“Whites were in an extremely precarious situation in mid eighteenth century Jamaica. On the one hand, they had established an awesomely productive economy in which they made enormous profits. On the other hand, they made these profits within a highly distorted social structure that included a mass of exploited, brutalized, and resentful African slaves.” P138
This quote from chapter 5 really illustrates the situation in Jamaica at the time. The white men made a fortune off of slavery, taking advantage of the labor of slaves. They had generated a mass amount of money and many landowners became even more rich, but the slaves were suffering for the white’s benefit. What resulted was a social structure in Jamaica that had the rich whites on top and everyone else who were slaves beneath them. The whites were making money while everyone below them in the social hierarchy worked for them and got nothing but suffering in return. This social structure in Jamaica was really unstable considering that all profits that the white owners had was dependent on slavery. Slavery was a necessity which would cause a collapse in the economy if it would somehow change. That was common during these times, there were 9 black men for every 1 white man and they would attack whites or revolt against them ever so often.
If slavery was suddenly removed, how would the white landowners make their money?
How would the Jamaican economy last without slavery?
