JCB Archive of Early American Images, Accession number 07532, Trapetum commune.
Sugar Cane Mill
Here in this early drawing we see the design of a Sugar Cane Mill in action during the late 1700s. It displays the mechanism in its full detail and highlights certains parts and action to help indicate viewers of what is what. The Sugar Cane Mill was a vital part of operations during this time as sugar was a rapidly successful endeavor making vast amount of profit for such a small product. With the success of sugar hitting the markets in Europe the demand for the product grew rampant and soon enough sugar plantations were made all across the Carribeans in order to seize this opportunity. Behind the production of sugar was the men and women who worked all day to meet the demands of production. Most of these men and women were enslaved Africans that were traded and sold in what we call the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Producing the sugar came at a cost as making the sugar and refining it was hard labor and ultimately prove dreadful for the workers. As mentioned in class it was apparently cheaper to just buy another slave rather than trying to help them so many enslaved workers were being worked to death and being replaced the day after. The average life span when working on the fields were around 3-5 years so it gives us a good understanding on how hard the process was in order to make sugar.
Without slaves, sugar production wouldn’t be what it would be known today. The rise of demands for sugar increased the work load for plantation owners and to compensate that they bought many slaves to the island to meet with the demands. The slave population grew massively in these islands from numbers such as a growth of 3000 slaves to 47000 in 1690-1720 or from 80000 to 172000 in 1720-1750 (Fick, pg.55). These rise in numbers of the slave population grew in order to meet the high demands of sugar production in the market. There were so many slaves in fact, that the island population were more slaves than free whites. Such change in the population drew in concerns for the owners of the plantation on the island which would lead into colonial authorities to make changes and adjustment to keep the slave population in check and put the free whites in power (Fick, pg.56).
While sugar was one of the many products coming out of the Carribeans , the picture gives us a insight on how the enslaved operated in the plantations during this time and see the conditions they were in.
Citations
1. Fick, Carolyn. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue” A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, edited by David Barry Gaspar and David Partick Geuggs, 55-56. Indiana University Press, 1997.
JCB Archive of Early American Images, Accession number: 69-213, Incendie du Cap. Révolte générale des Nègres. Massacre des Blanca.
Formerly the agricultural French colony of San Domingue, Haiti was the first of all colonies of the American continent to achieve its independence. Starting in 1791 and ending in 1804, the war for independence lasted a total of 12 years. Home to nearly half a million enslaved Black people at the time of its revolution. At its inception “roughly from 1690 to 1720, the number of slaves rose from just 3,000 to well over 47,000” (Fick, 55). From there on out their numbers only continued to rise until the enslaved population had become the island colony’s majority. Young and predominantly male, the enslaved population worked on sugar cane and coffee plantations, which required arduous backbreaking labor. Overworked, underfed, abused and subjugated to abhorrent living conditions, the mortality rate on the island was high leading to a high turnover rate for the enslaved people.
With a century of control of the colony under France’s belt, only 28,000 of the Black and mixed-race population was free at the time of the revolution. Revisions to the Code-Noir in the 1720’s and 80’s and small insurgencies formed by the free people of color in 1790; along with the eventual disenfranchisement of French slavers and colonists with the French government, would lead to war. Efforts to create order would prove futile, Commissioners “Leger Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel, who had been sent to the colony in September 1792 along with 6,000 troops to restore order” failed (Frick, 63). Black rebels and White seditionists, each allied with either the Spanish or British caused the colony to buckle. The arrival of a new Governor-General, who cared not for the Commissioners only brought the colony to its knees.
In the drawing above a scene of chaos ensues, engulfed in flames, a city by the sea burns. Titled “Incendie du Cap, Revolte generale des Nègres, Massacre des Blancas”, it translates to “Cape Town fire, General revolt of the Blacks, Massacre of the Whites”. The drawing depicts the burning of the colonial capital Cap-Francais in the year 1973. According to the Frick reading “During the fighting a fire broke out and spread rapidly, in the end destroying two-thirds of the city” (Frick, 65). To the left of the drawing rows of buildings exhale smoke from their windows and roofs indicating the fire is coming from within. From these rows of buildings groups of White people flee in terror. White women holding infants in their arms as small children and the elderly run alongside them towards ships in the sea. Their faces turn to stare at the body of a White male on the ground behind them as they run, as he lies there a woman grips to his lifeless corpse. A Black man, presumably enslaved due to his ripped pants and short sleeve shirt, runs with a sword in hand only looking forward. The other sword-wielding Black men feature similar clothing, their White counterparts are covered head-to-tie in full length pants and long-sleeve shirts. In the distance Black bodies lie on the ground but no one stops to look at them, the Black men only look forward. They can be seen slaying people to the ground and battling against White soldiers with firearms who appear to be the only barrier between them and the ships. More people can be seen attempting to reach the ship’s ladder, aboard the ship a mix of civilians and armed men pointing their guns at those on shoreline.
As we learned in class and from the readings Haiti, the drawing depicts one of many battles during the revolution. Here depicting the events of 1793 in Cap-Francais in which the Commissioners forces, “the mulattoes and the cities black slave population, some ten thousand strong” fought against the Governor-General’s forces (Frick, 65). Not only does it depict the battle itself but the scope of its impact. It bears remembering that the enslaved population and free population of color was significantly larger than that of the White slavers and colonists. It provides insight into the early years of the revolution and the never before terror experienced by Whites, to be slaughtered by the ones they slaughtered. The disbelief that Black people could rise against them and in fact cause real damage.
Works Cited Fick, Carolyn. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” In A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, edited by David Barry Gaspar and David Partick Geuggs, 51-75. Indiana University Press, 1997.
JBC Archive of Early American Images, accession number 05724, Sucrerie.
This images that I have chosen depicts the types of sugar productions. It has grinding mills with horses or donkeys taking them around. They evaporate the cane juice right there as well so they can ship from there as well. The workers are the ones of course getting all of the sugar canes together. This image dates back to 1686 and originates from the Caribbean islands.
This image really lays out a good picture of what these places looked like and how they were set up. You can see the fields in the far right and from there it goes to where the evaporate which can be seen near the bottom. What I’m guessing are the slave quarters are on the left as we can see some slaves near that. This is all set up to move very quick as this is money for these people and they need to get these products out fast.
As we learned about in class the life that these slaves lived was rough. Their life expectancy was very short around maybe 20-29 as they were work all day and being treated with no care. They were brought there for one thing and one thing only to work. The slaves of course are being put through hell as they are out there in the sun all day with very little if anything to wear. Everything being close together could seem to make things just a little easier but of course none of this is easy and it is hell on earth for these men. You can also see the workers beating on the slaves on the far of the imagine. This image gives us another insight into slavery and helps us understand what these men went through.
The artwork that I chose is titled “Revenge Taken by the Black Army for the Cruelties Practiced in Them by the French.” The artwork depicts black soldiers hanging a French colonialist soldier at the gallows. In the background, other black soldiers are preparing to kill another French soldier. This is about the Haitian rebellion in Saint-Domingue during the late 18th century from the bloody conflicts between the natives and the French. The French Revolution in Saint-Domingue was a huge catalyst for the talk of independence, freedom, and the meaning of liberty and power for people of color. Racial ideologies obscured this concept, suggesting that an enslaved individual couldn’t lead a genuine life. In France, their political government was ultimately falling apart in 1789. In the lectures, it was said that the corrupt government led to many French intellectual discussions on liberty and freedom, which in many ways was translated into the colonies. This was done through sailors traveling and transferring the information, like a huge game of telephone. The enslaved heard of such talk about liberty and realized how this was a huge opportunity to further destabilize the French by revolting. Even free people of color in France were being denied their rights by the colonial government, further leading to revolts.
In August of 1791, the rebellion began, where the enslaved joined together in self-liberation, burning plantations, killing their masters, and finding ways to fight against the brutal colonial power. This goes into the conversation of slaves doing the “unthinkable.” Slaves were rendered “incompetent” and incapable of having the “mental capacity” to understand that slavery was humanely wrong and that they shouldn’t be controlled by colonial powers after all. The slaves were intelligent, some of whom knew very well how to read and write. This was rooted in racial bias, discrimination, and prejudice that was rooted in slavery that convinced Europeans to believe that black people were inferior. The French in this case believed that it was impossible for the slaves to revolt, so when they did, they were in shock that their colony was now revolting against them, a colony that they depended on to stabilize their economy (slave society). This was a radical step into the Haitian revolution as slaves led revolts across multiple plantations, escaped, and formed armies to fight back in bloody battles against the French. This turned extremely violent and brutal, but it was powerful to see how the very first country in the Caribbean gained their independence and fought back to claim their rights back.
Speaking of Black soldiers, Toussaint L’ Overture was a strong leader in the Haitian revolution who led the enslaved people into victory against the French colonizers with his military expertise and dedication to requip a strong black army to overcome adversity. He was an inspiration for black soldiers to show no fear and combat for justice.
All in all, the Haitians achieved independence in 1804 from the French and set the bar high for other colonies in the Caribbean for self-liberation and taking power back from the Europeans. This also goes to show the potential and power that the enslaved have had all along; they were just brainwashed into thinking they were inferior and incapable.
WORKS CITED
Fick, Carolyn E. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and The Greater Caribbean,
Editors: David B. Gaspar and David P. Geggus, 51-75. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003.
In the Picture I chose [Missionaries bring Christianity to Hispaniola][1] it depicts missionaries who seem to be trying to show the Indians something. In the meantime, the Spanish soldiers are fighting with the Indians both groups are killing each other and the Jesuits in between are caught in between the fighting. The Jesuits were sent to the Americas by the church to try and convert Natives in the Americas to Christianity by trying to educate them in and show them how to try and be civil. During the conquest of the Americas by Europe the crown had a difficult time justifying taking over land from the Indians and enslaving them. One way they justified their actions was by claiming that it was their job to help the Native Indians by guiding the “savages” and “uncivilized” Indias and to set them in the right path of Christianity.
Through out the colonies the Christian Church would send Jesuits to help the Indians in teaching them about religion, Spanish and how to follow in the steps of Christianity. The Church at the time had almost as much diplomatic power as the King had, the Spanish Soldiers were not allowed to abuse their authority with Indians who were in the process of turning Christian. In the image I see what looks like a saint watching over the fight that is taking place making me think that the Spanish believed that they had a divine power watching over them.
In the picture we can see the Indians being depicted as people who lack in technology only using spears and bows and almost completely naked, compared to the Spaniards who have shields guns and armor. The Indians are portrayed to be savages while the Jesuits look to be trying to establish something like a pillar a foundation to what might be Christianity in the Americas. From the readings we have done we see that Christianity can still be found in some countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina in which traditions like attending mass and the power the institution of the church holds in those countries. One example being from the book Black Legend: The Many Lives of Raul Grigera and the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina in which we read about the family of a famous clack musician and the many stories told about who they were in the text it talks about Domingo a relative of Raul who was a pianist for a church.[2] We also learn that during those days the churches who would baptize children or marry people had to specify what skin color was the person was in the document’s archives for the Church.
[1] JCB Archive of Early American Images, John carter Collections
[2] Paulina L. Alberto, Black Legend: The Many Lives of Raul Grigera and the Power of Racial Storytelling in Argentina. Cambridge University Press 2022
JCB Archive of Early American Images, accession number 05684, The Retreat of Lieutenant Brady.
This image depicts a conflict in one of the many sugar slave plantations in the British colony of Demerara, one of the many slave plantations in Latin America. The archival description indicates that the image was created in 1824, one year after the Demerara Rebellion of 1823. Within the picture, most of the individuals were enslaved African slaves wielding different types of weapons in their hands. These weapons range from curved bladed swords to polearms and rifles. Their access to these weapons suggests that they had pillaged the British arms. Many of these Africans are spread out, which showcases the disarray, desperate attempt to rebel and force a retreat of the British. As for the British in the center of the image, they appear to be resisting in uniform with the use of their rifles. As a result, some Africans slaves who participated in the revolt appeared to be dead, lying on the ground by the hands of the British.
In August of 1823, the Demerara rebellion was caused by two main factors: the misinterpretation that slavery was abolished, and maltreatment from slave owning planters. An abolitionist figure by the name of Reverend John Smith in his letter to the Secretary of the London Missionary Society address the maltreatment of the slaves in the Demerara colony. “Ever since I have been in the colony, the slaves have been grievously oppressed . . . When sick, they have been commonly neglected, ill-treated, or half-starved. Their punishments have been frequent and severe.” [1] In addition, author Sheridan writes “the revolt broke out among the slaves because they believed they had been granted rights by the Parliament that their masters were withholding.” [2] Now from the perspective of the slaves, there was reason to believe that such rumor was legitimate as the British were in the path of ending slavery with the conclusion to the Transatlantic Slave Trade in 1807. Such discussions about putting and end the slavery existed within the British political sphere. An English member of Parliament by the named of Thomas Fowell Buxton had argued in May of 1823 that slavery should be abolished because it is “repugnant to the principles of British constitution and of the Christian religion” in the House of Commons. [3] Within three to four months, the Demerara uprising erupted, led by Jack Gladstone in the slave plantation Success. Approximately, 13,000 African slaves joined in on the revolt from different neighboring plantations. However, this uprising was quickly suppressed within the year, with many rebels “tortured to death and decapitated, their heads speared on to poles as a warning to others.” [4] While the rebellion would become suppressed by the British, this event did accelerate the process of slavery emancipation with the Slavery Abolition Act in 1834.
The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 is connected to the Tupac Amaru rebellion in Peru and the Haitian Revolution in Saint Domingue by the sense that all these three events were part of an anti-colonial and abolitionist wave in the Americas. The Tupac Amaru was a collective resistance of different groups ranging from the Creoles and every other group underneath them in the Spanish caste system against Spanish colonial rule driven by discontent and a desire for more autonomy. “Peru also exhibited the necessary conditions for revolt: increasingly oppressed Indian masses, disaffected ‘middle sectors,’ and elites divided over changes emanating from Spain.” [5] Similarly, the Haitian Revolution had sought to liberate themselves as France was dealing with their own civil war, unable to address the problems of slavery. “If the slaves themselves had no taken revolutionary initiative in Saint Domingue, there is no reason to assume that the Convention would have seen the necessity, or even the political expediency, seriously confronting the issues of slavery in the colonies and of abolishing slavery.” [6] In closing, these three rebellions illustrate an interconnected struggle against colonial domination and oppression.
Works Cited (Bibliography):
Fick, Carolyn E. “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and The Greater Caribbean, edited by David B. Gaspar and David P. Geggus, 51-75. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003.
Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 243–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.
Smith, Jonathan, and Paul Lashmar, “‘A huge human drama’: how the revolt that began on the Gladstone plantation led to emancipation,” The Guardian, August 19, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/how-revolt-gladstone-plantation-led-to-emancipation-demerara-rebellion.
Walker, Charles F. The Tupac Amaru Rebellion. Cambridge: Belnap Press, 2014.
Works Cited (Footnotes):
[1] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.
[2] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 248. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.
[3] Sheridan, Richard B. “THE CONDITION OF THE SLAVES ON THE SUGAR PLANTATIONS OF SIR JOHN GLADSTONE IN THE COLONY OF DEMERARA, 1812-49.” NWIG: New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 76, no. 3/4 (2002): 247. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41850197.
[4] Jonathan Smith and Paul Lashmar, “‘A huge human drama’: how the revolt that began on the Gladstone plantation led to emancipation,” The Guardian, August 19, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/how-revolt-gladstone-plantation-led-to-emancipation-demerara-rebellion.
[5] Charles F. Walker, The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2014), 38.
[6] Carolyn E. Fick, “The French Revolution in Saint Domingue: A Triumph or a Failure?” in A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and The Greater Caribbean, ed. David B. Gaspar and David P. Geggus (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2003), 69.
