How Race, Gender and Class Affected Slaves

Describe how race affected social relations on a plantation. 12mks Race was extremely evident upon the sugar plantations, one example of this was that the white children born of the the master and his white mistress were not as useful on the plantation as the artisans. Among the slaves upon the plantation, the closer your bloodline relation to the master you have (for example- if your black mother was raped by the master), higher respect or your level of class was. The children of the master who were of a combination between black and white referred to as mulattoes, were almost rejected by the master, but the master felt a sense of compassion for his child. He would allow them to be around the house to do housekeeping and have a greater sense of education. The mulattoes were also closer to freedom than the ordinary black slaves, whereas they would either pay little or nothing for their freedom.

In the military, the whites refused to hire blacks to be apart of their force. The mulattoes on the other hand had a small window of opportunity to gain access to the privileges of being in the military. Later on in the military, mulattoes and blacks were employed into the military but in a lower position than the whites (in the hierarchy of the military ,mulattoes were above blacks). Religion was also affected by race whereas the whites/masters and managers of the plantation tried to totally eradicate the black's religion by enforcing Christianity, the masters thought that converting the blacks to Christianity would make them easier to control. The masters would instruct the slaves to do something and the blacks believe it was the truth because they would tell the blacks that it was the word of God. Black's religion was weakened by the masters setting specific times and dates to practice Christianity, some religions that were taken away from the practices of the blacks were Shangoism and Obeah. Whites were always at the top of the hierarchy, this showed their...