Trade in enslaved African people: Video playlist

Captured Africans who were transported to the Caribbean islands faced an ordeal just as terrible as the ocean crossing they had survived – life on the plantations.

They were quickly sold at auction, their African names and identities taken from them, and were given new ‘Christian’ names.

Any family members were split up and would probably never see each other again. The rest of their lives would be spent labouring to produce the cash crops that kept their masters rich - coffee, tobacco, rice, cotton, and, most profitable of all – sugar.

Producing sugar was back-breaking work – ground had to be dug, planted and hoed, in scorching heat…

… and at harvest time, the sugar cane had to be crushed and boiled in sugar mills which worked night and day.

Children, old people and pregnant women were assigned to work gangs that were given slightly lighter duties…but skill had to work 12 to 18 hour days in 38 degree heat

The average time of survival for anyone arriving on a plantation was just 8 years.

The owners were aware that the harsh conditions drove their enslaved workers to an early death – but they calculated that it was cheaper to replace them when they died, than allow them to remain healthy.

Discipline was maintained by ‘slave drivers’ – enslaved workers who had earned a position of trust.

Above them were the feared ‘overseers’ – white workers, armed with knives and guns, and renowned for their brutal methods.

Captives found many ways to resist the system – sometimes with minor actions like speaking in their mother tongues, which was forbidden, or working as slowly as possible – sometimes with major actions such as sabotaging machinery or setting fire to buildings.

Plantation slaves had no rights at all.

They were subject to extreme and violent punishment for breaking the rules in minor ways – or just being suspected of doing so.

Beating, flogging, burning and rape were common forms of punishment.

Someone accused of talking too much could be forced to wear a metal mouth constraint.

For more serious misdemeanours, people were chained to a treadmill and whipped to keep it turning – or made to work the fields wearing an iron collar.

Many took their chances to escape.

That was a dangerous risk – but in Jamaica, some enslaved Africans did manage to make it to the remote mountain areas, where they formed free communities.

In the face of such inhuman treatment, captives frequently rose up.

Large scale rebellions were particularly frequent in Jamaica.

The white owner class, knowing they were outnumbered, lived in fear of mutiny.

But the odds were always against the captives - they had little hope of fighting the military forces who would be sent by ship as soon as word of a rebellion spread.