Transcript
African American History Midterm
Lauren Garvin
History 281-01
October 27, 2017
Discuss the nature of slavery in West Africa before the beginning of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. How important was slavery to African society and to the African economy? What roles did slaves serve in African societies? How did slavery in West Africa compare with contemporaneous systems of coercive labor in Europe?
During the first millennium BCE the ancient civilizations of West Africa emerged. West Africa’s terrain varied from savanna to forest, and these diverse lands were home to “a variety of cultures and languages” The predominant structure of most West African civilizations was based on the idea that a divine ruler was chosen by God to lead their people. This hierarchical social structure established status and classes. During this time Africans did enslave other Africans, normally captives of war to benefit fiscally. Overall the nature of slavery in West Africa before the beginning of the Transatlantic Slave Trade was very different from the modern day understanding of slavery. The system of slavery before the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was more humane in the sense that slaves were able to regain their freedom, take advantage of economic mobility, and maintain their dignity.
The Soninke people founded the first known organized kingdom of West Africa, Ghana, located in the western Sudan. Trade and business was booming in Ghana and lead this kingdom to be very powerful. They often traded imported necessities for native slaves that had been captured during war. Their economy heavily depended on slavery and would often receive “silk, cotton, glass, beads, horses, mirrors, dates, and especially salt” in exchange for slaves. Although slaves were key in the African economy it was not the goal of African’s to have mass natives enslaved and exploit this class of people.
African slavery during this time “functioned as a form of assimilation” or “the process of becoming similar” and blended those people of the conquerors with the captives. Although slaves had a low social status they were able to work to gain land and regain their freedom in certain regions. Those slaves who “served either in the royal courts of a West African kingdom or in a kingdom’s armies often exercised power over free people ab could acquire property” Slavery was not a “permanent condition” and allowed for many to regain their freedom and begin making money and determining the destiny of their own lives. Slaves during this time differed greatly from the systems of coercive labor in Europe because it allowed slaves to maintain their dignity. Just because a mother or father was a slave did not mean their children or lineage would be forced into the same fate. It was common that the “children and grandchildren of these enslaved agricultural workers gained employment and privileges similar to those of free people”. Something that never happened in the European rendition of slavery.
Discuss the nature of the Middle Passage. What were the worst aspects of the passage? Did those aspects result from malice, neglect, or were they an inevitable result of the scale of the passage? Did the capitalistic nature of the passage curb or aggravate the passage’s worst excesses?
The Middle Passage is one of the most ghastly events in the history of the world. This massive hijacking of an entire culture was disturbing, cruel, and barbaric. Innocent native people were being captured and ransacked with no knowledge of what was happening to them. After being captured the newly enslaved african people would be held in “factories” for weeks or even up to months. Many Africans died of European diseases, as well as a number of Africans committed suicide due to the massive shock and the extremity of being completely removed from everything they had ever known. The worst part was yet to come. The Middle Passage was a common route across the Atlantic slave traders took massive ships stacked with African slaves from West Africa to the Americas. The slave ships were deathly and were filled with not only diseases, but stacked slaves on top of each other literally to massive capacity. The capitalistic nature of The Middle Passage led to gross negligence and resulted in a multitude of deaths, assaults and mental traumas.
Africans faced many new diseases their bodies and immune systems were not ready for. Diseases such as “malaria, yellow fever, measles, smallpox, hookworm, scurvy, and dysentery constantly threatened African cargoes and European crews during the Middle Passage.” Although there were provisions made for the slaves and crew members to last the voyage, food was often insufficient and lead to many slaves demise. Malnutrition, on top of already weakened immune systems, in combination with traumatized individuals that definitely did not receive proper medical care lead to an exponential amount of death.
Unfortunately for African women “crew members felt they had license to abuse them sexually,” and were often subject to rape and assault. Women were seen as less valuable because they were sold for only half the price of men when they reached the Americas. Women were separated from men in order to prevent revolts, but it made women an easier target to objectify. These women already being traumatized by being captured suffered further mental trauma having to deal with and fight of sexual advances.
The psychological trauma and break down of the African American slave was brutal during the middle passage. Slave ship surgeon Alexander Falconbridge recounted “going between decks, in the morning, to examine the situation of the slaves, frequently finds several dead; and among the men, sometimes a dead and living Negroe fastened by their irons together.” The crew members were completely neglectful to not only the disease running rampant in the African’s systems but to the blatant feces, death and damnations they left these enslaved people to wallow in. African’s were in complete shell shock after being captured and forced into a system they knew nothing about. They were instantly made to feel worthless by witnessing how their lives meant nothing to their captures and faced uncertain futures during the Middle Passage.
Based on the development of colonial slave codes from the early seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century, to what degree were slavery and race connected in the early colonial period? Was slavery premised on racism or did slavery create racism? Use specific laws and episodes from colonial history to support your response.
Slave codes solidified the connection between slavery and race. The slave codes “defined American slavery as a system that sought as much to control persons of African descent as to exploit their labor.” These laws made a clear distinction that black people of African descent were to be subjected and treated as an entity less than the normal human being. Slave codes took away basic human rights from the black slave and set up the black community to fail. Slave codes set precedence that it was okay to degrade black people and set the foundation for modern day slavery in America. The slave codes stopped blacks from accomplishing economic mobility, or justice, and made the identity of the African American community impossible to establish.
With black people not being able to own property they really had no economic or political power due to these codes. Slaves did not have the option to earn wages and move up and out of their social class like in other traditional African slave traditions.The slave codes also made it so that African Americans “could not testify against white people in court.” Not only did it limit the African American’s voice to speak up and out for themselves during a time of such grave injustice, these slave codes also made an exemption from “felony charges to masters who killed a slave while administering punishment.” This just further degraded African Americans and made it clear that black lives did not matter. The status of African Americans had been literally “reduced legally to the status of domestic animals.” This went into the psychological warfare used against the Africans to make them feel less than and ultimately elevate the white race. The codes even went so far as to limit the amount of African American’s that could congregate and talk together at a time. Not allowing marriages either lead to the destruction of the black family and community. Without these connections African American’s lost all connection with their native cultures and traditions.
Always fearing rebellions, white people of the colonial period were always scared they in fact were the inferior species. They used mental and psychological control to establish dominance. Slavery was created on the premise of racism to institutionalize and deteriorate the identity of the African people they were exploiting. Then race codes set into stone the first systematic governmental dissolution of the African American.
Discuss the American Revolution’s impact on slavery. In what ways did the Revolution undermine the institution of slavery? In what ways did the Revolution help to preserve the institution? On balance, did the American Revolution do more to end or to protect the system of slavery in the new United States?
