Sugar Isn't Always Sweet

Pumza Fihlani, BBC News Johannesburg

English colonists were attracted to Barbados for two major reasons. They were promised 10 acres of land if they chose to settle there, and sugar was a present and profitable resource. Thus, they wanted quick, efficient, and cheap labor to maintain their land and endure the strenuous task of increased sugar production. Bringing in enslaved people seemed to be the answer. In fact, the colony in Barbados was the first established English colony that had slavery as a primary source of labor (Scott & Shade 64). This desire to bring in enslaved people and prevent social/financial mobility (keeping them as a cheap, dependable, and renewable work force) led to the English setting up violent and demeaning laws in 1661 (also known as slave codes) dictating the treatment and lifestyle of Black people. They applied to all Black people rather than solely the enslaved to prevent any resistance, for if free Black people were given the chance to live comfortably among the White colonists, they could obtain the opportunity to realize the injustice and fight it. However, since they too were oppressed under these codes, they had no power to fight and no desire (fighting the White men in power could end in enslavement or fatal physical punishment). This effectively instituted a harshly defined biracial society in Barbados. All Black people were affected by the slave codes, while all White people benefitted from the labor, superiority, and power.

            However, the racial situation wasn’t just fueled by capitalism. Europeans also held a view that Africans were uncivilized barbarians who carried a curse from God. This common view made the justification of cruel enslavement easier; Black people were savages and should be treated as such. It became a cycle; the White Englishmen viewed Black people as barbarians, treated Black people as such by creating slave codes that, for example, allowed violent treatment from slaveholders and provided food allowances but not clothing allowances, which led to Black people looking and acting uncivilized, which fed the White viewpoint that Black people were barbarians. This continued for generations; White people passed down their way of thinking to their children, and enslaved Africans passed down their lifelong bondage to their children.

While the modern-day racial divide may not ensure that Black people are a guaranteed source of cheap labor, race was so prevalent for so long that it’s now engrained in how people see themselves/each other. As Robert Wald Sussman states, “Race is not a part of our biology, but it is definitely a part of our culture. Race and racism are deeply ingrained in our history.” Growing up, I noticed early on that I was Black and my best friend was White so I attributed her different way of life to her race. It took years before I realized that while race and class are often intertwined, White didn’t inherently mean “richer than Black.” People can make these problematic inferences based on race, but race itself isn’t an issue and it isn’t going anywhere. Franchesca Ramsey explains that, “For people of color, who we are has been shaped by the daily experiences of dealing with stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice, and institutional racism…how my parents were treated, how their parents were treated, and so on and so on.” Race will always exist because it existed in the past, giving each racial group its own unique history.

Works Cited:

Edward B. Rugemer. (2013). The Development of Mastery and Race in the Comprehensive Slave Codes of the Greater Caribbean during the Seventeenth Century. The William and Mary Quarterly, 70(3), 429-458. doi:1. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.70.3.0429 doi:1

Scott, W. R., & Shade, W.G. (2000). Upon these Shores: Themes in the African American Experience, 1600 to the present. New York: Routledge.

Sussman, R. W. (2016). Why Are We Divided by Race When There Is No Such Thing? http://www.newsweek.com/there-no-such-thing-race-283123