"The New Negro Business": The Enslavement System in the Caribbean

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

We are delighted to host Dr Heather Cateau for our Annual Alderman Sydney Smith Lecture.

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.

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. She is working on “Voices of the Past,” a novel oral history project which seeks to capture historical experiences before they are lost. She has held fellowships in Atlantic Studies from the University of Iowa (2004-2005); and the Smuts Visiting Fellowship in Commonwealth Studies, Cambridge University (1999-2000). Her books include Capitalism and Slavery Fifty Years Later (2000) with Selwyn Carrington; History of the Caribbean in the Atlantic World (2005) with John Campbell, and Beyond Tradition: Reinterpreting the Caribbean Historical Experience (2006) with Rita Pemberton. She is currently working on New Perspectives on Management of Plantations in the British Caribbean.

This year we are teaming up with Hull Museums to offer attendees at our public lectures the opportunity to visit Wilberforce House Museum next door before they join us for the lecture. As a result all our lectures will begin at 4.30pm, directly after the Museum closes, and all will take place at our home in Oriel Chambers, 27 High Street, Hull, HU1 1NE. We are very grateful for the financial support Hull Museums is providing to the Wilberforce Institute’s public lecture programme, and hope that some of you will take the opportunity to have a look round their exhibitions and displays in advance of the lectures. Please join us for refreshments from 4.15pm onwards, and if you can, stay afterwards for a glass of wine and a chance to talk with our speaker.

There are a limited number of tickets available to attend in person. If you can’t make it in person, you can still enjoy the lectures by streaming online – please select the ticket according to your preference when you make your booking.

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