Ex-slaves’ refusal to sell disciplined labor led Brazilians to import European workers

Evidence

Many plantation laborers, however, saw the new policy as a retraction of their rights. In his 1793 labor regulations, Sonthonax had required cultivators to sign one-year contracts on their plantations, after which they were permitted to move to another plantation if they wished. Rigaud’s administration in the south had instituted a similar practice. Louverture had consistently ordered workers to return to their plantations, but he had not issued regulations regarding the length of their terms of contracts. In the areas under his control many former slaves seem to have moved between plantations, seeking better treatment or the company of family and friends, with relative impunity. In the increase in the terms of the contracts, some smelled the scent of slavery. A few laborers claimed they would rather “live in the woods their whole life” than sign three-year contracts, and in some towns the registers in which the contracts were to be signed were ripped up. — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

As long as imported African labour was relatively cheap to replenish, planters could afford to use people rather than animals to perform the most back-breaking tasks. After all, slaves were dispensable, whereas horses and oxen were costlier to import and less likely to survive in the unforgiving climate. — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 186 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Africa supplied slave labor because its region lay outside Europe’s world-economy; Sugar’s labor demands drove the English to mass importation of African slaves; Planters used enslaved humans instead of draft animals because imported labor was cheaper — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 186 (+3 more)

Related

• Brazilian ex-slaves resisted exchanging freedom for proletarianized labor. (similarity 0.85)
• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery (similarity 0.84)
• Ex-slaves built a subsistence-based rural economy on former plantations (similarity 0.82)
• Sugar’s labor demands drove the English to mass importation of African slaves (similarity 0.81)
• Planters used enslaved humans instead of draft animals because imported labor was cheaper (similarity 0.80)
• Former slaves actively resisted contract labor that smelled of a return to slavery. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Former slaves resisted longer labor contracts as a return to slavery #corroborates (0.80) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 770
• Planters used enslaved humans instead of draft animals because imported labor was cheaper #expands (0.55) — Stella Dadzie, A Kick in the Belly- Women, Slavery and…, 186
• Sugar’s labor demands drove the English to mass importation of African slaves #corroborates (0.50)
• Africa supplied slave labor because its region lay outside Europe’s world-economy #expands (0.40)