Presentation Historical Process

7/29/2019 Presentation Historical Process

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Migrations

This is the movement of people from place to

place meaning the movement of society and

culture as well as their meeting and mixing withother societies and countries.

The Caribbean has experienced significantmigrations, each impacting social life. The mainfocus of this is immigration into the region.


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Earliest Caribbean migrations

The idea that Caribbean history is new is an

ethnocentric one where emphasis is given to

Columbus since his voyage in 1492

The more accurate representation dates fromover 10,000 years before the common era.


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Challenges to these ethnocentricassumptions

The fact that the earliest remains of habitation are found in both Trinidadand Cuba suggests thatmigrations into the Caribbean were not just fromsouth to north but also people who came into theregion from CentralAmerica and Florida

These earliest peoples of the Archaic and pre-Ceramic period spread outand lived in the Greater

and Lesser Antilles over 5000 years before othergroups migrated into the region

From about 2400 years BCE different cultural groups distinguished bydistinctive pottery styles andlifestyles began to migrate from S. America

into the Lesser Antilles. They didnt settle chronologically from north to

south but skipped some altogether. These people were acculturated intothe Saladoid, Barrancoidand Ostionoid cultures showing hybridizationhas been happening for millenia.

These people enjoyed remarkable access to mobility through for examplethe Carib Canoe. Tradewas also significant as they were in constantcommunication.

Also DNA evidence has proved that the Taino genes are present to linkthem with current Caribbeangene pools


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Challenges to these ethnocentricassumptions

Amerindians are not a uniform group as hybridization hasdeveloped differently invarious parts in the Caribbean as thesehybrid groups coexisted with Archaicpeople for example theCiboneys.

European labels for the Indigenous were proved to be wrong forexample as peopleof the Greater Antilles were called theArawaks (the language) rather than theirtrue name the Taino.

The Taino were acknowledged to have a peaceful nature by theSpanish and theCaribs a very belligerent and even Cannibalisticone which has confirmed to not becompletely accurate. TheTaino were initially peaceful but readily attempted todefendthemselves against extermination. Likewise the Caribs were byno meansCannibals this was only an assumption made bySpaniards like Las Casas. It can beassumed the true warmongers were spanish.


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Development of Systems of Production

This refers to the ways an economy is

organized to produce commodities to sustain

Society .


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Encomienda

Spanish monarchs decided that native population should be divided upamongst Spaniards, who had the right to extract from them some form oftribute

produce, gold or personal service. In return, the Spaniards wouldguarantee religious instruction in the Roman Catholic Faith.

In reality however the Amerindians were treated as slaves and many dieddue to hunger, overwork, harsh punishments and European disease.

Many committed suicide and infanticide as their precious metals, freedomand even food were taken to

increase Spains power and prestige in Europe


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slavery

This was introduced throughout the Americas

and was primarily concerned with a system of production bound up with the cultivation

of sugar and the economic organization of the

plantation.


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Slavery as a total institution

Slavery was a total

institution

meaning that it determines all aspects of the lives of African people, as well as thesocial and economic arrangements of the plantation and by extension the societyand formed the basis of

plantation society

Slavery shaped the lives of Africans primarily by the attempts it made todehumanize the African.

Africans were regarded as chattel or property owned by the Europeans who had paid for them.

This attempt at dehumanization was done by suppressing the social and culturalties which helped them to form an identity and sense of belonging


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Slavery as a total institution

For example:

Choosing Africans from different racial groups for the plantation to minimize communication andbonds of kinship between them based on fear of Africans being together.

Giving them European names and forbidding them from practicing their religions and customs soany semblance of family life as well as solidarity and identity was discouraged.

Meeting out harsh physical punishment including torture and death as to submit them to will of theEuropeans.

Playing out different groups of Africans against each other to prevent a common identity and topromote European values and ways of life.

Rigidly stratifying the society based on pigment, relegating blacks to the bottom and whites at thetop; dehumanizing as racial characteristics were the ones identifying them as property


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The Plantation System

A system of production Europeans used in their colonialempires where they brought different ethnic groups to liveand work on plantations far from their homelands.

Groups were encouraged to distrust each other and were

encouraged to look on the Europeans as superior.

when coupled with slavery as a total institution the

plantation became a sophisticated economic mechanismwhich dominated the culture and society of the Caribbeanintegrating it into European economy.


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Relied on the Atlantic trade for its labour supply and provided the rawmaterials for the third leg of the triangular trade

sugar, rum, and molasses for the port cities of England, France and

Holland.

Provided the basis for the growing manufacturing and industrial strengthof Europe (plantations were formed through invested European capital)

Was so valuable that in 1651 Britain instituted the Navigation Laws

whereby only English ships could trade with English colonies

Preventing other nations from getting a share of trade arising from HerCaribbean plantations. France followed in 1664 with similar laws


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European imported systems of production to theCaribbean that began to take the shape of Capitalistenterprises with an emphasis on amassing huge profits

repatriated to the metropolitan country. The basis ofsuch wealth depended on the enslavement of peoplewho for the profit motive were regarded as subhuman.

Values stressing exploitation of the people andenvironment and people for economic gain and anideology of European superiority became parts of thesystem of production

Pl i S i


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Plantation Society

Chief characteristics:

Monocropping

Export oriented

Foreign owned

Bureaucratically organized

reliance on metropolitan countries

Vertical integration


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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE

PLANTATION Gave rise to peasantry

It was both a social and an economic system

The advantages of the plantation system:

regular and efficient production,

planning for depreciation

uniformly high quality products,

scientific research and


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Indentureship

Indentureship has been described as a new slavery

although the Indian and Chinese immigrants weren't defined aschattel and could practice their own customs and religions.

They were paid extremely low wages and were always indebt to thecompany store where they were coerced to buy goods withsubstandard living and sanitation facilities.

They were not allowed to move around freely and if caught some

distance from the plantation they could be flogged, charged withvagrancy and jailed. If they attempted to runaway they were hunteddown charged with breach of contract and returned to work. Theywere charged with exorbitant fines & many died from malnutritionand suffered from malaria, yaws and dysentery.


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PLANTATION SYSTEM

From the plantation system we haveinherited a plantation society: - our societyis characterized by unstable family

organization; hierarchical class relations lowlevel of community involvement, mobilepopulations always on the move (migratingto find seasonal employment, organized to

fulfill plantation goals - profit, it's amonoculture society -dependence on onemain industry/economic activity.


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Indentureship

As a system of production, indentureship was very much related to Africanplantation society.

The socio-economic influences of the plantation pervaded the society thoughsome Africans moved away.

They now occupied the lowest social stratum and were also discouraged from

interacting with the Africans to continue disunity among labourers.

However, times had changed. Towards the end of the 19th

century Caribbean plantations were no longer as important to Europe had global

empires and the sugar was under competition from other larger sugar producerssuch as Brazil and Cuba. Eventually the nationalist Indian movement broughtpressure on the British to discontinue immigration due to dissatisfaction of thetreatment of Indians so the British ended Indian indentureship in 1917 (a similarsituation happened in China were it ended in 1885)


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Resistance

Caribbean people have always sought ways and means of resistingthe harsh conditions under which they existed.

They resisted in two ways

1) active resistance 2) passive resistance

Active resistance included; riots, rebellions , revolutions,development of peasant groups.

Passive resistance involved pretense (deaf, lack of understanding ofoppressors language, fake illnesses, malingering , satirize /mimicEuropean lifestyle, suicide, infanticide,)


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Amerindian Resistance

The threat of the Spanish to the to Tainos aroused in them a spirit ofwarfare. Although the Spanish had superior weapons of warfare they stillput up resistance.

The Tainos resisted oppression by running away and by committingindividual and group suicide and infanticide,

They refused to work and starved out the Spanish by burning their foodstores.

The effort of the Spaniards to Christianize the Amerindians was met withmuch resistance. The Spaniards sought to save the souls of the abusedIndians but were forced to unite even from the first year of invasion andpresent some form of military opposition to European Invasion.


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The African Resistance

African were kept in subjugation for nearly

three centuries. This was mainly done through

the threat of physical violence and brain washing.

African resistance was persistent, powerful and successful.

It was either active or passive.

Africans resisted passively through suicide , sabotage(damaging tools and property)

vendetta, malingering, apathy, escape

Marronage , revolt, rebellion and revolution


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THE AFRICAN RESISTANCE

Resistance occurred despite the efforts of the planters to break the spirit of the strong andintimidate the weak. Planters applied the

system of divide and rule as well as confusion where they mixed the slaves of different languages toavoid communication.

Maroonage was one of the most successful forms of slave resistance. It was a system which startedwith the freed blacks who fled the plantations to the mountains during Spanish colonization.

It was prominent in mountainous larger territories such as Jamaica(Blue Mountains & Cockpit

Country) and Cuba (Hammer head Mountains)

It proved successful because the Europeans found it difficult to deal with the guerilla warfare useby the Maroons to protect their freedom.

Maroons would also raid plantations and encourage other slaves to runaway

Slaves not only resisted slavery, sometimes their response to oppression took on organized formssuch as rebellions, which were more organized and larger. E.g., the Tacky Rebellion in 1760, and theSam Sharpe Rebellion in 1831


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Revolution and Rebellion

The largest and most successful slave revolution was the HaitianRevolution of the 1790s.

The Haitian revolution is argued to have , ignited the flame of liberation

for all slaves throughout the Caribbean and the New World.

The success of the Haitian revolution inspired other slaves to fight for theirfreedom.

It inspired other revolts of the 1830s e.g. Barbados1816, British Guiana

1823, Jamaica 1831.

These slave revolts contributed to the abolition movement in England andfinally the abolition of slavery in 1838


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Peasantry

After Emancipation many ex-slaves left their plantation to escape forced andunpaid labour. Once they were freed, many moved away for the plantations intodeep rural areas.

Ex-slaves developed new forms of labour. The skilled slaves moved into towns.

The acquisition of land was a means of independence for the slaves. Many soughtto buy land which was blocked by the planters and the government .

The planters used different tactics to block the peasants form owing land. Theywould charge high rents for land and evict them. They also refused to sell them

land and block their means of acquiring credit to do so.

However the peasants found means of acquiring land. They pooled their resourcestogether and bought land , the received help from the missionaries and manyresorted to squatting


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Effects of Peasantry

The peasants helped to diversify the economy in the post-emancipationperiod and the decline of sugar.

The peasants turned to developing cash crops for export . They grew crops

such as Cocoa, bananas, coffee, ginger cotton, arrowroot and coconuts ontheir small holdings . They also grew food crops and reared animals

This new found independence made the peasants self-sufficient andresilient in the face of economic hardships.

The peasants received little support form the colonial government.

The peasantry could have been more successful had they received morehelp form the government.



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The planters were determined to do everythingkeep the slaves dependent on the plantations.

Ex-slaves found refuge in the free villages whichwere set up by the missionaries.

The free villages helped the development of thepeasantry. This peasantry transformed the

Caribbean from a predominantly mono-croppingof sugar cane to small farming of mixed cropswhich created economic independence for theEx-slaves.


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Significance of Resistance

This desire of the slaves to be independent from the hegemony of the Plantocracydeveloped a spirit of cooperation and caring among rural communities. This closebond has evolved as part of the rural culture of the Caribbean.

The experience of slavery has been profound in shaping the modern Caribbean. It

has changed the systems of land tenure, agricultural practices and population:size, race, ethnicity and structure

This desire of the slaves to be independent from the hegemony of the Plantocracydeveloped a spirit of cooperation and caring among rural communities. This closebond has evolved as part of the rural culture of the Caribbean.

The experience of slavery has been profound in shaping the modern Caribbean. Ithas changed the systems of land tenure, agricultural practices and population:size, race, ethnicity and structure


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Significance of Resistance

The descendants of slaves continue to experience erasureof their traditional culture, language dress and religion etc.They have remained largely poor.

The history of the Caribbean is filled with struggle against

colonialism, oppression and social injustice. E.g. in thepolitics of Jamaica, Haiti , Trinidad and Guyana may have itsroots in the experience of slavery and a the practice

of planters to prevent unity and prevent another HaitianRevolution. It also manifested again with the practice ofcreating disunity amongst the blacks and Indians.

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