The slave, servant, and companion
The housing system
To deal with the life of a servant in the plantation, it would already be necessary to explain what the plantation system consisted of. Arriving in the colonies, the European colonists seize the territory. Suffering from undernutrition and not knowing the local diet, they set out to cultivate food crops that they had seen in the Caribbean, to feed themselves. They set about clearing land by burning land, planting fruits and vegetables (cassava, bananas, pitch, potatoes), building a hut, and planting tobacco there.
At the time, tobacco was used as a currency, it was exchanged for manufactured products from Europe, wine, employees, and slaves. These farms were to take the name of the habitation (French name for plantation). These included land, buildings such as the master's living quarters, slaves' huts, or places of production and exploitation when necessary. The habitation was not limited to real estate, it was also the humans, the master, his family, his servants, and slaves.
There were two types of employees in the colony:
- the employee who came from Europe against a contract for a limited period and who, at the end of his contract, obtained a cession of land and
- The slave originating in Africa, within the framework of the triangular trade, was used as a servile labor force on the plantation.
In 1671, the average size of a house was 39 hectares. Gradually, however, the number of European recruits fell while that of slaves exploded. The hired people were only 1% in 1688. This is explained by the fact that few Europeans wanted to work to work sometimes under the same conditions as the slaves, nor with them either. The other reason was that the price of a slave who was exchanged for tobacco was less expensive than that of an employee, if we consider that the employee owed only a few years of service.
This is how slavery was the economic model of the time because it was more profitable over time. Large-scale triangular trade for the French West Indies did not begin until the 1660s. It was primarily aimed at men, the physical labor force, to do the work in the fields. On the transatlantic boats, the women were outnumbered, however, their socio-economic importance was not so low on the plantation.
According to different sources, there would be a ratio of two men to one woman, while other sources said that women constituted 38% of the "cargo" (Herbert S. Klein, who analyzed the slave trade in the English, Dutch, and Brazilian colonies).
Female slaves were outnumbered on the island throughout the slave period. It was not until 1800 that the balance was established.
The life of slaves in the habitation
Once arrived, the slave was assigned to a habitation where she could occupy either a position inside the large hut as a servant, nurse or midwife, doctor, or seamstress, this is what we called "négresse de maison”, or outside to take care of the plantation's food crops. They were the "garden negresses."
It should be noted that the women slaves were mainly assigned to work in the gardens where they had to plant and manage the plots of fruits and vegetables intended to feed the habitation or to trade them locally. They only integrated the fields in numbers when the economy turned to sugar.
From an early age, little girls entered the sugar cane fields. In the cane fields, the work was divided into 2 or 3 groups.
Women were in the majority within the groups:
- In the first group, women were used as a counterweight in the transport of sugar cane, which was done by men on dependent animals (bulls, oxen, horses).
- In the second, they are responsible for weeding (ie, cutting the troublesome weeds using a weeder).
- Finally, in the third, it was mainly children who composed it. Equipped with a basket, they had to collect the torn grass and form blocks of weed waste.
In Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635-1848 by Bernard Moitt, a scene is described where
a hundred men and women of different ages are all busy digging ditches on a cane field, the majority of them are naked or covered with shreds. A blazing sun is above their heads. Their limbs fell in the heat, tired by the weight of their tools and the resistance of the clay soil [...]. Sweat was running down their bodies. A cemetery silence reigns. The manager witnesses the scene with a ruthless eye, with a patrol of several armed men who gave tingling shots to all those who have fallen from fatigue ventured to take a rest, men, women, young or old, without distinction.
Regarding the organization of work, the slaves worked 6 days a week because it was forbidden to work on Sundays and on public holidays. The working days were linked to the sunshine. The slaves began to work from sunrise until sunset with a break from noon to 2 p.m. It was possible to start in the morning before sunrise, but only in exceptional cases.
Pregnant slaves and nurses were not to work other than from sunrise to 11 a.m., and from 3 p.m. to half an hour before sunset.
A slave had to have six children to benefit from additional days of rest. For their food, the slaves had a small portion of land where they planted fruits and vegetables, allowing them and their families to live. They were free to plant whatever they liked, but had to ensure that it was kept in good condition. In addition to that, the owner had to provide them with cod, corned beef, flour, pulses, or unplanted roots on the plot of land he had granted them.
The living conditions of female domestic workers were infinitely better than those of the plantations. The number of servants varied from one dwelling to another. House slaves were given more benefits than plantation slaves. For example, they had more food, better clothing, and accommodation closer to Grand Case. In one house, there was a multitude of servants. A personal servant was assigned to each member of the family. Added to this, there was a cook, two women in charge of their mistress's bath, 2 or 3 seamstresses, and 2 or 3 in charge of various races, and 6 male slaves were attendants of the master of the place.
On each habitation, there was a box intended for medical care for slaves and staff in case of medical problems. The corrections were also governed by the Martinique code dating from 1786. In the event of a disproportionate correction, the master had to pay a fine of 2000 francs, and in the event of a repeat offense, lost the right to own slaves. If the slave succumbed to his injuries, the master risked the death penalty. These sanctions were only theoretical because the master would have had to be denounced by his slaves and then found guilty by a biased court.
The "marronnages" or escapes of female slaves were rarer than those of men, but they did exist. The maronnages were harshly punished, especially among men who suffered the worst atrocities once caught (amputations before being reintroduced into the fields). Women, although punished, did not suffer similar corrections.
They were imprisoned in colonial prisons or had to wear a joug (see photo opposite), or worse, were executed if the escape had been long. In the Code Noir, which governed slavery in the French Colonies, it was stipulated that the maroons (fugitives) risked having their ears cut off. Women also took part in all the revolts (1678, 1699, 1748, 1752, 1822, and 1833) which demanded the liberation of slaves and better conditions on the plantations.
Those who could no longer bear their condition as slaves had different means of expressing their anger. They were several times guilty of work slowdowns, work stoppages, or even poisoning. For example, a slave named Désirée, accused of having poisoned a man from the plantation, was tried on July 9, 1827, by the Privy Council of Martinique. His guilt could not be proved by the court, which returned as probable the term "maybe". She was deported to Puerto Rico, as it was customary at the time to deport slaves to the Spanish colonies from the 1740s. Her master was compensated in return.