colonial slavery essay question

colonial slavery essay question

The Impact of Colonial Slavery on Society and Economy

1. Introduction

While slavery was an institution that lasted (incurable forms) for thousands of years, the development of it into a fixed and openly race-based system destined to be the source of perpetual cheap labor and the key to economic advantage came with the advent of the African slave trade in the 16th century. The colonization of the Americas offers ample evidence of this, since indentured servitude among the European settlers gave way expressly to racial slavery in the first 100 years of colonization. This occurred for practical reasons. Slaves from Africa offered a more stable labor solution for the New World, which was in need of laborers, and the color of their skin made it easier to define their status as bonded laborers, since it was a sign that was readily distinguishable and ensured that runaway labor could be easily identified and caught. Both price and ideology also, according to Eric Williams, were deciding factors that led to the shift from indentured servant to African slave, for African slaves were more economically feasible, and the price of their labor (unlike indentured servants) was a lifetime, hereditary possession.

Enslaved people were usually held in the lowest esteem in their society and were forced to carry out demeaning tasks whenever they were in public view. Because their society assigned slaves the bottom rung of the social ladder, most of their daily tasks were cruel, harsh, and sometimes dehumanizing. The selling of family members and friends as slaves was a constant threat, as was the possibility of the master of the family being sold and the family being separated. In very few instances did slaves adapt to the toil and the restrictions placed upon them, often in their minds leading lives of sullen desperation.

2. Historical Background of Colonial Slavery

The cultivation of these cash crops disrupted the traditional subsistence patterns of earlier societies. The extensive economic impact of colonialism has been the polarization of Caribbean economies in a dependency pattern and this has been achieved through the institution of the plantation. The plantation system was created upon the periphery-metropole dominance and exploitation of the land. This system continued after colonial rule and often required the import of temporary or long-term labor. The purpose was to exploit the land and resources to create profits for the metropole. Today, the industry developed from the plantations still reflects that polarized dependency.

The slavery system has exploited the economic and labor resources of the Caribbean societies to develop commodities and capital. Plantation workers were imported into the Caribbean from many different places in the world where slavery was a part of the economic system. Most were African and many were from the west coast of Africa. They worked on the plantations to produce cash crops, such as sugar and tobacco, which were under the control of European marketers.

For the above stated reasons, the Caribbean society has become a highly segregated society in which whites have become the dominant group and blacks are at the bottom of the socio-economic strata. Whites take advantage of their upward mobility and have essential control over the scarce resources (power, prestige & prosperity) in the society. The colonial rule has left its impact on the modern Caribbean society in which racism still exists among the people. The superior and authoritarian behavior of whites has developed an identity crisis among the blacks. Due to the colonial rule, the social institutions have become more capitalistic rather than humanistic. The racial cultural practices and color prejudices have divided the society into two classes. An example can be given as to how the social stratification has emerged in Guyana where there are two beauty contestants; one is the ‘Miss India Guyana’ and the other one is just ‘Miss Guyana’. This reflects the division of the society by race.

3. Social Consequences of Colonial Slavery

Slavery was initially very precarious and underdeveloped in the Thirteen Colonies; some scholars see this as an indication that the English were not initially committed to the institution of slavery in the long term. The first generation of slaves was often treated in a manner identical to indentured servants, orders for negro and Indian slaves often being filled by unsolicited additions to groups of indentured servants. At this time, colonial law was very unsettled on the issue of slavery; those Africans and Indians who were taken by force and made to work were often able to escape this condition in a legal manner. A number of blacks and Indians became freedmen and property owners, and some individuals even rose to a sufficient status to be recognized as white.

When slaves were first brought to the Americas, there was no European legal standard for the institution of slavery. The Spanish and Portuguese, who initiated slavery in their South American colonies, were somewhat skeptical of forcibly binding Europeans into lifelong servitude, as had been the condition of many poor migrants and displaced persons. Indians were often captured and subdued into various forms of servitude or forced labor, but the Native Americans could often escape their captors and take refuge in a neighboring tribe, whereupon they would be out of the captor’s reach. If runaways and non-slaves were to be captured and reduced to slavery, then a new source of labor would have to be found, since many captives were able to flee to remote areas and pose a serious resistance to being recaptured. This state of affairs led to Indians being used very sporadically as slave labor and even being gradually phased out altogether. Slavery of local Indians posed a great difficulty for the developing colonial societies. Slavery as it was known in the later 16th through 19th centuries was an institution peculiar to the capitalist system.

4. Economic Impact of Colonial Slavery

By the closing decades of the century, the tobacco economy in the Chesapeake was in decline. Planters found it more lucrative to move south into Carolina or across the Atlantic into the sugar islands. The Englishmen and French Huguenots who migrated to the New World brought with them the racism and hierarchical class system of the old world. A modicum of freedom and social mobility in the Chesapeake and the Carolina low country allowed for some Blacks to advance themselves. However, this was the only area in the English settlement and America where a stable biracial society existed. In all other areas, such as French Louisiana and Spanish Florida, strict racial boundaries were maintained and the Blacks lived in closed separate communities with limited contact with the Whites. The legal codes of the New World, such as the black codes within the French colonies or the laws and customs of Virginia, all supported the doctrine of white supremacy. The wealth, prestige, and quality of life that people of all classes sought to obtain in colonial society were only possible for a white person to achieve.

The problem with the Europeans in the Caribbean was that they did not want to do the hard work. With a chronic shortage of labor in the Caribbean, colonizers looked to African slavery to build the economy. In the 1640s, there were already major differences between the English Caribbean and the other colonies. As opposed to New England or the Chesapeake, the Barbados colony was based exclusively on slave labor. By 1660, the number of slaves had already exceeded the white population. This gave Barbados something in common with the African nation-states.

The first cash crop was not cotton or tobacco, but sugar, which was to change the social and natural landscape of the Caribbean. In fact, the wealth of England and France expanded through the slave-generated sugar economy.

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch, French, and English colonizers all decided to cross the Atlantic and establish colonies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. The first European landing in the Caribbean was made by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

5. Conclusion

The heavy historical and social baggage of the colonial period is still prevalent throughout the Caribbean. From the racial stratification established under colonialism and slavery, to the patterns of resource distribution which have left much of the region underdeveloped, the effects of the colonial period on the Caribbean are profound and enduring. Economic globalization is the present-day form of the colonial relationship, and it has only served to continue the Caribbean’s dependence on the developed nations. In order to truly understand the contemporary socio-economic climate of the Caribbean, the present must be seen as a product of the region’s history.

In conclusion, the legacy of imperialism and colonialism is quite evident in the Caribbean. European nations that colonized the region – Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – all exploited the region in various ways. The devastating effects of slavery during the colonial period have cast a long shadow on the history of the region. It was followed by a century of indentureship, which was hardly different in its impact. The plantation system, which was established under slavery, continued, although there was some diversification of the agricultural sector. Up to and even after political independence, the Caribbean was still not in control of its economic destiny and would be seriously affected by the changing global economic and political framework.