Times of the Islands Spring 2020

many belonged to whom and the purchases, sales and
transfers, along with first names. While a slave’s position
or health condition might be listed, this was the exception.
A sales document dated 20th August 1792 marking
the transfer of slaves between plantation owners Wade
Stubbs and Annis Stubbs provides an example. The document
shows that Annis Stubbs paid “five hundred pounds
sterling” to own 12 people. The document records their
names as George, Phabe, Jeny, Venus, Rachel, Charlott,
Lucy, Jim, York, Nancy, Cathy and Darky and stipulates
“with all their future and increase of their bodies.” The
quoted words make starkly clear the expected continuity
of property through propagation and leaves no doubt
about their belief in the perpetuation of the institution
of slavery. It also lays bare the pure commercial transactional
nature of the practice.
The Bermudian slave holders on Grand Turk, Salt Cay
and South Caicos similarly tracked slaves they used to
produce salt. And both groups counted the slaves who
escaped, as these were serious monetary losses to be
accounted for. In short, the lives of those held bondage
were reduced to bookkeeping.
For slavery to succeed, though, slaveholders had to
maintain constant control through absolute power using
violence or the threat of violence. We are well aware of the
brutality Bermudian slaveholders meted out to slaves who
worked the salt ponds on Grand Turk through the raw
and riveting firsthand account of slavery by Mary Prince.
As recorded and published by abolitionists in London in
the 1830s, Mary tells of the grueling labor and torture
she experienced and witnessed as a slave working the salt
ponds:
Then we had no sleep—no rest—but were forced to
work as fast as we could, and go on again all next
day the same as usual. Work—work—work—Oh
that Turks Island was a horrible place! The people
of England, I am sure, have never found out what is
carried out there. Cruel, horrible place!
If we could not keep up with the rest of the gang of
slaves, we were put in the stocks, and severely flogged
the next morning.
Mr. D—has often stripped me naked, hung me up by
the wrists, and beat me with the cow-skin, with his
own hand, till my body was raw with gashes.
No such detailed account exists for the enslaved on
the cotton plantations of North and Middle Caicos, Parrot
Cay and Providenciales, though life was likely as harsh.
Indeed, the Loyalist slaveholders would have every reason
to omit accounts of violence inflicted on the enslaved in
Grand Caicos. Great Britain had banned the slave trade
in 1807 (not slavery itself) and put in place various laws
to regulate slavery in the West Indies and elsewhere. So,
at least on paper, the laws forbade some egregious practices
and required some care for sick and elderly slaves.
However, in the isolation of Grand Caicos, or even in the
more trafficked Grand Turk, these laws could be safely
ignored as long as everyone kept quiet.
Despite the paucity of written accounts of slave
treatment in Grand Caicos, we can still glean a picture of
slavery on these islands through the records kept, oral
history passed down and witness accounts of the brutality
of slavery in the region. These are largely in sync
with what Mary Prince had revealed through her abolitionist
supporters. For the Loyalist enslavers, the culture
of exploitation in the American South closely paralleled
the one here and, thus, can serve as a historical portal
into the conditions and relationships that likely existed
between slaves and Loyalists.
Exerting control
Presbyterian minister and abolitionist John Rankin’s 1826
Letters on Slavery compellingly describes common slave
treatment at the time that parallel accounts throughout
the West Indies. Control meant keeping slaves hungry and
desperate for food, which could easily be cut off. From
there, as Rankin’s Letters makes clear, slaves faced painful
floggings for not working hard enough, for stealing
food or for no reason at all. Ratcheting up, slaveholders at
times applied more severe forms of torment, including dismemberment,
mutilation and burning to punish and send
a message to others. Notably, Rankin’s Letters recount
the pouring of red pepper or turpentine into wounds and
gashes, not unlike what Mary Prince saw when Bermudian
slaveholders poured salt into the wounds of the enslaved
on Grand Turk. While administering these tortures, slaveholders
would actually read Biblical scripture that in their
interpretation justified and rationalized their actions.
Perhaps the most vivid account of this harsh reality
of slavery is the book 12 Years a Slave by Solomon
Northrup, published in 1853. Made into a major motion
picture in 2013, it won Oscars for Best Picture, Best
Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The
book and the movie detail Mr. Northrup’s experience of
going from a free man in New York to being kidnapped
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