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
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. The Europeans helped to fuel the thought of slavery as a business and the willingness of the African tribal leaders to trade slaves with the explorers didn't help curb the thinking. 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. 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 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 pro-slavery Europeans argued that since the Bible never says slavery is wrong, there can be no way that it is immoral. The European attitudes toward slavery greatly assisted in the growth of the new slave trade. 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. With time, slavery turned into a system of singling out a specific race in order to force them to involuntarily serve for an extended period of time. 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. The African tribes merely saw trading their slaves with the Europeans instead of keeping them just for themselves as a way to make money. The African tribes that the Europeans began trading with were very willing to trade captured slaves for the new European weapons and other goods. The Native Americans were almost as ill-prepared for the back-breaking labor of the New World settlements as the first European explorers.
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Acceptance Essays
