Links |
When you think slavery, you might think “Oh, wasn't that in the U.S. ? And then it ended with the civil war, and had to do with the South and North, right? Didn't it start there?” Wrong. Some people go further than that speculation and go into “Oh, the Europeans started it when they discovered the New World .” Wrong again. In reality, slavery started being practiced with the Africans. Though they were later being persecuted, they were the innovators of slavery. “Wait!” you scream, shocked and amazed you did not know this? “How is this possible? For how long did they practice slavery before the Europeans came to Africa ? WHY?” I'm sure you have many questions such as those that you want to have answered. Our job is to answer these questions that must surely be troubling your mind, body and spirit. We will start at the beginning, with the development of slavery in Africa . As afore mentioned, Africans were among the first people to have practiced slavery. They had been practicing slavery for many a year (though it's not proved how many). They were well-versed in it, and practiced in it, though there methods were slightly more humane than what it evolved (or devolved) into. So, how did Africans get the slaves? As everyone should know, there were wars in Africa . When people had wars or raided another village, they would take captives as part of their spoils. They would make the captives work for them, and this eventually evolved, or devolved into slavery, because you can't have people working unwillingly for you for no pay without it being slavery. Religious offenders and convicts also were enslaved. However, even though it was still slavery, it was a lot different than the slavery we're used to hearing about. As we all know, there was a lot of land in Africa . The land was owned communally, and parceled out to families according to their needs based on the number of laborers (aka how many slaves could work how much land) they could use. To increase production, families had to invest in more workers (i.e. buy more slaves). The quickest way was to buy slaves, since no one would have spent money on workers if there were slaves to be had. Therefore, in much of Africa , those greedy bastards who were interested in increasing their wealth through production purchased slaves. In a more humane fashion, however, second- or third-generation slaves usually became recognized members of the household, no longer liable for sale. Slaves of royal families could even serve in offices of state. But no matter how integrated their situation or important their role, in the VERY kinship-based societies of Africa , slaves remained outsiders, or at least different than full-fledged kin. Right now you might be thinking “So what then? They were obviously just as bad to their own people as were the white slave-traders.” But think again, dear children. Although the trans-Saharan trade (slave trade totally inside Africa with Africans , not overseas) transported nearly as many slaves, the trans- Atlantic slave trade (what we're about to explain to youin order to help appease your ignorance on this subject ) took place over a much shorter period and on average moved much larger numbers of slaves per year. The people who eventually took advantage of slavery were, at the very start, Portuguese. “But wait!” you scream, furious that we've gone on without explaining things to make you understand. “Where do the Portuguese come in? I thought they were obsessed with trade!!!” Well you see, little one, you are about to find out. In 1472, European navigators discovered the island of São Tomé . Avaro Caminha was granted the right to create settlement in 1493, and later in 1522, São Tomé came under direct Portuguese administration. Sugar plantations and mines were established, and slaves were weported form the African mainland. São Tomé became a transit point for gold and slave trading. Slaves were traded to Islamic traders for gold. During the 16th century, São Tomé became the world's largest sugar producer for a brief time. Soon Brazilian competition rose and São Tomé 's sugar production declined. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/tp-flag.html The flag of São Tomé. In the everlasting quest to find a straight sea route to Asia, the Portuguese stumbled upon Brazil, which later became the biggest sugar producer in the world; the plantations completely worked by slaves. They had a bit of a disagreement with Spain over who had a claim to it, as they didn't know how to solve their problems through compromisation like good little boys. In 1494, The Treaty of Tordesillas settled the question of possession of the new lands between Spain and Portugal . In principle the treaty followed the papal bull issued in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI, which fixed the demarcation line along a circle passing 100 leagues W of the Cape Verde Islands and through the two poles. However, the Treaty of Tordesillas shifted the demarcation line to a circle passing 370 leagues W of the Cape Verde Islands and thus gave Portugal a claim to Brazil. This division gave the entire New World to Spain and Africa and India to Portugal. It was agreed that territories lying east of a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Portugal , the lands to the west to Spain . This imaginary line, from pole to pole, cut through the eastern- most part of the South American continent and constituted Brazil 's first frontier, although the formal discovery by Pedro Alvares Cabral did not take place until six years later in 1500. (He landed on April 22, 1500.) ***Below is a picture of the Demarcation line, the places that are shaded in "belonged" to Spain, and the place in the middle was where the Portuguese had free reign to (approximately).
www.worldatlas.com This picture basically shows the line of demarcation and how Portugal got basically free reign of Brazil and Africa, but Spain got the Phillipines and the rest of South and North America. However, the British and other Protestant nations didn't adhere to the Pope's rule, and that's why they eventually got involved in the slave trade as well.
With all of this sugar production and use of slaves to increase sugar production, there was a lot of trade going on. As we are all aware of, white people (aka Europeans, and since we're talking about Brazil , the Portuguese) were sickly and coulnd't handle much of anything that was a change from normal atmospheric conditions. And so they welcomed escape from that. And of course, being heartless and “economically aware,” they took it out on other people, and used them to do their dirty work. 10 million. What do you think when you think ten million? Well, you might think “Oh, that's as much as 5 Seattles .” Or “That's like, how many people are in New York City , right?” No. That is the amount of slaves that were transported by white-slave traders against their wills to various places to be put to hard, physical labor. “Wow.” You say. “That's pretty bad.” Yes, it is bad. Very bad. As the slave trade was basically established by the time Brazil sugar trading rolled around, they had already created a system.
http://cougar.ucdavis.edu/nas/varese/nas10/week5.html
As you can see in the picture below, a total of 9,470,000 slaves were exported from the period of 1505 to 1970. Brazil is rewarded for its sugar, 3,650,000 slaves. Brazil was the Place where the most slaves had been exported to. For your reference, the approximate numbers of slaves imported to other places were: To British West Indies- 1,660,000 To French Caribbean- 1,660,000 To Spanish Central America- 1,500,000 To British North America- 500,000 To Dutch Colonies in South America and the Caribbean- 500,000 http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/histpol/pol230/slaves9.html Map and charts of slaves exported from São Tomé imported to other places Most of the slaves that were traded were adult men. Actually, about twice as many men as women crossed the Atlantic , and only 1 in 10 slaves traded to Europeans were under 10. Aw, how sweet. They were sensitive to the needs of the little ones and women. This, in REALITY, wasn't sensitive at all. The Africans who owned slaves originally wouldn't sell their female slaves, because they were valued as agricultural workers and bearers of offspring. Children were less economical for those who were “economically aware.” They cost just as much to enslave and transport, but brought lower prices. So, of course, they were worthless. How sad. *tear*Actually, male slaves were valued at about 13 to 40 escudos (large range due to inflation). This was worth around 375 pence then, which now would be about the cost to buy and take care of a large animal. If you think that's sad, there's even more. Native American slaves were worth 1 escudo. It's pretty pathetic. The total number of enslaved Africans imported into Brazil is estimated to be about 4,000,000. In short, the trans-Atlantic slave trade (by the Portuguese from Africa to Brazil ) began as, just a small little trickle in the 1440s and grew slowly throughout the 17th century. By 1700, 25,000 slaves, on average , were crossing the Atlantic every year. After 1700 the trade grew more rapidly , shall we say, to a peak in the 1780s, when an average year saw 80,000 African slaves arrive on American shores. Then the trade fell off more slowly and after 1850 quickly declined. While it was declining, England decided that it was inhumane to trade slaves. They would wait for Portuguese ships and search them. They would return any slaves they found back to Africa . In this manner (since England had all of the naval power by this time) the slave trade quickly stopped. The trade of slaves didn't stop until way later in the United States , and owning slaves themselves didn't end until after the Civil War. As you can see, slavery was an aspect of society that was accepted by those who weren't on the receiving end for a very long time. It's negative effect had a lot of repercussions in the later years (with racism and all things to follow). It's a sad business, and we have to be thankful it's over!
|
