Somerville High School history teacher Jennifer Ross.

By Carrie Stanziola

Although many Somerville residents may be unfamiliar with the history of Caribbean slavery, Somerville High School history teacher Jennifer Ross took an intensive, weeklong seminar in Barbados to examine how the “peculiar institution” took root in the region. Entitled Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Caribbean, the July 2011 seminar was organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute and took place in Barbados under the direction of Harry C. Black Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University Dr. Philip D. Morgan.

Historians such as Professor David Eltis of Emory University and Sir Hillary Bickles of the University of the West Indies were present to give lectures and facilitate group discussions among the seminar’s 30 students. Course participants researched and selected primary source documents pertaining to slavery and the Caribbean slave trade, created teaching strategies on their subjects for classroom instruction and presented their work before their peers, who received copies of these primary works; a “wonderful resource” states Ross.

While most know about the barbarism of American slavery, Education Coordinator of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History John McNamara argues that “…in many instances working on a sugar plantation in the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America was more physically demanding, difficult, and dehumanizing than working on tobacco and later cotton plantations in North America.” Jennifer Ross notes the difficulty in cultivating sugar and the danger in harvesting raw sugar cane.  African slaves condemned to labor in Caribbean sugar plantations could expect to live about five to six years. Profit, McNamara argues, was the top priority for British, French, and Spanish slave owners, and the “vast majority” of Caribbean slaves were men.

In contrast, slaves who survived the Middle Passage to labor on cotton and tobacco plantations in the American south created families and had longer life expectancies. Ross mentions the lack of “natural reproduction” in the West Indies. Of the small number of children born, a smaller portion reached adulthood. The high infant mortality rate changed “…as time went on and owners were able to find ways to make the environment more conducive for slaves to survive and reproduce.” However, this process took longer than in America, where slaves developed immunity to New World diseases in the course of several generations.

In contemporary Barbados, 95 percent of the population is black and 5 percent is Caucasian.  McNamara notes that “…there appears to be great harmony and mutual respect among the residents of the island.” In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans measured wealth in land ownership and the fruits of agricultural production, mainly sugar.  Similar to the United States, slaves in Barbados were stripped of their freedom, as well as land ownership, civil rights, and the right to an education. However, since Britain’s bloodless abolishment of slavery in the 19th century, Barbadians have taken advantage of the opportunity to pursue education as well as economic and social success. Receiving a college education is valued, and many hold professional positions. However, while blacks control the political system, whites own over 50% of the land. And, despite Barbadians’ welcoming attitude towards tourists and their pride in their culture, both Barbados and America “…have struggled historically in their quest for racial equality and harmony.”

Ross, who received her education from Boston College and UMass Boston and has studied the impact of the slave trade on the cultures and economies of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia, wants to emphasize the intellectual rigor of the course, as many assume her trip was a relaxing vacation. However, she adds that her time in Barbados was a “wonderful experience” and hopes to participate in another Gilder Lehrman institute.