Treatment FAQ

what role did race play in the demand and treatment of slaves?

by Ms. Elissa Leffler Published 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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What separates the Atlantic slave trade from any other slave trade is the race language established with it later in the Americas, it discriminates against a whole group of people on the basis of their skin color and forced many non-slave Africans in a system of verbal and physical abuse.

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Why did America adopt race-based slavery?

Oct 30, 2019 · Africans because of their black race were considered as moveable property incapable of working on their own. Some skewed scientists even went further to come up with theories to justify slavery. They claimed that blacks could be mistreated and regarded as property since they were not humans and were not entitled to humane treatment.

What role did slavery play in the rise of America?

Answer (1 of 7): Le Sellers's answer to What was the role of race in establishing slavery? By the time Africans captured neighboring tribes and sold them to others, millennia had elapsed. More centuries passed when Arabs came to the central African …

How were African slaves treated prior to 1670?

Having African slaves was a new commodity at the time, but clearly the treatment of slaves differed greatly to the type of treatment they receive in the Americas. Since, the slave trading began much earlier between Europe and Africa and later in the Americas the abundance of slaves grew the slaves no longer held the same amazement as they initially did.

How did slavery develop in the Carolina colony?

May 19, 2015 · Like most huge changes, the imposition of hereditary race slavery was gradual, taking hold by degrees over many decades. It proceeded slowly, in …

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What was the main reason for the demand of slaves?

The demand for labour was particularly high in the tropical parts of the New World, where new products such as tobacco and sugar could be cultivated for export to Europe and North America.

What was the impact of the treatment of slaves?

Treatment was generally characterized by brutality, degradation, and inhumanity. Whippings, executions, and rapes were commonplace, and slaves were usually denied educational opportunities, such as learning how to read or write.

What role did slavery play in the creation of the early America?

The use of African slaves was fundamental to growing colonial cash crops which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to purchase African slaves, who were then brought on the sea lane west from Africa to the Americas.

What activities led to the increased demand for African slaves?

Europe's conquest and colonization of North and South America and the Caribbean islands from the fifteenth century onward created an insatiable demand for African laborers, who were deemed more fit to work in the tropical conditions of the New World.

How would you describe the treatment of slaves during the antebellum period?

The punishments took many forms, including whippings, torture, mutilation, imprisonment, and being sold away from the plantation. Slaves were even sometimes murdered. Some masters were more "benevolent" than others, and punished less often or severely.

How were slaves treated in Africa?

Most of the Africans who were enslaved were captured in battles or were kidnapped, though some were sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. The captives were marched to the coast, often enduring long journeys of weeks or even months, shackled to one another.

How were slaves treated in the American colonies?

Enslaved people were regarded and treated as property with little to no rights. In many colonies, enslaved people could not testify in a court of law, own guns, gather in large groups, or go out at night.

How did African slaves contribute to the development of the Americas?

More than half of the enslaved African captives in the Americas were employed on sugar plantations. Sugar developed into the leading slave-produced commodity in the Americas. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Brazil dominated the production of sugarcane.Jan 3, 2003

What was the impact of slavery on the development of colonial America?

As enslaved people became more and more in demand in the South, the slave trade that spanned from Africa to the colonies became a source of economic wealth as well. Working long hours, living in crude conditions, and suffering abuses from their owners, African captives faced harsh conditions in colonial America.Apr 21, 2020

What are the causes of African slavery?

These seven factors led to the development of the slave trade:The importance of the West Indian colonies.The shortage of labour.The failure to find alternative sources of labour.The legal position.Racial attitudes.Religious factors.Military factors.

Who started slavery in Africa?

The transatlantic slave trade began during the 15th century when Portugal, and subsequently other European kingdoms, were finally able to expand overseas and reach Africa. The Portuguese first began to kidnap people from the west coast of Africa and to take those they enslaved back to Europe.Oct 5, 2012

Why did the trade in African slaves increase dramatically?

Trade in African slaves increased dramatically in the 7th century because Arab Muslims and Europeans began trading these slaves.

What was the slave trade in Africa?

Trad­ing slaves was a common practice amongst Africans and Arabs of the Middle Eastern region, however, the new devel­op­ment of slave trade through the Atlantic voy­ages brought new forms of slav­ery and slave trade business. First confrontations of Europeans and Africans led to the exchange of goods and an ever-growing business of slave trading flourished throughout the coastlines of Africa implementing new relations of exchange. With the big economic boom in the crops and mining industries across the Atlantic Ocean, slave trad­ing inten­si­fied back in Africa to where peo­ple are being kid­napped and forced into slav­ery. Many reg­u­la­tions by the Impe­r­ial British Crown were set out to even abolish slave trade prac­tices yet such reg­u­la­tions failed when it came to imple­ment­ing and enforc­ing them and slave trading continued for decades more. The new distinction of slave trade sprouted due to the massive amounts of economic growth for royal imperialist in Europe, colonizers, and as well African merchants and embodied race ideologies within.

When did slavery begin?

Slavery, the term itself comes from a historical process dating back to 71 BCE in the battle between Greeks and Roman that portray power dynamics.

Did Europeans invent slave trade?

It is also important to look at the Europeans discovering the slave trade practices in Africa that already existed prior to their expeditions to Africa because it shows that the Europeans did not invent slave trading, but emerged them in it. As well, before slaves were taken to the Americas African slaves existed in Europe, Klein states, “slav­ery still existed in Europe in 1492…. and slav­ery in ear­lier cen­turies had been a fun­da­men­tal labor insti­tu­tion” (Klein, 01). [iv] The use of slaves for labor purposes was not a new concept for Europeans in America because it was in existence before voyages to the Americas. Primarily, Europeans were attracted to the gold but, “additionally, they thought they might procure some African slaves for sale in Europe, where some elites still held slaves as domestic servants and exotic status symbols” (Lindsay, 17). Having African slaves was a new commodity at the time, but clearly the treatment of slaves differed greatly to the type of treatment they receive in the Americas. Since, the slave trading began much earlier between Europe and Africa and later in the Americas the abundance of slaves grew the slaves no longer held the same amazement as they initially did. The Portuguese were one of the first European countries to be a slaveholding society of African slaves and “found existing slave trading patterns and met enthusiastic intermediaries” in Africa (Nellis, 03). Portugal was in advantage to other European countries, which also explains why they were able to explore the Americas first too. The drive for more resources and accumulated Portugal’s passion for exploring led them to the sugar cultivations in the islands of Madeira and the Azores and later the discovery of Cape Verde for gold and slaves were the first foundations of trade (Lindsay, 15-16). With the experience of using slaves for sugar cultivation as early as the 15th century can clearly show the knowledge and expertise Portuguese were obtaining in using slaves to extort more foreign resources. Mungo Park was one of the first European travellers that reached the inland of Africa and he documented the slave trade practices. Park states, “they [slaves] claim no reward for their services, except food and cloathing; and are treated with kindness or severity, according to the good or bad disposition of their masters”, which shows the value of slaves as laborers to gain absolute profit. [v] Professor Munster created the map below supposedly some time in between the late 1500s and early 1600s. [vi] It is a very interesting map because it shows how much knowledge the people had of that time of Africa. Since most trade was conducted along the coastlines and the inland were considered dangerous territories therefore, the larger portion of Africa is drawn out to be the most West African part because it was most essential to them. Although the western coastline below the Gold Coast is not proportionate to scale, the map shows the advancement in knowledge about the African Coastline and how much time Europeans spent in exploring Africa.

What happened in the second half of the 17th century?

During the second half of the 17th century, a terrible transformation, the enslavement of people solely on the basis of race, occurred in the lives of African Americans living in North America.

What happened in the 17th century?

Early in the 17th century no tiny North American port could absorb several hundred workers arriving at one time on a large ship.

Why did Virginia ban interracial marriage?

The Virginia assembly also moved to ban interracial marriage during this period, indicating the fear by whites that black males would begin intermarrying with the scarce population of white women. The assembly assigned a hefty fine to any black man or white women found to be intermarried.

What was the law before 1670?

Prior to 1670, there was no legal code to regulate slavery, allowing for better treatment of African slaves. Some African slaves were treated as indentured servants, allowing them to own land after their term was completed.

What was the Chesapeake colony?

The Chesapeake colonies, founded in 1607, were a mass of fertile land ranging from present-day Maryland to southern Virginia. Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, became the starting point for future expansion in the region. Upon arrival in the Chesapeake colony, colonists’ lives primarily centered on agriculture. The proliferation of tobacco brought great prosperity to the planter class in the seventeenth century, creating economic disparities within the Chesapeake. Unlike in England, where work was scarce, the Chesapeake colony had too much work and too few people. As a result, planters sought a cheap form of labor that would help them keep up with demand. Over the course of the seventeenth century, English emigrants and African slaves supplied the Chesapeake colonies with the majority of their labor, transforming the region and also the institution of slavery. As slavery become more profitable in the Chesapeake, the laws and treatment of slaves evolved to become more tyrannical. The final result was a race-based system of slavery, where black enslaved people were treated harshly and denied any path to freedom.

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