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Sperry Edwards
Blog Post 2
In Inhuman Bondage, David Davis uses the term, “economic determinism” to describe the emergence of enslaving humans. This term suggests that humans prioritized the economy before other factors, such as the rights and beliefs of other people. But Davis does not only give this reason for slavery’s origins. He goes on to describe religious as well as symbolic reasons, in order to present a well-rounded argument for why a cruel exercise like slavery occurred. The most interesting of these reasons being how the unfavorable connotation of the color black caused Europeans to segregate themselves from the newfound people. As Andrew Burton stated in his post, it is strange that a simple color can cause humans to label their own people as “others.” To add to his point, I believe that once this label was established, Europeans believed that their actions were outside of societal guidelines. People lost complete sense of morality and took advantage of these outsiders for their own gain.
In Chapter 4, Davis goes on to describe the beginnings of the slave trade in Africa. He mentions a crucial point, in that European countries were able to take advantage of a great number of Africans because of a “lack of any pan-African consciousness.” 16th century Africa was extremely divided with many kingdoms with different cultures and beliefs. With no common African thought, African people could not collectively fight against slavery procedures. This reminds me a lot of how the colonies in America were controlled by Great Britain. Once the colonists began to recognize themselves as a whole, they were then able to identify and fight against Britain’s control. This phenomenon of consciousness leads to the question of whether or not slavery would have occurred at all if Europeans had traded with a united Africa during the 16th Century.
Davis also describes how many Europeans believed that slavery was beneficial to Africans because they were in a sense, saved from a dangerous and divided continent of Africa. Davis goes on to refute this claim very effectively by describing the cruel treatment on the slave ships and farms. But he does comment that a collective slave culture developed on islands, such as Jamaica. White owners were often outnumbered and isolated from the slave lifestyle on these islands. Instead, black slaves dominated these islands with their customs and traditions. Although slavery was extremely barbaric, it did supply many Africans with a sense of unity on the Caribbean islands, which they could not grasp in Africa.