history of slavery essay

history of slavery essay

The Impact of Slavery on History

1. Introduction

Slavery has managed to leave an impact on the history of several countries in the world. As a student of history, the author has discovered the implications slavery has had on his country. Collectively, southern Africa has undergone many challenges due to it, though there were very few ways in which they could compare the effects with that of other countries. The probability of comparing the impact of slavery in the Americas on the United States is high, and the author can bring something with relevance to the topic of the essay. The evidence provided in this essay demonstrates the often-times drastic effects of slavery on the African people and the society in which they lived. In many cases, these effects have been felt hundreds of years after the official abolition of slavery. The essay is divided into 4 main sections. The first section first analyzes various demographic implications of the African Slave Trade on Africa and the African people. The second discusses how the actual process of enslavement affected Africa. The third analyzes how slavery led to the underdevelopment of Africa, and the fourth section demonstrates how the effects of slavery still linger in post-slavery Africa. Although it has been several years since the end of slavery, it is clear that the implications of slavery are far from over for the peoples of this world.

2. Origins of Slavery

The first recorded instance of authorized possession of one human over another can be traced to the Code of Hammurabi around 1690 BC and was codified in his written laws. These laws specified that a master could be given a slave as payment for a debt, which perpetuated the idea of going into military conflict or debt as a means to improve one’s standard of living through the exploitation of others. This code also specified that a slave could be abandoned by his owner and killed. Fundamentally, a slave was a possession, and if the loss of the slave to illness or inefficient work was more expensive than obtaining a new slave, there was no incentive to keep the slave alive. This was the first instance of a structured slave society, and it marked the beginning of a 4000-year era of slave use as a means to facilitate economic growth for the master at the expense of the servant.

The earliest records of slavery can be traced to the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia around 1800 BC. Much of the economic success of Mesopotamian culture was due to an efficient agricultural sector, and manual labor was required for the maintenance of this sector. As a result, wealthier upper-class citizens employed the poorer lower-class citizens. In some cases, these lower-class citizens would be reduced to a state of servitude either through debt or as a means to survive due to the inability of the lower-class citizens to sustain themselves with subsistence farming. These servants were not slaves; they were free to own possessions, land, and even other servants, and they could buy back their own freedom or their relatives’ freedom. This type of servitude was similar in many ways to the indentured servitude of the early American colonies. It was an exchange of servitude for a guaranteed means of subsistence, and it was more a method of social security than a method of exploitation.

3. The Transatlantic Slave Trade

European colonization, which involved subjects from mercantilist to political, motivated the movement of slaves. Africans were selected for a number of reasons, but most importantly because they were referred to as the “best fit for the earliest and hardest tasks in the new environment” and were known to resist much less against the shackles and grips of slavery because it was a known concept in their “village type” societies. The status of a slave was somewhat alterable and not predetermined as some tend to imagine. A person could find themselves enslaved as a result of punishment for a crime or payment of debts. Depending on the master, a slave might be treated as a member of the family and might enjoy partial freedom. In certain cases, the slave who had been taken far from his own home might be able eventually to obtain his own boat passage by entering the slaving world and becoming a ship’s slave captain himself.

Transatlantic slave trade, a segment of the global slave trade, transported between 10 million and 12 million enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was part of a three-continent involvement consisting of up to twelve European countries. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa and landed on the islands of the Caribbean. Primarily to work on sugar plantations, slaves were forced to do a variety of other tasks. In the United States alone, over 100 years more black people were born into slavery until the 13th Amendment finally liberated the four million slaves that were forced to be taken from Africa.

4. Abolitionist Movements

In the colony of Upper Canada, the government was afraid of exerting a bad influence on its American neighbors, so Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe implemented policies to end slavery and applied his efforts in passing an anti-slavery law. These efforts culminated in the passage of the Act Against Slavery in 1793, which made Upper Canada the first part of the British Empire to move toward the abolition or restriction of slavery. This abolition of slavery within Canada was the first legislation to declare or enforce the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. The Act did not abolish slavery, but it stated that no new slaves could be imported into Upper Canada, no further purchase of slaves could take place, and slaves already in the colony would continue to serve their existing role. Any child born to a female slave after the act was brought into effect is to be freed at the age of twenty-five years. The act was annulled by the Treaty of Amiens, which returned the old owners, Spanish and French, and their slaves to their former possessions.

Abolitionist is a person who favors the eradication of any universally applicable law. It also means an action. While the original meaning is the abolition of the slave trade, now it is more generally used to mean ending slavery or an era of harshly forced labor. The first abolitionists of the Atlantic slave trade in England were those who criticized it in the 18th century, which made the trade lose its popularity, and the laws to regulate it were abolished in 1806 and 1824.

5. Legacy and Lessons Learned

The lasting effects of slavery and colonialism have had a very detrimental effect on the continent of Africa and have carried on to this day. The slave trade saw Africa lose its able-bodied men and women to capture, and much of its population was shipped to the Americas in what Eric Williams referred to as “the initial capital” for the industrial revolution. It was argued that this caused Africa to become underpopulated and was especially harmful when considering the private venture as a loss of population meant a loss of potential labor. The economic imbalance that began due to slaves being taken away as a commodity is one that has never really been redressed. Africa has been consistently exploited for its natural resources and was left in a weakened and unstable state. Coerced labor in post-emancipation societies led to a decline in living standards and regression for many freed slaves. The colonial policies from European slave-trading nations that built the economies of the Caribbean and Americas are argued to have been the reason for underdevelopment of Africa, and poverty has been a continuous issue for many African nations until this day. In short, the memory of slavery has been one that has been a heavy burden on Africa and has resulted in a long history of suffering for its peoples.

B. Effects on Africa

Effects of slavery still resonate in today’s society. Prejudices against minorities, specifically African Americans, are still evident in everyday life. This discrimination seems to have a snowball effect because not only are African Americans thought of as inferior, but they have fewer opportunities to make a living and therefore fulfill that stereotype. Blacks in America came from families that were denied the right to learn, a practice which transcended hundreds of years. Many people of the older generations can remember a time when there was segregation in schools, so many blacks today are the first generation of their family to have received an education. The theory of the impoverished black man being inferior is one directly linked to slavery because in the past, slaves were not allowed to become educated to prevent them from advancing in society. It is obvious the results of slavery have directly affected the opportunities that can be taken advantage of today, and the “mascot” for the black man still seems to be subservient. This seminal racist image reappeared after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans; media outlets began reporting on looting after the hurricane and associated the looters primarily with African Americans. The negative image of downtrodden black people is one that is rooted in slavery and will take many more generations to fade away. A study on college campuses to find racism in the form of white students being shown identical applications for a spot in a college program with only the race of the applicant different showed that the black application was chosen least often, demonstrating still existing favoritism toward whites and hindrance for blacks. Finally, racism against blacks is still often fueled by violence as many hate crimes occur against black people in America. This is just another echo of the many years of picking on and physical punishment done to slaves. This extensive and long-standing racism is evidence that the stereotypes and inequalities that exist today have risen from the treatment of African Americans as slaves.

A. Racism and Discrimination