Proto Peasantry 5v552x

Proto Peasantry A third category of peasantry (proto peasantry) in which subsequent adaptation to a peasant style of life was worked out by people while they were still enslaved. Each island society differed in certain important ways from every other, with regard to its treatment of the slave population and i each and every system the slaves were able to work out certain creative adaptations in spite of the profoundly repressive conditions in which they were forced to live. Repeatedly, activities which the slaves were compelled to carry out in order to benefit the planters also enable them to demonstrate their intelligence, resourcefulness and creativeness. Repeatedly the planters were struck by the slaves capabilities to function differently in view s ( ie when producing their own foods or going to market) from the way they functioned under the whip. The planters, explained the difference in of their slaves’ contradictions, but the slaves an occasional foreign visitors knew better. Often these self- same skills turn out t be basic in establishing the free men independence in the plantation after emancipation. The proto peasantry, then, as salves later became peasant free men, either through emancipation (as in the case of Jamaica) or revolution (as in the case of Haiti) and whose particular productions of agricultural skills craft techniques, crops and all represent a blending of traditional and new materials. Commonly, among such peasantry today, one finds both African elements and European religious elements, African crops and European Asian an Amerindian crops African food processing techniques from many other areas and so on. Those of a proto/ peasant past form the largest Caribbean category both numerically and in of historical origins. African elements of religion –shouter Baptist, orisha, shango

African food processing technique: Wet milling -To recover mainly starch in the production of fermented foods e.g. ogi. Carried out by pounding or grinding after steeping. Laborious, limited capacity, high protein losses, poor quality product. African crops: cassava (also an Amerindian crop) Asian Food processing techniques

Techniques such as smoking, salting and fermenting have been used in pre industrial societies to preserve and break down food. European crops and food processing: Broilers, Threshing houses, refining sugar Potatoes

Amerindians food processing Oven huts, mortar and pestle

The Runaway Peasantries The runaway peasantry was formed by slaves escaping rather than salves submitting. Through the Caribbean region in Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, St Domingue, Jamaica, brazil and the Guiana’s- the creation of maroon communities in defiance of slavery and the plantation system was a common occurrence. Such communities must be separated, for different purposes, for example individual escapees could either attach themselves to a Maroon community only if they were accepted by that maroon leader; on their other hand there were some Maroon communities that had alliances with plantation masters. Thus individual escapees had to form their own living. The rationale of the Maroon pattern was to create a new and free kind of community outside off and in opposition to the slave plantocracy and where possible, to establish diplomatic relations with the white plantocracy on the basis of some kind of reciprocal treaty, the best known instances are those in Jamaica and Dutch Suriname, Dutch Guiana but Maroon communities elsewhere also establish treaty agreements with the slave society, as in Mexico and Cuba. In these cases runaway slaves became part of the Maroon community, but in the case of Guyana and Jamaica runaways were hunted by Maroons. Since the slaves owners and the metropolitan governments carried out frequent attempts to destroy the Maroon settlements. Their in habitats often lived under the threat of war ad their economic integration with the outside world was seriously impaired to the extent where they were compelled to maintain complete isolation from the development of that Caribbean economy Effects of the Peasantry We are able to trace the particular effects of the Maroon peasantry in Haiti and in Jamaica, where they had long lasting impacts on the slavery regime. 1) contributed to rebellion ad revolution 2) highly variant responses amongst the slave populations which include escape and struggle on the one hand and accommodation and the learning of the specific skills on the other. (crops, crafts, materials) However it should be noted that the peasantry of Haiti is very different from the one in Jamaica. There is a heavy commitment of the Jamaican peasantry to market/ oriented production of pimento, spices and bananas which contrast with that of the Haitian peasantries’ production of coffee and sugar. Caribbean peasantries as a social science problem   

Peasantries as seen as a method of resistance to the plantation model Owning a plot of land equates to be defining ones’ social/political position in life, owning land was a requirement to become politically and economically enfranchised. Thus one can have a hand in determining his own fate. Ex slaves resorted to various means to earn money to acquire land. They ventured in the skills/trades example craftsmanship, fishing, veterinary science, hunting, trades.

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Owning land was a way to define ones’ self. It was a symbol that one was not dependant on the sugar plantation.

The Role of The Peasantry 1) Peasantry diversify Caribbean colonies. Peasant activity modified the character of pure plantation economy and society. The peasants were the innovators in the economic life of the community besides producing a great quantity and variety of subsistence food and life stock, they introduced new crops and reintroduced old ones. This diversified the basically mono cultural pattern. Bananas, coffee, citrus, coconuts, coco ad logwood in Jamaica; coco, arrowroot, spices, bananas and logwood in the windward islands were the prime/ export crops introduced and reintroduced by the peasantry after the 1850s. All of these was subsequently adopted by the planter governments and become important elements in the export trade by the 1870s.