BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY: FRENCH SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE PART 2:

The French Government sought to promote plantation economies in its West Indies Colonies, with Capital, technology, and slaves, borrowed from the Dutch, these island began to thrive as sugar export centers. The Dutch established the first successful French sugar mill in 1655, by 1670 Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Christopher had 300 sugar estates. The French realizing slaves were the key to this monopoly, the French formed two monopoly companies largely financed by the state were org in the French Sugar Plantation were harsh duringanized in 1664. The French fleet took many factories from the Dutch in Goree and the Senegambia in the 1670s. In 1672 French Government offered a bounty of 10 livres per slave transported to the French West Indies.

Condition in the French Sugar Plantation were harsh during the eight months sugar harvest, slaves sometimes worked continuously almost around the clock. Accident caused by long hours and primitive machinery were horrible. In the big plantation, the captives lived in barracks, women were few and families nonexistent.