HOW DO THE

CARIBBEAN
PEOPLE
RESPOND TO
OPPRESSION?

OPPRESSION
Oppression is the
experience of repeated,
widespread, systemic
injustice. It need not be
extreme and involve the
legal system (as in
slavery, apartheid, or

What Really
happened
Between
1662 and 1807, Britain
shipped 3.1 million Africans across
the Atlantic ocean in the
transatlantic slave trade. Africans
were forcibly brought to British
owned colonies in the Caribbean
and sold as slaves to work on
plantations. Those engaged in the
trade driven by the huge financial
gain to be made both in the
Caribbean and at home in Britain.

They constantly rebelled against

slavery right up until emancipation in
1834. Most spectacular were the slave
revolts during the 18th and 19th
centuries, including: Tackys rebellion
in 1760s Jamaica, the Haitian
Revolution (1789), Fedons 1790s
revolution in Grenada, the 1816
Barbados slave revolt led by Bussa, and
the major 1831 slave revolt in Jamaica
led by Sam Sharpe. Also voices of
dissent began emerging in Britain,
highlighting the poor conditions of
enslaved people.

How Were They

Oppressed
1 When taken
to work on the

plantation they lived in huts in the

slave villages which were very
unsanitary and poor living
conditions.
2 Their punishment were cruel and
severe, flogging and beating
became part of their everyday life.
3 They were given crowded
barracks, meagre wages long
hours of heavy manual labour.

Slaves Being
Punished

There were
three ways in
which they
resisted
oppression

Non-violent
Resistance
They refused
to work
They evade work
They deliberately lose their
tools
They behaved like they did not
understand instructions given
to them by their masters
They made songs to mimicked
the masters lifestyle
They committed suicide

Marronage
They ran away from
the European society
They waged war in the
form of a attacks,
raids and inspiring
rebellion on estates

Violent Resistance

They acted against the whites in

groups
They rebelled against them
The revolution in Haiti
mushroomed into war between
France and the slaves in 1791 the
slaves being victorious.
Fedons 1790 revolution in Grenada
The Barbados slaves revolt lead by
Bussa

Now lets look at

Jamaica and how they
deal with oppression

Many of the Jamaican

national heroes such as
Paul Bogle, George
Williams Gordon and Sam
Sharpe all spoke out
against oppression in
Jamaica.

Paul Bogle, Sam

Sharpe and
George Gordon

Paul Bogle

On Wednesday, October 11, 1865, Paul Bogle

and a large group of people from Stony Gut
and surrounding districts in the Parish of St.
Thomas, Jamaica marched down to Morant Bay.
Their purpose was to make a demonstration
before the Custos and magistrates who were
having their regular meeting in the Morant
Bay Court House that day. They wanted the
authorities of their parish to know that they
were no longer prepared to put up with
injustice, with arbitrary arrest and with all the
other indignities that sapped their self-respect
and prevented them from attaining the full
status as free people.

Sam Sharpe
Sam Sharpe told the slaves
to sit down and do no work
until they were paid. He
said he never wanted them
to fight, many slaves
followed Sharpes plan. He
believed that all slaves
should be freed.

George William
Gordon

George urged the

people to protest
against and resist the
oppressive and unjust
conditions under which
they were living.

Today
Caribbean people today
continue to resist oppression
through music and song
reggae and similar
movements in Jamaica music
orientated among the poor
and oppressed and so too did
the Steel band and Calypso in
Trinidad and Tobago.