Slavery on Sugar Plantations

Family Life and Social Control

• Prior to 1823, planters could sell their property and separate families at any time.
• The amelioration measures of 1823 prohibited the separation of families.
• Enslaved Africans were forced to celebrate and practice Western holidays.
• African cultural practices, such as blowing horns or beating drums, were forbidden as a means of communication.
• African Spiritualism and Islam were prohibited, and Africans were forced to adopt European religious practices.

Education and Literacy

• Enslaved Africans were prohibited from all forms of education.
• Reading or learning to read was a punishable crime.
• Anyone caught teaching an enslaved person to read would be whipped severely.
• Enslaved individuals who learned to read suffered severe punishments, including savage beatings and amputation of fingers and toes.

Economic Control

• The economic life of enslaved Africans was controlled, making them dependent on the planter.
• It was illegal for an enslaved person to own property without their master's consent.
• The size of their provision ground was limited to prevent them from becoming self-reliant.

Physical Control

• Physical measures were used to control enslaved people, including placing them in stocks.
• Severe beating, limb removal, and killing were used as punishment.
• Laws restricted the movement of enslaved people, prohibiting them from leaving the plantation without permission.
• Relationships between enslaved people from different plantations were forbidden.
• Curfews were enacted to manage the movement and assembling of enslaved people.

Learn about the economic, physical, and social control exerted over enslaved Africans on sugar plantations, including the limitations on their economic life and property ownership.