‘Female slaves not women’
by Dawn Morgan
THE IMAGE of white female members of Caribbean plantocracy as generally being kinder than white males to their female slaves has been shattered by the research of Professor Hilary Beckles for his latest book: Centering Women – Gender Discourse In Caribbean Slave Societies. The historian said white ladies of the time concluded “black females were not women, nor were they feminine. Black females were not emotionally developed, and had a dullness of the senses, not sensitive to fine levels of human emotions”. The historian found evidence that these women, majority slave owners, aggressively fought any moves to declare emancipation, spreading vile propaganda as to the “promiscuity” and “animalistic” nature of black females. Beckles was speaking at a one-day seminar held by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus on Wednesday. Several of the 30 participants audibly gasped at his shocking revelations. He explained that the “18th Century ... anti-slavery movement had targeted the black woman as the centre for their propaganda”, arguing as to “the intensity of vulgarity enforced on female slaves” making the system de-humanising. “This reasoning forced slave owners to defend their system by offering a counter view. The clearest articulation of the pro-slavery argument was given by white women who wrote texts about slave society: persons like Mrs. Carmichael, Lady Nugent, Mrs. Fenwick.” The historian and author found the writings of white male slave owners to be “at the level of superficiality, whereas the texts written by white women tended to go deeper into the meaning and significance of what was a woman”. White female slave owners wrote of their female slaves “one only has to observe the way in which they could labour within the fields, take a break to drop a baby, and continue working as animals do”. Beckles notes: “No mention of course of the extraordinarily high infant mortality rate, of the high mortality among women in the fields who delivered babies.” Polygimol system The historian found that black female slaves were declared to be promiscuous, based on propaganda about “the polygimol system which was part of the West African family system”. There were “descriptions of black women being seen going from plantation to plantation, from one lover to another”. This was seen as evidence “that they did not possess a sense of family or refinement of emotion and culture”. Beckles said the strength of the black woman was seen as un-feminine. “The arguments (white women) gave were that they work harder and longer than black men and that their productivity was in no way inferior to that of black men, and their muscular development enabled them to function at a higher level.” “Slave owners knew all along that the productivity of women was higher in the agricultural sector than that of black men.” He said this caused, “from the 1740s the shifting sex composition of the Caribbean labour force where women began to outnumber men in the plantations. Barbados led the path, other societies followed”.
“MORE WHITE WOMEN owned female slaves (65 per cent) in the towns of the Caribbean than white male owners. About 25 per cent of the plantations in the region were owned by white women.” This was the finding of Professor Hilary Beckles, who has torn asunder the stereotype of the typical slave owner as male, and of his wife, sister or daughter generally treating their human “property” with kindness. Beckles shared some of the research he did for his latest book with about 30 participants in a one-day seminar held by the Centre for Gender and Development Studies last Wednesday at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. The historian disclosed that white women took an active part in purchasing slaves put on the block for sale, including examining their penises and testicles to assess their value as studs. One woman described in detail to another how to feel the testicles of the Africans. Beckles also noted: “When we look at manumission records in the region, the least likely slave owner to manumit a slave was the white woman.” More commonly, slaves were set free by the white male, followed by the free black men and free black women. Beckles said one may theorise that a reason “for that is that the white women were more than likely the owners of small units of slaves and were perhaps not in a position (economically) to be as charitable as the owners of large plantations. But even when we take the large plantations that were owned by white women we still find the lowest manumission rates.” The conference brought together researchers and lecturers in different disciplines to cross reference findings about feminist and gender issues within their spheres. Also included were law, literature and the arts, education and sociology. 
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