s Jug, late 1700s-early 1800s - Hull Museums Collections

Jug, late 1700s-early 1800s

This jug shows the products made by enslaved Africans in America and the Caribbean.

One of the pictures shows an African slave on a beach. The two large barrels beside him are called hogsheads. Hogsheads were used to pack sugar, the main product made by slaves in the Caribbean.

The sugar was shipped to Europe, where it was in great demand. The Europeans who owned sugar plantations in the Caribbean became so rich that they called sugar ‘white gold’.

Most enslaved people taken from Africa to the Caribbean worked on sugar plantations owned by Europeans. Sugar cane was brought to the Caribbean to be grown for profit in the 1600s. Slaves in North America also grew tobacco, rice and cotton. The white bales shown on this jug are cotton bales.

When people taken from Africa were bought as slaves in the Caribbean, their new owners took them to the plantations. New arrivals underwent a period known as ‘seasoning’ or ‘breaking in’.

Slaves were inspected and divided into field and domestic workers. They were registered in plantation accounts and branded with estate marks to show who owned them. This made it easier to identify runaway slaves. They were introduced to the daily routine and discipline on the plantation. Up to a quarter of new arrivals died during seasoning.

The sugar cane harvest ran from January to July. At this time slaves often worked 12 hours a day in the fields. They would then work in the factories through the night, extracting the sugar from the cane.

Discipline was harsh on the plantations and punishments were severe. Flogging with whips and beatings from the overseer were part of daily life. Sexual and physical abuse was common. Enslaved people found ways of resisting their oppression. Some ran away. Others rebelled by working slowly to reduce the planters’ profits. More violent resistance included vandalism or theft of plantation property.