Traders on the slave ships and masters on the plantations showed lack of humanitarian concern, prejudice and racism towards the slaves. Their main concern was to make the land owners a profit.
Punishments towards slaves were often brutal. Severe punishments included:
Historian David Olusoga examines instruments of torture used to punish slaves.
The long hours and exhausting work rate was largely achieved through punishment, principally whipping. This made economic sense when cheap replacement slaves were available. However this made control by fear a key feature of plantation relationships.
On the plantations African slaves easily outnumbered European planters. Punishing treatment acted as both a cause and effect on the behaviour of the enslaved, creating a vicious circle.
Revolt was prevented by a rigid application of the slave code.