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To survive in the Caribbean, enslaved people adopted a variety of mechanisms. These included economic, political
and social strategies. The family unit was simply one of the social strategies which served to insulate the enslaved
population and to foster kinship and ancestral ties. Culture and religion, both of which exhibited high degrees of
African retention, were also social survival strategies, but these transcended beyond the plantation to encompass the
wider community. Culture and religion were used to create a world which was as insulated as was possible from the
plantation. Thus, the enslaved population possessed their own norms and values, their distinctive religious regimen,
their own recreational activities, their own sense of justice. Such strategies were of obvious psychological value;
however, in many cases they also fostered survival in very practical ways.

Kinship and community ties were also used to forge and reinforce economic strategies. Limited resources were often
pooled to ensure that larger sums of money or other physical resources were available when needed. Communal
strategies, such as sou sou, partner or box hand, were used to provide savings and assist in the construction of
homes and other large scale ventures which were beyond the means of individuals or unitary households.

The enslaved population used a variety of additional economic strategies. These included the provision ground
system which also depended on family labour, rearing of animals, and barter of allowances, theft and even their
relationship with whites, to secure additional sources of income. With the exception of the latter point, these activities
were all closely tied to the internal marketing system of the colonies.

The colonies were all export oriented and paid little attention to providing even basic needs, such as food, until the
second half of the eighteenth century. As a result, there was a dire need in the colonies for an internal marketing
system. Food supplies and plantation supplies became increasingly expensive, particularly, after the American
Revolution and the loss of British America, their traditional source of such items. Thus, within the region there was a
domestic market which needed to be filled. The market involved small amounts of lower priced items. There were
larger merchants who served the larger scale needs of the population.

This market was originally serviced by poor whites and free coloureds. However, two developments fostered the
participation of the enslaved population. Having experienced increasing problems with feeding their enslaved
populations and with the actual experience of their enslaved property facing starvation during the American
Revolution, planters began to allot enslaved people time and space to grow their own provisions.

The enslaved population exploited this opening and grew sufficient provisions not only for subsistence, but also for
sale. Thus the domestic economy developed as an adjunct informal sector which was dominated by enslaved
people, free coloureds and poor whites. There were two dimensions to this system of internal marketing: stationary
markets and a network of itinerant vendors who moved throughout the island with their products. The latter were
called hucksters or higglers. The former were weekend markets culminating on either the Saturday or Sunday.
Women were an integral part of both dimensions.

For most of the enslaved population, their provision grounds became a source of not merely subsistence but also,
additional incomes. The provision grounds, negro grounds, polincks, yards, house plots or kitchen gardens actually
became the bases of small businesses. These grounds came to be the major sources of local food production and at
times its products were even exported.

Though, the provision grounds were central to the marketing system, enslaved personnel manipulated any means at

their disposal to augment this adjunct economy. Beckles (1984) notes that in the case of Barbados, where the
provision ground system was not as widespread and where allocations were of much smaller units, enslaved persons
used their allocation of allowances to provide items to be traded in the internal network. In the urban areas, the
concentration was on the supply of non-agricultural products, such as sweets, dry goods and knick knacks. Animals
were also reared for the market. Theft was also used as a strategy for supplying goods to the internal marketing
system. This is illustrative of social strategies being used to reinforce economic strategies. Enslaved persons
regarded theft from planters as merely payment for their labour of which they were being deprived. Their concept of
social justice allowed for the use of theft as a more equitable redistribution of the plantations resources.

The internal marketing system grew and, in spite of periodical attempts at its regulation, it was accepted by the entire
population. In fact, it serviced the needs of both the enslaved and the enslavers. The whites themselves were
supplied by the market. It also greatly reduced both the costs and the risks of providing for their workers. The
planters may have believed also that the system would help in facilitating tractability among the enslaved people, by
making them more content with the system and allowing for constructive use of their spare time.

The system engendered both the social and economic development of the enslaved. In a material sense, it provided
additional income and a better diet. On a less tangible level, it allowed for unsupervised periods when working and
trading were done and it also allowed for more movement and social interaction within the enslaved population.
These activities must have fostered a greater sense of independence and personhood. These activities all had
political implications.

It should be noted, however, that though the system opened up possibilities, it was firmly rooted within the plantation
system. The areas of land allotted were often far away and of the poorest quality. The time allotted for cultivation
was often insufficient and the income earned in most cases was only supplementary. It is for these reasons that
Sydney Mintz (1974) described the enslaved people as protopeasants. The enslaved populations were functioning
for all intents and purposes as peasants. However, they were still enslaved and as such they were restricted by the
conventions and laws of the world they lived in.
Mary Turner (1995) has used the term protoproletarians to describe similar activities. Through these actions, the
enslaved population was actually negotiating with whites and functioning as free labourers, determining what a fair
agreement was and what was not. Thus, the transition from enslaved worker to free waged worker or proletarian had
begun to take place, even though the system of enslavement seemed firmly entrenched. The internal marketing
system was an important training ground both before and after emancipation.

Economic and social strategies must also be viewed as forms of resistance. They all speak to the determination and
the resilience of the enslaved population. Enslaved people were property, they were viewed as sub-human, yet they
managed to carve out a social world which preserved their culture, their families and their spirits. They created an
economic niche, which they controlled and directed, in spite of laws which were instituted to prevent such
developments. The final set of strategies to be discussed will be political strategies. These have generally been
viewed as resistance; however, as the above discussion showed, our concept of resistance needs to be broadened.