<P> Sugar production in the Lesser Antilles was a very grisly business . On Jamaica from 1829 to 1832 the average mortality rate for slaves on sugar plantations was 35.1 deaths per 1000 enslaved . The most dangerous part of the sugar plantation was the cane planting . Cane planting during this era consisted of clearing land, digging the holes for the plants, and more . Overseers used the whip in an attempt to both motivate and punish slaves . The slaves themselves were also working and living with barely adequate nourishment and in times of hard work would often be starved . This contributed to low birth rates and the high mortality rates for the slaves . Some experts believe that the average infant mortality at plantations to be 50% or even higher . This extremely high rate of infant mortality meant that the slave population that existed in the Lesser Antilles was not self - sustaining, thus requiring a constant importation of new slaves . Living and working conditions on non-sugar plantations was considered to be better, however, only marginally . </P> <P> Slavery was first abolished by the French Republic in 1794, but Napoleon revoked that decree in 1802 . In 1815, the Republic abolished the slave trade but the decree did not come into effect until 1826 . France re-abolished slavery in her colonies in 1848 with a general and unconditional emancipation . </P> <P> William Wilberforce's Slave Trade Act 1807 abolished the slave trade in the British Empire . It was not until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 that the institution finally was abolished, but on a gradual basis . Since slave owners in the various colonies (not only the Caribbean) were losing their unpaid labourers, the government set aside £ 20 million for compensation but it did not offer the former slaves reparations . </P> <P> With the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, the new British colony of Trinidad was left with a shortage of labour . This shortage became worse after the abolition of slavery in 1833 . To deal with this problem, Trinidad imported indentured servants from the 1810s until 1917 . Initially Chinese, free West Africans, and Portuguese from the island of Madeira were imported, but they were soon supplanted by Indians who started arriving from 1845 . Indentured Indians would prove to be an adequate alternative for the plantations that formerly relied upon slave labour . In addition, numerous former slaves migrated from the Lesser Antilles to Trinidad to work . </P>

When was slavery abolished in the british caribbean