The Experience of the Afro-Guyanese in Guyana

Africans arrived in America over 400 years ago based upon a barter system, where our ancestors and many others traded and sold slaves for food, gold, or things of that nature. The first enslaved Africans arrived in the Virginia colony at Point Comfort on the James River on August 20, 1619 (Equal Justice Initiative, 2014). They were treated as indentured servants and after working their contracts for passage to Virginia, each was granted fifty acres of land and released to live free.

The earliest form of slavery in North America can be traced back to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. There, they were called the “Twenty and Odd” and considered servants rather than slaves. Though little is known about this infamous event, this ‘trade’ continued of capturing Africans from Africa and bringing them to the colonies of Britain. The usage of slaves increased and were often used as field laborers on plantations, house workers, blacksmiths

First african slave ship came in Virginia , the slaves were brought here to work in fields or lucrative crops like tobacco , cotton , and etc. The first ship with the slaves was a dutch ship who popped up on the shore of Jamestown , Virginia. It were only 20 African slaves on the ship and this was the 17th century. In the 18th century about 7 million slaves spreaded throughout America mostly in the south.

For almost 400 years slaves were taken from Africa and displaced throughout the world. The first Africans slaves arrived in Virginia in the early 1600’s and millions more would follow throughout the coming centuries. Shortly after colonist

Africans first arrived in the area that later became the United States of America in around 1619 in the Chesapeake area. The large amount of fertile land in the area gave the settlers their biggest cash crop, which was tobacco. As time went by, more and more tobacco was being exported to England. Because of this, more labor was needed. This need for more labor was not only in the north, but in the south as well due to their mass production of cotton. This movement started the institution of slavery in America. Then, the colonies and other countries started to trade slaves and it became a business. The Royal African Company was the first slave trading company, which was started in 1672. The slaves were transported by the Middle

i) The Royal African Company lost its possession to carry slaves to the colonies in 1698

In the 1680’s most Africans were working on plantations. As Mintz explains how black slavery become the dominant labor, “ 1680’s that Black slavery became the dominant labor system on plantations ” (2, Mintz). The colonists wanted the africans because they would work the best on plantations. This quote demonstrates the colonists gained power because more slaves were sold and The colonists gained more profit. In the Colonial America the slaves were being carried to the New World. As Olaudah Equiano illustrates how the slaves were brought to the new world, “ These filled me with astonishment which was soon converted into terror ” (1, Equiano). He was scared and like he never experienced slavery in his life. This quote demonstrates that the colonists gained power because the slaves were afraid of them and if they were afraid of them they wouldn’t

Everything discussed in Chapter 3: Forging Tighter Bonds and the Crash Course video “The Quakers, the Dutch, and the Ladies” occurred between 1640 and 1700. Barbados gained a lot of attention from the amount of wealth they were making from growing sugar. Soon the Barbados slave code helped perpetuate slavery by allowing slave master to do as they please. With the rebellion of the indentured servants the colonies would have to find a new work force following Barbados’s successful methods. (Chapter 3)

The location and climate of the colonized islands are discussed in Documents 1 and 2. By 1750, France, Spain, and Britain had established colonies on the Caribbean islands. (Doc. 1) The discovery and settlement upon those islands enabled the trade of crops that were cultivated there, such as sugar cane. Two of those islands, Jamaica and Barbados, had close to ideal climates for the production of cane sugar. (Doc. 2) Such climates provided further ease in the manufacturing of cane sugar, in that they generated more product at a much swifter rate. With the islands having been settled on, and the growth of sugar cane accelerating, there needed to be plantations in order to convert the canes into sugar. The systems on which the plantations functioned are expanded upon in Documents 6 and 7. William Belgrove detailed the necessary provisions for a five hundred-acre plantation, which included nine different houses, three-hundred slaves, and two-hundred twenty-five animals. (Doc. 6) The information presented exhibits that there are a lot of requirements in order to smoothly run a large sugar plantation, though it was possible. The plantations were almost always owned by wealthy families, most of whom were absent from the estates they owned. (Doc. 7) The value of the sugar trade was immediately recognized by these wealthy families, so as a result, they were able to

African Kingdoms would subdue weaker African tribes and/or rival kingdoms or abducted the Africans from their families and sell them to the European slave traders. The first slaves was brought by Dutch ship in Jamestown, Virginia and since then slavery has been prevalent in Colonial America. Colonial settlers turned to slavery as an alternative to indentured servants for cheaper and plentiful labor source. African-Americans were one of the vital parts on building the economic foundations of the New Nation. The making of big plantations producing the successful cash crops such as tobacco and cotton were the main reasons of the massive increase of the population because it increased the demand for

Each slave also supplied a lifetime of service if they would survived the voyage and the numerous possible diseases(Norton, 69). In 1619, when English pirate ships, White Lion and the Treasurer arrived in the British colony of Jamestown Virginia carrying with it, twenty enslaved Africans, colonist traded food and services in exchange for human cargo. Once traded, the Africans were entered into limited periods of indentured servitude and joined the colonies workforce, which had roughly one thousand English indentured servants (Slavery in the United States, 2011).

Slavery is a period of time where people were bought, sold, and treated as property for many years. Slaves were given no rights once so ever from the time they were captured, purchased, or born. Slavery existed in many countries such as contemporary Africa, Mali, Haiti, Niger, Sudan, and Mauritania. Although slavery was equally devastating in many different countries one form of slavery that stands out the most for American history is slavery in the New World. Slaves were shipped from various locations in Africa and also different islands of the West Indies. Contrary to belief, there was a method in Africa specifically Goree Island, where wealthy Africans would sell out other Africans from their country into slavery. These “merchants”

Large amount of land and labor were required in the Tobacco agriculture. At first, these workers were mainly come from England itself and the promise of land attracted many workers. Later, the industry of Tobacco spread from Caribbean to Virginia. As a reason, colonists spread from one colony to another. At that time, the Dutch slave traders enslaved Africans to fill the needs of labor. This model was followed by the English. Many Africans became slave involuntarily and the first African slaves arrived in mainland North America in late August of 1619 when a ship carrying slaves from Africa docked in Jamestown, Virginia. They were different from indentured workers by their endless term of service.

The first slaves were brought to the Virginia Colony in the early 1600s. they were simply indentured servant whom would be released after working an agreed number of years. They came to America on a voluntary basis. Soon after, that model of slavery was replaces with the race-based slavery used in the Caribbean. Slavery was officially legalized in 1641 and gradually progressed to the brutal form that we know today. The undermining and oppression of those African people were sealed in 1712 when

Guyana and Suriname are neighbor countries, located on the Caribbean coast of South America (see figure 1). Guyana was originally colonised by the Netherlands. Later, it became a British colony and became independent in 1966 from the United Kingdom. With Suriname it was the other way around: it was colonized by the English and the Dutch, but later captured by the Dutch who governed Suriname until 1954. Guyana is a little bit bigger in size and population than Suriname but Suriname has a higher gross domestic product per capita. Both countries also have similarities: both have substantial different species due to the big rain forest they contain. However, Suriname is according to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) (2014) better in protecting human health from environmental harm and protecting ecosystem. Suriname has a score of 53,57 and is thereby ranked at the 71st place, while Guyana has a score of