The undeniable expansion of Western European travelers came with a toll that has stamped history books with pages of inhumane and unfathomable treatment of people. The slave ship saw the demise of many millions of people but for a few, a re-birth. The slave trade itself saw the destruction of not only families but of the individual human; their mind, body and spirit. The art of destroying the human starts at the root of which they would be most bound to, this being their family. The slave ship and its crew perfected the art of the destruction of the ‘kin’, also known as ones’ familial relations. With the destruction of kinship, a new type of kin was needed, otherwise the enslaved human would find their life meaningless. This thus sprouting …show more content…
2017). The use of slave labourers to produce goods such as cotton and tobacco helped finance the colonial economy and advance the slave trade. This expansion of the slave trade would not have been so successful if the familial ties between the slaves was not broken, without this disconnect, the slave trade may not have been what it was. The beginning of the destruction of the slave does begin with destroying the original kinship but is then further destroyed by the slave ship. The chances of you surviving alone or with total strangers is low which is why there was such a high suicide and death rate board the slave trade ships. Before the slaves boarded the ships for the new world, the slave owners mastered the art of destroying the family. An example of this is in Equiano’s writing as his sisters was “…torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually…” (Equiano, 47). Emphasis on the phrase “state of distraction” as this is what makes the sentence so powerful. When the strong kin were broken between him and his sister, he is left in this state, a state that then could be used by the captors to put the thoughts of despair and hopelessness in the enslaved mind. This disconnect of family helped weaken the enslaved to become more submissive and easier to capture, then later to control. Once this disconnect is established and
Slaves were a major key back in the 17th century for the economy because they were so much cheaper compared to the white servants. In the southern colonies the weather was amazing for large amounts of crops to be created. The crops that were mainly used were tobacco, rice, and other items. In the southern colonies many slaves were taken from the west to the south because the West africans had a skill that the others did not.
Planters preferred slaves to indentured servants because they could have more control over them. The slaves were used to do the labor needed to harvest the cash crops which sustained the colonies economies. Towards the end of the period, slave owners realized that slaves were a much better investment than indentured servants. The number of slaves throughout the period increased because plantation owners and farmers realized how much profit they could get by owning slaves and using them to harvest the cash crops. It was a very slow moving development, but once it was widely known, slaves were used much more than indentured servants.
The Southern Colonies had hopes of creating profit from the export of agricultural goods when they developed a plantation economy; farms would grow single crops, such as rice and tobacco. However, as the agriculture business grew, so did the demand for more workers, but they needed a cheap source labor to rely on. The idea of slavery was brought up, but the Southern Colonies could not enslave the Native Americans because they became difficult due to their independence. As a result, African slaves were used because of how easy it was to enslave them. Many African slaves were taken from their homes, and put in a foreign place; this left them defenseless and afraid. The slave population grew largely, and became a steady source for many single
Slavery was very important to the success of the colonies. The first slave boat landed in Jamestown in 1620, it brought slaves from interior Africa who would be forced to do work with no pay. The way slaves got to the colonies was through triangular trade and middle
As indentured servants began to flock to the middle colonies for religious freedom, it created a labor deficit which was filled with slaves. Slave labor allowed for the continuation of cash crop farming.
It was the constant trade to get slaves which made the colonists depend on slave labor. Slave labor was so profitable, most slave owners treated their slaves as property. Beatings, starvation, and overworking were common practices on the plantations. The slave owners didn’t care because they were making money from the
Economically, slavery allowed for an increased source of income that indentured servitude could not compete with. Shortly following the founding of Jamestown, indentured servants paid their way to the colonies with the promise of a designated time of labor upon arrival.
In the 1600's, tobacco became the main source of income for most of the colonists. The economic prosperity of the colonies was primarily dependent on the amount of tobacco produced. The growing of tobacco needed large amount of land, with a large stable work force. The increased demand for a large, stable work force combined with the availability and low price of African slaves, led to the use of slavery in the colonies. To the planter, slavery was the ideal form of labor that would be most beneficial to productivity of his crop.#
African slaves helped build the economic foundations of the nation we know today. Although slavery was basically used for labor
Another prominent similarity in the works of Equiano and Douglass is the belief that separation from family is the worst consequence of slavery. Slaves experienced countless hardships, and unfortunately many were unable to go through them with their relatives. Equiano describes his experience of being separated from his family in Chapter II of his story. According to his account, “The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each other’s arms (29). Earlier, the Equiano siblings had been separated from their parents, which was overwhelming. However, separation from his sister left Olaudah in tears. Frederick Douglass experienced separation from his mother at a young age. He questions, “For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the . . . child. This is the inevitable result” (13). Douglass never met his mother as a result of the whites taking him away from her. Although slaves would probably work efficiently when accompanied by their family, the masters did not realize this, and consequently disconnected families. These eminent similarities in the works of Douglass and Equiano effectively portray the wicked
It is elicited by Sudarkasa, in Martin & Martin that when one focuses on extended families among the enslaved Blacks, it is evident that these kin networks posses many features of the African extended families. The African American families were built around what Sudarkasa identifies as consanguine kin. These are family members whose spouses were incorporated into the extended family networks in different degrees. Sudarkasa goes on to state that the significance of the consanguine principle in the black American extended family is indicated by Gutman’s contention that the pull between ties to an immediate family and to an enlarged kin network sometimes strained husbands and wives.
The growth of the cotton industry impacted America economically and socially. “The domestic slave trade exploded, providing economic opportunities for whites involved in many aspects of the trade and increasing the possibility of
Without slavery, globalization wouldn't have such a start within the new world. As these people who were enslaved were the ones creating the products that were to be traded for other items. The cheap labour the colonies have created from these
During the development of the colonies and the nation as a whole, slaves were utilized in order to produce the crops and perform laborious tasks that were “below” white people. In the 1660s, there was an increased demand for tobacco products as well as indigo and rice in England (“African American Slavery in the Colonial Era, 1619-1775”). In order to fulfill the demand, there was a spike in interest in purchasing slaves. More and more slaves were needed to produce larger amounts of crops for the plantation owners.
The slave trade was very important to the British economy. Without the slave trade, the triangular trade would not have taken place. This is because there would have been no reason to trade slaves from Africa for goods in the West Indies and the USA. Because there were so many slaves being traded, there was plenty of sugar being exported from the sugar plantations to Britain (3,750 tons in 1951 to 9,525 tons in 1669) due to the increase in labour. This trade of sugar had a big impact on the British economy. Because of the large quantities of sugar being produced by African slaves, sugar was able to become a staple food in Britain. “The poorest English farm labourer’s wife took sugar in her tea” which suggests that even the poorest of