harvests each year. The buds have to be picked carefully to avoid damaging the trees, and it is necessary to repeat the task a number of times for each tree. On Zanzibari plantations, slaves normally worked five days a week until noon and sometimes until 4 PM, but when harvesting, they worked seven days and longer hours, and they were paid for the two extra days. As they worked, they were supervised by an older, more experienced slave. Female slaves detached buds from the stems and set them out to dry. Slaves carried the dried cloves to Zanzibar town.
Each slave or family received a plot and built its own house. Slaves were expected to grow their own food on their plots, and they were allowed to raise goats and chickens. They could market any surplus, so surpluses were common. This self-reliance gave them "more control over the rhythm of daily lives," as was also the case even in Jamaica, where slaves also produced their own food. This does not mean that masters did not try to control slaves, but the evidence suggests that they rarely resorted to harsh measures. European sources mention punishments and occasional acts of cruelty, but "European officials and visitors made it clear that they had not observed overwork and brutality of the sort evident in accounts of West Indian slavery" (Cooper 1977: 167). Cooper explains how the master-slave relationship was shaped by certain features of the Zanzibar context: 1) rural life was dominated by Islamic law and local custom; 2) both masters and slaves had adapted to the agricultural requirements of clove cultivation; 3) Zanzibari masters did not have external means of coercing slaves or exacting punishment (no police, no militias, no slave patrols). Nevertheless, "the slaves' means of enforcing these norms on the master were weaker than the master's means of coercing his slaves" (Cooper 1977: 169).
The lives and working conditions of slaves providing agricultural labor in mainland towns were different. In Mombasa, there were a few large farms producing grain with slave labor. These slaves lived in slave villages, while their masters lived in town. Like slaves on Zanzibar, they grew their own food. With very little supervision, they worked both their own fields and their masters' fields. When their owners demanded it, they had to turn over a portion of their grain. However, small farms and garden plots were more typical in and around Mombasa. On small plots, slaves tended coconut trees and grew subsistence crops. Taking care of coconut trees was not a difficult task as little labor was required. These farms persisted because land was scarce, making it profitable to grow grain or coconuts on a small scale. The situation in Malindi favored the development of grain plantations. More land was available, so greater returns were possible if slaves worked more efficiently. Slave owners turned to a form of closely supervised gang labor. The supervisors, usually slaves, put a great deal of pressure on both male and female slaves. Despite these more rigid conditions, slaves were still expected to cultivate crops for their own subsistence. The demand for slaves was high in Malindi. Its plantations were capable of absorbing a thousand slaves in a single year.
Restriction of Export Slave Trade
The slave trade was so lucrative that British efforts to stop it were strongly resisted by nearly all participants. From 1780 to 1840, the dynamics shaping relations between the British government, the British in India, the French, the Omanis, and the Swahili were very complicated (Were and Wilson 1970:103). The British governor in Bombay was expected to influence the Omani ruler, but British interests in India were better served by cordial relations. To satisfy French colonists on Mauritius who wanted slaves, France tried to improve relations with Oman, growing ever more vexed by Oman's growing ties to Britain. Oman's treaty with Britain in 1799 set the stage for a close relationship. By the 1820s, Seyyid Said was determined to assert Omani control over Mombasa, but needed British support. He did not, 