The rise of African, race-based slavery in the New World
The rise of African, race-based slavery in the New World The transformation of slavery from simple servitude to race-based slavery happened almost immediately after the New World was "discovered." Slavery in Africa was based not on color or race but on the winners and losers of wars. There were four things that greatly contributed to African, race-based slavery: the European attitude towards Africans, the European attitudes toward slavery, the overall labor shortage in the New World due to the failure of European and Native American laborers, and the great ease that the Europeans had in getting slaves in Africa. The Europeans often treated the Africans as inferior, libidinous, dirty, uncivilized heathens who weren't even worthy of being called humans. In White Man's Burden, the author describes the basic attitudes of Europeans towards Africans as one of disgust because the African's wore few--if any--clothes and they didn't share the same religious views as them. The Europeans were very close-minded and this only helped to fuel the slave trade in the New World. I would say that the Europeans' mind set had the biggest effect in the change to race-based slavery. During the first days of the slave trade, some Europeans felt tha
Another argument was that slavery had been around for as long as recorded time so therefore there must be something good about it if it can last this long. During the first few years of the New World settlements, the Europeans tried many different ways to cope with the labor shortage. There were attempts to lure European laborers through deals such as free land after serving 7 years of indentured servitude. The pro-slavery Europeans argued that since the Bible never says slavery is wrong, there can be no way that it is immoral. Although the African slaves had to be shipped across an ocean, the Europeans felt that the great ease in getting the slaves, the "durability" of the Africans in the harsh, tropical climates of Southern and Central America, and their overall view of the Africans as inferior to the white man all outweighed the shipping cost. Due to their strong nature and the fact that they lived in a climate similar to the tropical Americas, the Africans were chosen as the race to be enslaved mainly because of the European way of thinking and for nearly four centuries during after the New World's founding, the race-based slavery continued. It was considered immoral to enslave another Christian so European slavery was almost immediately ruled out. Society also had a large impact in keeping European laborers from succeeding. Had the European or Native American laborers succeeded in supplying the large amount of labor required for the New World settlements, the African slaves most likely wouldn't have been imported. Slavery had existed in Africa since nearly the beginning of mankind. This helped to fuel local wars between tribes in order to get slaves to trade with the Europeans which helped to make more slaves available to the traders. ------------------------------------------------------------------------**Bibliography**. The Native Americans were used to only growing enough food for themselves and their family so they had a hard time adapting to the plantation style farming of the Europeans. The Native Americans also weren't usually strong enough to deal with the amazing amount of labor that was required in building these new settlements. Few Europeans responded to these ads because they heard horror stories from previous servants who said that they were forced to serve longer than 7 years or they were denied land even after serving their land.
Common topics in this essay:
World Europeans',
Finally Europeans,
Central America,
Native Americans,
Man's Burden,
Native American,
Americas Africans,
,
Slavery Africa,
Africa Europeans,
race-based slavery,
native americans,
labor shortage,
helped fuel,
world settlements,
slave trade,
european laborers,
african slaves,
native american laborers,
european attitudes,
attitudes slavery,
european native american,
european attitudes slavery,
slave trade world,
amount labor required,
|
Acceptance Essays
