Slavery

Grade: 5
Subject: Social Studies
 Date: October 1, 2020
Topic: Slavery
 

Read, discuss and write some information from the sources
Slavery in Jamaica
You will remember that the first people enslaved in Jamaica
 were the Tainos. 
When most of the Tainos had been wiped out and the 
Spainards needed some workers they turned to Africa.
 Many Africans were captured and transported on big ships
 to the Caribbean.
Case Study:  Slave trades in Africa
Thousands of years ago before Africans were brought to the 
Americas, there were many different tribes of African people. 
There were often wars between the tribes as groups migrated 
and settled in different areas. 
Some groups raids others for cattle or tried to get control 
of resources such as gold mines.
 Many Africans were captured during these wars and 
enslaved by their captors.
From the 14th century, the Europeans came to the 
African continent in search of gold and to trade
 with the Africans.
 Gradually, Europeans increased their control in African
 lands and people so that they could control 
the trade and resources. 
Eventually by the 19th century, most of the African
 continent was colonized by the Europeans.
In the Caribbean, there was great demand for African
 slave labour to work on the sugar plantations. 
Many Africans were captured and forced from their 
homelands to provide labour in the
 Caribbean and the Americas. 
The Spainards first began to trade Africans as slaves in the
 14th  century. 
The Dutch seized a part of this trade towards the 
end of the 15th century.
 Later, the French controlled the slave trade between 
1670 and about 1713. 
Finally, the British then took control and transported 
most of the enslaved Africans to the Caribbean.

In Jamaica, when the British invaded in 1655, the enslaved 
Africans who had worked for the Spanish ran away
 to the mountains and set up what became the
Maroon settlements. 
The British chased them but could not recapture them.
 The British needed a great number of workers to work the 
sugar plantations and so they brought in thousands more 
enslaved Africans.
The Sugar Plantations
The focus question is: How did the coming of the ethnic groups
 affect the Caribbean?
Life on the plantation for the skaves was brutal and unpleasant. 
The slaves belonged to the slave masters or owners. 
They had neither rights nor choices and had to work tirelessly 
for long hours in the hot sun. 
They were beaten and brutally punishedif they were disobedient 
or seen idling. 
Field slaves worked on the sugar plantations,while house slaves 
worked in the Great houses.
 Most slaves however ,worked on the plantations.
Only at nights were the slaves allowed to engage in their 
different forms of recreations, such as singing, dancing,
 playing drums, telling stories and guessimg riddles. 
Life was really hard and unpleasant for slaves on the 
sugar plantations.