FREEDOM AND OPPRESSION OF SLAVES IN THE 18TH-CENTURY CARIBBEAN

Characteristics of two different social systems, island government and the particular master-slave relationship, jointly determined the degr ee of freedom of slaves in the Caribbean in the late eighteenth centur y. The degree to which an island was ''a slave society'' depended on t he dominance of sugar cane in the island economy, and whether planters were internally well-organized and were powerful in the empire govern ment. The Bahamas and Santo Domingo (the Dominican Republic) had low p lanter power on both criteria; Barbados and Antigua had high on both. Within a slave society, the degree to which a slave was treated like a free man or woman was determined by the slave owner's need for the sl ave's consent and enthusiasm as a trusted agent. This varied within is lands: Slave pearl divers, dock workers, fishermen, mistresses, huckst ers, soldiers, or cowboys tended to be nearly free when slaves and wer e likely to be formally or informally set free, even if island governm ents strongly limited their freedom.