Country: Belize

Group: Creole

Date Finalized: 11/1/2020

Team: Vianney Mancilla (lead), Johanna McCombs, Nusrat Nijum, Michael Demangone

The Creole people’s history of forced labor has been well-documented. The data quality is a 3 due to the large body of evidence supporting the Creole people’s history of forced labor.

The Creole people are descendants of African slaves brought by the English colonizers to perform forced labor during the 1700s beginning in 1724 (Minority Rights Group, n.d.). Merrill notes that the African slaves were from various ethnic groups and began to assimilate gradually into the new, Creole culture (1992). The British settlers controlled the trade and forced the Creole men to cut timber and mahogany wood for exports (Merrill 1992, Johnson 2003). Cutting mahogany woods was very labor-intensive, and colonial narratives claimed the Creole population was “genetically suited” for mahogany cutting (Johnson 2003). The Creole women and children were domestic slaves for the colonial masters (Merrill 1992). An account from 1820 reports on “instances, many instances, of horrible barbarity” against the Creole people (Merrill 1992). In response to their situation, the Creole committed suicide, abortion, murder, attempted to escape, and revolt (Merrill 1992). In the early 1800s, the number of slaves ranged from about 2,470-2,740 (Williams 2001). Emancipation for the slave population was established in 1838 (Williams 2001). However, the act included an “apprenticeship” system where many slave owners were able to control their former slaves (who depended on their slave owners for work as well) by having them work for no pay (Merrill 1992). For over a century, the small elite continued to control the country by denying access to land (Merrill 1992).

Sources

  1. Johnson, M. A. (2003). The Making of Race and Place in Nineteenth-Century British Honduras. In History (Vol. 8, Issue 4). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/3985885
  2. Merrill, T. (1992). Belize: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://countrystudies.us/belize/7.htm
  3. Minority Rights Group. Belize. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/country/belize/
  4. Williams, K. (2001). African Heritage of Central America. Retrieved from http://lestweforget.hamptonu.edu/page.cfm?uuid=9FEC319A-0CCD-C562-B0F194A6DF60B84C