Machetes were essential for harvesting the sugar cane in America and the Caribbean, but they could become a deadly weapon during a slave rebellion. These tools symbolize the instability of a society based on slavery. Planters had to give plantation workers implements that could be turned against them at any time.
© The British Empire ≈ Commonwealth Museum
Accession reference: The British Empire & Commonwealth Museum 2002/001/686
Themes
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Resistance and Rebellion
Understand how the enslaved actively resisted and rebelled at every stage of oppression including uprisings on board ship, forming their own communities and maintaining cultural heritage.
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Plantation Conditions
Understand the harshness of daily life on the plantations, the oppression used to exert control, and the profits…