The Institution of Slavery in Caribbean The British Slave Laws The French Slave Laws (Code Nior) The Spanish and Portuguese Slave Laws References

5. Barbados, Antigua and Martinique were the first important slave societies of
the Caribbean
By the mid 18th Century Jamaica had become the largest and most brutal slave
society in the British West Indies
 Slaves were supervised under demanding masters who gave them little
medical care and so contracted many diseases
 Ownership of slaves was legitimate on the grounds that they were infidels
being not Christian and “uncivilized”
 Slavery itself was illegal in England and so as soon as slaves entered the
country they were free