9. The seasoning period differed among the colonies
Some, but by no means all, Africans transported to the colonies underwent a period euphemistically called seasoning. Seasoning prepared the enslaved people for their life and work in the colonies. It included discipline, often severe punishment, and exposure to their jobs. In some cases, particularly in the American South, seasoning was skipped with the slaves sent directly to the fields, where they received instructions in the form of brutal manual labor. In others, including Jamaica, seasoning was an organized and structured time period. Slave owners in Jamaica learned that seasoned Africans survived the rigors of the cane fields and refining plants better than those who had not been acclimated. Many resisted seasoning, and suffered for it. Whippings, canings, imprisonment, and other even more harsh punishments awaited them. Their owners considered them like horses, requiring breaking to the plow.
In Jamaica and other British colonies, seasoning included learning the English language, taught by other Africans who had done so on their own. The requirement to offer blind obedience to the will of the master was part of the indoctrination. For many, that aspect of seasoning began during the Middle Passage, when they were subjected to beatings from sailors for failing to follow instructions. Captains and traders quickly learned that an African who appeared docile and healthy attracted a far better price than those who appeared surly and disobedient. For that reason, many of the beatings on ship were severe enough to kill the rebellious slave, in order to make an impression on the others. Yet throughout the Americas, resistance by Africans to their enslaved status continued for hundreds of years.