How Men and Women Challenged the Restrictions of the Slave Plantation

How Men and Women Challenged the Restrictions of the Slave Plantation



How Men and Women Challenged the Restrictions of the Slave Plantation

Since the arrival of Europeans the Caribbean islands have been going through constant change. The loss of native peoples and the introduction of the plantation system had immediate and permanent repercussions on the islands. The Plantation system set up a society that consisted of a large, captive lower class and a powerful, wealthy upper class. In order to understand slavery it is essential to recognize that it’s introduction to the Caribbean was driven by colonizers need for economic expansion and development. As the plantation systems became successful labor was needed in order to progress, slavery became the answer that caused exploitation and hardships that the men and women slaves had to encounter. This led the slaves to challenge these restrictions through the use of resistance and rebelling in order to survive the slave planation.
The slaves tried to resist these mistreatments by trying to escape from being a slave and being treated unfairly. The slaves were having a very hard time adjusting to this new life that was brought upon them where they had no freedom and were treated very badly. This led some slaves to instead of rebelling against the colonizers to hurting themselves as a form of revenge or just not to be a slave. An example of this is found in the Lewis (1983, p. 162-163) article where the slaves would participate in self-mutilation and self-inflicted illness or injury as an expression of revenge and a way to get out of slavery. Some ways that the slaves participated in self-mutilation was poisoning, also seen as the most used tactic to seek revenge on the masters or just to commit suicide. The slaves would find ways to execute themselves either through poison, hanging or through jumping off the slave ships. Poison was either self-inflicted or used on other slaves that were seen as the most...