ORIGINS OF SLAVERY IN NEW WORLD.   Term Paper ID:25957 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines economic, racial & cultural roots of use of black slaves in 16th Cent. in colonial Amer.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines economic, racial & cultural roots of use of black slaves in 16th Cent. in colonial Amer. Paper Introduction: Slavery developed in the American context beginning in the seventeenth century, and the institution was continued with various justifications for more than two and one-half centuries. The slave trade in Western Europe developed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Slavery had a long history by that time, and slavery in Africa was a well-established institution. African slavery had one difference for most of its history: At least in some portions of Africa there was no racial basis of slavery. The Egyptians enslaved whatever peoples they captured. At times they were Semitic, at times Mediterranean, and at other times blacks from Nubia (Franklin and Moss 27). Historians have offered differing perspectives on the reason why slave Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. . Thesettlers were primarily interested in the exploitation of the naturalresources of the New World, and to this end cheap labor was needed. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Hill & Wang, 1997. They could also bepurchased outright so that in the long run they were cheaper thanindentured servants: African slavery, then, became a fixed institution, a solution to one of the most difficult New World problems. Basil Davidson traces the developmentof attitudes on the part of European settlers not only toward black slavesbut toward the Indians encountered on the frontier. The townsstarted as fortified walled villages and then evolved into largercommunities serving different purposes: Here, of course, were the center of governments and the teeming markets filled with goods from distant regions. Spielvogel. Europeans came to see both groups as inferior and so could justifyslavery and other actions taken against them. Blacks arrived in the New World first as crew members and explorersand not only as slaves. World History: Volume I. Wood agrees that the Englishturned first to the Native American population, but she also finds in thiselements similar to the African trade to come: In many respects, sixteenth-century English images of native Americans were not entirely dissimilar to those they were simultaneously constructing of West Africans. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.Haggerty, Richard A. and Jackson J. This set a precedentlater followed in the English colonies. Both were strangers, both were apparently uncivilized, and both were dark-skinned (Wood 21). At times they were Semitic, at times Mediterranean, and at other times blacks from Nubia (Franklin and Moss 27).Historians have offered differing perspectives on the reason why slaverydeveloped in the Americas and what differences may be found between slaveryin Africa and slavery in America. This did not necessarily mean that they would enslave Africans, but it did mean the colonists were likely to turn to Africans to satisfy their labor requirements (Wood 2 ).Wood also finds that the people of Europe had a low opinion of the peopleof West Africa based on the image of the latter region developed insixteenth-century England. However,Franklin and Moss seem to agree with Davidson and others that the attitudeof racial superiority developed over time in part as a function of theexistence of slavery. The system was unrealistic and highly destructive to theIndian population, which died off rapidly from exhaustion, starvation,disease, and other causes. However, Franklin and Moss note that England came to see that whiteservants were unsatisfactory and might become more interested in industrythan agriculture. African slavery had one difference for most of its history: At least in some portions of Africa there was no racial basis of slavery. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1961.Duiker, William J. Many whiteservants ran away. In truth, though, thepeoples of Africa were not as backward as Europeans liked to believe andhad developed major civilizations even before Europe did. Davidson discusses the slave trade from the point of view of aEuropean examining the damage done to Africa. In the American context, most slavery did have a racial componentthough one that developed over time. New York: West Publishing, 1994.Franklin, John Hope and Alfred A. Asnoted, Indians were used first because they were available, but the Indianswere also susceptible to diseases brought by Europeans and were also notready for the kind of work required under the plantation economy: Nowhere was Indian slavery profitable. The supply was also insufficient in any case. With the supply of Africans apparently inexhaustible, there would be no more worries (Frankli and Moss 32). The economic needs of agriculture in the New World had much to do withslavery there. The Egyptians enslaved whatever peoples they captured. The slave trade in Western Europedeveloped in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The idea of thenoble savage would give way to the view that the savage was simplyinferior, but in the beginning explorers like Charles Wheeler saw thesavage as closer to nature and thus more noble and happier in contrast tothe European: A Guinean. Economic need thus led to theEnglish colonies joining in a practice already in place. Slavery developed in the American context beginning in the seventeenthcentury, and the institution was continued with various justifications formore than two and one-half centuries. The view taken by Franklin and Moss emphasizes the economic element,and most theories of why slavery developed includes this component as areason why a large amount of labor was needed in the first place. The African Slave Trade. by treading in the paths prescrib'd by his ancestors, paths natural, pleasant, and diverting, is in the plain road to be a good and happy man; but the European has sought so many inventions, and has endeavour'd to put so many restrictions upon nature, that it would be next to a miracle if he were either happy or good (Davidson 99).This attitude would be brought to bear in antislavery campaigns as someEuropeans fought against the institution, and ennobling the victims was oneway of showing how pernicious the institution itself might be. BibliographyDavidson, Basil. Betty Wood takes a different view and sees a racialcomponent from the beginning: The enslavement of West Africans by the English in the New World was a seventeenth-century phenomenon, but the roots of that enslavement lay in racial attitudes that took shape during the course of the previous century. As aconsequence, two opposing conceptions developed in Europe: Henceforward, Europeans would be increasingly divided into two opposed views: one, the traditional, tending to hold that Africa had never possessed cultures that were worthy of respect or even of serious investigation; the other, the scientific, tending to argue the reverse (Davidson 1 ). Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1989.Wood, Betty. The slavetrade itself drove European attitudes as they came to see the people ofAfrica not as people but as commodities to be capture, bought, and sold.Davidson says explicitly that the trade and the bitterness and contempt itbrought laid the foundation for future legends of "savage Africa." As longas Europeans were superior in morality they could view their actions in theslave trade as benefiting the enslaved people rather than harming them.Obviously, though, the attitude was a two-edged sword in that a reactionbuilt in which those who saw the moral wrong of slavery and who consideredthemselves morally superior had to fight against the institution and all itrepresented. Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies. . Indeed,there was actually some gain from contact with Europe, especially inagriculture as the ships from South America introduced new and useful cropsthat would become of importance to Africa (Davidson 277-278). The result was theimportation of African slaves beginning in 15 3, and by 152 , black Africanlabor was used almost exclusively (Haggerty 4-5). African servants were easier to control and could becaught because they were of a different color. Here also were artisans, skilled in metal or wood working, pottery making, and other crafts, as well as some farmers who tilled the soil in the neighboring fields (Duiker and Spielvogel 249).Africa had long had its own slave trade, a trade which reached "enormousproportions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Europeanslave ships transported millions of unfortunate victims to new homes inEurope or the Americas (Duiker and Spielvogel 251). He is not considering theeffects on the slaves themselves so much as on the continent from whichthey were taken, and he finds that the consequences of the trade weredevastating to Africa, in no small part because of the racist attitudesdeveloped in white settlers there causing them to create as muchdevastation in the environment as they had done in the population. There is some suggestion that, even before they embarked on their colonization of the North American mainland and the Caribbean, the English were already predisposed to regard west Africans as suitable candidates for enslavement. England at the time was not advocatingenslavement of Africans but knew that slaves were being taken by Spain andPortugal, England's main European rivals. Slavery had a longhistory by that time, and slavery in Africa was a well-establishedinstitution. Other sources of labor supply would have to be tapped if agricultural development in the New World wa snot to be retarded by an insufficiency of workers (Franklin and Moss 31).Africans were employed at that time, but the colonists did not yet see themas a solution to the problem, and instead resorted to poor whites fromEurope, often indentured servants who signed over their lives for a periodof time. The Origins of American Slavery. Even if it had been, it would have been insufficient for the robust agricultural life that the Europeans colonies were fostering in the seventeenth century. The slave tradedeveloped at the same time as Europe began exploring new realms andencountering new peoples, and it was necessary for the white European todevelop some philosophical attitude which placed himself and the "noblesavage" he encountered in the wild on some sort of scale. Franklin and Moss find that Europeans did not atfirst see Africans as a solution to the growing labor problem. The decimation of the Indian population hadprofound consequences for the settlers needed a new source of labor to meetthe growing demands of sugarcane cultivation. Moss Jr. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.