A Wilberforce Institute lecture, in association with Hull Museums
‘The New Negro Business’: The Enslavement System in the Caribbean in the Age of Revolution by Dr Heather Cateau
Wilberforce Institute are delighted to host Dr Heather Cateau for their Annual Alderman Sydney Smith Lecture.
This is a hybrid event and will be taking place on Wednesday 16 October 16:30 at Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, Oriel Chambers 27 High Street Kingston upon Hull HU1 1NE but you can also attend online. Follow the booking link below to choose an in-person or online ticket.
Dr Cateau specialises in the study of plantation systems and in comparative systems of enslavement. She teaches courses in the areas of Caribbean history, economic history, and Caribbean historiography.
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African enslavement and the plantation system resulted in levels of profits that were unprecedented. However, although African enslavement remained at the heart of the system, the classic plantation model which was introduced in the 1640s during the sugar revolution did not survive into the age of revolution. The historiography is characterised by rich debates on the issue of accumulation of profits. African enslavement was clearly central to profit making, but the conundrum of why it persisted over centuries continues to engage debate.
This presentation refocuses our attention on the enslavement system as a changing entity. Static representations have masked critical elements and skewed our understanding of the enslavement system. The classic enslavement model would not have survived as technology advanced and labour and commercial systems evolved. The model of the proprietor who owned vast expanses of land worked with the large quantities of enslaved workers which he or she owned soon became only a well-maintained façade. From the eighteenth century this model morphed into aberrations which account for its survival and persistence even into the age of revolution. These included increasing use of paid labour and skilled enslaved labourers, as well as adaptations to the classic plantation model and its hierarchy pyramid. The changes taking place were revolutionary in many senses. Caribbean plantations were sites for important changes in the management of enslaved workers, repositioning of white employees, new approaches to profit making, and experimentation with technological changes.
These dimensions of the Caribbean in the age revolution will be revealed through a revised examination of the lives of enslaved workers, white employees and plantation operations in the Caribbean between 1750 and 1838.
