An introduction to the plantation journals of the Prospect ... - Microform

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may be deficient, however, the overall conclusion of Table 3 that Prospect was not able to maintain itself by natural increase is sound. 46 Prospect’s journals state the causes of death in the case of sixty-seven individuals dying between 1784 and 1792 (Table 6) This information provides an additional perspective on survival, though it suffers from serious limitations. The data excludes the very young, whilst forensic examinations and pathology were imprecise sciences during the later eighteenth century. It must also be borne in mind that the reports were compiled for an absentee owner anxious to understand how his valuable capital (for this is how the enslaved were viewed) had been lost. The Prospect entries, however, do not exhibit the signs of overt prejudice apparent on other Jamaican properties. There are no instances, for example, of a slave dying through ‘self-neglect’. Diagnosis of mortality on Prospect can be compared with Worthy Park: a larger and longer-established, inland sugar estate located in Lluidas Vale in the central Jamaican parish of St. John. 47 The Worthy Park dataset is one of the largest that has been assembled; it contains 401 entries, spanning the years from 1783 until 1838. Attributed causes of death on Prospect and Worthy Park share some similarities. On both properties, ‘old age’ accounted for a large share of mortality: 22.2 percent on Worthy Park and 17.9 percent on Prospect. Yaws and ulcers (9.5 percent at Worthy Park and 11.9 percent of deaths on Prospect) were also major killers; the acute sores and skin inflammations associated with this disease afflicted many of the enslaved throughout their lives. A further similarity is the failure of each data source to record female deaths during childbirth (perhaps the most notable single omission). One striking difference is that Worthy Park’s deaths include proportionately more cases of dysentery, fevers (including measles), gastro-intestinal problems, influenza, and pneumonia. The likely reason for the disparity is that these diseases accounted for a large number of infant deaths which are not as consistently specified in Prospect’s accounts. 48 Sugar cultivation and rum production was carried out at Prospect using the gang system: a method of allocating tasks used extensively on sugar estates in Jamaica. 49 A detailed contemporary description of the tripartite gang system in use on the island was published by Bryan Edwards in 1793. Edwards describes how the first gang, consisting of women and men in relatively good physical condition, was employed in clearing land, ‘holing’ the ground in preparation for sugar, and planting the cane. During crop-time, workers from this group were also re-allocated to tend the crushing mill and boiling houses at the works. Edwards suggested that on most plantations a third of the labour force belonged to this set. He went on to explain that the second gang was composed of children of both sexes, pregnant women, older members of the enslaved population, and individuals convalescing after illness. This group was employed in weeding cane fields and other ‘lighter’ work. The third gang usually consisted of younger children. Edwards indicated that the children’s gang not only performed useful tasks (such as weeding provision grounds and gathering fodder to feed animals), but also that gang membership helped inculcate habits of industry. 50 Each of the three groups was headed by a ‘driver’ and given a daily 9
collective task to perform; in the case of the children’s gang the driver also exercised the responsibilities of a matron. 51 References in Prospect’s 1788 listing to the ‘head driver’ and ‘second driver’ make it clear that two adult gangs were formed out of the field slaves on Prospect, in line with general practice on Jamaica. Prospect’s occupational listings also reveal that a children’s gang existed and that boys and girls joined this group from the age of six. During this period child labour was not a peculiarity of slavery. Outside of a minority of upper and middling families, children were commonly put to work at similar ages in Britain. By the same token, the transition of enslaved children to the second gang ages at the ages of twelve or thirteen corresponded with the commencement of child apprenticeships in many trades. 52 The plantation journals record one complete year (1788) and one nearly complete year (1791) of work allocation. A comparison of the two listings, however, reveals a curious anomaly. In 1788, some 63.6 percent of the enslaved population are recorded as having taken part in productive labour. Yet for the year 1791, the participation rate is equivalent to 89.6 percent (Table 7) of the total population! It is difficult to accept the 1791 figure at face value since at least 22.7 percent of the workforce in this year are described in the records as suffering from an illness or incapacity of some kind. Closer scrutiny of Prospect’s plantation book reveals that payments were made for the hire of slaves from other plantations to assist with crop production. 53 Approximately 593 days’ labour were hired in 1788, compared with 2,017 days in 1789, 602 in 1790, and 646 in 1791. These data do not themselves explain the anomaly in the participation rate, but they signify that entries in the journals need not necessarily describe the work allocation of Prospect’s own slaves. The possibility of bringing in workers from neighbouring properties owned by the Attlays (or their kinsmen the Oakleys), or sending labour out to other estates, must also be reckoned with. The gender division of labour practised on the plantation may be one factor accounting for the use of hired labour. Women formed a majority of field labourers on Prospect: the occupational listing for 1792 records that females supplied two-thirds of field slaves, with seventy-one percent of women were employed in this capacity. 54 Plantation regimes during the period of enslavement generally made extensive use of female labour in the cultivation of export crops. 55 Work of this kind was physically demanding and hired hands may have been used to supplement female field workers during crop time, or possibly to replace women withdrawn temporarily from the workforce to give birth to children. The preceding pages have highlighted some of the conundrums contained within Prospect’s plantation journals. Like all good historical sources, these records often generate as many new problems as they offer solutions to old ones. The nonsurvival of the correspondence between the owners and overseers of Prospect makes the task of reconstructing the sugar estate’s history all the harder. Nevertheless, closer scrutiny of this edition of Prospect’s records (coupled with a 10
Page 1 and 2: An Introduction to the Plantation J
Page 3 and 4: © Simon D. Smith, 2004 ISBN 10: 1-
Page 5 and 6: Prior to their relocation to the Ma
Page 7 and 8: Stephen Oakeley Attlay Sr., like hi
Page 9 and 10: located five miles from Ashbury. A
Page 11: on the estate heightens, rather tha
Page 15 and 16: Table 1 An Inventory of the Manuscr
Page 17 and 18: Table 3 The Enslaved Population of
Page 19 and 20: 1 Jan 1784 Table 5 Demographic Prof
Page 21 and 22: Tables 7a and 7b Work Allocation in
Page 23 and 24: Crop Season Table 8 Crop Invoices f
Page 25 and 26: (Wakefield, 2002), also available f
Page 27 and 28: 32 Craton, Invisible Man, 39. 33 Ba

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