slavery

In this post we are going to talk about the evolution of the slavery in the colonial period.  

-          Before Europeans came:

Firstly we have to say that the idea of the black slaves is something that appeared in the Early Modern Age, because before of that period, the slaves were traditionally white people who came from Slavia. As we can see, the name Slavia is the origin of the word slavery. They were captured by Muslims and Europeans, but they could not be enslaved when were converted to Christianity, so slavers had to find another place to bring slaves, and that is why they started to capturing people in Africa. These slaves were caught by Muslims in the interior of the continent, and then, they were sold in the ports.  Finally, after the conquest of America, they were introduced in the colonial economy by being sold as slaves to work in The Americas.

-          The triangular commerce web of the Atlantic:

For three centuries, the largest ever slave trade web was established in the Atlantic Ocean, giving thus birth to the so called system of triangular commerce, between Europe, Africa, and The Americas. We have to realize that this is the first (and the most regular) web of international market. AQUI PONER ALGO MAS

-          Organization of the trade and participation of the crowns.

In the case of the Spanish crown, the slave trade market was a state monopoly, and because of that there was a huge control of a system called Asiento. Slavers had to give a percentage of the profits, and this was how they obtained the assurance of having the monopoly of the slave trade in a particular area. The main reason was that the Spanish Crown lacked the means to meet the expenses.  During the XVI century the monopoly was in hands of the Portuguese, and after, in hands of the British.

In the British America, there was a huge control on the slave trade, because it was one of the most profitable business, so they wanted to control on the taxation.

We have to say that is very difficult to make an estimation of the number of slaves that were taken to the Americas, mainly because the was a special system to calculate, which was called pieza de indias. This is an example of this system:

1 male Young “bozal” (15-30 years)= 1 pieza. ( bozal is a slave born in Africa*)

  1 female young bozal (in age of reproduction) = ¾ pieza

  1 child bozal= ½ pieza.

* Black “creols” ( or “ladinos”) use to have half the value of their counterpart bozales, because they were born in captivity and supposed to be less strong.

There were also some differences in the price depending on the place in which they were born in Africa. The older and those with physical disabilities usually did not arrive to America, the slave traders got rid of them by the way, as it was an over priced.

·    Capturing the slaves in Africa:

Even we use to think that the black slaves were caught by Europeans, this is a false idea, because the African continent was organized into tribes, and it could be dangerous to Europeans. Moreover, we cannot forget that according to Christianity turning someone a slave was a sin (it just was legal in some special cases, like the cannibalism). So Europeans established forts and ports in the coast of Africa, and there they buy them to local slavers. So technically speaking we can say that they did not break the law, because when they bought them, they were not free. Branding slaves was the official turn of the slaves into the property of the owner, so they can identify them easily.

-   The travel to America:

One of the most important things was to maximize the space in the ships, so they could carry as many people as possible. I think that these pictures will be very clear

But there were also some problems with these systems. The first one is the health of the slaves, which was very important, because if a slave dies, they were losing money, so they had a lot of systems to clean them and to get them out to come out to breathe clean air. Other important problems were the riots and the uprising, because we have to realize that those persons were taken out from their lands and their families and some of them decided to fight for their freedom.

 Besides, from the end of the 19^th century a movement against the slavery and pro human rights was started by the United Kingdom, so from that moment the sea was under the control of Britain ships. So from that time, the slavers began to devise systems to evacuate the ships in the shortest possible time, as we can see in this video:

At last, the figures will help us to realize the conditions in which they were traveling: from the departure of the Africans ports to the arrival to America, for every living slave that was sold in the coastal markets of Africa, 3.5 more had died. So if we have said that 10.000.000 slaves arrived to America, we can calculate that the number of slaves that left from Africa is about 15.000.000 people.

- From where?The ranges accepted are about 10.000.000 slaves arriving to American Ports. However, there are a lot of differences between different authors.

At the beginning the most slaves were taken from the North Africa, and in the 17^th century it was more common to take slaves from the south. But from the 18^th century, they take slaves from the whole Africa, and also from Mozambique and Madagascar.

The more common destinations were the Caribbean, Jamaica, Brazil… in the main, places in which the economy was based on the plantations, because they required a lot of cheap workers to be profiteer.

-    Evolution:

Even there were a lot of voices claiming against the slavery, a lot of people were constantly trying to justify the slavery, because it was essential to keep their way of live. These reasons were predominantly economic and religious, and they talked about the human condition of the slaves, about their predestination or role in life, about race inferiority, about saving them from the cannibalism of the other tribes in Africa, and about keeping them to believe in false gods.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

GALEANO, Eduardo; Las venas abiertas de América Latina, Siglo XXI, Madrid, 2011.