane juice was taken from the cistern, strained and put in the first copper kettle,
which was the largest.
4.The juice was then heated and a little lime added to the mixture to remove impurities.
5. The juice was then skimmed and channelled through the other copper kettles, each
smaller and hotter than the first. The last kettle was called the teache.
6. It was then put into cooling troughs, where the sugar crystals hardened around a sticky
core of molasses.
7.The raw sugar was then shovelled from the cooling troughs into hogshead (wooden
barrels), where they were then put in the curing house.
(The curing house was where the molasses was drained off through holes in the bottom of
the hogshead, with the raw sugar (muscovado) sticking to the sides. )
8. After about four weeks, the holes were plugged in the hogshead and they were ready for
export in Europe.
 THE IMPACT OF THE
PLANTATION SYSTEM
1. Destruction of forest, water pollution, lost of fertility and erosion of soil over
time

2. Huge difference in racial composition of blacks to whites

3. Gave rise to related commodities such as rum, and molasses