A slavocracy,
also known as a plantocracy, is a ruling class, political order or government composed of (or dominated by) slave owners and plantation owners.
A number of early European colonies in the
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...
were largely plantocracies, usually consisting of a small European
settler population relying on a predominantly West African
chattel slave population (as well as smaller numbers of
indentured servant
Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment ...
s, both European and non-European in origin), and later,
freed Black and poor white
sharecropper
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
s for labor. These plantocracies proved to be a decisive force in the
anti-abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
movement.
One prominent organization largely representing (and collectively funded by) a number of plantocracies was the "
West India Interest", which lobbied in
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
against the abolition of slavery. It is credited with delaying the abolition of the slave trade from the 1790s until 1806–1808, and likewise with respect to emancipation in the 1820s (instead, a policy known as "Amelioration" was formally adopted throughout 1823–1833). The organization succeeded in delaying abolition until the 1830s.
See also
*
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confede ...
*
London Society of West India Planters and Merchants The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants was an organization established to represent the views of the British West Indian plantocracy, i.e. the ruling class who owned and ran the slave-based plantations in what is now the Caribbean. ...
*
Slave Power, a term used by American abolitionists in the 1840s and 1850s to argue that Southern agrarian interests wielded disproportionate political power in the United States
*
Slavery in Brazil
Slavery in Brazil began long before the first Portuguese settlement was established in 1516, with members of one tribe enslaving captured members of another. Later, colonists were heavily dependent on indigenous labor during the initial phases ...
*
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Most Caribbean islands were covered with sugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, unti ...
*
Maroon (people)
Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas who escaped from slavery and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into separate creole cultures such as the Garifuna and the Mascogos. ...
References
{{Reflist
Sources
* B.W. Higman. "The West India Interest in Parliament," ''Historical Studies'' (1967), 13: pp. 1–19.
* See the historical journal: ''Plantation Society in the Americas'' for a host of pertinent articles.
* Steel, Mark James (PhD Dissertation). ''Power, Prejudice and Profit: the World View of the Jamaican Slaveowning Elite, 1788-1834,'' (University of Liverpool Press, Liverpool 1988).
* Luster, Robert Edward (PhD Dissertation). ''The Amelioration of the Slaves in the British Empire, 1790-1833'' (New York University Press, 1998).
Rule by a subset of population
Slavery in the United States
Slavery in the Caribbean
Plantations
Colonialism