Blog #4

Blog #4

In the article Ethnic Slave Rebellions in the Caribbean and the Guianas it discusses the different ethnic groups in the Caribbean and the northern South America.  There were different attitudes and the behaviors associated also with the geographical locations of the different ethnic groups. The reason they were being rebellious and the some of the drastic repercussion behind the behaviors. 

Some examples given from the article were the way the Creoles, because they were born in the New World and they were imbedded in a culture that they discovered on their own. They were considered different or better, they considered themselves better than the Africans. “The Creoles looked at the Africans as lower than and called them “salt-water Negroes” (journal of history, p.376) 

The article also mentions the social political and the economic portion of the slavery time and how important it was to the owners. The importance of the way they communicated with the Government and the other ethnic groups such as the second group, the Maroons they were in years of intermittent warfare and they were dragged to the mountains in islands. In Maroon they ethnic group there were more Akan group.  Another name for the Maroon were also “Bush Negros”, everyone had a degrading name based on their geographical location. 

Based on my examples I believe the mindset of the slaves were to be rebellious due the turmoil that was going on during this time.  The way they were separated, the way the women were forced to mother their children and live with; a child of a slave owner. Also they mindset was determined by the following factors: having more status maybe because one comes from a dominating ethnic group or having more skills and/ or perform more responsible work.