Slavery, Family, and Peasantry in Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico

Introduction

The Caribbean nations of Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico share a history of tumultuous colonial rule. Yet different Old World colonial governments presided over each of these islands, leading to completely different languages, cultures, customs, and institutions. The French left the most enduring legacy on Haiti, and Haitian slaves ultimately led the world's first successful large-scale slave rebellion. British rule in Jamaica also eventually dissolved as slavery became an untenable model for the global labor market. Spanish-ruled Puerto Rico likewise capitalized on the slave trade and the free labor extracted from it, but slavery in Puerto Rico was less explicitly tied to race than it was in either Haiti or Jamaica. This is not to say that Puerto Rico was untouched by slavery's damage, but the colonial system did produce a lasting social stratification based on class status.

This paper compares and contrasts Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico according to three main themes: slavery, family, and the peasantry. These are themselves interrelated concepts that contributed to the evolution of distinct cultures on these three Caribbean islands. Based on anthropological evidence, the central thesis of this paper is that despite their abundant historical and linguistic differences, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico share similar sociological patterns related to power and labor exploitation.

Slavery in the Caribbean Colonies

Slavery is the defining feature of New World settlement, particularly in the Caribbean after the establishment of cash crop economies. The sugarcane industry became predominant throughout the region. However, Puerto Rico was a relative latecomer to the sugarcane economy. Sugarcane had been a thriving global commodity in Jamaica and Haiti before it became a viable cash crop in Puerto Rico, as Mintz points out in Three Ancient Colonies. Although plantation-based slavery was not as salient in Puerto Rico as it was in Jamaica or Haiti, Puerto Rico still employed slaves — some on plantations, but many working in urban centers as domestics (Godreau, Cruz, Ortiz, et al. 120). As Puerto Rico evolved a different economy from that of Jamaica or Haiti, one less dependent on a single crop like sugarcane, the system of slavery manifested differently on the Spanish colony. By the time sugarcane plantations were established in Puerto Rico, various members of the peasant classes — not just non-whites — comprised the growing racially mixed underclass (Mintz 143).

In Jamaica and Haiti, on the other hand, slavery and race were inextricably entwined. Laurent Dubois describes the New World's first large-scale successful slave rebellion in Avengers of the New World. Chapter Four, "Fire in the Cane," describes the buildup of tension among the slaves, who "often found supporters ready and waiting" (Dubois 96). Long before the advent of social media, the insurgents organized en masse as though responding to the same call. One plantation manager named Pierre Mossut wrote with alarm, "There is a motor that powers them and that keeps powering them and that we cannot come to know" (Dubois 96). The success of the insurrection in Haiti dealt a blow to colonial governments throughout the Caribbean. Ironically, the Haitian slave revolt proved so successful that some French plantation owners pleaded for the British to occupy the colony as "the only way to preserve the institution of slavery" (Dubois 117).

Slaves were also socially stratified in both Jamaica and Haiti, with some having access to greater status, freedom of movement, and privileges than others. Remarkably, some of the most elite slaves were even permitted to carry weapons, including whips used to discipline field slaves (Dubois 97). During the insurrection, these elite slaves played a decisive role. The rebellion in Haiti was also carefully organized: major actions were planned for Sundays or holidays, when the majority of slaves already had freedom of movement and would neither arouse suspicion nor be forced to fight after a full day's labor in the fields (Dubois 98). Unfortunately, the success of the rebellion also contributed to the collapse of the Haitian economy, leaving the self-liberated slaves without the means to rebuild a new society — the foundations of the economy had been literally burned to the ground. A similar challenge confronted Jamaica, where a peasantry was needed to revitalize the economy from the ground up. Geggus concurs, noting that the revolution led to the "weakening in the Caribbean's position in the world market," a position that had been artificially established on the presumption that free labor could be extracted indefinitely without consequence (83).

Family Structure and Matrifocal Values

Contrary to the patriarchal customs, norms, and institutions of their respective colonial governments, Caribbean societies evolved with matrifocal values. Even when colonial governments and institutions such as the church attempted to instill patriarchal gender norms, families evolved according to the dictates of the slave labor market. In "Planter Power, Freedom, and Oppression of Slaves in the 18th Century Caribbean," Stinchcombe points out that plantation owners frequently purchased far more males than females to toil in the fields, preventing the formation of church-sanctioned nuclear family units among slaves. In law and on paper, both church and colonial government mandated official patriarchal marriages, but in practice such marriages were relatively rare. The situation led to a rise in de facto matrifocal values, norms, and institutions throughout the Caribbean. Matrifocal values are characterized by high levels of female autonomy and a relatively low emphasis on the formal marital institution (Safa 333).

Within a matrifocal society, gender role segregation remains high — as it does in patriarchal societies — but there is less gender-based power inequality. As Safa observes, "These consanguineal ties are seen as lasting in comparison to the often transient nature of the conjugal bond. Men are important for sexuality and reproduction, but their support cannot be relied upon" (333). Women depend upon one another, having come to recognize the transient nature of the sexual union. Men and women occupy separate economic, social, and political spheres by necessity under the demands of the slave-based labor economy and the political and social institutions that sustained it.

Stinchcombe further notes that the differences between Spanish and British colonial rule led to significant divergences in family and marriage institutions. Whereas the British enabled or even encouraged marriage among slaves, the Spanish did not, resulting in fewer formal restrictions on the personal lives, sexual behavior, or family practices of slaves under Spanish rule (911). In "Race as a Social Boundary," Stinchcombe also points out how free Blacks became their own distinct subculture, with profound impacts on kinship and family. Marriages tended to occur within particular subcultures, reinforcing social stratification among both Blacks and whites — just as Dubois notes that some free Blacks were enlisted to fight for the colonialists against other Blacks during the Haitian uprising. Inequality was not confined to the plantation dynamic of white owners versus Black slaves. The family itself became an important site in which both racial and social power relations were negotiated and reproduced.

Conclusion

Colonialism, racism, and slavery have all "defined the Caribbean region," but it would be a grave mistake to assume that the will and character of the people did not transcend or subvert the ravages of the exploitative labor market and brutal colonial regimes (Geggus 83). This paper has examined the ways in which slavery, the family, and the peasantry manifested differently in Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Because each of these three nations was governed by a culturally distinct colonial power, their histories and cultures naturally evolved along different trajectories. Yet despite differences in language and custom, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico demonstrate remarkable similarities in the ways their peasant classes reclaimed power in the post-colonial era.

Works Cited

Dubois, Laurent. "Fire in the Cane." Avengers of the New World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.

Geggus, David. "The Caribbean in the Age of Revolution."

Godreau, Isar P., Mariolga Reyes Cruz, Mariluz Ortiz, et al. "The Lessons of Slavery: Discourses of Slavery, Mestizaje, and Blanqueamiento in an Elementary School in Puerto Rico." American Ethnologist, vol. 35, no. 1, 2008, pp. 115–135.

Laguerre, Michael. "The Place of Voodoo in the Social Structure of Haiti." Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 3, 1973, pp. 36–50.

Mintz, Sidney. Three Ancient Colonies: Caribbean Themes and Variations. Harvard University Press, 2012.

Safa, Helen. "The Matrifocal Family and Patriarchal Ideology in Cuba and the Caribbean." Journal of Latin American Anthropology, vol. 10, no. 2, 2005.

Stinchcombe, Arthur. "Planter Power, Freedom, and Oppression of Slaves in the 18th Century Caribbean." Sugar Island Slavery in the Age of Enlightenment. Princeton University Press, pp. 125–158.

Stinchcombe, Arthur. "Race as a Social Boundary: Free Colored versus Slaves and Blacks." Sugar Island Slavery in the Age of Enlightenment. Princeton University Press, pp. 159–172.