Whether native or foreign, the forced laborers discussed in the five historical documents—“A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes”, “Description of a Slave Market in Rio de Janeiro”, “Notes on the Treatment of the Natives in Northeast Siberia”, “Mercury Mining in Huanacavelica and Silver Mining in Potosí”, and “The General Slavery at Achin”—were impelled to fulfill responsibilities and lead lives that were believably unnatural, being that those laborers forced to work were typically exposed to extreme and destitute living conditions due to the mandatory demands of their overseer, while those “enslaved” in the country of Sumatra were allowed profuse independency in comparison to drudges elsewhere in the world. Depending on their geographic location, some forced laborers shared a similar style of governance, while the others faced severely contrasting ways of life.
As part of the Atlantic chattel slavery system, Ligon explained the harsh lifestyle and living conditions that the autonomous society forced upon its laborers in 17th century Barbados through his written description in “A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes”. According to Ligon, “the grueling work…during the harvest season ran without stopping from Monday at 1 A.M. through Saturday night” (Richard Ligon 114). Any educated reader could infer that the mandated labor created an extreme and highly unreasonable lifestyle that is unnatural for any human being. Living conditions included scarce meals, where “the servants [ate] no bone meat at all, unless an ox died and then they were feasted as long as that lasted. And till they had planted good store plantains, the Negroes were fed with food which gave them much discontent,” and living quarters were...
... middle of paper ...
...ouses, as if they were free People” (Captain William Dampier 142). In comparison to the strict, intolerant ways of forced labor discussed previously, Sumatra’s enslavement appeared significantly more permissive, allowing laborers to act more freely and independent.
Whether native or foreign to the lands on which the enslaved were forced to labor, the good majority of forced laborers were impelled by their overseer to deal with extreme conditions and perform unnatural duties. Experiencing destitute conditions and intense responsibility was a major part in the lives of most forced laborers, but for the rare extremity, slaves had a more significant amount of freedom. Although the typical enslaved peoples faced similar governing dominance and autonomy, there were others who experienced differing lifestyles. This definitely makes for worlds together, yet worlds apart.
At first glance, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle against the Transatlantic Slave Trade bares resemblance to your typical, run of the mill historical textbook. The reader [looking at the cover,] may expect to see ordinary text that would pertain to a standardized African History course. Contrary to the title, the author, Rafe Blaufarb, provides a vivid, contextual look at how slavery spanned out with the use of graphic images and primary sources in a way most authors do not today. Comparatively [to other textbooks,] Inhuman Traffick depicts the development of the raw story of enslavement. From the ships to the whips, it shows concrete details of this haunting era while adding an underlying complexity to the story whilst omitting
The source of the first passage that I read was History of the Indies written by Bartolome de Las Casas written in 1528. Bartolome was a 16th century Spanish historian, social reformer and Dominican friar/priest, who condemned the treatment of Indians in the Spanish empire. Bartolome widely disseminated History of the Indies and helped to establish the Black Legend of Spanish cruelty (Give Me Liberty, 28). The source of the second passage that I read was the “Declaration of Josephe” which was created by Josephe on December 19, 1681, and Josephe was a Spanish-speaking Indian questioned by a royal attorney in Mexico City investigating the Pueblo Revolt, which is the revolt of the indian population, in 1680, which temporarily drove Spanish settlers out of present day New Mexico
Before delving into the specifics of enslavement conditions in the New World, a peek into the slavery
When we assess the evils of slavery, we typically think of the North American slaves plight. We think of the beatings, murders, hangings and mistreatment of the Southern slave. But what about the slaves of Latin America? Who hears their cries of woe because of their evil slave masters? Is their treatment the same of their brethren under slave rule in North America? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to look into the lives of both North and Latin American slaves. For our purposes, we will utilize two slave narratives. One account will come from the North American slave, Frederick Douglass, and his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The other account will come from the narrative Autobiography of a Slave by the Cuban slave Juan Francisco Manzano. In analyzing these two slave narratives, we will compare the childhood, slave communities, slave/master relations, and literature of both Douglass and Manzano. By taking a comparative look at Frederick Douglass and Juan Francisco Manzano we will be able to hear the voices of the slaves and understand their plight.
The Atlantic Slave Trade affected millions of lives throughout the centuries that it existed and now many years later. It was so widely and easily spread throughout four continents and with these documents we get to read about three different people with three different point of views. A story of the life as a slave from an African American slave himself, how the slave trade was just a business from the point of view from merchants and kings, and letter from King Affonso I referring to the slave trade to King Jiao of Portugal.
African-American labor was beginning to be more valuable than white labor. African laborers were beginning to be looked at as property, as well as being treated that way. By the 1660’s, the status of the African ...
Beckles, Dr. Hillary, Verene Shepherd. Caribbean Slave Society and Economy. The New Press, New York. New York, N.Y. 1991.
The practice of slavery for men and women both presented equally sufferings. However, the white planation owners or overseers routinely raped women during this time. Women regularly had their children stripped away from them and sold into slavery. However, ironica...
The transatlantic slave trade paved the way for mass distribution of the human civilizations strongest labor force. The thought of using other humans as a means of production was first internal only within Africa but as other nations began to witness the degradation of one race, they saw an opportunity to tap into the weakened morals of one race which in turn allowed the Africans to fall into a lower class. Thus began the dispersion of slaves to other nations needing to fill the labor gap. An event that represents the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade within the readings arise when Equiano was on watch with one of his sisters and was kidnapped by a group of people. Ever since Equiano was kidnapped, he was sold numerous times through different masters and traveled coast to coast. Equiano also witnessed the first time in his life a slave ship that was filled with black people of every description chained together with dejection and sorrowful expressions, and it was then that he realized the future that awaits him. Through the descriptions and Equiano’s wish for his former slavery in preference to the present condition he was in, we can imagine how awful and dehumanizing the slaves were being treated on shore. According to Equiano, many of the African slaves had the unpleasant personalities and traits that were similar with the white slave owners on the ship because of the close interaction that they had with each other. According to Gomez’s Reversing Sail, the beginning moment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade occurred because “Muslim forces in al-Andalus were never in control of the entire Iberian Peninsula and were continually threatened by Christian enemies during their nearly 800-year rule” (Gomez 59). As a result, “in both Iberia and the
When one thinks of slavery, they may consider chains holding captives, beaten into submission, and forced to work indefinitely for no money. The other thing that often comes to mind? Stereotypical African slaves, shipped to America in the seventeenth century. The kind of slavery that was outlawed by the 18th amendment, nearly a century and a half ago. As author of Modern Slavery: The Secret World of 27 Million People, Kevin Bales, states, the stereotypes surrounding slavery often confuse and blur the reality of slavery. Although slavery surely consists of physical chains, beatings, and forced labor, there is much more depth to the issue, making slavery much more complex today than ever before.
Slavery in the eighteenth century grew due to increased labor force that was needed in the plantations with increased knowledge of farming and industrialization in the plantations. After the colonization of North America by the Europeans, large tracts of land were available for farming and plantations. A number of white plantation owners brought in slaves to work since they were cheaper to use in providing labor. As a result, other plantations owners saw the advantage of using slaves as laborers (Litwack, 2009). A large number of slaves brought into America were Africans captured and transported to slave owners who submitted them to hard labor in the plantations. With no or small amount used as expenditure ad salaries, most plantations farmers opted to use slaves to provide them with labor. These slaves were made to work in the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations with harsh living conditions since they were either immigrants or unable to return to their countries. This paper compares and contrasts slavery in the North and South America.
Slaves had an expanding economic force for the Europeans. “Trade between the Europeans and Africans created the first route of the triangular slave trade”. African citizens were “forcibly removed from their homes to never return”. Sales of Africans were classified as having the full cooperation of the “African kings” in return for various trade and goods. Africans who were exchanged were forced to walk chained to the coast of the Indian Ocean. Once at the coast they were stripped of all their clothes, men, women and children all alike with just a loincloth, or strips of blue tap for women to cover their chest area. Once the Africans boarded the ship they were divided by sex, males in the bowel of the ship and the women on the upper deck. The men would be chained side by side by their necks with barely enough room to move. African women were forced to do the “unmentionable acts”. Neither were fed or watered well, and the men would be forced to sit in their own “excrement, and vomit”. Once in awhile the men would be brought to the deck and rinsed off with cold water. While on deck they would be forced to dance to “entertain the ships crew”. Many Africans would try to “revolt” or commit “suicide”, when revolting against their captors many Africans would die. For as much as “3- 6 months” the Africans would endure these torments. Once the ship ported in the America’s shore, all the Africans would be “cleaned up and stripped naked to be sold”. Once the Africans were sold they were no longer Africans to the Merchants, they were product, and, no longer having rights as humans; they were caught into what is called chattel slavery. For approximately “246 years” African Americans would endure such bondage.
The 1600’s were a time of expansion in the new world. Unfortunately the development of this area led slavery to be the main source of labor. As history teaches us slavery was used extensively in the new world. The main areas of concern of this paper are how slavery in the Caribbean carried over its practice in the American South. The slave system was implemented in the Caribbean on a larger scale before the South implemented their system. The slave plantations of the Caribbean served as a learning platform for the slavery system in the south. The development of Caribbean slave laws, slave revolts, transfer of information on this practice to the South and the South’s implementation of these slave laws, and the slave issues in check.
To understand the desperation of wanting to obtain freedom at any cost, it is necessary to take a look into what the conditions and lives were like of slaves. It is no secret that African-American slaves received cruel and inhumane treatment. Although she wrote of the horrific afflictions experienced by slaves, Linda Brent said, “No pen can give adequate description of the all-pervading corruption produced by slavery." The life of a slave was never a satisfactory one, but it all depended on the plantation that one lived on and the mast...
It is clear that the master slave relationship was generally one of fear, tension and dominion. The slave had no rights over himself and was expected to be subject to the master in all things. As with the every rule, there weress exceptions to this trend. Some masters treated their slaves with exceptional kindness and humaneness.