“The history of the Caribbean is the history of the exploitation of labour” - with reference to slavery and the Encomienda labour system”
In the above statement “the history of the Caribbean is the history of the exploitation of labour,” it simply states that the Caribbean’s history is basically the history of its exploitation of labour. The definitions of keywords exploitation and labour must be considered. Exploitation can be defined as the practice of taking selfish or unfair advantage of a person or situation, usually for personal gain, while labour is defined as work done using the effort and strength of the body. With the definitions obtained, it can now be stated that the history of the Caribbean is the history of the various…show more content… Families were routinely and randomly split up. For example, at one point an entire island in the Eastern Caribbean was used as a farm for breeding slaves and then sold them to other Caribbean islands and to the Americans. Slaves were named by their masters, that is, their names were changed from their native African names to European names or names that their masters saw fit for them. Despite this, however, the Africans were able to maintain their links with their cultures and also kept and retained most of their religion and customs. Some of their cultural forms that they retained were their religions, languages, food, medicine, music and art and their festivals.
A review of slavery and the Encomienda labour systems as the history of exploitation of labour of the Caribbean. Both labour systems had their similarities of being ill-treated, while their differences dealt with keeping their customs. The Encomienda was the labour system which the native peoples were ruled by the Spanish Empire. However, the Spanish were forced to move due to the fact that they were being killed by the native people. This was because the Spanish were ill-treating them. The other labour system that was discussed is slavery. This was when Africans were bought by the Europeans to work on the sugar-cane plantations. They were separated from each other, had to live by the European rules
