OUR STORY
Slavery and the Codringtons in Antigua/Barbuda

There were town slaves and country slaves. The town slaves were occupied in trade and professions. Besides domestic services, the town slaves worked as skilled craftsmen or trade men. They were given more personal freedom than the plantation slaves. The slave owners were responsible for housing, feeding and caring for their slaves. It was in the slave owner’s self interest to keep his labour force in good condition. The slaves obey orders, and behave themselves, to avoid punishment or to receive favours.

Each estate was almost a self contained unit with domestic, agricultural and industrial components. Masters and slaves were bound together in mutual dependency. Their relationship was determined by the disposition of the ‘massa’ in all its variance from humane to cruel.

The slaves started to work at sunrise and ended near sunset with an hour off at noon. Planting and harvesting was a particularly hard work performed in gangs of the most able bodied men women and children twelve and over. The drivers also worked on the plantations. They often carried whips to punish any idlers. The only free days allowed were Sundays and Christmas. On special occasions they worked seven days a week.

The planters lived in comfort in the Great House or buff attended by their household slaves. The slaves lived in compounds of houses called “Neggar house”. The houses were built from Wattle, small trees, grass or sugar cane thrash pasted or dabed together with mud – hence the names “Wattle and Daub"House. Some were made with stones with thrash roofs and dirt floors.

Inventory of Slaves on Betty’s Hope Plantation, July 26, 1751

The system of slavery provided the means to obtain the large number of hands needed for sugar plantations. In one of the darkest chapters in human history, an estimated 4 – 5 million Africans were brought by force from their homelands in slave ships under the most inhumane conditions to work on the West Indian sugar estates. By 1720, 84% of the Antiguan population (total 23,000) were slaves. Due to the harsh conditions, they were not able to increase their numbers to meet the growing demand for labour. In 1727, 139 slaves were carried from Africa to Antigua aboard Sir William Codrington’s vessel, Snow Codrington of Bristol. The trade continued for 150 years and was eventually abolished by law in 1807.

One can safely say that the only reason slavery existed for so long was because of the massive fortunes amassed by plantation owners. ‘Slaves and sugar’, comment one writer, ‘seldom made poor men prosperous, what it did in a number of cases was to make comfortable men extremely rich.’ (Gaspar, 1985). Gaspar continued that:

“Plantation profits founded some spectacular fortunes, both private and municipal, and it was therefore in the interests of factors, slave captains, merchants and planters alike to rationalize their actions in the interests of public and private gain, and to reassure one another that what they were doing was for the good not only of themselves, but also of the African blacks.” (pg. 64).

Although we had difficulty extracting sufficient information from the Codrington Papers, Museum documents and the Archives which concretely showed the Codrington’s profits in Antigua, one thing is sure, a family of such shrewd businessmen, would not have continued for generations in a business which was not extremely profitable. The Codringtons even owned a slave vessel ‘Snow Codrington of Bristol’ to help facilitate the transport of their slaves.

We intend to in the future gather additional information on this topic to add to this web page.

The treatment of the first Codrington owners may have been instrumental in establishing a relatively benevolent treatment by the slaves on their estates. In 1701, Christopher Codrinton wrote of the “coromantees” (Akan) that they were… “grateful and obedient to a kind master, but implacably revengeful when ill-treated. My father … would say, “Noe Man deserv’d a Coromantee that would not treat Him like a Friend rather than a Slave”.

Maroons Some slaves managed to escape to the Shekerley Hills where they lived in camps. These fugitives or ‘maroons’ were hunted down and punished severely, some by death. A few escaped to other islands. As the forests were cleared and the plantation expanded, it became more difficult to find a safe hide out.

During the 1736 slave plot, one of the ten leaders was the creole slave “Jacko” belonging to Sir William Codrington. He was executed along with 87 other slaves, including “Ghlode” and “Sacky” who were also owned by Codrington.

From a letter to Edward Codrington from Thomas Martin, 1773. ”…after trying every method with your runaway negroes, nothing would reform them, for after, being brought home almost starved to death, as soon as they recovered, and got a little flesh on their bones, they were gone again, and this very frequently, therefore lest we should lose them, I dispos’d of 7 at 30 pounds currency each, to be sent off the island.”

In 1701 major Samuel Martin was murdered by his slaves at Green Castle when he denied them their Christmas Holiday.

In 1728 Col. Crump’s slaves plotted to kill him and his family. Five slaves were condemned to death, nine were banished.