Why would someone work a slave to death? French and British sugar planters in the Caribbean craved wealth deeply—so deeply that they didn't mind working slaves to death if it meant greater profits.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Caribbean sugar plantations satisfied Europe's skyrocketing hunger for sugar. Cultivating sugar in the heat and humidity of the tropics was hard, miserable work. Europeans refused to do it. So planters brought Africans to the islands instead.

Working conditions were terrible. Field slaves worked from dawn to dusk six days a week, with a brief break at midday. They ate very little—just flour, salt herring, or peas. These conditions drove up the death rate. About one third of Africans died within three years of arrival in the West Indies.

To maintain the slave population, more Africans were imported. By the mid-1700s, over 100,000 were imported every year. This meant that slaves often outnumbered Europeans 10 times over. Rebellions were not unusual, but harsh discipline crushed most of them. Only the revolt on French St. Domingue in the 1790s succeeded. It was led by the ex-slave Toussaint l'Ouverture. His army defeated the French and established the republic of Haiti—the world's first black republic.

Picture: Bettmann/CORBIS