ABSTRACT
The multitude of socioeconomic relations which the Afro-Caribbeans developed from the early period of slavery were seen to establish for them a place of belonging which negated their social marginalization. In accordance with their concepts of freedom, the legal redefinition as autonomous human beings which they underwent with Emancipation therefore was less important in some ways than the possibility to consolidate and further develop some of the socioeconomic fields which they had created during slavery and which had attained cultural significance f or them. During slavery the Afro-Caribbean population could be seen to have followed three main avenues of belonging: 1) attachment to a patriarchal owner, or manager, who offered special privileges which gave access to a variety of resources and might lead to obtainment of legal freedom; 2) establishment of networks among slaves revolving around provision cultivation, marketing, family and procreation as well as religious practices, generating AfroCaribbean communities which were, to a great extent, self-reliant and increasingly independent from the planters; 3) membership in the Methodist Society which offered a religious and social community outside the sphere of the plantation regime as well as the teaching of useful skills such as reading, writing and knowledge of the influential English culture of respectability.
