Plantations were required to plant of food crops for every five slaves to prevent food shortages. Over time, this was replaced by allowing slaves to cultivate their own provision grounds. Slaves were given Sundays and, on larger plantations, Thursdays, to work on their provision grounds and were allowed to eat or sell the production from these gardens as they chose. On plantations which allowed larger provision grounds, slaves were expected to use their own money to buy meat and fish. Where provision grounds were smaller, these were provided by the plantation owner. Urban slaves were unable to cultivate gardens, both because land was unavailable and, in the case of domestic workers, because they were not given the time to do so.
