Population Growth in Slave Societies Perhaps the main difference between slavery in North America and the Caribbean was that slave populations in the Caribbean rarely grew 'naturally' (as opposed to by migration). The reason was that death rates exceeded birth rates. But was this mainly because death rates were high or birth rates were low? What is an appropriate point of comparison? And what sort of evidence is available? There exists a long scholarly debate going back to slavery times. Its details are often technical. The following chart gives an overview of the main factors involved.
COMPONENTS
1) Child-bearing
span
2) % Sterile
Women
3) Child-spacing
physiological.................DETERMINANTS.............................social
| FECUNDITY | MISCARRIAGE | ABORTION | INTERCOURSE | FINDING | |
| CAUSES | [onset, end, frequency
of ovulation; spermcount] |
FREQUENCY | PARTNERS | ||
| mainly | disease [esp. VD] | disease [esp. VD] | disease | disease | |
| material | nutrition | nutrition | apolitical | nutrition | plantation size |
| workload | workload | workload | population density | ||
| mainly | stress | political | co-resident couples | population | |
| social | lactation-duration | freedom of movement | homogeneity | ||
| lactation taboo |
| MORTALITY | |
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| |
|
|
|
|
| 'NORMAL' | INFANT | SEASONING | EPIDEMIC | DROUGHT |
| adults | 1-12 mths | Africans 2/3 yrs | ||
| old age | disease | unfamiliar disease | smallpox |
starvation |
| disease | [tetanus] | malnutrition | typhoid | |
| [nutrition- and | malnutrition | [unfamiliar diet;deprivation in transit] | ||
| hygiene-related] | [tetany, beriberi] | stress | ||
| accidents | low birth weight | |||
| suicide | infanticide |
|
|
|
N.B. Workload and nutrition interact with disease, affecting susceptibility to infection and recovery, and have a synergistic or multiplying effect. Low population growth correlates with: 1. sugar cultivation 2. African slaves