Colorism and life opportunities during Slavery #3 Inequality of opportunities at work

Publié le par Jessica Pierre-Louis
tanlistwa, Clark, Slaves cutting the sugar cane Antigua 1823

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What difference did it make in one’s life to be a free or enslaved non-mixed black, mixed-race black, « mulatto » or light mixed-race person in the Caribbean in the 18th century?

In the first post, I explained the context in which colorism developed, in other words, a colonialist context based on slavery, from which emerged color prejudice, a racist system that segregated and discriminated against black people. I’ve also clarified the words I’m going to use to analyze the impact of colorism on life opportunities.

In posts 2, 3 and 4, I take a closer look at the impact of colorism on people reduced to the status of slaves. I approach this from a statistical angle, which sometimes makes things a little indigestible to read (the statistical passages are shifted to the margins), but it also serves as a reminder that we’re not talking about an anecdotal phenomenon. The prevalence of colorism is measurable in 18th-century society.

This week, we continue our series on colorism with episode 3, in which I I’ll be looking at inequalities in access to skilled work.

Inequality of opportunities: when an enslaved person’s skin was lighter, he or she was more likely to have a trade or skilled activity.

In his work, Frédéric Régent shows that the lighter the skin tone, the more likely people were to have a skilled job, a trend also observed in the « Esclavage en Martinique » database.

In his sample of 1973 enslaved people, Frédéric Régent counts 5% of qualified people among non-mixed blacks and 8% for mixed-race blacks, 9% for « mulattoes » and 12% for light mixed-race people. In the « Esclavage en Martinique » database, 1094 enslaved people are qualified out of the 14741 recorded in the database, i.e. around 7% of the total. Here again, we find the correlation between skin color and qualification, with around 6% of non-mixed black people qualified, 8% of mixed-race black people, 16% for « mulattoes » people and 21% for light mixed-race people.

Another element highlighted by Frédéric Régent is the fact that among qualified people, non-mixed black people were priced lower than light mixed-race people, a small phenomenon, but one that I also find.

In the « Esclavage en Martinique » database, the 175 non-mixed black people with a qualification are thus estimated on average at 2,327 livres, while the 177 « mulattoes » people are estimated at 2,387 livres. The difference is modest, 50 livres on average, but there it is.
I’m only comparing these two categories, as only 25 mixed-race black and 24 light mixed-race people have a qualification and an associated value; at least 100 would be needed for acceptable statistics, so I’m ignoring their results.

So I wondered whether this difference in value could be linked to a factor other than skin tone, and in particular whether age might be influencing the results. Let me explain my reasoning. If light mixed-race people had easier access to emancipation, this means that proportionally fewer of them aged under slaves status than non-mixed black people. Now, the value of a person as a slave depended not only on his or her qualifications, but also on his or her sex, age and physical condition… I therefore redid the calculations, taking into account only those aged over 19, to reduce the factor of youth (which has a strong influence on prices) and of escaping from slavery before learning a trade in determining the price. I then obtain a clear difference, of the order of 262 livres on average. So something other than age was involved in explaining this difference in average value in adulthood.

In the « Esclavage en Martinique » database, the 162 non-mixed black people over 19 with a qualification are estimated on average at 2368 livres, while the 124 « mulatto » people are estimated at 2630 livres. The average for non-mixed black people rises when the age factor is taken into account, but the average for « mulattoes » also rises, and much more !

I then took a closer look at each person’s qualifications, and in particular selected those over 19 years of age whose ethno-racial category and occupation were also known, to observe whether, on equivalent criteria, we observed estimations that valued the clearest people more highly. But the samples are too small to be reliable.

However, I was impressed by the distribution of people within the various functions. Ethnoracial categorization played a part in the type of activities available! « Mulattoes » or light mixed-race people were often described as servants, housekeepers or valets, while people described as garden workers, guards, carters [cabrouettiers] (those who drove carts, [cabrouets]), millers, refiners, vinegar-makers, pit-sawyers, bakers, cooks and women who took care of other enslaved people (birth attendants, nurses, [hospitalière], etc.), were mostly non-mixed black people. A majority of mixed-race people were found in the positions of seamstress, wigmaker, fisherman, laborer (without further details); while a majority of non-mixed black people were found in the positions of washerwoman, commander, sailor. The distribution is slightly more balanced for carpenters, masons and coopers.

tanlistwa_Clark_Slaves_cutting_the_sugar_cane_Antigua_1823

How can we explain the fact that people perceived as non-mixed black had, on average, less access to a qualified activity, and the difference in the distribution of accessible activities?

If you try to sort it all out, what emerges is that the planters used domesticity to keep the lighter-skin, enslaved people away from what would associate them with field work and the industrial activities of the plantation world. Stated like that, you might think that domesticity was an enviable lot. So I’d like to remind you that being a domestic slave, rather than a field slave, wasn’t all advantages – far from it. Not only did proximity to the master’s house mean a high degree of availability (the person could be called upon at any time of the day or night), but physical proximity also meant all the more risk of abuse and moral, physical and sexual violence. This being said, for the question that interests us, that of the impact of colorism in our societies, belonging to domesticity distinguished one from the servile mass attached to agricultural activities. There were indeed a few « mulattoes » in the field, but they had the status of commanders. In other words, they were in charge of organizing work and discipline among the workshop of enslaved people, and thus possessed a certain authority over the other slaves. Although there is a 19-year-old « in charge of cattle », he was also a tailor. Among the 177 « mulattoes », André, a refiner, was also a cooper, Jeremie, a rum-maker, was still a wigmaker and domestic servant; only Louis was a miller and Coucoune, a refiner, with no other activity mentioned.

It seems that the masters also kept mixed-race people out of particularly hard and constraining jobs: the bakers and the only blacksmith mentioned (like Élie, Brutus, Pompé, slave blacksmiths in the city in 1830) were all non-mixed black persons.

Finally, masters favored skills that could be monetized in the city. Thus, « mulattoes » and light-mixed race people were often represented among the trades that could be practiced outside the plantation: carpenter, cooper, mason, shoemaker, wigmaker for men, seamstress for women.

All articles of the series Colorism and life opportunities during Slavery

#1 Skin color and mixed race in the 18th century
#2 Differentiated access to freedom
#3 Inequality of opportunities at work
#4 Values tainted by prejudice
#5 The imbalance in relations
#6 Capital disparity

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