On the plains of Le Cap and throughout the colony, a new kind of life was taking root, one based on independence and subsistence, one that for many ex-slaves embodied true freedom. In and around the ruins of old plantations, men and women cultivated small plots of land, growing crops for their families and to sell at the markets. They raised chickens, pigs, and cows, often grazing them in abandoned cane fields. Although they were drawing on traditions developed within slavery, when masters had depended on what slaves produced in garden plots, in the new order they had greater access to land and greater freedom to grow their crops, raise their livestock, and market what they produced. The contrast with slavery was quite clear, and as a result of the better conditions, the number of children seems to have increased among the workers on many plantations.

Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ …, loc. 335