Between 1800 and 1850, resistance surged across the Caribbean as the enslaved refused to wait for freedom to be granted. But rebellion wasn’t just about battle—it thrived in quiet defiance, spiritual leadership, and intelligence networks. Women played vital but often overlooked roles, shaping revolts from the shadows. From secret messengers to spiritual guides, their impact was undeniable. In this episode, historian Dr. Zara Anishanslin and local experts unravel the ways enslaved women challenged colonial rule, fought for sovereignty, and ensured survival. Their resistance didn’t always take the form of weapons—but it was powerful, strategic, and relentless.

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Produced by Simpler Media

>> Mr. Richardson: M.

>> Dr. Anna Hanslin: Even things where women were never a majority, like

military participants, there have always been

women who have fought in conflicts and battles

and wars and picked up arms. They've never

been the majority, but they've always

been present in these conflicts. And there have always been

a certain amount of women who have fought in

these engagements, just like men.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): Welcome to Whispers of the Past. I'm your host,

Fitavit. And this is revolt and the promise of

sovereignty. In this episode, we step

into the period of 1800 to

1850, a time of growing

defiance, when resistance against colonial

rule surged across the Caribbean.

Even as European powers debated

abolition, the enslaved refused to wait for their

freedom to be granted. Revolts

ignited across the region, fueled by

whispers of emancipation and the unyielding

determination of those still in bondage.

But what does it truly mean to resist?

Is rebellion only measured by weapons and

warfare? Or does it also

exist in the quiet acts of defiance that shape

history from the shadows?

For too long, women's roles in uprising

have been overlooked.

Yet they were not just witnesses to history.

They were strategists, advisors, and

bearers of knowledge that sustained entire

movements. To begin,

historian Dr. Anna Hanslin takes us beyond

synthesis. Offering a broader

perspective on the Atlantic route,

she reveals how women's resistance, though often

unseen, was fundamental to the revolutions

that reshaped the Caribbean.

>> Dr. Anna Hanslin: Yes, so some people, I think, assume that men are always

the ones who are leading revolts because they tend to

be the warriors in revolutions and

rebellions. But in pretty much

every war, women are present as, um, active

fighters as well, whether that's by choice or by

accident. And so you do have examples of

women actually fighting in. In

rebellions in the 18th and 19th century. But

I think more importantly, women are present in ways that

support the revolution and rebellion in

various places in the Atlantic world, um,

as people who are spiritual advisors,

practical advisors, people who are the keepers of

memory in terms of what's happening

and things in the past that might inform

the the present and their actions. They're also

the people who often have their ears to the ground. They can

easily collect the latest gossip and the latest

news, particularly enslaved women who are

laboring inside plantation houses, who

are close to their enslavers for various reasons, and sometimes that is

because of a sexual relationship. They're conduits

of information. And so they can be really

important central actors in these sort

of networks of communication that Julia Scott and other

historians have identified as really important. In

Flaming the Fan of Rebellion in the Caribbean in the

18th and 19th centuries.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): Women'S role in rebellion have often been

overshadowed by male dominated narratives.

But as Dr. Anna Hansen explains, their

contributions extended far beyond combat,

encompassing intelligence gathering,

spiritual leadership, and direct

resistance. What does it truly mean to

lead a rebellion? Is it defined solely

by those who wield weapons?

Or does leadership also lie in the unseen

network that sustain revolts from within?

In a world where survival often depends on

strategy, enslaved women, especially

those laboring inside plantation houses,

became critical sources of intelligence.

Their proximity to enslavers granted them

access to whispered plans, shifting political

currents, and the hidden tension that could spark

an uprising. These

women became conduits of knowledge. Their m

voices carried vital information through secret

networks that historians recognized as

essential to the Caribbean resistance movements.

But this knowledge came at a cost. For

these women, information was both a weapon and a

burden, A tool for liberation,

yet a risk that could mean a difference between freedom

and a deadly punishment.

Beyond gathering intelligence, enslaved women also

played vital roles as spiritual guides and

advisors, drawing upon traditions deeply

rooted in West African heritage.

These traditions, passed down through generations,

offered strength and strategy in time of

turmoil. But how did these roles

translate into leadership during uprisings? How

did the wisdom of women shape the course of the

rebellion? Dr. Anna Hanselin

explains.

>> Dr. Anna Hanslin: And I think also among communities where

African spiritual traditions are still present

and African cultural traditions are really strong,

Female leaders in Africa do have, again,

different role than they do in white patriarchal

European societies. And so, you know,

there's a sense that women should be respected as the keepers

of collective memory. And the idea that women

can be wise and offer counsel to the men

who are going to fight and be warriors, and also that there

are female spiritual leaders, um, in a lot of West

African traditions. And so I think you see all of these various

roles, um, of women coming together. But

of course, as with what defines their conditions of

enslavement, it also can be difficult for women these

times of rebellion and revolution, because it's harder

for you to run with an army

or, um, you know, run to a maroon community.

If you have a baby, you know that you're a baby in your

arms, that you're breastfeeding, right? And so I think these are

again, um, concerns that aren't limited to

women. Certainly, you know, men or fathers and have,

have familial concerns too. But it was definitely the case

in this period that women are the primary

caregivers and nurturers, usually of children. And so this is

going to affect their ability to be physically

present with revolutionary armies and forces.

But again, any army or military

force, and this is true across

Time in the Caribbean, as elsewhere, relies on

the labor of women to sustain it. So you have

women working as cooks and, um,

laundresses and sexual partners and doing

all the things that keep an army full of men

on, on their feet and in fighting condition. And

so you see, you see this again with women involved in

slave revolts and rebellions throughout the Caribbean. So

I would say they do play a really vital role in

multiple ways, even though they're not,

obviously, you know, the ones

primarily yielding the swords or the bayonets or the

musket.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): As Dr. Anna Hansen highlights, women were

woven into the fairy fabric of resistance. Whether

through spiritual leadership, intelligence gathering,

or sustaining revolutionary forces, they

were indispensable. Yet while these

networks of resistance stretched across the Caribbean,

each island has its own story to tell.

How did these broader movements toward freedom shape life

on Sint Eustaceous? To understand the local impact, we turn

to Missesutikau, a long term resident and one of

the founders of the center of Archaeology and Research.

She helps us explore the period of unrest here on

Sintostatius and how enslaved individuals

sought their own path to freedom,

often looking beyond their own shores to

islands where slavery had already been abolished.

>> Ms. Sutekau: This was a time of slavery unrest all through the

Caribbean. In

1846, the English Islands and, um,

granted emancipation of slavery.

And so a lot of Irish slaves were trying to escape

in those years to the British islands.

Oftentimes they were escaping to the Spanish

islands because the Spanish were allowed even to be

free. The French islands had been

granted emancipation of slavery, but after

Napoleon came in, they reinstituted

the institution of slavery. So the French

islands were later in actually

recognizing slavery. But this was the time of the

unrest and this was the time that slaves were beginning

to find out that they had

power and that they needed to exercise their

power for their own rights.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): The early 19th century marked a turning point for

Sint Eustatius. While resistance and

rebellion were spreading across the region, the island

itself was undergoing dramatic changes.

No longer the thriving trading hub of the previous

century, Stacia faced economic

decline, shifting political control and

the departure of key merchant groups.

What did this mean for those who remained?

How did these changes impact the

enslaved, free people of color and the

landowners who had once shaped the island's

economy? Mrs. Sutekau helps us

understand the shifting landscape of this era and

what it means for Stacia's future.

>> Ms. Sutekau: I know that there were a lot

of involvement, uh, with women

who own property here, and

that property, um, was often

sold during that period. You have

to remember, after

1816. In early

1800s and 1860, when we regained

our independence from England

and France and became Dutch again to stay Dutch

forever, our economy was going

down. Our warehouses were closed. The

French had closed the warehouses, and the English kept them

closed during that period of time. So that by

1816, after the war, in 1812, in the

United States, station was never more, uh,

a, uh, large trading colony. Small amounts of

trades may be going on, but we were not needed

by the New World at that point in time.

So almost all the stuff that was

going out here with agricultural. So

we were growing crops. We started growing indigo, about that

term. We started doing the sisal

crop where we were making the rope and everything

else. There also was the

beginning of our cotton crops.

Originally we were growing Sea island cotton

and also inferior grades.

We lost that contract to Montserrat,

supposedly because our good

cotton was spiked with some bad cotton.

And, um, it did not meet the quality that was needed in

England. This was a period that

Stacia was greatly

decreased economically in its

value. It was also a period when

people, planters and plantation

owners began to leave the island.

The Jewish population had already gone.

So there were not the Jewish merchant ships that

had been here before that were involved

in the trade. So because the Jewish

population basically left the island

by the early 1800, only one Jewish

woman left with life, and she died in

1846. And, uh,

she wasn't even buried on this island. She was either

buried with her family in Saint Martin or Nevis

or one of the surrounding islands. So

that, uh, 1800s to the

1850s was the beginning of the

decline of St. Eustachia.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): As the 19th century progressed, Sint Eustacea

was no longer the bustling trading hub it once

was. The warehouses were closed,

the Jewish merchant community had left, and

the island's economy became increasingly

reliant on agriculture.

While global powers debated abolition, the

island's trajectory seemed to shift away from its

past dominance. Yet

even as Stacia's formal role in the transatlantic

enslaved economy declined, the illegal

trade in enslaved people continued. As

Mr. Richardson, the island's heritage inspector,

explains how colonial powers may have

abolished the transatlantic and slave trade,

but that didn't mean that the practice had

truly ended. Instead, the demand for

forced labor fueled underground networks,

exposing the stark contradictions between

abolitionist policies and economic

real.

>> Mr. Richardson: So we're, uh, now in the beginning of the 19th

century, and St. Eustatius of is showing the

Caribbean that stage is different. So

now think about what I've said about the island

changing hands. You know, 22 times in the space of

150 years. We're still within that

150 years. We're nearing the

end of the final change of hands, but we're not there

yet. In that period, though, before we go

in, it's the late 1790s. Two

young Irish boys, no older than

25 or on a ship, and they're. Guess

what they're doing. They're trying to sell a few

enslaved people still. And think about this way. The

British have already outlawed the trade between

Africa, so that. That has stopped. It's illegal. But

then this, These two Irish gentlemen who is then part of, you

know, considered British, they are

sailing down from the USA and they're being. They go into

port and in the letters, you can read the letters

today, and you can hear them saying that

they've been turned away in this port and that port. And they're

heading down now from the area of the Bahamas,

it's all British, and they don't know where to go.

And they meet up with other

traders somewhere in the area of what is now

today the Turks and Caicos Islands. And what do they

do? They are told that they can get rid of their

commodity on Saint Eustatius. So. And

they did. So this ship comes into Sint Eustace

still with about 10 or 20 enslaved people,

and we're talking about the late

1790s. So think of it.

We're no longer in 1640. We're now in the

1790s. And it's still being

done. It's still being done illegally. And Stacia is

harboring all of that. Stacia is still. After

the plundering of Rodney that we spoke about in

previous episodes, Stacia is still doing this.

It's still being accepted. That goes to show you what

the vibe of the island was. And then you see

that these two boys, um, these young

gentlemen, they succeed in this and then they

disappear and they're never seen again. And then you see

that fast forward in

1798. We're almost

in the 19th century, and they still do it. Someone

else does it this time. Um, the French.

And what you need to remember is that

what's interesting is the French Revolution already

happened. So you have equality,

fraternity, and what's the one,

the other one I forgot. Anyway, so the French has

this thing, and the French is like, you know,

abolishing slavery, et cetera, and before

Napoleon reinstates it years after.

But what is interesting is that the island is French

when that happens. And it's not Dutch,

it's not English and, uh, what you will see that in between

From M. The 1600s up to now,

everyone, the island is changing hands. And no

one up to now

abolishes slavery.

So whether it was illegal to even trade

or sell in the French territories, when

the minute the French got into Satius, they ramped up

the trade in slaves, the minute the British,

the Dutch, the minute everyone got it back,

this little island, they kept doing it and doing it

and doing it. And so that shows you the

depth of how far St. Eustatius was already

known in the trade of the enslaved people.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): The persistence of, uh, the illegal slave trade on

Sintostatius underscores the island's deep

entanglement in human exploitation,

even as abolishment gained ground elsewhere.

But as the 19th century progressed, the island's

economy adapted. Plantations

expanded, bringing new crops, but also new

horrors. The enslaved endured extreme

brutalities, punishments designed not only to

enforce control, but to strip them from their

humanity. These practices, passed down

through oral histories, reveal the full extent of the

violence used to maintain the system.

Despite this cruelty, survival and resistance took

many forms. As Mr. Richardson continues, he

brings us into the heart of these oral histories.

Stories that bear witness to the suffering, but also

the resilience. This next

segment contains descriptions of extreme physical

punishment. If you

prefer to skip this content, you may fast forward the next

three minutes.

>> Mr. Richardson: So station life is still pretty much

the same, but then there's a change. The

plantations that I told you that were amounted to 30

are now 76. So the

plantation economy goes into

full drive. You see that it grows

even. So it's like one trade dies and the

other one picks up. So then, now you have indigo. You even

have a crawfish. You have sugar, you

have rum. There's a lot of rum distilleries on the

island from back then. And you see this is then ramping

up. And then you see that the island is still kind of

disconnected from the colonial government or from the

Hague at the time. And

then there's, of course, the stories. And a

lot of these stories that you see are, uh, oral

traditions. And I find oral traditions should not be

discredited because oral traditions

were the local way

of keeping stories alive and telling your history.

And why I'm going to say this is because many of those oral

traditions have proven to be extremely true when

it came to St. Eustatius. And when we go into the early

20th century, I will give more explanation as to why you

reach on the famous golden rock plantation,

there's Mr. Moore Sr. And Mr. Moore

Jr. The Moore family sounds very English, but

it's actually very stationed. They were born on stage, of

course, descended from Irish colonists, but they were born

on Stacia afterwards. And senior Mr.

Moore then is known to have impregnated many

of enslaved women. He was also known as the father

of the mulattoes on St. Eustatia's and of

course, kind of, you know, it's not something to be proud of.

But Mr. Moore is then, or Mr. Moore

Sr. Is also credited with his harsh,

harsh punishment. Punishment, like his son later,

to the enslaved people. And what you see is

there's many examples of oral traditions of women

being placed in ditches to where

they would be placed face down and would get the

harshest of punishments. And one punishment is

what I saw was a cattle ride. And I

often wondered what was a cattle ride until

via a colleague in Barbados who explained to

me what a cattle ride is. That is

where they would use kind of. They would dig

out a ditch, and it's quite

sad. And they would place you face down in that

ditch, and they would drive.

Or the master or the owner of the plantation

would ride his carriage

over you. So you would have kind of been the

function of the road. You would become the road, and you would be

face down. And this would have caused many

deformities, you know, crooked backs, broken

spines. People would have died. People would have been

crushed. And that was one of. That was just one of the few punishments

that they had here on St. Eustatius. And if

you go back into the records and you read the letter

of, uh, Zimmerman, who's traveling the islands, you can

see that Sycius does not. It's the

golden rock. But when it comes to the punishment and the treatment

of enslaved people, it is harsh. And he

records also the quarters of how the enslaved people are

treated and how they live. And this is still all the

1800s. And in that period

of the 1800s, um, the island becomes then

permanently Dutch. They don't realize it

until about 1816. It happened in 1815

officially at the concert in Vienna. But they don't realize it

here until 1816.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): The plantation economy tightens its grip on sinter

statius. But resistance took many

forms. Some sought freedom through rebellion,

while others worked within the system to subvert it from

the inside. Among

these women were free women of color, figures

often overlooked in the history of resistance.

As landowners, businesswomen, and guardians of

future generations, they challenged the notion that

power lay solely in the hands of the colonial

rulers. As Mr. Richardson

continues, he will introduce us To Francis

Coffee, Mary Gibbs, and other women who

navigated oppression in unexpected ways, using

ownership, trade and skill building to

carve out spaces of autonomy.

>> Mr. Richardson: And as that period progress, there are a lot of free

people of color. The free people of color population recovers

again since Rodney. And then you see a lot

of key figures popping up. And in

that period, what is interesting is that

there's a lady called

Frances Coffey who

buys the Glass bottle plantation for

3,000 florins or guilders at

the time. And she buys the plantation

with everything that's attached, including

the enslaved people. Um,

but it's not all what it seems. And in that

period as well, what you see is

another lady. Her name was Mary

Gibbs. Mary Gibbs is a seamstress.

She's a free woman of color. And she takes

about 10 to 15

girls under her wing who are still

enslaved. But what's interesting is that you

see all of these women and also men, but mostly the

women having people under the wing, where it

seems as if the enslaved people or the free

people of color aren't into satius or have

slaves themselves. But you don't have a plantation, but you

own slaves. M. So the European idea

would be, you see, free people had black people, had

slaves as well in the Caribbean. But is that true,

though? That's reading things from a helicopter view. But

when you go in between, reading between

the lines, and you see, for example,

Mary Brown is 70 when she

acquires these girls, quite old for that time,

but she. She is going to eventually die at

72. And in her will

she leaves, all these girls are free.

And in two years time, they're all kind of

trained to be seamstresses. And what you

see eventually in the emancipation register, when that

would eventually come in 1863, when you

go back there, you see what was going on. All of these

girls were kind of going into apprenticeship

under slavery. So on stage, had they kind of dealt

develop this kind of very

intellectual way of what we call

defiance or Verset. I think it's not

explored enough in the Caribbean how

people were using this system that

was, you know, unlawfully, you

know, uh, implemented or given to them, how

they turned this system around to make it work in their

favor. So what you see on synthesis is a

sort of deliverette

where they're using the norm of

slavery right in front of the colonial

governors.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): Ownership on paper didn't always mean what it

seemed. While colonial records listed free

people of color as enslavers, a closer

look reveals a completely different story.

Some, like Mary Gibbs, took Young enslaved

women under their career, not to exploit them, but to

teach them skills that would one day allow them to live as

free women. These were quiet

revolutions hidden in legal documents,

yet profoundly impactful.

One such woman was Mama Didier.

She took this idea even further, creating

an entire network of apprenticeships

that changed the futures of those under her

career.

>> Mr. Richardson: And then there's another brilliant story of. It's, uh,

around 18. It's 1808,

almost 1810. And one particular

lady in the register in the Notre Les Briefs

is like, her name is Mama Didier, and many people

are referred to as Mama. And her

initial, her original initial is V. But the only

thing she could have, she signed, so she probably was

not able to read. So she signed Mama

Didier, but didn't even write her own name. But what's

interesting is that she has a mixture now of 20

people in her apprenticeship.

Let's say she owns them. It's notarized.

They're all enslaved. There's boys and girls. But what

happened is her husband is the only

blacksmith on the island, um, and all the boys in

Mama Didier's care are trained to become

blacksmiths, and all the girls are becoming

bakers. And then she dies. And then when you

go back to the slave emancipation register,

she's already dead. But you find all of these

boys and girls, and you can guess what their occupation are.

Blacksmith. Blacksmith. Blacksmith. Bakers. Bakers.

Bakers. Bakers. And then you see that formerly

enslaved people venture out to other islands

already with a occupation and a

skill. And that's one of the things I think

are extremely unique, um, at the time,

and I think under a European lens, they would have

easily missed this. And it's very interesting

that this is something that the women, especially the

enslaved and the free women of color were

doing on

Stacey.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): While some resisted through economic

strategies, others took a different action.

The 1848 uprising of

Sintostatius was not an isolated act.

It was part of a broader Caribbean movement where

enslaved and free people alike defied

colonial rule. This revolt was

led by Thomas Dubois. But as

history often shows, men were not the only

ones fighting for freedom. Women marched

alongside them, risking everything to claim a future

that had long been denied. Mr.

Richardson takes us into the defining moment

when one that would forever alter the course of Sint

Eustatia's history.

>> Mr. Richardson: And of course, much later, around June

12, 1848, we have that famous uprising here

on the island. And, um, it is led

by a free man of color,

um, and his name is Thomas

Dubassois. And he's a free man of color.

He's born into freedom. So his parents were free,

and he was born into freedom here on the island.

And eventually he would be. After the

emancipation, he would find his way back to St. Eustatius, and

many of his descendants were still here today.

There's this uprising of the

1848 uprising on the island, the

revolt, as it's called, where Thomas Duboussoir

rides into town and demands his freedom. And on the

way, it's getting m momentum. Um, and what we do know

from the letters of the governor is that mostly

women, of course, they joined, and of course there's a

few men, but a lot of women are joining this because that's the

driving force. They want their freedom. They go

into the governor's residence, which is the green and white cove in

the middle of town on that square. That's where they

go. And the governor at the time is

Johannes de Vere. What's interesting is that

the de Vere family would have met a

revolt in every century. So there was a

de Vere in the Demerara uprising. There was a

dver in the time of Tula. And now we're on

St. Eustatius. There's a de Vere here again. There was a de Vere on

St. Martin. And these are all colonial governors

and colonial families. And that's for a story for

itself, how that superstition developed around the de

Vere family. But. So the governor is

Johannes de Vere. And Thomas Duboussois is

like, marching into the square, demanding his

freedom. And you can see he's literate. He

knows his things. He knows about the other islands. He knows

about what happened on St. Martin, et cetera. You can see he

can read everything he knows. And the governor's like,

I cannot give you your freedom at this time. That

is, it's not in my power to do so. I think

you should go back to your plantations and do your work. And you, Thomas,

are a free man of color. So what are you making a fuss

about? And he was like, no, I want this for my fellow

station men. And then with Thomas, of course, there's the

culprits. They're the ones that are named. There is, you know,

Valentine, there's Oscar, there's

Abraham and Thomas. And I'm forgetting one name

because it should be five that did the uprising and the leader making

it six. We know for a fact that

there were women present that lost their lives,

and there were women that fought. And when you look at many

of the uprising also on the other islands in the

caribbean region, it's all being led by women, often

even on St. Martin with one titi luque. It's also women,

but also unseen. Eustatia. There are women leading

uprising, but the thing is, they're not named. What's interesting

is that with the 1848 uprising, these

gentlemen would eventually marry local

women after emancipation. And now we know their

names, but in none of the original records that their

families or the women's names were mentioned. And

that goes to show you the role at that time

of women. So you can imagine that outside of women,

you know, like I called francis, coffey, mamade,

all of these people that predated them. It's like

they. What they fought for what they did, or

somehow, you know, you know, forgotten and

swept under the rug. But what you would eventually

see as the turn of the century comes and

abolishment would eventually come in

1863, is that you would see the

role of women in society

becoming more and more dominant. Because

women are not only the church leaders, but they're also the

organizers. They're part of the social

structure. They're the hierarchy. They are the

ones that keep the household together. And

they're the ones that also go to the market. Because

even some of the earliest pictures of

the free color market that we have, where the current

wilhelmina park is, all the women doing all the.

Well, everyone doing commerce and trade

and selling are women

and not men. So you see, the men are

fishing and doing the planting, but the women are the one

dealing with the pocketbook. They're the one dealing with the money.

They're the ones setting up the commerce and the trade.

And you will see that will continue onwards as we get into

the 20th century.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): Though the names of many women in the uprisings

remain completely lost to history, Their presence

in the struggle for freedom cannot be denied.

From syntastacia to haiti, from

suriname to jamaica, women played crucial

roles not just in open combat, but

intelligent networks, supply chains, and

spiritual leadership. Dr.

Anna Hanslin explains on this, showing us

why women contribution to resistance deserve

recognition, not just in the caribbean, but, uh,

across the world.

>> Dr. Anna Hanslin: Even things where women were never a majority, like

military participants, There have always been

women who have fought in conflicts and battles

and wars and picked up arms. They've never

been the majority, unless you want to go back to the myth of the

amazons, but they've never been the majority in any of

the societies we're talking about today, but

they've always been present in these conflicts.

And there have always been a certain amount of women who

have fought in these engagements, just like

men. And I think recognizing that makes

it then possible for us to think maybe it's

not so strange that people in the 21st century

think it's okay for women to be in the military.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): Beyond armed resistance, enslaved women also

fought battles over their own bodies.

Colonial authorities saw their ability to bear children

as a way to sustain slavery long after the

transatlantic trade was abolished.

But this was not just about forced reproduction.

It was about control. Surveillance

over women's fertility intensified, leaving

them with little autonomy over their own lives.

Historian and teacher Dr. Elaine unpacks how this

plays across different colonial systems and how

enslaved women responded to this oppression, sometimes

in ways that defied the very system meant to break

them.

>> Dr. Elaine: So, basically, as I mentioned before, slave

reproduction was really, really low in the

Caribbean. And all of a sudden,

slaveholders needed to find a way to

reproduce the labor force, right?

Because as the slave trade was coming to an end,

and eventually as slavery was coming to an end, there

was a need to continue the cultivation of

sugar and other cash crops, even in the absence of an

enslaved labor force. So, you know,

conditions on these plantations were horrific. Just

really some of the most brutal conditions you

could possibly imagine human beings living through.

And so that's why the, you know, fertility rate was really

low. And so all of a sudden, we see this

sense of kind of panic on the part of

many, many different, um, people with some sort of

stake in slavery over how the population

would continue to. To exist in these

colonies. And so this goes back to the idea

of amelioration. So one of the kind of, um,

key features of amelioration was that it was

intended to increase the birth rate. And, in fact, it was

unsuccessful. It didn't really increase the birth

rate, but it was intended to increase the birth rate

by encouraging women to have more children.

So women who had lots of children were awarded

with prizes, were awarded with,

um, time off from work, were awarded with

extra food and clothing. Uh, there was

much more of an interest in regulating

women's reproduction and fertility. So prior

to this point, enslaved women were sort of left to their own

devices when it came to birth, um,

breastfeeding. Now, this was

in many ways negative because it meant that

they obviously were giving birth

to children under extremely difficult conditions,

but it also meant that they had some degree of

privacy from white people and white

slaveholders when it came to sort of their intimate

lives, giving birth, taking care of

infants. This was something that they sort of dealt with

themselves, independent of White

people, um, and plantation

authorities. So the amelioration period changes this.

And we start to see slaveholders,

doctors, other people interested in

sort of, um, ensuring reproduction, become much more

involved in sort of, um, overseeing

women's fertility and child rearing practices.

Um, so this put women under enormous surveillance.

And, um, also made life very

difficult for women who couldn't have children or

who didn't have children. There was a, you

know, this immense sense of pressure to

bear children because it came with

material rewards. And obviously the effects on

women who were unable to have lots of children would have been

pretty significant.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): For many enslaved women, this pressure to reproduce was

not just physical, it was psychological and

emotional. Those who could

bear children were often punished or ostracized,

while those who did were rewarded, but only within the

confines of servitude. Yet even

in these oppressive conditions, resistance took

shape not always through open rebellion, but

in small daily acts of defiance that

historians are only now beginning to fully

recognize.

>> Dr. Elaine: And so that's one way in which amelioration

definitely impacted the status of

women in the British Caribbean. In the context

of the Spanish Caribbean, we see a similar

kind of focus on enslaved women's bodies.

So in the early 1870s,

Spain passes something called the Moret Law,

which declared that children born

to enslaved women would be

free, thereby reversing the doctrine of

partus sequiter ventrum in the context

of the French Caribbean. Interestingly, we

don't see this as overtly. This is something that I

actually focus on in my dissertation, and I have an article

under revision that talks about this.

Um, we don't see this pronounced

effort on the part of slaveholders to ensure

reproduction through medical means. And I argue

in my work that actually the regulation of women's

mobility was the primary mechanism by which

reproduction was regulated. By side

note, it would be interesting for someone

who has the linguistic

abilities to do this analysis in the context of the

Dutch Caribbean to sort of take a look at

slave reproduction there in the period of

abolition. Another thing I want

to mention here is that during

this period, despite what I said previously about

women not playing a huge role in armed rebellion,

I can think of a few rebellions in the 19th century

where women did feature prominently in

Cuba. In 1844, there was a major slave

conspiracy to enact a rebellion.

And as the historian Aisha Finch has

shown, women were, uh, a part of

this conspiracy. And

an example from Martinique, uh, the French government abolished

slavery in April of

1848. That was to go into

effect two months later in

June. But a massive slave uprising in

May brought slavery to an end one month

earlier than planned. And women were pretty active

in that uprising.

>> Unidentified (Podcast Host): The struggle for freedom in the Caribbean was not only

fought in open revolts. It was fault in

whispers between enslaved women passing

crucial intelligence. It was fold in

spiritual traditions that gave communities

strength. And it was fold over the very

bodies of the women who bore the next

generation. As we

conclude this episode, we are constantly

reminded that history has often erased the names

of women. Yet their resistance

shaped the course of rebellion. From

Syntostatius to Haiti, from Jamaica to

Suriname. Um, they found ways to reclaim power,

whether through armed uprising, economic

sabotage, or quiet defiance.

But as the uprisings of the early 19th

century paved the way for abolition, what

did freedom truly mean?

Did emancipation bring justice?

Or did it simply replace one form of control

with another? For those

who had endured generations of enslavement,

what came next?

Could they claim true liberation? Or did

they find themselves in a world still designed to keep them

bound? And if their

struggle still echoes in the present,

if the systems that oppress them left behind

shadows, then what

revolutions remain unfinished?

And who amongst us is willing to continue

the fight?