History  of  Slavery

History  of  Slavery

The term slavery, as defined by the Slavery Convention of 1926, was termed as the state or condition whereby an individual has partial or full authority over another person’s legal rights as a human being. A slave is an individual under such rulings (Allain, and Hickey, 2012). During the initial times of slavery, there were diverse elements that came into play, including the power of military, racist activities, beneficiaries of religion, and scarce labor in home countries. Many countries in the past took part in slave activities, including Africa, Britain, America, Brazil, and Portugal.

In America, slavery began at a slow pace in the 17^th century but later gained momentum during the 18^th century. As leaders realized they required adequate labor on their farms, they recruited Africans to work on their farms due to their strong body structure and their high demand in the slave market. Children were subject to every type of known slavery, including sexual harassment. In the south, slaves who had an agreement to work for a specified period earned their “freedom” by working in the North. Despite earning the right to freedom, the free laborers received low wages. Laborers at the time had no say when it was time to be transferred to different labor sites. They also had no right to have specialized types of work to be able to provide for their families. At the time, slaves had to work hard with no rights whatsoever to bear children, which resulted in slavery even in their private lives (Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl, 2014).

Life in slavery was more robust for new slaves entering the American borders. Slaves had to sometimes borrow money or other resources from their masters for them and their children to survive, leading to more enhancement of slavery. In times where slaves delayed paying the money they owe their masters, they sold out people they loved, such as children or family members, as compensation for their debt. Such acts led to the breakage of family lines and deterioration of trust between loved ones as women and girls got sexually exploited, leading to phycological traumas. Many slaves found themselves in cotton plantations at the age of the cotton gin invention, which made America become a large scale producer of cotton. America also required soldiers to keep law and order among the slaves and protect the country. As a result of slavery, America had many armed forces at the time it went to war between the years 1635-1877 (Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl, 2014).

Slavery played a significant role in the British colony. Slavery was there to not only provide labor but also enhance Britain’s colonial power. Transportation into slavery got carried out against a person’s free will, and it accelerated in the mid 17^th century. Britain formed the Royal African Company to sell captured African slaves together with goods from Africa. Between the years 1672-1713, more than 125,000 slaves were in captivity. During transportation, the treatment of slaves was similar to that of goods, and no precautions were set in place to ensure they reached safely. Anyone found to be ill had to be punished by death, being fed to the fish in the ocean. People enslaved formed new communities that followed traditional practices. The communities acted as a refuge for people affected by acts of slavery (“Slavery In The British Colonies, n.d”).

Positive effects were present in Britain due to the slave trade. The Atlantic slave trade, in collaboration with plantations based in America, helped in revolutionizing Britain’s industrial sector. There was significant growth in the population located in urban areas. Ports having large numbers of slaves indicated the most outstanding growth than ports that had did not include slaves in their operations (Derenoncourt, 2018).

The adverse effects of slavery in Britain were human trafficking and involuntary servitude. Human trafficking meant that a person’s will power was violated based on ultimatums and brutality, with an objective of the British colony gaining more economically. The slaves had to undergo sexual harassment, sleep deprivation, assault, food denial, dangerous types of workloads with little or without pay (Bales et al., 2015).

Africa was the origin of most slaves present in plantations all over the world. During this time, slavery was through acts of war, which diminished the respect one had for himself. One got denied any form of citizenship, which made one lack a sense of belonging to a particular religion or culture. Slaves in Africa got captured using cruel acts such as kidnapping, raids, and as prisoners. Children got sexually abused and enslaved to work in harsh conditions without the provision of basic needs. At a young age, slavery affected the child’s growth (Lovejoy & Paul, 2011).

The disadvantage of acts of slavery in Africa is that it affected everyone. A person’s gender, age, or race did not matter. Brutal ways used to capture slaves changed the structures of different political institutions. In other parts of Africa, such as Congo, civil wars occurred, killing lots of people as a result of the resistance they showed against colonial powers. Afonso, the King of Kongo, had to face challenges in his reign, which distracted law and order in his Kingdom as the Portuguese intended to capture even more Africans to be their slaves.

Extensive efforts in acquiring slaves from the African continent led to a vast economic gap between the African continent and the western Countries, leaving Africans to have underdeveloped countries. Countries which produced most slaves had record the lowest rates of development. Slave raiding also led to the decline of ethnic institutions in the affected areas. Trust played a significant role, and it deteriorated as individuals from the various countries tried to sell off people belonging to other ethnic groups into slavery. Slave trade resulted in the downfall of political institutions, hence making them have less ability to controlling their citizens. The result also led to people and communities having difficulties in trusting each other (Lovejoy & Paul, 2011).

In the 15^th century, Portugal had already begun the slave trade involving Christians and Moors and expanded slavery to the coast of Africa. The increase in trade increased once they reached the South Saharan region. There were wars conducted during raids, and families got separated from each other; children forced to separate from their mothers and men leaving their wives. Portugal was a small country and required a task force to work on its plantations (Paquette, Gabriel, 2013). Men and women left their homelands and later joined Christianity. They became forced to join a religion they knew nothing about and leave their traditional practices, which got termed as slavery of the mind.

As a result of the slave trade economy in Portugal, the Portuguese were in the position to conquer more territories since they had adequate raw materials, they also sold their rifles to other colonies engaging in slave trade activities. Guns came a long way in helping them advance the territories they had conquered. Portugal’s economy thrived due to the free labor they acquired from the slaves. They built up more industries to process the adequate raw materials they gained from their plantations (Birmingham, David, 2018). On the other hand,slavery led to an increase in population in Portugal, and resources became inadequate. Racism became a norm, and women and children became sexually abused, which broke family relationships in the area.

African Americans have had to go through difficult challenges in the world they live in. Since the time slavery began, African Americans have continued to endure different types of racist activities towards them. This affects me as a student in the 21^st century. Social media being a way in which news travels fast, I can see and feel how some police officers continue to enforce racism by being brutal when it comes to dealing with cases affecting African Americans. These acts have changed the ways I, as a student in the 21^st view, racism, and slavery.

Works Cited

Androff, David K. “The Problem Of Contemporary Slavery: An International Human Rights Challenge For Social Work”. International Social Work, vol 54, no. 2, 2010, pp. 209-222. SAGE Publications, doi:10.1177/0020872810368395. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

Allain, Jean, and Robin Hickey. “PROPERTY AND THE DEFINITION OF SLAVERY”. International And Comparative Law Quarterly, vol 61, no. 4, 2012, pp. 915-938. Cambridge University Press (CUP), doi:10.1017/s0020589312000450. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

Bales, Kevin et al. “Modern Slavery In The UK: How Many Victims?”. Significance, vol 12, no. 3, 2015, pp. 16-21. Wiley, doi:10.1111/j.1740-9713.2015.00824.x. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

Birmingham, David. A concise history of Portugal. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Derenoncourt, Ellora. Atlantic Slavery’S Impact On European And Britisheconomic Development. Harvard, 2018, pp. 2,3,4,5, https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/elloraderenoncourt/files/derenoncourt_atlantic_slavery_europe_2018.pdf. Accessed 3 Apr 2020.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in slavery: a history of slavery in Africa. Vol. 117. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Paquette, Gabriel. Imperial Portugal in the age of Atlantic revolutions: the Luso-Brazilian world, c. 1770–1850. Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Schneider, Dorothy, and Carl J. Schneider. Slavery in America. Infobase Publishing, 2014.

“Slavery In The British Colonies”. Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/colonial-america/early-chesapeake-and-southern-colonies/a/slavery-in-english-colonies. Accessed 4 Apr 2020.