Status Determinants in Caribbean Society

        Legal status: (free/slave)
        Color: (white/quadroon/mulatto/black, etc.)
        Culture: (European/creolized/African)
        Occupation: (degree of skill/authority/mobility)
        Other: ("unofficial" skills/status: African doctors, priests, princes)
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Ethnicity, Culture and Occupation

 
 

Culture: African     Creolized
Origin:        African                        Black Creole                              Mulatto
Occupation: Unskilled                                                                             Skilled                      
Legal Status:      Slave                                     Free

[read table vertically for approximate correspondences]

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Occupational Structure on a Late l8th Century Sugar Estate

WHITES
Manager
Book-keepers
(Overseers)
SLAVES
FIELD ARTISANS DOMESTIC OTHER
"Slave Elite" Slave-drivers Head Artisans Housekeeper Other Headmen
(20%)
[40% of men Mason Coachman Wagoners
 5% of women] Blacksmith Cook Boilers
Carpenters Valets Stockmen
Wheelwright Servants
Coopers Seamstress Nurse
Laundresses Midwives
Main Workforce Fieldslaves
(50%)  (1st & 2nd gangs)
Children  Apprentices
(20%)  3rd gang
Elderly Watchmen
(10%) Hedgecutters
  Gatekeepers

 [Order of status: very roughly section by section, left to right, top to bottom]

return to: HIS 5450; LAH 4471.