In the book Beyond Massa: Sugar Management in the British Caribbean, 1770-1834, by John F. Campbell, it’s main focus encompasses and revolves around issues surrounding slavery practices by using Golden Grove estate in Jamaica as a primary source during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The author highlighted the slavery period of the sugar monoculture era, followed by the development of amelioration policies, to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, and finally the failed industry in 1834. The book uses archival data which logically analyses, revises and modifies the historical ideologies, thus manifesting revisionist philosophies about sugar estates in the Caribbean region. It really sets the reader to have different insights and perspectives with respect to the managerial systems, hierarchical structure, political dimensions, social relationships and a relatively new field of analysis- the Human Resource Management strategies. This report seeks to discuss the ideas of color-class hierarchy, the role of gender and sex, the introduction of the Amelioration Act while analysing the role of slavery and Human Resource Management (HRM) and lastly the effectiveness of the writer’s work and it’s relation to the current course.
Historically one would presume that a “color-class hierarchy” existed with racial differentiations and divisions based on one’s phenotype such that the white local and expatriate held the most power while the African labor held a much lower status. This adamant hierarchy understanding was even displayed by the famous Calypsonian Lord Kitchener saying “If you’re white, you’re alright, if you’re brown, stick around, if you’re black step back” from his song ‘if you’re not white you’re considered black.’ ...
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...rspective hence the title of the book ‘Beyond Massa’.
Lastly, it is my belief that the book was a learning experience and a tremendous deal of information was grasped but it impeded application greatly in other courses even though it was associated with the objectives. The book additionally lacked enthusiasm and ability to keep interest of the reader which can possibly be improved by the use of convivial analogies. The price range of the book is relatively accessible and fair however obtaining the book posed and issue to many due to limited numbers available to the many students who required it. Beyond Massa was worth the money in the long run however, in short term cases, having to buy books for other courses posed minor problems but overall the course was an enjoyable one and did present new revisionist concepts and insights to the functioning of sugar society.
“.They see the competition in skin tones.” (LeDuff 355). According to the split-labor market theory, the division of power was self-implicated through the idea known as racism and prejudice. “The convict said he felt cheated.
societies to reexamine their view of the Caribbean. In this paper the following topics in The
The notion of race, however, doesn’t hold any significance until it is given any, like in the United States of America. The land that was invaded by the British has deep rooted connections to racism. Huge discrimination and inequality gaps occurred when white people began referring to the Africans as an inferior race that belonged to a completely different
African-American labor was beginning to be more valuable than white labor. African laborers were beginning to be looked at as property, as well as being treated that way. By the 1660’s, the status of the African ...
Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown. Suprisingly, for something so desireable knowledge of sugar cane spread vey slow. First found in Guinea and first farmed in India (sources vary on this), knowledge of it would only arrive in Europe thousands of years later. However, there is more to the history of sugar cane than a simple story of how something was adopted piecemeal into various cultures. Rather the history of sugar, with regards to this question, really only takes off with its introduction to Europe. First exposed to the delights of sugar cane during the crusades, Europeans quickly acquired a taste for this sweet substance. This essay is really a legacy of that introduction, as it is this event which foreshadowed the sugar related explosion of trade in slaves. Indeed Henry Hobhouse in `Seeds of Change' goes so far as to say that "Sugar was the first dependance upon which led Europeans to establish tropical mono cultures to satisfy their own addiction." I wish, then, to show the repurcussions of sugar's introduction into Europe and consequently into the New World, and outline especially that parallel between the suga...
In society today, race can be viewed in a variety of ways, depending on the manner in which one was raised, as well as many other contributing factors. These views are often very conflicting, and as a result, lead to disagreement and controversy amongst groups. Throughout history, many communities have seen such problems arise over time, thus having a profound impact that can change society in both positive and negative ways. Such a concept is a common method through which Charles W. Mills explains his theories and beliefs in his written work, The Racial Contract. In this particular text, Mills explores numerous concepts regarding race, how it is viewed by different people, and the sense of hierarchy that has formed because of it.
Sugar growers continue to benefit from favorable economic conditions provided by the U.S. government. Yet empirical data reveal a decrease in the aggregate support for sugar legislation in recent years. In 1978, there were 9,187 full or part owners of sugar cane and sugar beet farms, compared to 7,799 farms in 1987. The level of sugar subsidy allocated to the farmers, however, has increased and even favored certain sugar growers disproportionately over others. Such empirical findings suggests that politics, as much as economics, affect the level of sugar subsidy. This paper examines why an increasingly smaller number of sugar farmers receive a steadily larger government subsidy.
Massey, Douglas S. & Nancy A. Denton. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1993.
The sugar trade lasted from 1492-1700s. The Sugar Trade was a huge worldwide event. It caused African people leaving their country to go work on the sugar plantations.
Some people define race as if it is something solid or concrete, but what they don’t see is that it is a “social fabrication”(Mathew Desmond, Mustafa Emibayer,2009;2). Race is based on the difference in physical appearance which is determined, for example, by the most apparent trait; skin color. Inequality emerges when people living, whether on the same sovereign terrain or across continents, are not treated with the same amount of respect and not given the chance to engage their rights in a free and fair manner. Race and inequality are often linked together because of the “issues that began in the 1800s”(NFB;Journey to Justice;2000) such as racial segregation. Over the years issues of race and inequality have decreased dramatically. How did racial inequality decrease and through what? To study this case, two theories need to be put in practice, “resource mobilisation theory and new social movement”(Tremblay;2013).
The structure of a society is based on the concept of superiority and power which both “allocates resources and creates boundaries” between factors such as class, race, and gender (Mendes, Lecture, 09/28/11). This social structure can be seen in Andrea Smith’s framework of the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy.” The first pillar of white supremacy is the logic of slavery and capitalism. In a capitalist system of slavery, “one’s own person becomes a commodity that one must sell in the labor market while the profits of one’s work are taken by someone else” (Smith 67). From this idea of viewing slavery as a means of capitalism, Blacks were subjected to the bottom of a racial hierarchy and were treated nothing more than a property and commodity that is used for someone else’s benefit. The second pillar involves the logic of genocide and colonialism. With genocide, “Non-Native peoples th...
Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks.
When asked the question, “What was the most significant revolution in history?” to an English speaker, most people would respond with a political revolution such as the French Revolution, American Revolution, or the Russian Revolution. A few people would respond with other revolutions such as the Industrial Revolution, the Renaissance, or the Reformation. The commonality between all of the revolutions listed above is that all revolutions have resulted in direct changes in the Western World. This is a result of ethnocentrism, considering one’s culture to be superior to others. However, there are many revolutions that have occurred mostly outside of Europe. An example would be the Sugar Revolution, “a series of interrelated changes that altered
"Social Forces." The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order. Oxfordjournals,org, 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
Kempadoo, Kamala. Sexing the Caribbean: Gender, Race, and Sexual Labor. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.