The Institution of Slavery in America

The history of slavery did not begin in America. Slavery has been around since the beginning of mankind. The word slave is derived from the word slav, a term coined for the Slavic, Muslim and African people who were slaves in Mediterranean Europe. People were often traded in exchange for fabrics like silk, wines, and weapons. When too few enemies were available to be placed into slavery after a conflict, some tribal societies went after competing tribes and placed their tribes people into slavery. Slave traders did not care who the people were, whether from nobility or someone elses slave. Ancient trade routes crossed the Sahara Desert to the Mediterranean Sea made it easier to capture slaves. Trade between Europe and Africa was centuries old . When the Turks cut off Constantinople in 1453 they cut off Europeans supply of slaves from the Slavic areas around the Black Sea. Europeans needed slaves to work their sugar plantations on the Metering islands and advances in navigation by the Portuguese enabled Portuguese sailors to sail around the tip of Africa, beginning the African slave with Europeans. Most Africans understood slavery because it was seen as a basis of wealth. African slavery could be brutal, but African masters did not hold the power of life and death over their slaves. They were seen as people and their African masters knew they had a responsibility to their slaves, much like a father to a child. They received punishment for discipline, but nothing like the treatment the slaves will receive as slavery took hold in the Americas.

Sugar and Slavery went hand in hand most African slaves went to the Caribbean. Caribbean planters wanted agricultural slaves, not nomadic slaves because they were easier to force to work. By 1472, the Portuguese were negotiating the first African slave trade agreement trading gold and ivory for humans. They traded African peoples for fabrics and weapons. By 1600 the Portuguese had transported approximately 25,000 slaves to Brazil and Hispania (Cuba).

By the 18th century, Europeans were coveting items from Africa, such as textiles and ivory. Africans were likewise coveting European items, like guns. As mentioned earlier, when too few enemies were available, they went after other tribes to capture for slavery. Competition for slaves increased between European countries, thus the establishment of the Dutch West Indies Company and Britains Royal Africa Company created a string of fortresses along the African coast. Approximately 50 forts along a 300 hundredmile coast from Senegal to Angola were created. One of the first forts was Elmina in 1481, established by the Portuguese. It was taken over in 1637 by the Dutch.

Beginnings of African Slavery

What do you think were their first impressions of a white male?

This laid the way for traders called Atlantic Creoles off springs of mixed races of Africans and Europeans from Portuguese sugar plantations of Cape Verde who became the middlemen for the Europeans and played a significant role in the slave trade. These Africans controlled the interior of the slave trade and worked as agents. Guns and gunpowder were one of the first items traded thus increasing the power of certain tribes. Europeans allied themselves the more powerful groups of Africans for trade and helped defeat the tribes natural enemy, thus enabling them to capture more slaves.

When the Africans first saw the Europeans they believed they were savages with red faces, often with beards and long hair. They spoke a different language they never heard before and many of the them believed they came from a bad spirit. Legends had been passed down from generations in African folklore that these red-faced men were cannibals and had come to eat them. This was a very common fear among many of the Africans. For many of the Africans, the first time they saw a European wasnt until they reached the coastline. European slavers who made their way further inland from the shores of Africa soon found they could not stay inland for long because of the heat and humidity. Sixty percent died within the first 8 months of arriving in Africa due to disease.

Africas Middlemen

Slave Factories

March to the Coast

Many inland Africans never saw the ocean before their capture. They were often held together with a yoke, leg and hand irons.

Many factories were build along coastal areas where the slaves were kept until sold to Europeans. Many looked like forts and the quarters where the slaves were kept were no better than animal stables. Sometimes the slaves would be here for a year or more waiting to be taken to the new world.

The leg irons to your left were used mainly on men to prevent them from escape. A woman whose child was tied to her generally wouldnt attempt to run away for fear of injury or death to her child.

Leg Irons

The neck yoke you see above was placed around the neck of a slave to prevent him/her from running away.

View inside a slaver ship

Slaves were placed into the cargo holds like sardines. As you can see from the depiction above, slaves were packed in tight, sometimes lying from head to foot and often chained together. There was no way of escape, so quite often you were laying in someones vomit, urine or fecal matter. Time spent aboard a slave ship could be anywhere between 3 weeks to several months depending on the departure location, weather, and final destination.

The Middle Passage

Manufactured goods from England were shipped to Africa. Slaves were then exchanged for the manufactured goods then imported to the British colonies, thus creating the middle passage. The last section of the triangle was the shipping of raw materials from the British Colonies to be manufactured in England.

Slave ships crews treatment was almost as intolerable as the slaves. Many of the men who worked for slave traders were not paid, but forced into service or were convicts who chose the slave ship versus a prison term.

Chesapeake 30-39.9% Lower South 4049.9% Bahamas 90 100 %

Louisiana 3039.9%

Hispaniola 90 100 %

Jamaica 90 100 %

In the West Indies the English brought slaves to the Jamaica and North America where they worked their slaves to death which increased the traffic in slaves. Slaves were not viewed as a commodity as they would be later. Between 1701 to 1710 nine thousand slaves were imported to British North America. Between 1761 to 1770 almost 70,000 slaves were forced over to the British colonies.

Only 6% of Africans came directly to the Americas. Most stopped in the West Indies first.

Slave Auction Advertisement

Drawing of a Slave Auction

Instituting Slave Laws

By the mid 1660s colonists began to realize that owning a slave was a better investment than having an indentured servant for 5 -7 years. As more slaves came to America many of the colonies created laws as a way to control the slaves. In 1664, Maryland discouraged interracial relationships with a law stating any white woman marrying an African slave could be forced to serve her husbands master for as long as her husband lived. In 1681, a white servant married a black slave and her and their children became the property of the master. In 1691, South Carolina established the first comprehensive slave code: All Negros, Mulattoes, and Indians sold into or intended for sale into bondage are slaves. By 1696 , South Carolina determined that slaves were property, much like chattel or horses. By 1700 most all of the colonies had similar laws. In 1704, Massachusetts established a law banning interracial marriages and any men or women who were in these relationships could be whipped and sold into slavery outside the colony. White men who were in an interracial relationship were whipped, fined and held responsible for any children conceived.

The Lower South and the Plantation Slave

Slaves who worked the coastal areas of the colonies became known as Salt Water Africans. They grew rice and indigo (a very popular blue dye). They worked on large plantations. Many of the slaves worked by a system that would become known as Gang Labor. Gang laborers worked in the fields, sun up to sun down. Those who were lucky enough to work as a cook or as a servant worked by a system known as task labor. Once your tasks were done, you were free to work in your own garden, etc. Dont get me wrong though, task laborer slaves still worked long, tiring days, just as those in the fields. But they could have a little more autonomy during their work day.

Gang Labor vs. Task Labor

The Life of a Slave

Life was different for a plantation slave than it was for a slave who worked for a small farmer. Those who worked for a small farmer generally worked along side his master and there may be one or two other slaves in the same household, if any. They ate the same foods, ate at the same time, had closer quarters and was generally always within sight of the master. Whereas a plantation slave usually lived in the slave quarters among many slaves, sometimes there could be over a thousand slaves on one plantation. This gave plantation slaves a sense of community among other slaves. They could cohabitate with someone of the opposite sex, even though marriage wasnt viewed as legal among the slave community, they still formed relationships, until one or the other was sold. They had more autonomy away from the master since the slave quarters werent usually in eye sight of the main house. Some of the masters believed that if they gave some of their slaves a little autonomy they would be less likely to revolt against them.

The Africanization of the South

How did African Americans work to adapt their native traditions under the conditions of New World slavery? What kinds of traditions do you think were successfully preserved?
This is called the Africanization of the South. All of the slaves who were brought over from Africa, brought over their culture and traditions that can still be seen and heard today, like barbeque and other southern cooking, todays music (much of American music came from the slave spirituals), architecture, and the southern drawl, which is a combination of African languages and the accents of England and Ireland.

Slavery and Economics of Empire

The institution of slavery created more competition between European powers and the ideas that the more slaves you owned meant larger quantities of production, which in turn meant a larger profit that led to an increase in land to produce more product. This is called Mercantilism. As slavery increased the products that were produced increased and could only be sold from within your same controlling country, for example England. Only the products produced by English colonies could be sold in English colonies, thus keeping out the competition and keeping the wealth for the mother country. The competition for slaves and the increase in land will eventually lead to wars between England, Spain, and France.

So what do we remember about slavery today? A quote by William Prescott, a former slave during a 1930s WPA interview stated, They will remember that we were sold but not that we were strong; they will remember that we were bought but not that we were brave.

A very powerful quoted indeed.