The Origins of Slavery

1. The Origins of Slavery Introduction to the Civil War 1860-1865

2. Labour, Not Race • Slavery was initially a labour system, not a racial system • In the USA, race became associated with unfree labour after the Declaration of Independence as a way to justify bondage

3. Israelis enslaved by Egyptians • Greeks and Romans enslaved non-citizens • Slavic Christians and non-Muslim Africans enslaved by Ottoman Turks • European serfs bound to land while slave is bound to master • Is there really any difference between all of these examples?

4. The Slave Trade • Time is money in the transportation industry • Ship captains had neither the time or money to capture slaves • “product” had to be ready for shipping when the captain arrived in port • African leaders were the middle-men in the slave trade

5. Most slaves were captured in battles between tribes • Prior to the Atlantic slave trade, captured warriors were killed; women and children were enslaved or incorporated into tribe • In Africa, sale of captured enemies was a practical move—be rid of enemy and gain profit

6. Morality of the Slave Trade • Consider: what was acceptable in the past is often not acceptable today • Consider: whaling, women’s rights, child labour, religious intolerance, torture, burning at the stake, capital punishment, polluting the environment

7. Before the Trans-Atlantic Trade • Most slaves were sold EAST • Traded for luxury goods such as books, paper, horses, tea, coffee, sugar, spices, jewellery, perfumes, later guns • Drought and famine caused destitute to sell themselves or children • African and Mid Eastern purchasers valued women more highly than men (eunuchs were most valuable) • With the discovery of America, men, not women, became the gender of demand

8. European View of Labour • Serfdom may have been abolished in Western Europe, but the peasant still had to farm land controlled by a feudal landlord • Peasant was, technically, free but the state demanded taxes and military service in return • Privately owned farms worked by individual families was an alien concept

9. The Trans-Atlantic Trade • The Premise: Europeans realized that the European country that could first circumvent the Arab middle-men (caravan trade) would control trade with Europe • Portugal uniquely situated: location, ocean and wind currents; in 1442, they took 12 African slaves to Lisbon • Colonialism: a source of cheap labour was needed for the colonies • Africans were enslaved because they were cheap, readily available and did not disrupt the economies of Europe • Therefore ECONOMIC motivation, not RACIAL

10. The Triangle Trade • See your previous note on this system of trade • Goods are traded for slaves • The “middle passage”: death rate ranged from 10 to 50%

11. Example: Sugar • Labour intensive • 1 worker for each acre cultivated • Must be cured as soon as it is cut to remove the plant’s water (otherwise it would decompose) • After that, it has a very long shelf life • Slaves were just another commodity • Cost was so low that, with the exception of North America, it was cheaper to work a man to death than to maintain a standard of living that would allow the slave to live to old age • 650 to 1920: est. that 28.7 million slaves were traded • 12 million were involved in the Atlantic Slave trade

12. Slavery in America • The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney gave slavery new life. • The gin separates the seeds from the cotton, a job previously done by hand. • Did not remove need for slaves: just meant that slaves could now pick the cotton and would not have to separate it. • In fact, the opposite occurred: Cotton growing became so profitable for the planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labour. • In 1790 there were six slave states; in 1860 there were 15.

13. The American South • Slavery led to the south being a static, conservative and closed society • The South defended its way of life by arguing that agricultural values were superior to industrial society • They argued that industrial workers were just like slaves but were treated more unfairly by Industrialists in the North

14. Slavery in Latin America • Most Latin American slaves lived in Brazil and the Caribbean • Fewer European women than in North America lead to rampant miscegenation. • Cheaper to work slaves to death than to increase the slave population through natural means.

15. Slavery in Brazil • Brazilian society organized around the fazenda (large estate; the hacienda in Spanish) • Largest slave population of the Americas and was a multi-racial society • Slavery made it difficult for poor whites and mulattoes to find work.

16. End of the Slave TRADE • The slave trade was abolished in the British Empire on March25, 1807 • Slavery was not abolished until the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 • In Brazil, British pressure led to the end of the Brazilian slave trade in the 1850s, but slavery was not abolished until 1888. • In America, slavery was abolished with the passing of the 13th amendment on April 8, 1864. • We will hear from our presenters, however, that this did not truly end human rights violations towards African Americans, especially in the South.