CSEC

CARIBBEAN HISTORY
SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT
(S.B.A)
2023

Candidate Names: Raminah Green, Myesha Richards, Kehlani Brown, Amelia Scott.

Subject: Caribbean History

Candidate Number:

School: St.Hugh’s High School For Girls

School Centre Number:

Teacher’s name: Mrs.Andrea Dias-Brown

Territory: Jamaica

Year: 2023

Title: Roles of women in the resistance movement prior to emancipation?

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 Table of Content

Area of research……………………………………………………………….. 3

Data collection.............................................................................................. 4

Presentation of data………………………………………………………. 5

Introduction………………………………………………………………. 6

Conclusion………………………………………………………………….. 7-15

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….. 16

Appendix……………………………………………………………………. 17-20

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 AREA OF RESEARCH

Question

The role that enslaved women played in resisting the system of slavery in some British

colonies is often overlooked by some historians. To what extent is true to say that enslaved

black women played a significant role in the resistance movement prior to emancipation.

Rationale

Doing this research, the researchers discovered there was limited amount of information and

relevant primary sources about the role that women played in resisting the system of slavery.

This affirms the belief that back in slavery days, society regarded black enslaved women as

inferior and of little importance. The researchers chose this topic to educate others and shed

some light on the past since we as Caribbean people do not know some of the history

especially what the enslaved women (our ancestors) did and had to go through as women. At

the end of this study, the researchers hope to have gain a wider knowledge about enslaved

African women and the roles they played, and how their roles in slavery and rebellions

influence both the past and the present. Henceforward this SBA will help answer the

following questions.

Research questions:

1. What were the general forms of resistance in which some enslaved people engaged in

some British Caribbean territories before 1838?

2. What were some of the ancestral traditions maintained by the enslaved women as a

form of resistance against the system of slavery?

3. What methods did some enslaved black men used to resist slavery?

4. How significant were the roles that enslaved black women played at resisting slavery

before 1838?
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 DATA COLLECTION

The information for this SBA was sourced from primary sources such as history

books from the school library, Newspapers and even online articles via the internet in

order to highlight the fact the women also played significant roles in the resistance

prior to emancipation. This SBA will also be taking information from professors

specifically history Teachers who has a interest in the topic this will help us build

more on our topic and get valuable information.

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 PRESENTATION OF DATA

The presentation of data in the study will take the form of:

 Pictures

THIS WILL BE SHOWN IN THE APPENDIX

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 INTRODUCTION

Women composed most of the enslaved population within the African continent, due in part

to the operation of internal markets and local demands. The internal demand for enslaved

women affected prices, values, and flows of the external slave trades, as well as gender

imbalance. Women in bondage played major economic roles in the domestic and public

spheres as farmers, skilled crafts persons, street vendors, miners, healers, and cooks,

performing tasks that respectable and honorable free women would not do. They were valued

as producers and reproducers who could attend to sexual demands and be incorporated into

lineages as unfree people. In different societies within and outside of Africa, enslaved women

in bondage were sexually objectified and exploited. There is thus nothing “African” about

this violence since one of the premises of enslaving girls and women was the ability to abuse

their bodies. The sexual dimension of the use of women’s bodies explains the higher value

for female captives in internal African markets, as well as the silence surrounding the

enslavement of women. It is important to recognize that in Africa, as elsewhere, the

institution of slavery was not monolithic. Detailed regional studies indicate variations across

time and space. Women experienced capture, enslavement, and bondage in different ways.

One cannot make general assumptions when analysing exceptional lives.

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 CONCLUSION

1. What were the general forms of resistance in which some enslaved people
engaged in the same British Caribbean territories before 1838?

According to the national archives the British Caribbean before the year 1838 enslaved

continually struggled for their rights and liberties against the colonial authorities, developing

strategies of resistance and survival as a response to the conditions they faced. Historians

found that resistance took place from the 17th century until emancipation in 1838, which goes

to say there was hardly a generation of enslaved people that did not confront their

colonizers/enslavers, often in armed struggle in their pursuit of freedom.

Resistance took many various forms. There was a specific day for which the enslaved would

choose to confront their masters, the purpose wasn’t to overthrow the slavery system but to

make it less efficient. Forms of resistance would be killing livestock or pretending to be ill so

work took longer to be completed. There was cultural resistance, this would be the enslaves.

Maintaining their cultural practices and practicing African ones in secret. Enslaved workers

would practice obeah, a belief system that involved practices that were African in its origin.

Some enslaved workers maintained the languages of the different regions and tribes of Africa

which they came from, which was passed down and spoken In secret. Many enslaved

committed suicide rather than live as slaves. Armed revolt, plots of armed revolt, and

marches was the most serious form of resistance. Marronage involved large numbers of

enslaved workers escaping plantations and forming communities in colonies with forested

and mountainous areas.

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2. What were some of the ancestral traditions maintained by the enslaved women as a
form of resistance against the system of slavery.

It is not well established that women who are often regarded as the submissive sex, also

played an important part in protesting against slavery. The enslaved women practised oral

tradition keeping became a vital way of protecting their past and keeping it alive, focusing on

the spirit and forging deeper and meaningful bonds amongst them as slaves. Tradition

became important because it was the only way of keeping their cultural identity and helping

slaves continue everyday life within the system of plantation slavery, outward expressions of

culture was not accepted. Women at the heart of what kept everything in order together until

a single force, a union of many units. When forbidden to practise this aspect of their culture

of the plantation. The women passed down and kept alive disproportionate amount of the

cultural heritage of africa that survived in slavery. They did so through their roles of mothers,

daughters , healers, and workers. Slave women fought against slavery in their own distinctive

ways. 

In many African traditions, women were guarded as an important part of society, mainly

because it was believed that their ability to give birth gave them a special connection to the

spirits,it was important to raise children with traditional values because it was important for

them to know where they came from, in order to know their history, in order to fill in the

missing pieces about who they were, this is where women played their role. Since they were

primary caretakers of children, they would be the first to instil values in them and religious

ceremonies, women would often be high priestesses and perform certain rites within a

ceremony. The roles of women never changed. Women have handed down lessons through

the art of storytelling, an art which they have maintained. Their stories tell of ancient people

in ancient times but the morals are relevant even today, as are told in the Haitian folktale "Ti

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Malice" or the Jamaican folktales of "Anansi”.Those stories took the form of parables, which

conveyed ideals, morals, and cultural values to the listener. The oral tradition kept African

folktales alive. Storytelling of that type shares several features with oral traditions around the

world. It is typically performed in a particular place, at a particular time, and uses a special

language; despite those rules, it employs flexible patterns and structures that aid composition,

memory, and re-performance. Another part of life still present today is the art of hair

braiding, an ancient African tradition, which has always created a bond between mothers and

their children, about meeting places or escape plans to one another. This theme of

outsmarting the slaveholder is reflected in many folktales, such as “The Riddle Tell of

Freedom.” African women who were being held as slaves utilizing their hair to disseminate

information across their communities in a way that was undetectable to the slaver. Braids

evolved into codes: having thick, tight braids with a top bun indicated an escape strategy.

Maps were another method that cornrows were encoded. “In the early fifteenth century, hair

functioned as a carrier of messages in most West African societies. The slave woman

proclaims herself as the sole authority over her status, her life, and what her legacy to future

generations will be.

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 3. What methods did some enslaved black men used to resist slavery?

According to “thoughtco.com” Many resisted slavery in a variety of ways. Among the

less obvious methods of resistance were actions such as feigning illness, working

slowing , producing shoddy work and misplacing or damaging tools and equipment.

Enslaved men engaged in acts of everyday resistance, such as stealing food to

supplement their meagre rations or feigning illness to get out of working. Slaves also

performed acts of sabotage, such as breaking farm tools or purposely destroying

crops.

4. How significant were the roles that enslaved black women played at resisting
slavery before 1838?

According to the online article/ Website “thecollector.com” Although the masculine

side of the anti-slavery movement has traditionally received most of the attention, a

rising body of ground-breaking scholarship now highlights the crucial female

perspective. It makes sense that historians have historically concentrated on uprisings

and runaways given the immediate consequences of such valiant actions. We need to

take a closer look at women's resistance to slavery because their involvement in slave

uprisings has been infrequent (or, at the very least, downplayed) and because they

made up a relatively tiny fraction of runaways.

Truancy as Resistance to Slavery

Women were less likely to run away from the plantations since the important factor

that kept enslaved women tethered to the plantation was their familial ties and the

gendered expectations of their communities. The disproportionate sale of enslaved

men away from their families resulted in a high percentage of matriarch-headed

families in slave communities. Women’s reasons for truancy were numerous; often to

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 avoid violence or to visit their families. Unlike men who sometimes had permission

to visit their families, when women were separated from their loved ones, truancy was

often their only option if they were to see their families again. However, it seems that

often enslaved women engaged in acts of truancy simply to withhold labour to the

slaveholders, to have some time of their own.

Reproductive Resistance: Women’s Bodies and Their Resistance

Sexual violence was the second, and arguably more obvious, distinction between

men's and women's experiences of resistance to slavery. women who were enslaved,

sexual terrorism and reproductive exploitation were common occurrences.

women and girls were more vulnerable to sexual abuse than males. black and

“mulatto” women and girls were openly fetishized. Women’s aesthetic appeal was

even at times the basis on which they were sold; “fancy maids” (sex slaves) were in

such “heavy demand that the slave traders might do better selling coerced sex retail

rather than wholesale.” If enslaved woman’s primary function was “breeding” then their

most important acts of resistance were in rejecting that role in “the maintenance of the

slave pool.” This resistance takes three main forms: abstinence, abortion, and infanticide.

Infanticide as Resistance to Slavery

Not every tale of a freed slave woman is happy. Most tales of women's slave

resistance often involve tragedy. Infanticide must be the most extreme and mentally

damaging type of resistance that we can think of. Infanticide is incredibly uncommon,

yet even though it did occur very infrequently, it had significant political

ramifications.

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 The three queens

In 1878, in the Danish colony in St. Croix a violent rebellion took place in which

houses, sugar fields and over half of the city of Frederiksted burned down. Three

women Mary, Agnes and Matilda, were especially active in the rebellion. Mary

Thomas, known as Queen Mary (1848-1905) was one of the leaders of the 1878 “fire

burn” labour riot. Mary Thomas was from Antigua and arrived in St. Croix in the

1860s to take work on the plantations on the island. After the 1848 emancipation of

enslaved Africans in the Danish west indies, on 1849 labour law fixed salaries and

labour conditions for all plantation workers and prohibited bargaining for better

wages or work conditions. This made plantation work unattractive, and many workers

opted to leave the plantations and the islands to seek better conditions elsewhere. The

Government reacted to the labour shortage by making it harder for workers to leave

the islands, demanding health certificates and changing fees for passports. When

wages were to be negotiated in the fall of 1878, the workers were denied, and new

harsh conditions for traveling were imposed. This sparked the fire-burn riots, which

have been called the largest labour riot in Danish history, during which more than 50

plantations were burned.

Growing more hungry and hopeless by the day, the people rose up against their

oppressors and the property they held so dear. At the helm of the fireburn revolt was

Mary Thomas by her followers, because of her role as leader during the uprising, the

workers chose her and Queen Agnes and Queen Matilda as Queens to perform rituals

and celebratory functions during the uprising, Mary played a leading role and referred

to herself as a “captain” in the rebellion. She had reportedly become somewhat

intoxicated and had to be decapitated. She was also very active in vandalism and

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 arson on the plantations. Just like Agnes and Matilda, Mary served her life sentences,

Queen Mary would be given the death sentence for looting and arson. Today, the

local population in the US Virgin Islands has erected statues of the three queens, each

woman in the statue holds a tool used in the revolt a flaming torch, a sugar cane knife

and a lantern.

“Words by Queen Mary”

-Famous song as a result of the “Fireburn” revolt

“Queen Mary ‘tis where you going to burn,

Queen Mary ‘tis you going to burn,

Don’t tell me noting ‘t’all

Just fetch the match and oil

Blazin’ Jail house ‘tis here I’m going to burn”.

Carlota (Rebel Leader)

Carlota Lucumi, a kidnapped African woman, was known as one of the leaders of the

slave rebellion at the triunvirato plantation in Matanzas, Cuba. Carlota was an African

born free woman from the kingdom of Benin, West Africa, her last name Lucumi

comes from her ethnic group, the Lucumi people , afro-Brazilians, who are descended

from the Yoruba of present day Nigeria and the Benin republic. Lucumi came to Cuba

around the age of ten and taken to Matanzas province of Cuba. The intensification of

plantation agriculture in Cuba led to several slave revolts throughout the 1880s to

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 1840s. Lucumi lived and work as a slave on the triunvirato sugar plantation. Although

slavery had died in nearby Haiti in 1803 and was abolished throughout Latin America

and in the British empire, it continued In Cuba and Lucumi suffered under harsh

conditions and brutal treatment by Spanish plantation owners. In 1843 Lucumi and

another enslaved woman, Fermina began to plot a rebellion among the slaves. Their

plan called for a simultaneous uprising on triumvirate and surrounding plantations. A

plantation owner found Fermina as she was distributing this information to other

plantations and had her severely beaten and then imprisoned. Despite this setback,

Lucumi continued to organize the uprising, using music as a form of communication,

she sent code messages by talking drum to nearby slaves, coordinating the rebellion.

On November 5, 1843, Lucumi along with other tribal leaders Filip, Narciso, Manuel,

Ganga and Eduardo, initiated what became known as the triunvirato rebellion. Prior

to the start of the rebellion, Fermina and a dozen other slaves who imprisoned were

released . The rebels buried the house that had been used to torture slaves, killed the

overseer’s daughter, Maria de regla, and then forced Julian Luis Alfonso, the owner

of the triumirato plantation to flee. Lucumi and her followers then went to the acane

plantation, killing as many whites as they could find. In the brief rebellion they

destroyed five sugar plantations, as well as a number of coffee and cattle estates. The

rebellion ended in the early morning hours of November 6 at the San Rafael sugar

mill as the enslaved rebels, armed with machetes and spears, were overwhelmed by

heavily Spanish colonial authorities. Lucumi was captured and killed during the

battle; she was tied to horses which dragged her to death. Fermina was later executed.

The following year 1844, became known as the “year of lashes” in Cuba.

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 Slaveholders brutalized enslaved people on the island in order to punish both those

who participated in the uprising and intimidate those who did not.

Lucumi’s tale of bravery during the revolt, however spread throughout Cuba. Her

actions inspired numerous subsequent rebellions against white slave owners on that

island and throughout the Caribbean. There is now a moment to the legacy of Carlota

Lucumi at the trumvirato sugar mill.

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 Bibliography

Olivia Barrett, BA & MA History, .thecollector.com, Feb 27, 2022

Hamilton-Willie, D. (2005). Lest You Forget: Resistance and Revolt. Kingston:

Jamaica. Jamaica Publishing House Ltd.

Baldesingh, K. & Mahase, R. (2011). Caribbean History for CSEC, New York.:

USA. Oxford University Press

Lucille Mathurin Mair: The rebel Woman in the British west indies During Slavery

March 6, 2009.

Hilary McD.Beckles: Persistent Rebels: Women and Anti-slavery activity:

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 Appendix

The Picture above represents Infanticide as Resistance to Slavery

The picture represents Mothers’ Resistance to Slavery

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Carlota Leading the Slaves in Matanzas by Lili Bernard
Public domain image

Monument to Carlota's Rebellion, Triumvirato

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Illustration of the Fireburn Labor Riot in St. Croix, 1878

Queen Mary aka Mary Thomas, one of the leaders of the rebellion on St. Croix in 1878. In
pictures from the period, she is depicted holding a sharp sugar knife and a burning torch, both
very dangerous tools in the hands of a rebel. (Ch. E. Taylor, Leaflets from the Danish
Westindies, 1888).

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Category - Statues of Historic FiguresWaymark - Mary, Agnes and Matilda - Charlotte
Amalie, St. Thomas - USVI

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