【注】这是我第一次尝试翻译外文资料，所以翻译水准恐怕不尽人意，各位兄台尤其是猩猩也帮我好好看看吧。文章不长，第一次尝试的只有1000多字。加勒比海岛屿的土地非常廉价，但是建设一个种植园的花费却较高。Dalby Thomas爵士1690年估计在巴巴多斯岛上有
100英亩的种植园，拥有50个非洲黑奴，7个白人佣人，还有配套的制糖工坊、锅炉房、设备和牲口总共价值5625英镑（到今天已经超过了25万英镑）。为了收回这些成本，种植园必须生产出足够的优质糖来偿还债务和抵押贷款，以及支付每年的运转费用，当然所有者也需要赚取经济利益。一些家族 ，就像在加勒比海的尼维斯岛和布里斯托尔的Pinney家族一样，以土地，糖业的生产和贸易为基础发家致富。
非洲黑奴糖业命脉的基础，John Pinney，尼维斯岛上的一位种植园主，在一封18世纪60年代中写给管理人的信中提到：“照顾好我的奴隶和作物（及动物），您所拥有的良好判断力一定让您认识到了他们是种植园的中坚，需要您特别地关照。”他还写道：“任何人都不可能在没有黑人的帮助下发展糖业，那就像在做无米之炊一样。”
被奴役的非洲人需要一段时间来让自己适应工作以及这个国家，而每3个新到的奴隶中就有一个会在3年内死亡，种植园主则需要持续不断的新奴隶供应。18世纪60年代以前，种植园对待奴隶非常残酷。虽然奴隶们的待遇各不相同，但是通常来说，对奴隶主而言把奴隶累死后再进口新奴隶要比善待在种植园劳动的奴隶们要经济实惠得多。John Newton曾经是一名贩奴船的船长，后来却投身于打击奴隶贸易的事业。1751年在加勒比海的安提瓜岛上一位种植园主告诉他，根据计算，把奴隶累死后再替换上新奴隶比善待奴隶更便宜划算。在安提瓜的一些种植园中，很少有奴隶可以活到9年。
对非洲黑奴的虐待不仅仅是劳作。岛上的白人人口要远少于黑人，他们害怕黑奴们的反抗。因此，任何违规行为的处罚都是严厉残酷的。反抗的处罚往往就是死亡，通常使用的是一种缓慢而痛苦的处死方法，以此警告其他所有想要起来反抗奴隶主们的奴隶。1783年牙买加东部的圣托马斯岛的一份治安法庭判决记录了对一位试图逃跑的奴隶的处罚。判决书写道：“Priscilla，因为逃走，所以割去她的两只耳朵……从现在起一年内，每个月的第一个星期一都要鞭笞39下，在此期间内她必须戴着铁镣工作。”这是一次对试图逃亡的女奴的残酷惩罚。鞭打只是普通的家常便饭，只要奴隶主和监工乐意，他们就可以随意拷打家里所拥有的奴隶。残酷的
法律旨在惩处任何反抗行为并促使其他人不对奴隶主们进行反抗。1707年巴巴多斯岛上通过了一项法律，规定任何逃亡超过30天以上的奴隶被捕获以后要砍掉他的一只脚。
由于18世纪末开始出现反对奴隶制的呼声，以及非洲黑奴的价格上涨，更多的“进步”种植园主看到了对待自己的奴隶好一点才是明智的行为。
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原文地址：http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/showNarrative.php?narId=120&nacId=124Land in the Caribbean islands was cheap, but the costs of setting up a sugar plantation were high. Sir Dalby Thomas in 1690 estimated
that a 100 acre plantation on the island of Barbados, with 50 enslaved Africans, seven white indentured servants, sugar mill, boiling works, equipment and livestock would cost £5,625 (over £250,000 at today?s values). To recover these costs, the plantations had to produce enough good quality sugar to pay off debts and mortgages and cover the running costs each year. The owners also wanted a profit. Some families, such as the Pinneys of Nevis in the Caribbean and Bristol, were able to build up a fortune based on land, sugar producing and trading.
Slaves from Africa were the basis of these sugar fortunes. John Pinney, a plantation owner on the island of Nevis, wrote in the 1760s to his managers '? a word respecting the care of my slaves and stock [animals] - your own good sense must tell you they are the sinews of a Plantation and must claim your particular care and attention?. He also wrote that ?? it is impossible for a Man to make sugar without the assistance of Negroes as to make bricks without straw'.
Enslaved Africans required a period of ?seasoning? to get them used to the work and the country. One in three of the newly imported slaves died within three years, and planters needed a continuous supply of new slaves. Before the 1760s, plantation life was particularly brutal. For although treatment did vary, it generally worked out cheaper for owners to work slaves to death and import new ones, rather than to look after those already on the plantations. John Newton was once a slave ship captain and later campaigned against the slave trade. He was told in 1751 by a plantation owner on the Caribbean island of Antigua, that the costs had been calculated and it was cheaper to work slaves to death and replace them than to treat them well. On some estates in Antigua, it was rare for a slave to live longer than nine years.
It was not just work that was hard for the enslaved Africans. The white population on the islands was outnumbered by the black population, and they were frightened of rebellion . Therefore, punishment for any breaking of the rules was harsh. Rebellion was usually punished by death, often by a slow and painful method, to deter any others who thought of rising up against their owners. The Session Book of the Parish of St Thomas in the East, Jamaica, for 1783, records the punishment handed out to a slave who tried to run away. It reads: ?Priscilla: for running away, both her ears cut off ... immediately, to receive 39 lashes the first Monday in each month for one year and to be worked in irons during this time?. It was a hard punishment for trying to be free. Flogging was commonplace, and slaves could be made to torture members of their own family if the owner or overseer so wished. Harsh laws were aimed at punishing any act of rebellion and discouraging others. In 1707, a law was passed on the island of Barbados, which said a runaway slave absent for more than 30 days should have one of his or her feet cut off when recaptured.
As a result of anti-slavery feeling in the late eighteenth century, and the rising price of African slaves, the more 'progressive' plantation owners saw the wisdom of treating their slaves better.
