Women Field Workers in Jamaica During Slavery

7/26/2019 Women Field Workers in Jamaica During Slavery

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L U C I L L E M A T H U R I N M A I R

Women Field Workers in

Jamaica During Slavery


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Introduction

In present times, we find it very difficult to find the true number offemale labourers in Jamaica and the Caribbean as most of the workprovided for this gender mostly goes unnoticed !his is a true reflectionof the information about female slaves during the slave period

"ecent and current scholarship, such as #rlando $atterson%s sociologyof Jamaican slavery and &erry 'igman%s demographic analysis of theJamaican slave plantation have finally shed a light on the trueinvolvement of female slaves in Jamaica


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Sugar placed Jamaica at all time high during theeighteenth century establishing it as &ritain%s mostpri(ed transatlantic economy

In )*+ it was the world%s largest e-porter of sugardesiring most of the island labour, capital and land


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In )*./ sugar employed 01 per cent of the slavework force with the ma2ority of these workers beingwomen !he ratio was 1/+ males to )+++ females


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3ccording to $atterson, in his study of the labourforce on "ose 'all estates in St James ,#range "iverand 4reen $ark estates in !relawny, in )*./, most of

the field work was left to women because men werespread over a wider variety of skilled and non5praedial work such as craftsmen, sugar boilers andcarpenters

#n the "ose 'all estate there was a large amount offemale field slaves, ) to every /, as opposed to males

with ) in every * due to more 2ob options for males


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3nother factor that caused this was the )*+6abolition of the slave trade where the planters nolonger had control over the amount of each gender

was on the plantation !his was then furtherimpacted by the occurrence of natural increase froma male to a female e-cess

!he 7uropean traditional idealistic views of se-5

differentiated labour was also seen in the se-ualdivision of labour


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During the period of white indentureship male slavestook the more physically demanding work of field

work while the whites were the skilled workers and

women worked as domestic workers&ecause the white indentured servants had the

advantage of race and short5term bondage, thisenabled them to climb the Creole socio5economic

ladder opening opportunity to become propertyowners or to migrate


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3s they moved up, they took their skills with themleaving their old areas of work open 8ale slaves werethen recruited into those areas of labour

William &eckford, 9ord 8ayor of 9ondon in the)6*+%s owned a comple- of )/ properties throughoutthe parishes of Clarendon, Westmorland and St 3nn:ma2ority of which produced sugar with the other

producing livestock and cattle pens !ogether theyprovided evidence of labour force of /,/+0 containinga slight e-cess of men5 *+/ males and 66* females


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3 minority of men /1) or .;< of the male totalpopulation and 000 or 6< of the female totalpopulation

!he men who were not field labourers, were amongother things including stonemasons, wharfmen,coopers, sawyers, doctor%s assistance and tailors


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Domestic work was the ne-t most significant groupof female labourers and accounted for 1 or ). percent of the sample !his groups comprised of

washerwomen, house women, and cooks

1=)* of these women were mulatoes, consistent withthe idea that lighter skinned people are incapable ofdoing field work and these women according to 7lsa

4oveia did not have much skills


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Women with acknowledged skills numbered .0 or*< of &eckford%s slaves, and included housewives,doctresses, field nurses and seamstresses !hemulattoes dominated as seamstresses5 )) out of atotal )0

!he other labels were mostly given to the womenwho were seen as physically unable to do field work


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>alue

!he value of slaves also differed by gender !he highvalue of female slaves came from their physicalstrength and the males value depended on theirskills

!he official valuation of )6*1 showed that womenwere valued highest between ?6 and ?* with thee-ecption of a mid5wife the costed between ?*+ and

?)++8ales were slightly more costly than females costing

between ?)/+ and ?.++


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'ealth

!he health of field women was mostly poor #n&eckford%s estate )** or ). per cent or the ;+0

women and girls were in various stages of physicaldisability

#f the )11 that were over 0+, ;*< suffered fromimpaired health

!he young female adults were in presumably good

health as they had to manage the harsh work given tothem


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"eproduction

!he female population was also pushed to procreateand multiply

Consolidated Slave 3cts of )61/ stated that: every

woman with si- children should be e-empt fromhard labour Several awards were given to mothers,adopted mothers and midwives who producedhealthy women


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Slaves

Women Field Workers in Jamaica During Slavery

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