Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
Throughout Chapter 4 of Inhumane Bondage, David Brion Davis outlines the origins of slave trade and its spread across the Atlantic into the New World. He maintains that slavery played an integral part in the foundation of America itself. It is a moral dilemma we must all face and accept, as the institution of slavery goes against every principle this country was founded upon; freedom, liberty, and equality.
I found that Davis uses a lot of religious ideologies when describing the precedents to slavery in the New World. For example, he explains how racist European interpretations of the biblical “Curse of Ham” translated into the belief that African slaves and their black skin color resembled the devil. Many Europeans also believed white Christians could not be enslaved because they shared the same freedoms as other Europeans. These religious and physical differences acted as justifications for Europeans to turn towards enslaving Africans, whom they viewed as culturally inferior. A very interesting comparison Davis makes is how the New World “…came to resemble the Death Furnace of the ancient god Moloch—consuming African slaves so increasing numbers of Europeans could consume sugar, coffee, rice, and tobacco” (Davis, p. 99).
In a way, I feel that Davis tries to defend, or at least help us understand, where European slave traders were coming from in respect to the world they lived in at the time. Thomas Hobbes and Davis both describe life in 16th century Europe as poor, brutal, nasty, and short. Violence and death were a part of everyday life, so it is no wonder why many Europeans were indifferent to the cruel enslavement of Africans. “Until the late 18th century, the Europeans public was not only insensitive, but rushed to witness the most terrible spectacles of torture, dismemberment, and death” (Davis, p. 96).
Were Africans that much different from Europeans in the way they turned slaves into commodities? Basing their wealth on the large number of slaves they owned, the African elites sought to sell their slaves to Europeans. This led to sustained slave trade and further decimation of African populations. The high prices Europeans offered for slaves encouraged violence and betrayal, as African traders turned against their own people to make money. Both the African and European traders changed the African market with their demand for slaves, although the slave trade only benefitted a small handful of high-ranking officials and not the overall African economy itself. Even the African King of Kongo, Alfonso I, actively engaged in slave trade. “It was as if each [such African] person walked around with a price on his or her head” (Robert Harms, p.100).