Enslaved Woman Narrative

The white man took my parents from Africa almost 60 years ago. They were sold to a plantation owner in Jamaica and were forced into slavery. They were lucky though; they were not split up at the slave market and were able to stick together. During their abhorrent years at the sugar plantation, they had me. I had no idea of the hard life I was to expect on the beautiful sugar plantation in Jamaica.

This is a portrait of me

At the young age of four I started working alongside my mother in the field. I couldn’t do much then, but it was custom for slave girls to start learning the daily tasks then. There were many kinds of slaves. Not all were black like my family; some were European indentured servants, some were runaways without any place to go, some were old pirates that had been captured. As I grew older, my work varied. In my early teen years I worked in the field. Because I was a good slave girl, I moved to a higher status and was put to work inside the plantation house. There I was assigned domestic work, such as, washing the dishes and preparing meals. Some of my other girl friends on our plantation worked as midwives, housekeepers, stockers, and fielders. The plantation owner says he likes to have female slaves over male slaves, especially working in the field, because we have a lower mortality rate.

 These are friends from the plantation

I hope to be a nurse one day on this plantation because that is the best job to have. Men get the most prestigious jobs, like carpentry and blacksmithing. Mrs. Mary Martha is expecting her first child soon and I would like to be the one to rear it and nurse it. I do love children, and I hope I can raise them so Master will teach me how to read and write so I can teach the children.

 This is me late in life when I became a nurse. 

Master is a nice man, until one of his slaves does something wrong. Then he becomes a very mean man and will whip the bad behavior out of a slave. Mrs. Mary Martha doesn’t like it when he does that. Bless her soul, she is a lovely woman, but is very naïve. Almost every night Master sneaks into the slave quarters and pays one of the slave girls for prostitution acts. It is very common here. He even sometimes pays the slave girl. In Jamaica, the majority of domestic slaves are expected to support themselves through prostitution. I have never done this, I am too scared, but many do.  

 This is my friend after he was caught stealing

Many people here try to resist the slavery. It hurts me to see them tortured for trying freedom, but nonetheless they still fight. Many friends intentionally mess up their work or fake illness, but it just makes Master mad and he punishes them. Once things got really bad and a massive revolt brokeout. The local colonial government even became involved and hung over a hundred slaves. 

The only thing keeping me strong here is my faith and culture. Women in the Caribbean are the reason religion and culture from Africa survived and was syncretized. To me, this is my form of resistance to slavery. They may have my body and make me work, but they cannot take away my faith, values, and heritage. While we cannot fully express our African culture, we do sing and dance and pass down and tell folktales of the past. Dancing is special to us. It is ceremonious and allows us to offer up prayers and freely express ourselves.

I fear that slavery will continue forever. I hope to one day gain freedom and start a family, but I fear that it will only happen within the confinement of slavery. I fear for my future children but and hopeful and optimistic that freedom will come in tomorrow’s sunrise.

*All information was drawn from:

Bush, Barbara. Slave Women in Caribbean society, 1650-1838 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990)

Bush, Barbara. "Hard Labor: Women, Childbirth, and Resistance in British Caribbean Slave Societies", in David Barry Gaspar and Darlene Clarke Hine, eds., More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), pp. 193–217.

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Jamaicanisms: 

Racial Classification

Class, color, and ethnicity are factors in the national identity. Ethnicity in Jamaica paints a diverse figure that contrasts starkly with the nations motto, “Out of many, one people” (Social Life in the Caribbean). Jamaican culture is rich and diverse, but is also filled with tainted relationships. Race feelings are especially complicated in this Caribbean region, due to Jamaica having the largest population between 1838-1938 (Social Life in the Caribbean).

The indigenous Taino natives of the region first left evidence of material and cultural influence. Jamaica then became a Spanish colony from 1494 to 1655 and a British colony from 1655 to 1962 (Culture of Jamaica). The colonial period was marked by conflict between white merchants and African slave laborers. Jews came along as indentured servants to help establish the sugar industry and gradually became part of the merchant class (Culture of Jamaica). East Indians and Chinese were recruited between the 1850s and the 1880s to aid in the labor gap left by ex-slaves and to keep plantation wages low (Culture of Jamaica). As soon as the Chinese finished their indentured contracts, they established small businesses. East Indians have been moving gradually from agricultural labor into mercantile and professional activities (Culture of Jamaica). While the groups present show diversity within Jamaican society, the major ethnic division is that between whites and blacks, and would be the reason for conflict (Social Life in the Caribbean). The achievement of black majority rule has led to an emphasis on class relations, shades of skin color, and cultural prejudices, rather than on racial divisions (Culture of Jamaica). Jamaica has never experienced entrenched ethnic conflict between blacks and Indians or Chinese (Social Life in the Caribbean).

The bulk of national wealth is contained within the small number of light-skinned or white families, and within a significant portion of the Chinese and Middle Eastern heritages (Culture of Jamaica). While race has played a defining role in social stratification, it never assumed a caste-like form (like in India, for example), and individuals are solely judged on a continuum of color and physical features (Social Life in the Caribbean). Although Jamaican whites were forced to mingle with black in official and business life through the abolishment of Jamaica’s Assembly, they still looked down on all non-whites (Social Life in the Caribbean). Race relations, actually, might have turned for the worse after the end of slavery. Thus is why the importance on skin tone, rather than social stratification into class systems, become the dominating social factor.

Comparable to the United States, it wouldn’t be until the at least the 1930s that the hateful attitudes towards the black community would vanish (Social Life in the Caribbean). The racial system is very much comparable to that of the United States. It is a society that is structured around economic status and segregation based on skin color.  

*All information in this blog was found via:
YouTube 

Brereton, Bridget. Social Life in the Caribbean, 1838-1938. London: Heinemann Educational, 1985. Print.

"Culture of Jamaica - History, People, Clothing, Women, Beliefs, Food, Customs, Family, Social." Countries and Their Cultures. Web. 07 Oct. 2011. <http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Jamaica.html>.

Jamaicanism: 

I could not go on any longer without having a tribute to a famous man from Jamaica...also the person who I am named after: Bob Marley, the reggae musician. Here is an interview and a sample of his music.