The idea of European superiority and dominance drove the social structure of the "new world", (consisting mainly of North and Latin Americas and the Caribbean). Because of this dominant racial ideology, the native peoples of both regions were often subjects of discrimination and oppression. The extent of their mistreatment differed, as in North America they were simply pushed aside or confined to a certain area to live, while in the Caribbean and Latin America they were forced into servitude and labor. The dominant racial ideology of Europeans also fueled the slave trade that was prominent in the time period of 1500-1830, which involved shipping African slaves to the the Americas to increase the productivity of the colonies. In both areas, slaves were basically property, bought, sold, and traded to do specific and often labor intensive tasks.
Millions of Africans were shipped by force o America. The slave trade had many disastrous results in Africa societies. The slave trade became an important aspect of a dynamic and complex situation in Africa during the period from the 15th to 17th centuries. Slaves had been treated the same in the Ottoman Empire and Africa. Slaves in Africa and the Ottoman Empire were a part of society and had a chance to promote.
Mississippi was admitted as a slave state to the union because of the intense profitability of cotton and the use of slaves. The war of 1812 would drastically change the relationships of plantation owners and the slaves that they owned. The owners begin to realize if they treated slaves like humans it would likely decrease the odds that the slaves would rebel against them. Slaves begin to migrate into Mississippi very heavily during this time also. The slave trade saw massive amounts of slaves being brought into this area at this time.
Significance: Slavery brought Africans to America, challenged this country to look at all men as equals and made us leaders in the world for civil rights of mankind. Cause: The ability for ships to sail to America and the greed of slave ship captains made slavery in a new frontier, America, inevitable. Effect: The widespread supply and demand for slavery caused civil unrest within Africa and turned many groups against one another. Eventually these groups became part of the slave trade and provided slaves from their own tribes. Significance: This vicious cycle caused economic and political unrest, ultimately weakening Africa’s economic, political and social stability.
The reason that the African slaves were needed was because they were strong and good workers. The colonist had used the natives originally but they did not work as hard as they would have liked. The natives also had contracted small pox which took an enormous toll on them limiting the amount of slaves they had for labor. So they began trading and purchasing African slaves due to the fact that they had developed some immunity to these diseases. (McKay, Chap 21, pg 570) In order to get a good perspective on what being a slave was like, we will look into a narrative written by Olaudah Equiano.
In the North, there was “half-freedom” in addition to the fact “manumission was not an uncommon reward for long or meritorious service, although it came with painful qualifications,” (Franklin, 53). In the Chesapeake, a fair amount of slaves worked as indentured servants. They were allotted land and their freedom at the end of their terms. Nevertheless, slavery gradually developed into being defined by race since “beginning in the 1660s, slave codes and other racial restrictions hardened as colonial leaders began to fashion legal structures designed to lock blacks irrevocably into chattel slavery,” (Franklin, 54). The economy governed the forced labor required in each region.
As well as bring in huge profits the cotton industry with the help of free labour form the slaves could now expand and it was profitable to expand in to the west to find new land to set up plantations. The cotton industry was key for southern expansion into the west. Slavery was part of the culture of the south and it was there identity. It united the upper and the lower south under a common view of superiority and slavery, and without this the upper and lower sought may have fallen into conflict. It bridged the gap between the wealthy planters and the poor whites.
To fill in the labor shortage Spanish and Portuguese American colonies used African slaves for labor on plantations. 4. The English and French colonized the Americas almost a century after the Spanish and Portuguese because both countries were involved in military conflicts in Europe and had to allocate resources to these conflicts. The French and English colonies were similar to the Spanish and Portuguese because they did use diplomacy to interact with the natives, but often resorted to violence. African slaves were a critical factor in the development of all the colonies.
At the time, slaves cleared land, cultivated farms, built homes, built railroads and roads, picked cotton and tobacco which were one of America’s biggest exports. Slavery left a residue of discrimination and human trafficking that our country still writhes from in many communities to this day. Although Solomon Northup’s story is mind-blogging, he is not the only person to have suffered kidnapping and enslavement, his story is so intriguing because he freed himself, survived and wrote a book about his experiences as a slave. Some people may feel that slaves born into slavery would be better off than someone who was sold into slavery because as the saying goes, “You can’t miss what you never had”-Hunter S.
It is a fact that human nature seeks to dominate. Greed and money are often at the root of such efforts. “The long history of human slavery shows us that, at different times, virtually all cultures have been the slavers or the enslaved”. African Cimarron communities even enslaved other African fleeing the plantations. It is not rooted in race as much as it is rooted in human nature.