slavery – Page 5 – U.S. to 1877

September 11, 2013

Inhuman Bondage Reading

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An important part of this week’s reading in Inhuman Bondage for me was how Davis describes the slave trade and in a way lists on the reason behind the Europeans purchasing other human beings as free labor. Davis persuades the reader that the slave trade was an essential part of the American economy, which makes it almost seem as if the enslavement of other people is fine because they were the cheapest alternative and they brought so much revenue back to the country. Along with the thoughts of the efficiency in terms of finances, Davis also brings up how the difference in religion rationalizes enslaving Africans to the Europeans. The Europeans looked down on the African race because they were not white Christians as they were and this difference made them inferior. He goes further to justify the horrors of slavery by making it seem like enslaving these people was going to make them better. He makes it seem as if enslaving Africans will make them want to become more like their owners, meaning they will choose to convert to Christianity, and this will make them more educated or civilized as a race. I think this is absurd because being enslaved, in my opinion, would not make you want to join those who took brought your life for work, but rather make you turn against and rebel against everything that you see them do. I find it ironic that the United States of America that we live in today is all about freedom and providing people with a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but our countries began with slavery being an integral part, and slavery lasted for a long time afterwards.

September 11, 2013

Slavery in New World

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.” 16^th 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 16^th 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.

September 10, 2013

Inhuman Bondage, Chapters 4 and 5:

While reading chapters 4 and 5 of David Brion Davis’s Inhuman Bondage, I found that I was able to appreciate Davis’s style and delivery of information more than the passages from Alan Taylor’s American Colonies. Although several of my classmates may disagree, I believe that Davis’s writing is easier to read and absorb than Taylor’s.

One of the topics included in the reading that stood out to me was that not all forms of slavery were equal. While learning about the Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery in the “new world” in high school, there was little emphasis placed on the sharp differences between picking cotton, making sugar, or growing tobacco. Through this generalization of labor, it was difficult to understand which tasks were particularly arduous. In chapter 5, however, Taylor depicts the painstaking process of sugar cultivation in vivid detail. Taylor describes sugar production as having “far exceeded anything slaves encountered when cultivating tobacco, cotton, rice, or indigo” (108-109). Taylor essentially said that if slaves could pick their job, working in the sugar industry would be their last choice.

Another portion of the reading that stood out to me was how the Europeans justified the enslavement of other people. One particular way is the fact that Africans did not practice traditional European religions led Europeans to view them as inferior and worthy of being enslaved. Some people believed that by enslaving Africans and converting them to Christianity, the African people became civilized. Perhaps the most obvious difference between Africans and Europeans was race. Africans dark complexion was seen negatively in the eyes of Europeans, who associated black with “demons, devils, and tortures.” This simple but blatant difference enabled Europeans to frame Africans as the “ultimate outsiders” (79). Perceptions of Africans as inferior and foreign led to the acceptance of their roles as slaves by Europeans and resulted in African slaves becoming a social normality.

September 10, 2013

Davis, Chapter 4: The Origins of Race-Based Slavery

Sherwood Callaway
HIS 141, Blog Post 3

The institution of slavery as it existed in the American south would have been wholly unfamiliar to someone living in the 15th century. In the early modern world, Europeans abstained from slavery entirely, celebrating the ““non-enslavability” of Christian whites.” Africans only enslaved prisoners of war and debtors. Islamic states throughout the Mediterranean traded captives from the Black Sea area. The ancient Romans had operated similarly, refusing to make distinctions based on race, religion, etc.

In chapter 4 of Inhuman Bondage, author Davis investigates the origins of race-based slavery, a comparatively peculiar phenomenon. Jacob Newton suggested in his blog post that “a revival in classical learning” was responsible for rationalizing this kind of servitude. I would argue that there exists no classical precept that supports such a claim. Even the Gallic tribes, who were considered barbarians and defeated by Caesar, we’re only enslaved as prisoners of war. Rather, it is the Christian tradition, which dominated early modern Europe, that established the ideological foundation for race-based slavery. For example, the biblical “Curse of Ham” set a precedent for racial distinctions. The ancient Hebrewes enslaved their Canaanite enemies, and Europeans felt a similar “need to enslave “outsiders”.” Because of the darkness of their skin, Africans appeared dirty, uncivilized, and foreign. For the Portuguese in Brazil especially, the process of Christianizing these people became a particularly popular justification.

In the same chapter, Davis also supports the ideas of historian David Eltis, who argued that plantation slavery was an economic inevitability: a natural “next step” for the European economy, and a predecessor of “the efficiency, organization, and global interconnectedness of industrial capitalism.” The political and commercial environment of the early modern period made African slave labor a particularly appealing concept. Ironically, if not for religion and morality, the institution of slavery could have expanded infinitely for the want of profit.

September 10, 2013

Blog Post #3- Chapter 4 in Inhuman Bondage

In chapter 4 of Inhuman Bondage author David Davis explains how the African slave trade became prevalent and the tremendous affect it had on the European nations involved and in the development of the “new world”. In the chapter he focuses heavily on the motives behind these countries in becoming part of the slave trade and how these nations justified enslaving others, black Africans specifically. He suggests that while selfish motives drove the slave trade, there were also legitimate reasons as to why this atrocity became so popular in the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries- “I do not mean to minimize the importance of greed, economic self interest, and an increasing desire for greater productivity and profit. All of which lay at the heart of early modern and modern slavery. But these economic desires were also fused with issues of identity, ideology, and power.” (Davis, 78). He makes the argument that while selfishness was part of the reason various European countries began using Africans as slaves, they were also driven by a need to compete and make their colonies in the Americas as successful as possible. What stuck out to me the most in reading this chapter was the multitude of ways in which Europeans went about justifying these actions.

David argues that a revival in classical learning drove a wave of support for slavery. Except that people in modern Europe were against enslaving other white Europeans; even those who were at the bottom of the social ladder. Africans however, we’re different. Being from outside Europe, they were different enough in the eyes of Europeans to justify their enslavement. For beginners, their different skin color somehow made them inferior. At the time, Europeans held severely negative connotations of the color black, often associating it with demons, devils and torturers (Davis, 79). Africans also practiced different religions from that of mostly Christian Europe. This only further widened the divide between Africans and Europeans, making them seem more different. It’s arguable that in the eyes of the Europeans this made slavery even more justifiable. I think the Europeans felt so disconnected and separate from the Africans, partly because of the difference in culture and religion that in their minds, enslaving Africans was much more acceptable than enslaving others who were more closely tied to them when it came to the intricacies of society.

One final thing that stood out to me, was how even hundreds of years later, scholars still are far apart in the debate regarding what role the Africans played in allowing the slave trade to escalate to the levels it did. On page 91, Davis gives a quote from a 16^th century Kongonian King. In the quote, King Alfonzo claims that “merchants are taking every day our natives….” and that “…our country is being completely depopulated”. Davis goes on to explain however, that different scholars have varying interpretations of what Alfonzo’s words mean. Before reading, I truly had no idea that the Africans participated in the slave trade at all. I was under the assumption that Europeans simply captured African men and woman against their will and lugged them onto boats. It was interesting to learn that not only did they play a role, but also that scholars still have not reached a consensus on how big that role was.

September 10, 2013

Blog 1 – Lesson 4

In high school, when discussing the use of slavery through different historical eras, it is always described in negative (and often revisionist) terms that ignore the importance of slavery in maintaining the civilization’s regime. David Davis’ Inhuman Bondage ignores this narrative in favour of a more realistic approach that acknowledges the importance of slavery in the development of the New World. In Chapter 4, Davis describes the use of plantation slavery as “highly productive,” and describes it as the logical successor to the “efficiency, organization, and global interconnectedness of industrial capitalism.” Unlike historians I have been previously exposed to who only address slavery in comparison to the lack-their-of in modern society, Davis uses statistics to support his argument that slavery was essential to the rise of the New World.

As Caitlin identified, Davis’ stress of how the European colonizers viewed Africans as black slaves and themselves as white slave-owners is an important aspect of the master-servant relationship that kept the slave-trade active. These racial tensions and the fact that white Europeans automatically assumed themselves to be intellectually and culturally superior amazed me. I had read about the white European’s inflated view of themselves, especially in comparison to black Africans, but was unaware of the degree to which this existed. What struck out to me most about this issue was the fact that the Europeans were unable to differentiate between different African tribes, seeing them all universally as “black” (described as a complete lack of “pan-African consciousness”).

One interesting section of Chapter 5 was when Davis described in great length the process that went into the harvesting, manufacturing and distribution of the sugar trade. Minute details referring to the “drying of the “heads”” and “crushing of the easily perishable crops” gave me a more complete look into the final product and the labour that was required to achieve this final product (which Davis described as a far more challenging process than the Virginian tobacco farmers).

I was, however, unclear as to why (outside of geographical reasons) that the Portuguese essentially held a monopoly over the Spanish in regards to the sugarcane industry. Davis attempted to explain this, but I was still not certain as to why this was the case by the end of the readings. From previous chapters (especially in regards to other nations’ desires to emulate the Spanish accumulation of precious metals), it seemed as though colonial empires were learning from one another as to how to best sustain their territory. Since the sugarcane industry appeared to be highly lucrative, I thought it would make sense for other nations to attempt the trade.

September 9, 2013

Week 3 Chapter 4 and 5

This being the first non-American Colonies reading assigned, I found the change in perspective extremely refreshing. The author brought the issue of slavery in the American colonies to a much more grandiose scale, comparing it with instances of human domination which occurred in Europe’s past and describing how these instances created the social climate which allowed for the mass trafficking of African Slaves. One unique argument made by Davis in chapter 4 was that if it could have ever become culturally Legitimate, Europeans colonizers would have enslaved the vagabonds and criminals within Europe and avoided the expense of Trafficking from Africa all together.

Although I’m sure that all of us have have heard a description of the conditions which slaves were shipped to America in, the one put forth in Inhuman Bondage resonated with me and projected a lasting image by prefacing the few details put forth with a sentence stating that no human words can describe the horror of the transport vessels, and that only the Holocaust and Roman Slavery were even on par.

Davis also does an excellent job of outlining the details of the trade, such as the route which slaves were taken and their various stops which connect to create an extremely complex mass transit system developed by the Europeans, especially in the New World, where control was constantly being lost and gained. The nature of these two chapters show a complexity and denseness which is not found in American Colonies, but does an effective job of describing a horrific system which played an incredibly significant role in the development of the colonies.

Davis also makes MUCH more effective use of maps.