Alcohol in Caribbean Slave Societies

If slaves were not already familiar with rum in Africa, they were quickly introduced to it during the middle passage or upon their arrival in the Caribbean. Dr. Collins (1811:59), a planter and physician in St. Vincent, advised that, as part of the seasoning process, newly arrived slaves should be given rum "in small quantities, not pure, but diluted in water into a pretty strong grog; for it is the business of the Planter to conciliate them by many compliances with their humour." Rum, therefore, was used as a salutation to try and ease the transition into Caribbean slavery.

British Caribbean sugar planters provided huge amounts of rum to their slaves as part of weekly plantation rations (Long 1774:490). In the late eighteenth century, managers at York estate, Jamaica (GMP) set-aside 800 gallons of rum each year for use on the plantation.

Rum was also given as a reward for good work. Jamaican sugar planter Thomas Roughley (1823:90-91) argued that, as an incentive to the principal headman to do his duty well, "a weekly allowance of a quart or two of good rum...will be found of salutary effect." Planters devised an effective incentives system, which used rum to improve discipline and elicit a favorable slave disposition.



All day every day was after-work drinks........