Planting the Cane
Planting the Cane
Cane fields were divided into "pieces" or sections which were cultivated and planted in succession so that the cane would reach maturity progressively. Once cane matures , it must be harvested quickly or begin fermenting in the field. Consequently the life of every person working on a plantation was scheduled and driven by the life cycle of the cane and the activities that converted it to sugar.
Most plantations in the West Indies employed what is called the "Gang" system which organized field labour into three groups based on their strength and ability to work. Of all the jobs in slave driven plantation society, the work in the field gangs is considered to have been the most brutal.
In the planting time, the lead gang would cultivate the "pieces" into "holes' or grids four foot square by 6 to 8 inches deep into which younger cuttings of the previous season's cane would be planted(see illustration above). The "pieces" averaged 10 to 20 acres a piece depending on the size of the planter's labor force. Grids were aligned in rows to allow the prevailing winds to dispell moisture on the cane and thus reduce the chance of "blast" a fungal desease which ruined many acres of cane each year. The work was done with large hoes, gaining no benefit from the long-existing plow.
Most historians agree that planters intentionally chose not to use plows for two reasons: Africans were familiar and adept at cultivation using the hoe and the use of the plow would have completed the work too quickly, thus leaving the Field Gangs idle. Plowing would have reduced the plantation's need for labour during planting, but the work of harvesting and processing would still have required the large labour gangs later on. The prospect of idle field gangs on the plantations of the West Indies was not an attractive vision to colonial planters as idleness was considered the prime seed of rebellion.
Although cane culture is naturally characterized by periods of intense activity followed by lulls, the methods employed were intended to both maximize sugar yield and keep the field labourers working intensively throughout the seasons. Contemporary accounts describe the process as monotonous toil under the incessant tropical sun.
As the Lead Gang "holed" the piece, the second gang of less able men and women would set cuttings of young cane in the holes and cover them with a mixture of dung and soil. The Dung mixture was carried in baskets by hand to avoid damage by carts to the plantings. The least able and the very young served in the third gang as go-fers, helpers, rat-chasers and menials.
In essence the cultivation of the cane pieces employed the three crews simultaneously on the sequentially planted sections with either the holing and planting, periodic weeding, or replanting of poorly sprouted cuttings throughout the early and mid growing season. The rat crews would burn the past season's cane stubble from the outside boundaries inwards to capture and kill the cane rats.
By the time the sections planted first were reaching maturity, the work of cleaning and repairing the mills, works, tools, distilleries, and other equipment critical to harvest and processing had already begun. Although most larger Antiguan plantations had skilled Slaves and servants working as smiths, masons, mechanics, saddlers and in many other vocations, on less elaborate plantations, the field gangs would serve in varying capacities during the preparation for harvest as well and planters would hire crews or tradesmen from other planters to supplement their work-force.
The list of tasks necessary for the operation of a plantation nearing harvest time is long and complex: Staves shipped from New England had to be put together for Hogsheads, the claying pots made or prepared for the raw sugar, wagons repaired, bills and hoes sharpened, the mills and coppers replaced or soldered to serve another season...and the ravages of tropical weather and decay had always to be repaired.
When all was done, with the cane ripe in the fields and threatening to turn to worthless liquor.....it was
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All pages on this site Copyright © 1998 Christopher M. Codrington
This page was last updated on 4 Feb. 2000
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