SCHOLARS have disagreed on how many Africans were brought to the Americas during the Atlantic Slave Trade. However, many have settled on the argument that no less than 8,000,000 and no more than 10,500,000 arrived in the Americas. Of this figure, 480,000 Africans were brought to Suriname and Guyana. In 1838, after slavery, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Africans were living in Guyana. These Africans were brought mainly from West Africa. They came from multiple ethnicities such as the Ashanti from Ghana, the Yoruba from Southwest Nigeria, the Ibo from South-Western Nigeria, and the Mandingo from Senegal.

They were snatched from the ranks of war captives, debtors, and persons found guilty of various criminal and social offenses. Others were kidnapped through raids and deceitful ways. European slave traders were initially involved in the capture of Africans but over time when the capture of Africans became difficult, African chiefs or middlemen were rewarded with material objects to supply slaves.

Africans were brought to the Americas via the African Slave Trade in which ships would leave European ports and arrive in West Africa where material objects such as guns were traded for slaves. The ships would then leave western Africa with slaves and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. This leg of the journey was called the Middle Passage.  It was terrible. Deaths and diseases were high, as well as trauma, including suicide and resistance. Upon arrival, the slaves were distributed to various Caribbean plantations through an inhumane bidding process. The ships would then sail back to Europe with sugar and other tropical products.

Slave societies in the Americas were stratified according to power, prestige, privilege, and colour. At the top layer were Whites, comprised of government officials, plantation owners, managers, merchants, clergies, small shopkeepers, craftsmen, and indentured servants. At the middle layer were free Blacks and free Coloureds, classified as Mulatto, Quadroon, and Sambo, and so on. This was a sandwich group that served as a social lubricant between the highest and lowest layer of Guyana’s slave society. At the lowest layer were the enslaved Africans, who were further stratified into field, house, skilled and urban slaves. Each layer of stratification was hierarchically organised along firm boundaries. The structure of slave society was shaped like a social pyramid.

The physical setting of the slave society was also stratified. The residential area was divided between the slavers and the enslaved. The slavers lived in the Great House, while the enslaved lived in barracks. The production area was divided into factory and field. The former comprised various mills, boiling and curing houses, storage and work sheds, and a distillery. The vast fields surrounded the factory area, made up of sugarcane. The enslaved spent most of their time in the field and factory.

The rhythm of plantation life of the enslaved was simply terrible. The enslaved worked from daybreak to sunset, cultivating sugar cane as well as performing other tasks, like feeding animals and tending their kitchen gardens. Their lives were severely restricted and stunted by poor health and physical labour. They laboured in a killing field in which birth rates were low, while death rates were high. The average lifespan of the enslaved was about 40 years, particularly those of field slaves.

Social prohibitions were placed on the enslaved. They were denied an education, not allowed to marry, migrate, or engage in their own cultural and economic activities. Yet, some sections of African slave society did not bow to the above restrictions. Although the process toward emancipation was long and protracted, myriad slave revolts occurred with the intent to achieve outright freedom, and indeed, Haiti and St. Croix witnessed a successful slave revolt in 1804 and 1848. Impressively, power was transferred from the hands of the colonial masters to the former slaves.
Two broad forms of African resistance, covert and overt, emerged during slavery.  Covert resistance took the forms of maiming animals, faking sickness, and maroonage, while overt resistance took the form of direct destruction of plantation property, and revolution. Both forms of resistance were intended to slow down production, to reduce profits, and eventually to abolish slavery. Two notable revolts of enslaved Africans occurred in Berbice in 1763, and in Demerara in 1823. The former was led by Cuffy, now the national hero of modern Guyana. Slave resistance placed enormous pressure on the institution of slavery. Human bondage came under attack from various regions, from various movements, and from various people, based on various economic, philosophical, religious, and humanistic arguments. The result was that the slave trade was abolished in 1807, although it continued illegally until 1870, as well as the death knell to slavery in the Americas in different time periods in the nineteenth century.

On August 1, 1838, the British Government finally abolished slavery in all its colonies and called upon other western colonial powers to follow suit. Slavery was abolished in the Swedish Caribbean in 1847; in the Danish and French Caribbean in 1848; in the Dutch Caribbean in 1863; in Puerto Rico 1873; in Cuba in 1886; in Brazil in 1888; in the United States in 1865. We welcome emancipation in Guyana next week (lomarsh.roopnarine@jsums.edu).