The importation of slaves from Africa to Jamaica was the most important and complex international affair of the 18th century. This controversial slave exchange ensured economic stability in the Americas. As soon as they arrived in Jamaica, the process of dehumanization began. Proponents of slavery have proposed that the institution served a dual purpose: First, in order to achieve total domination, the institution had a legacy of subjugation and legislation that hindered the rights of all slaves. Slaves were only the property of their master's hegemonic influence. Yet, de facto, records suggest that the slave-master relationship fostered certain rights that the master was forced to respect. There was a constant struggle between slaves and the lack of public rights. At the beginning of the 18th century, Jamaica was full of sugar cane plantations. 40,000 slaves dwarfed Jamaica's seven thousand British inhabitants in numbers (Higman p 35). Sugar production became more abundant from the beginning of the 18th century until the end of the century. Seventy sugar plantations grew to 680 between 1672 and 1780. The number of British Jamaicans tripled to 21,000 and the number of slaves reached peaks of up to 600,000 in the 18th century (Brathwaite , p. 121). An annual amount of 10,000 slaves imported into Jamaica kept sugar production stable (Nytimes.com). Sugar was the main trigger in Jamaican culture and lifestyle. For hundreds of years, sugar was considered Jamaica's most valuable crop. Britain made its fortune from Jamaican slaves during its reign. Jamaica is the world's largest producer of sugar at the time. Sugar production was linked to...... middle of paper ......ids, the murder of white British soldiers stationed on the island and the rescue of slaves (Hughes p 133). In conclusion, the dehumanization of island plantation slaves in Jamaica took many forms, including punishment, mutilation, rape, and death. Some white planters and overseers were sadistic, but did not want to mistakenly harm their investments. African slaves who enjoyed the rough woodwork of the Middle Passage faced discrimination and physical torture at the hands of British plantation owners. Lamacian plantation owners viewed African slaves not as women and men but as beasts, beasts to be whipped, humiliated, tortured, and emotionally and physically abused. African slaves were property in the eyes of the British overlords and the stigma attached to their participation in these unjust and immoral acts will forever tarnish the name of Great Britain in the eyes of the international community..