Surviving Slavery: Mortality at Mesopotamia, A Jamaican Sugar Estate, 1762–1832

Abstract

We use survival analysis to study the determinants of mortality of 1099 slaves living on the Jamaican sugar plantation of Mesopotamia for seven decades before the Emancipation Act of 1833. We find evidence that female slaves who were first observed during Joseph Foster Barham II's period of ownership (1789-1832) faced an increased risk of death compared with those who were first observed during his predecessor's tenure. We find no such relationship for males. We cite as a possible explanation the employment regime that was operated under Foster Barham II after his voluntary withdrawal from the transatlantic slave trade, which allocated increasing numbers of females to gang labour in the cane fields. g-estimation models estimate that continuous exposure to such work, versus never being exposed, reduced survival times by around 30%. We compare our results with previous studies of Mesopotamia and the wider literature dealing with work and survival in Caribbean slave populations.

The Hazards of Slavery

“…As the discussion in the full article which accompanies this one 6 emphasises, care must be taken in interpreting our results. Nevertheless, Mesopotamia draws attention to a potential hidden consequence of ending the transatlantic slave trade.…”

‘Not that of mere accident, but of humane treatment’: natural increase and ‘amelioration’ on Grand Sable Estate, St Vincent

“…One consequence of abolition, however, was to raise incentives to allocate women to field labour, with adverse consequences for the likelihood that females would survive to the end of their childrearing years, and also for their reproductive ability. 10 After the 1815 Slave Registration Act made comparative data more readily available, the theme of demographic failure was forcibly articulated by James Stephenone of the chief sponsors of this legislation. Stephen pointed to high mortality among field slaves that could not be made up for by fertility.…”

The amelioration of British West Indian slavery: anthropometric evidence

“…Craton, ‘Jamaican slave mortality’; idem, Searching ; Dunn, Tale ; Forster and Smith, ‘Surviving slavery’; Morgan, ‘Slavery’, pp. 383–4; Smith, ‘Life and labor’.…”

“…182–5; Dunn, Tale , pp. 144–6; Forster and Smith, ‘Surviving slavery’, pp. 924–5; Higman, Slave population and economy , pp.…”