The Engineering of Racism

The Engineering of Racism

Samuel Belsham Moki, PhD

Austin Macauley Publishers

The Engineering of Racism

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Meaning of Racism and the Concept of Racial Engineering

Meaning of Racism

The Concept of Racial Engineering

Chapter 3: Engineered Beams of Racism: Superiority Complex and Religion

The Pre-Atlantic Slavery Period in Europe

European Exploration and Trade with Africa Before the Atlantic Slave Trade

European Exploration and Trade with Other Parts of the World Before the Atlantic Slave Trade

The New World and the Need for Slaves: Culmination of White Supremacy

The Self-Adorned Superiority Complex of the Europeans

The So-Called Religious Basis of White Supremacy

The Reverend Buckner H. Aeriel Payne and God-Sanctioned White Supremacy

Dr. Bob Jones and Bob Jones College

Pastor, Dr. Wallie Amos Criswell on Race and Segregation

Is God Really a White Supremacist and a Racist?

Chapter 4: The Scientific Pillar of White Supremacy and Racism

The Scientific Method

Dubious Justification of Scientific Racism

Black Resistance to Slavery

Running Away

Slave Rebellion/Insurrection

The New York Slave Revolt of 1712

Stono Rebellion of 1739

New York City Conspiracy of 1741

Gabriel’s Conspiracy of 1800

German Coast Uprising of 1811

Denmark Vesey’s Conspiracy of 1822

Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831

Other Acts of Resistance

Chapter 5: Brutality As Part of the Engineering Design of Racism

Rounding Up Slaves in Africa

Brutality during the Middle Passage

Brutality in the Americas

Abuse in the Plantations

Chapter 6: The Government’s engineering of Racism and White Supremacy

Legalization of Slavery

Massachusetts Slave Laws

The New England Confederation Law of 1643

Connecticut Slave Laws

Virginia Slave Laws

Maryland Slave Laws

Slave Laws in the Carolina

New York Slave Laws

Slavery, The U.S. Constitution and Federal Slave Codes

The United States Constitution and Slavery

Federal Slave Codes

The Civil War (1861-1865) and the Abolition of Slavery

Actions Taken by President Abraham Lincoln to End Slavery

The Emancipation Declaration of 1863

The 13th Amendment

Other Relevant Constitutional Amendments

The Compromise of 1877

Jim Crow Laws

Evolving Institutional Racism in Education

Government Culpability in the Area of Housing

The Adoption of the United States National Anthem

Chapter 7: The Judiciary and the Construction of American Racism

The Civil Rights Cases of 1883

Plessy v. Ferguson 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education 175 U.S. 528 (1899)

Chapter 8: Mutational Racism Adapting to Changed Circumstances

Forms of Racism: Individualized and Institutionalized Individualized, Mutational Racism

Manifestations of Individualized, Mutational Racism

Racist Characterizations of Former First Lady, Michelle Obama

Institutionalized Racism

Veiled, Mutational Racism in Action

Disproportionate Law Enforcement Against Blacks

Racial Gerrymandering

Confederate Monuments, Honors, and the Flag: Tools of Disguised Institutional Racism

Russell Senate Office Building

The National Statuary Hall

President Donald Trump, Charlottesville Race, and White Supremacy

Chapter 9: Social Media and the Stoking of Racism

Chapter 10: Can Racism Be Extinguished in the United States?

Recommendations to Minimize Racism in the United States

Intensify Education and Outreach Efforts, and Confront the Ideology

Confront Individualized Racism

End Institutional Racism

End Mutational Racism

Works Cited

About the Author

Dr. Moki earned a Ph.D. in political science with a minor in public administration in 2002 from Howard University in Washington, D.C. For over 17 years, he has taught political science, public administration, African American Studies, African American History, and civil rights classes at several universities in the Washington, D.C. area. His academic experience is complemented with over seven years of senior management experience as the associate director for the Environmental and Sustainability Services Division with Prince George’s County Government, Maryland. Dr. Moki has written a book, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles.

Dedication

Dedicated to all who fought and continue to fight to end racism and white supremacy.

Copyright Information ©

Samuel Belsham Moki, PhD (2020)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The opinions expressed in our published work are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of Austin Macauley Publishers or its editors. Neither Austin Macauley Publishers nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein and neither Austin Macauley Publishers nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or claims contained in this publication.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Moki, PhD, Samuel Belsham

The Engineering of Racism

ISBN 9781645758143 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781645758150 (Hardback)

ISBN 9781645758167 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020918136

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2020)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

mail-usa@austinmacauley.com

+1 (646) 5125767

Acknowledgement

All my family and friends who either directly or indirectly helped me throughout the process of writing this book. Also, I heartily acknowledge the fundamental help of the editorial, production, and marketing team at Austin Macauley Publishers. Their editorial comments, timely responses to my inquiries, marketing strategies, and encouragement made possible the successful completion of this book.

Chapter 1:

Introduction

There have been many constitutional amendments, laws, and Supreme Court decisions prohibiting racism and declaring racial actions unconstitutional. Yet, since the first slaves landed in Virginia in 1612, racism has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it is endowed with the nine lives of a cat. Despite all the efforts, policies, laws, and constitutional amendments to kill racism, it continues to survive to this day. Why?

There are many strands of racism. There is white against black, black against white, Asians against Africans, Africans against Asians, Whites against Indians, Indians against Whites, and on and on. This book, while it may stray into discussing racism generally, its focus would be on the mother of all racism – white racism and supremacy against blacks. There are certainly some blacks who harbor or have harbored racist feelings and manifested racist actions against whites. However, based on historical and current facts, black racism against whites has been far less significant compared to the massive and destructive nature of white racism against blacks. In this regard, therefore, the focus of this book will be on the dominant strand of racism which is white racism against blacks. The decision to write this book is a culmination of years of indecision and constant analysis of the value it brings to the issue of racism. This issue has spanned several centuries and a lot has been written about it. It has manifested in practice, there has been much debate, many laws have been passed in furtherance and against racism, battles have erupted because of it, millions of lives have been lost, houses and other properties destroyed, and organizations formed for or against racist practices. What else can I possibly add?

As someone who teaches African American Studies and African American History at the college level, I have followed the history and contemporary manifestations of racism. A lot of the focus has been on racist laws, words, and actions. However, the concept of the superiority of white people over black people is at the heart of racism. In addition, this superiority complex did not happen overnight or by chance. It was a systematic and carefully crafted creation by the white race. This book by no means is alleging that all white people supported or support this superiority mantle over blacks. The thrust of the book is that it was the pervasive view among whites, making generalizations about their thinking possible. Creating the myth that whites are superior to blacks was intentionally designed to allow the white race to control and subjugate the black race. This book of sorts traces the beginnings of racism and in many ways exposes why racism has continued to assume a permanent and bubbling presence in the United States for over 400 years. The answer, I contend, rest with the engineering of racism – how it was conceptualized, designed, and implemented. Having been soaked in the history of racism, I am the least surprised when it manifests in various ways in the United States. When racial incidents occur, accusations fly in all directions. There is the camp that condemns such racially charged actions while the other fails to see racial motivations. Others exploit these situations by adopting the politically correct views in a bid to hide their true feelings. There are voices that have charged that the plantation days are still alive, while others are quick to enumerate the substantial progress the United States has made toward racial equality. The intensity, fueled by the passion of each camp, heightens for a few days or weeks and then normalcy returns. The racial feelings assume their latency, waiting for the next racial crisis. This has become the cycle of reaction to racially-motivated incidents or actions. These incidents and utterances have assumed the equal opportunity mantle in that the perpetrators span from ordinary citizens to elected officials, to celebrities, the young, the old, men and women. Racism runs through the United States like a river. Institutions have been implicated, it has been expressed openly and many times, behind closed doors. It has caused resignations of top officials in various private and governmental organizations. Lives have been lost, properties damaged, and massive protests generated. It has inflicted physical and psychological pain and shattered peace in many communities. Yes, these are the works of racism. These are its footprints. This is its carnage. Indeed, its destructive consequences are littered all over the history of the United States.

Born over five centuries ago, racism is still alive and kicking. Indeed, it shows no signs of dying off. While there has been progress toward a more equal society, the periodic eruption of racially-charged incidents remain a vivid reminder of its nine lives. When these incidents surface, I always find myself asking the question, when will racism die? Why the persistence of racism? It is because the myth – that whites are superior to blacks, which is the foundation of racism over the centuries – was built with heavy steel and reinforced with concrete. The ideology was carefully conceptualized, designed and constructed using scientific, physical, psychological, legal, institutional, and religious materials. This construct has been passed down to generations of whites. Racism is a learned behavior. With all the above confluence of factors, the black race has been in for a rough ride.

As a student of law, history, and political science, I have been exposed to the historical context of the interaction of human races. I have read many accounts of European exploration, the Atlantic slave trade, colonization and neo-colonization. I was born in Africa (Cameroon to be more specific) and lived there for 25 years. Thereafter, I moved to the United States where I now live. As a child growing up in Africa, I and many others were exposed to this myth. It was a myth that was passed down from generation to generation. We accepted it and engulfed ourselves in it. There was no motivation or appetite to question it. Indeed, we accepted the belief that whites were superior to blacks. Even the reverence that our parents had for the white people they worked with and for, was enough to create that image of superiority in our minds. It dictated our admiration for white people and caused us to make a conscious effort to copy their ways. We aspired to act like the whites. It is not that everything about the white man was good but that is what it appeared to us growing up in Africa. It was how they packaged themselves. They were called expatriates – the experts who had come to fix the ills of Africa. The reverence that had developed for the white race left little room to doubt or question their motive. Yet, as we will see later, unlike the civilizing role the white man had claimed to play in Africa, they were largely motivated by greed, racism, and a desire to pillage Africa for the benefit of their respective countries.

Traveling to the United States and other European countries became the turning point for me and many other Africans of our generation. The discoveries were mind-boggling. We were now in the white man’s turf with the opportunity to examine and experience every aspect of their lives. It was not just about what the white man told us and portrayed to us back in Africa. We were not exposed to their daily lives nor that of their society. Traveling changed things. It accorded us an opportunity to assess white people based on practicalities before our eyes. The carefully choreographed image of white people in Africa was gone. Daily, all aspects of the white man’s life became an open book. The great myth was unveiled, the great lie exposed. The white man was not perfect. He/she had the same flaws as blacks, engaged in the same vices, and had many vulnerabilities. The white man was just another human being, on the same level as blacks and other human races.

Chapter 2:

The Meaning of Racism and the Concept

of Racial Engineering

Meaning of Racism

Racism is a phenomenon, belief, concept or ideology that is widely known and has been experienced over several centuries in the United States. Many dictionaries, organizations, and individuals have provided their own versions of what racism means. What has complicated the definition or meaning is that what to blacks is racism, may not be the case for whites. Let us look at some of these definitions.

Dictionaries are the default sources for definitions. The Concise Oxford Dictionary opined on racism as:

1a*A belief in the superiority of a particular race; prejudice based on this.

1b*Antagonism toward, or discrimination against other races, esp. as a result of this.

2*the theory that human abilities etc. are determined by race."

The definitions above contain the usual ingredients of racism. There is superiority, prejudice, antagonism, abilities, and race. The presence of the word race in the definitions above and many others instructs that race is a condition for racism to exist. There must be a white race and a black race, for example. In other words, there must be at least two races with their distinct biological characteristics. There can be no racism without the presence of different races. In addition, the belief of superiority of one race over the other(s) is also key. However, the belief that one race is superior to another because of their abilities and attributes is idle racism. It is simply a belief and without further enabling factors, it remains largely harmless. Such a belief system, per se, is not enough to capture the true meaning and manifestation of racism.

If we look at history and today, the above definitions need to be complemented to fully reflect what racism means. Indeed, racism limited to thoughts or a belief would be insignificant and not as destructive. What you think or believe about another race without actions to implement them would not cause much of a problem in society. The reality is that racism in America manifests in full cycle. That is, in thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Though there are some who for politically correct reasons internalize their racist thoughts, it is customary to experience racism being expressed in the American society. Racism is customarily accompanied by racial discrimination which Article 1.1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) defines as:

…any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life. (United Nations: Office of The High Commissioner for Human Rights. 1965)

In many instances, blacks have openly been referred to as niggers, monkeys or apes. In the slavery days, blacks were viewed as property of the white man. America’s history, and even presently, is replete with both verbal and action racism. At the heart of racism are three elements:

"It is a vision of society that is composed of inherently different groups;

it includes an explicit or implicit belief that these different groups are unequal by nature – often enough based on a Darwinian interpretation of history – and:

it shapes and manipulates these ideas into a program of political action. Combined, these three components give racism its force." (International Council on Human Rights Policy 199)

Thus, power and authority are other constitutive elements that bring out the full meaning of racism. Racism would not inflict its destructiveness without the perpetrators wielding power. That is, the capability or ability to act or compel others to do something. An individual with racist thoughts can put them into action by using physical violence to attack someone of another race. Power played a role when blacks were lynched and brutalized during and after the days of slavery. Even the government implemented racist policies because government officials had the power of government on their side. They had the army, the weapons, and other institutional powers to subjugate blacks. In addition to power was, and is, authority. Racism succeeded because some of those who had the power also had the authority. Authority is given by virtue of the office or responsibility one occupies in government or any organization. Authority confers the power to provide solutions, and the legitimacy to act and to give orders.

Upon further analysis, even power and authority cannot by themselves, when used, amount to racism. Power and authority can be used by white government officials or even individuals to suppress or control a riot by blacks that causes the destruction of property. The fact that white officers are using their power and authority to arrest blacks cannot constitute a prima facie case of racism. All things being equal, such actions would constitute enforcing the law to ensure peace and to protect life and property. To constitute racism, the power and authority must be laced with hatred and prejudice. Prejudice means that one has a preconceived notion about another person. For example, whites believe in the inferiority of blacks and view them as animals incapable of making rational decisions. Or, white police officers having the preconception that young black men are more likely to have criminal dispositions. Hatred on the other hand is a deep-rooted dislike for something or someone. The history of the transatlantic slavery from the rounding up of Africans, to the Middle Passage and their brutalization in the United States, is evidence that whites had a deep-rooted dislike for blacks. This combination of perceived inferiority of blacks, prejudice, hatred, power, and authority engenders the oppression that blacks have suffered at the hands of whites throughout a substantial part of the history of the United States. It is this combination that gives racism its sting. Indeed, racism is not something that is plucked from a bag and can be discarded with speeches or laws. It is not an accidental happening either. Racism in the United States is a belief system that has been cultivated, nurtured, watered, fertilized, pruned, guarded, and protected for several centuries by racist individuals, groups, organizations and yes, the government.

The Concept of Racial Engineering

Engineering means to plan, design, and build engines or structures for a particular purpose. Engineering is a rigorous scientific discipline that involves a lot of thought, calculations, and effort in order to ensure that what is being built is sound, solid, safe and functioning as intended. It is usually associated with the building of cars, airplanes, boats, ships, buildings, roads, and other machines like generators and air conditioning units. Normally, because of the complexity, precision, and utility of engineering work, the discipline has garnered much respect. Anything built with engineering principles is highly regarded. Based on the products of engineering outlined above, it is hard to imagine life on this earth and beyond without it. How would we move long distances and across oceans from one part of the world to the other? How could we have lived in sound houses without it? How would our medical care look like without all the machines to detect our health condition? How could the United States and other countries engage in space exploration without it? Engineering has been used throughout generations to condition life the way we want it to be. It is a discipline that has come to facilitate our lives in the various areas that it has made its intervention. Engineering is not only associated with quality but also longevity. Cars and airplanes, for example, are built to last a long time. Planes in particular, with all their rigorous air flights, last for several decades.

For over 28 years since I came to the United States, racism has remained a constant fixture. Indeed, it has remained a constant fixture in the United States since the fifteenth century. The United States is a country that was born in racism. It is a country that was born amidst the worst form of hypocrisy – singing life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on the one hand and denying these same values/rights to blacks on the other. This doublespeak which characterized racism then has not changed in terms of the underlying drivers. What has changed is just the political correctness about how most Americans talk about racism. The underlying currents have been dressed up for deceit. And we wonder why from time to time true racist feelings flare up? This is what caught my interest. For several years, I have struggled with understanding why one very despicable ideology has become so tenaciously destructive to the United States of America. Yes, progress has been made but to what end? Why should we accommodate racism in any form or any degree because progress has been made? Why is it so resilient? Racism has survived in the United States so thoroughly for over 400 years because the focus has been on the symptoms of the problem and not so much on the underlying causes. Therefore, while speeches condemning racism feel good, they do little to solve the problem.

After following one act of racism after another, the uproar that ensues, the condemnation that follows, it dawned on me to look deeper. I found the answer, thanks to the medical and engineering professions. In the medical profession when someone is sick, there are both symptoms and underlying causes. The symptom, which manifests externally, could be a fever. But what is causing the fever? Is it an infection? Without further investigation, one would focus on treating the fever by taking medication that brings down the temperature. In many cases, medications like ibuprofen would bring down the temperature but only for a short time. If the infection is not being addressed, the fever will recur, and the infection will progressively get worse. On the other hand, treating the infection which is the underlying cause will not only extinguish the infection but also the fever. This is the major contribution of this book. For centuries, the focus has been on treating the symptoms of racism in the United States yet the underlying causes, which are the foundations of the problem, remain intact. This is where the engineering concept of this book plays out.

The reason why racism has survived in the United States for a very long time is because from the onset, it was based on sound engineering. Racism is not a belief, practice, or ideology that flared up by accident or through the spur of the moment. On the contrary, it followed sound engineering stages like planning, design, and construction. Racism was designed to serve a purpose for white people and therefore, there was a lot of planning that eventually led to its design and construction. Because the architects had a vision of its permanency, they chose the most durable materials for its construction. These materials were not cardboards or drywall. Metaphorically, they used mortar, bricks, and steel beams. As the centuries rolled by, succeeding architects of this design and construction have done a superb job in maintenance and modifications to elude stumbling blocks. Based on the times and the prevailing winds, the racism construct has undergone mutations to evade capture and destruction – even to this day. Like a car, the engineering and engineers have evolved, the models and make are changing, but the underlying engineering remains intact. Today, the overt, brash, and brutal racism has generally ceded to an equally destructive, calculated, politically correct, less pompous, highly sophisticated, and veiled racism. Unless the United States understand this construct, the tackling of racism will continue to yield half-baked results. Let us now turn to the different engineering components of racism which are largely responsible for the ideology’s survival in the United States for several centuries.

Chapter 3:

Engineered Beams of Racism:

Superiority Complex and Religion

The Pre-Atlantic Slavery Period in Europe

In the 14th and 15th centuries, European countries were competing among themselves for economic prosperity and greater influence in the world. Each country was looking for ways to increase its wealth and the overall standard of living of its citizens. The idea of foreign acquisitions and influence outside of the continent became the order of the day. Economic prosperity through the expansion of commerce with other continents around the world became a strategy that European countries found appealing. European governments and private commercial companies made a conscious decision to invest in explorers and explorations to seek these new opportunities.

European countries that participated in exploration included among others, Britain, Spain, France, Portugal, and Netherlands. They sought out explorations for commerce and other opportunities in Africa, China, Japan, India, and what is today’s Indonesia and Malaysia. Based on the state of European economies and societies at the time, it is not surprising that these countries actively sought exploration to enhance their economic capabilities. The 14th and 15th centuries ushered in several significant challenges for Europe. There were unprecedented economic difficulties caused in part by unfavorable weather conditions. There were long periods of drought followed by the Little Ice Age in the 14th century which was characterized by very cold weather and heavy rains. This combination of unfavorable weather conditions devastated crops and depressed food production. It is not surprising that these conditions also contributed to the Great Famine which occurred between 1315 and 1317. The food crisis led to both malnutrition and starvation; a situation that made the population vulnerable to diseases. The famine took a significant toll on the lives of Europeans, causing a significant decrease in the population size. All these complicated Europe’s economic growth because the fall in population and agricultural production hindered the continent’s industrial ascendancy. While Europe continued its path toward industrialization, the lack of agricultural products that would have served as raw materials for its industries ushered in a lot of complications. European economic growth sputtered for lack of a meaningful articulation between the industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy. For industrial production to flourish, it must be fed with the requisite raw materials to help produce the finished goods. Lack of trees, for example, is a death nail to the production of paper. On the other hand, lack of cotton would significantly depress the manufacture of clothes. Europe was feeling squeezed. Internal resources increasingly became inadequate to stem the negative economic tide. It was now time to look for opportunities outside of Europe. Africa became a focal point of interest.

European Exploration and Trade with Africa

Before the Atlantic Slave Trade

In the 14th and 15th centuries, spurred in part by their increased maritime expertise in human capabilities, vessels, and maritime equipment, Portugal took the lead in the exploration of Africa with renowned explorers like Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama. In discovering the Cape of Good Hope in the southern extreme of Africa, Dias established the possibility of sailing to India around the continent of Africa. Indeed, da Gama complimented that discovery by initiating the route to India around Africa. Portuguese explorers were bold and undertook many other explorations which landed them on present day Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, and to the Gulf of Guinea. Throughout these trips, they established and mapped out many commercial opportunities for both their country and Portuguese merchants. Portuguese merchants seized these opportunities to establish trade with Africa in which the merchants supplied Portuguese items like used cups, plates, clothes, and mirror; and old guns and gunpowder. In exchange, they received among others, gold, copper, ivory, olive oil, and slaves.

These commercial possibilities and the increasing success of the Portuguese kindled the interests of other European nations, notably Spain. In 1492, the Spanish monarch financed Christopher Columbus’s exploration which was designed to seek opportunities westward toward the East Indies. The overall goal was for Columbus to make discoveries for Spain in Asia and allow the country to take advantage of the blossoming spice trade. Instead of sailing westward toward Asia, he sailed southwest and landed in the New World. As will be seen later, this accidental discovery became a fateful destiny for the sufferings that black Africans endured at the hands of the Europeans.

Other European countries mentioned above followed Portugal’s lead and set up trading posts along the coasts of Africa. These posts were heavily fortified with guards and sophisticated arms and ammunitions. While many books have opined that these heavily protected posts were designed to ward off other European competitors, I believe there was more to it. For example, though the Europeans competed for trading opportunities in Africa, there is not much evidence that they engaged in actual warfare with each other. The competition seemed along the lines of an unwritten agreement whereby nations respected each other’s established sphere of influence. While the fortified posts were in part for protection against a competitor who might see a less protected post as an opportunity to exploit a perceived weakness, it seems very likely that these European traders were bent on using psychological pressure to get the best trade deals against an obviously unequal African trading partner. Flexing their military might sent the message that they were negotiating from a position of strength. Africans had no arms or ammunitions that matched the caliber of the Europeans. Is it surprising that the trade exchange was glaringly uneven in favor of the European traders? It is clear from this vantage point that the European traders never considered black Africans as equal trading partners. While Africa offered its gold and ivory, the Europeans offered their used and significantly less valuable items. This was exploitation backed by veiled force. Like Portugal, the other European powers through their traders brought in mostly used European items in exchange for gold, ivory, copper, pepper, and many other goods that Africa offered.

Initially, trade was limited to goods. As time went by, the needs of the Europeans changed. In addition to African goods, they needed some slaves also. Slaves were not needed on a massive scale at this time. However, Portugal and few other European countries needed slaves for mostly internal use in their countries. To meet this demand, the traders sought permission from the kings of different African kingdoms to buy slaves. Permissions of this nature were accompanied with significant bribes and other offers to the kings. On the other hand, some slaves were needed to help European explorers during their explorations including in the New World which Columbus had just discovered. The inclusion of African slaves in the trading equation by the Europeans took their abject disrespect of black Africans to a new low. Africans could now be bought with money or exchanged for European items. This was unconscionable, and it set the stage later for the massive enslavement of blacks. Thus, before the Atlantic slave trade, which witnessed a massive transportation of Africans from Africa to the New World, many black Africans were already present in this part of the world – that is, Europe and the Americas. While they also had subservient status, they were freer and not as tormented or bashed as the slaves that came after them. Many became free and could own property based on the level and quality of their service during the exploration and discovery of new settlements.

European Exploration and Trade with Other

Parts of the World Before the Atlantic Slave

Trade

The European exploration in search of economic and other opportunities before the Atlantic slave trade was not confined to Africa. Asia also became an area of interest especially because of evidence that it had very good spices. For a while in the 15th century, Europeans, through tedious land routes, were able to obtain very good spices from Asia. These spices had proven very useful in helping them preserve their foodstuff. The supply of spices through land routes became unreliable because of the various European wars. In addition, the spices were becoming very expensive because Arab middlemen who had monopolistic type control over spices from Asia, sold them to the Europeans at exorbitant prices. It is this reality that surged the interest to search for sea routes to Asia. After all, the Europeans were making progress toward improving their maritime technology and expertise. If such good spices came from this area of the world, then there could be more discoveries of other possibilities. The possibility of finding other products and opportunities heightened their curiosity. The combination of curiosity, possibilities, and the mastering of maritime skills, propelled the Europeans to set their sights on Asia in areas like present day Japan, China, and India.

In what became known as the second wave of European exploration of Asia in the 15th century, the Portuguese once again took the lead. The second wave was more organized and purposeful compared to the first wave. It had a purpose to acquire territories and seek trading opportunities and other ways of benefitting the respective European economies. At the end of the 15th century, the renowned Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, became the first European to reach India entirely by sea, by going around Africa. Thereafter, many other Portuguese explorers made the voyage to India. In the beginning of the 16th century, Portugal’s Pedro Alvarez Cabral led the second successful all-sea journey to India. In 1502-1503, Vasco da Gama went back to India, and in 1503-1504, Alfonso de Albuquerque followed. In 1505, Francisco de Almeida sailed from Portugal to India. In his added desire to explore the Southern coast as he journeyed to India, he ended up discovering and landing in Sri Lanka. In 1513, Jorge Álvares became the first European to set foot in China while from 1516 to 1517, Rafael