slavery – Page 5 – American History to 1877

January 27, 2014

Varied Colonial Slavery

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In Human Bondage, Davis attempts to inform us about the vast extent of slavery during the colonial period of North America. He reveals to us, through historical records of the slave market and through written works of colonists and ship captains, slavery existed long before the colonization of what is now the United States. Although, it was losing popularity as form of labor, slavery existed within Europe and the United Kingdom before colonization. In fact, slavery was most extensive within the Caribbean, West Indies, and Brazil long before North American colonies became dependent on slaves.

Slavery played a vital role in the success of the colonies and is a large part of our history. As such, we have each learned different aspects of the history and each have our own impressions of this point in history. I myself, thought slavery had originated mainly due to a desire and greed for free labor by the colonists and that Africans were chosen simply because they were different. However, Davis shows that slavery was much more complicated than that. There was not a colony that was created (except South Carolina) with the intention of using slaves as a source of labor. The companies had hoped to utilize indentured servants or criminals and the poor to keep the streets of England clear. Furthermore, there were colonists who protested the use of slaves. As Dana stated, slaves were not originally treated differently solely due to skin color. Although still treated as beneath others, the reasons were more class based and it was not until slavery became a common system that racism proliferated.

As we have discussed in class, each colony at the time was different due to varied European origins, as such, each colony treated slaves differently. Although classmate argue that it is meaningless to state which colony treated slaves better, I would contend that this is a very vital part of our history. Davis would like us to see that slavery was a varied form of labor and not just a malevolent, universal plantation system we are usually exposed to. I am by no means, diminishing the inherent immorality of slavery but rather ask us to see that humans are complicated and thus, so is history. As such, we should potentially consider all cultural aspects behind slavery including how “better-treated” slaves affected other “worse off” slaves, colonists, and slavery itself and not just study history with a set belief or idea about that period in time. In this way, we can learn more about history and how it affects us culturally today.

January 27, 2014

The New Cash Crop: Slaves

Chapters four through six of Inhuman Bondage gave an elaborate overview of slavery. As we have discussed in class, the Europeans were very concerned with their economic success. In need of cheap labor, they looked towards enslavement. They could not justify enslaving white people because of a sense of unity and freedom, so they turned to Africa. The color black to them symbolized “depictions of black demons, devils, and torturers.” (79) “By 1820, nearly 10.1 million slaves had departed from Africa for the New World, as opposed to only 2.6 million whites, who had left Europe.” (80) Because of these high numbers, it can be implied that the New World could not have been created without the African slaves. Ironically, these slaves were not necessarily planned to help settle the Americas. People who crossed the ocean at first were just trying to find gold and silver. They did not want to work on the extensive labor jobs, so they needed slaves. Once cash crops became popular, slave labor increased. Sugar and tobacco became such high demand products for the Europeans and that transcended into a need to transport millions of African slaves to the New World. The slave trade ripped Africa of men. The population was left dwindling, and despite the government officials making lots of money, Africa did not experience a huge economy boost.

One part of Chapter 4 that interested me was the comparison of Africans to Indians. The Europeans acted paternalistic towards the Indians, but they “dealt with the Africans as equals.” (88) The Africans had technology. They possessed ships and could attack the Europeans. The Europeans had to provide ceremonial gifts and to pay fees in order to anchor in Africa. It was disheartening to read about how slaves were taking into custody. People would sell out their fellow friends and the government would sentence people to slavery just to make a profit. In the Americas, African slaves were preferred over Indians because they were “familiar with large-scale agriculture, labor discipline, and making iron or even steel tools.” (99) Also, later on, chapter 6 discusses how not enough attention is paid to this complicated relationship. Indians would help track down fugitive slaves, and some even sold slaves themselves.

Drawing on my classmate’s point in The Great Complexity of the Slave Trade, slavery should not have been compared when it was worst or better. Slavery was wrong in general. Innocent Africans got ripped from their homeland and forced onto horrid living conditions. Whites justified this because they felt superior to them. What is extremely ironic is that a supposedly “free society was made possible by black slave labor.” (102) The Europeans left Europe because they felt confined and wanted freedom, and they took away the freedom of many in this new land. Some, including the Quakers were very against slavery. The Quakers compared “those who were oppressed for conscience sake with these oppressed who are a black colour.” (126)

January 26, 2014

The Great Complexity of the Slave Trade

These chapters of Human Bondage are certainly eye-opening to the sheer size of the slave trade in the new world. We have already discussed the complexity with generalizing within native cultures or European colonizers, but these new interactions weave an entirely new web. In the fourth chapter Davis attempts to convey how the many European powers began to involve slavery into daily lives and constructs the argument for the inherent racist nature of slavery in Europe. He says that white Christians found it naturally wrong to enslave other white Christians, but even by simply having darker skin they are more like the “devil.” It seems that religion plays almost as key of a role in justifying slavery in these chapters as it did with subjugation and colonization of the natives in Taylor’s American Colonies. It is also overwhelming to learn how many players were in the African slave trade market, from the Portuguese to the Dutch and how many places African slaves could find landfall after their departure. The mass displacement of persons and the disproportionate amount of males could have had extreme effects on populations in Africa as well. Although Dana mentions that it was commonplace in Africa for enslavement to occur, it was undoubtedly influenced by the high demand the new world was placing on the market.

As to where slaves would find landfall, the enslavement system, labor and life seems to mimic or at least echo colonizations and some of the themes we discussed in class. If I were to generalize, colonies typically attempt to find the most economically sound product and utilize the cheapest labor. This is why many slaves in Brazil and the West Indies would be in the sugar cane industry and why eventually the American South would find cotton to be invaluable to their lifestyle. Even as far as New York slavery would be found in houses and many markets would take place to enhance the economic prowess of the colony. One thing I generally disliked about the reading and disagree with Dana’s point is the quickness with which when discussing slave history, we wish to find the definitive location where slavery was “the worst” or “the best” or where they would have picked for themselves. Slavery was an inherently evil construct and while it is obviously incredibly important to remember and discuss slave conditions in different colonies and areas of the Americas, trying to deduce or argue about who treated slavery worse for what reasons is fruitless and ultimately ties back to how the colonists could abuse and utilize them for economic gains. Davis does an incredibly good job at depicting the lives of slaves in each area of the world and how they were consistently humiliated and degraded and that, in my opinion, should be the history remembered most vividly.