Jenna Lee
Mr. Kogan
World History Honors G
6 April, 2010
People or Enterprise?
Slaves were a commodity to be traded and this was not a new concept in the 1500’s as stated by Donald Wright who said, “Slavery existed in some of Africa’s earliest organized societies. More than 3,500 years ago, ancient Egyptians raided neighboring societies for slaves, and the buying and selling of slaves were regular activities in cities along the Nile River. However, whereas the Egyptians left behind written records of their activities, most other early African states and societies did not.” Slaves were viewed as primarily as property and not as people. The expansion of slave trade to Europe and the new World grew as the cost of obtaining slaves provided an attractive alternative for much needed labor. If Europeans objected to slavery, they were in the minority until the 1700’s according to the timeline of abolition in Wikipedia. This timeline was supported in “Moral Capitol”, which provided an account in 1757 of the execution of a captain for murdering his 14 year old black servant. The commercial need for manual labor to perform the grueling tasks caused many who outwardly protested to be ignored and many turned a deaf ear to the issue, because they benefited from this inexpensive source of labor.
Capturing of slaves was “relatively easy for the Europeans. Coastal African chiefs readily traded slaves in exchange for goods” (James Haskins & Kathleen Benson: 18-20 passim). After the slaves had been collected and readied for shipment, the Africans were loaded onto ships which transported them as another cargo such as: iron, cloth, brandy, firearms, gunpowder, etc….” Dr Hakim Adi estimated the number of slaves placed on ships, to be “just over 11 million people. Of those, fewer than 9.6 million survived the so-called middle passage across the Atlantic.” The reason for the high mortality rate was the inhuman conditions for the slaves on board which was described in an account by a Reverend Walsh who accompanied an interceptor capturing a slave ship in 1829. In his account, the Reverend described boarding the Slave Ship Feloz, finding 517 of the original load of 562 slaves in the holds naked in a sweltering heat, crammed together such that they could not lie down or move about. They were branded like animals to identify the owner’s mark, and it was apparent they had been shackled by manacles and fetters. Once a slave ship arrived in port, there were advertisements posted with time and place to make the sale of all goods and slaves known to all.
In conclusion it is apparent the slaves were not considered to be people, but an enterprise selling a commodity of labor.
Wright, B.A., M.A., Ph.D., Donald R. - “Slavery in Africa” Microsoft® Encarta®
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Adi, Dr Hakim. “Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade”. BBC History, n.d.
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africa_article_01.shtml>.
Wiki page. “Abolition of slavery timeline”. Wikipedia, 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline#1500-1700>.
Reverend Walsh. “EyeWitness to History.” “Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829,” . N.p.,
2000. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. <www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/slaveship>.
Brown, Christopher Leslie. “Moral Capital”. University of North Carolina Press,
2006. Web. 5 Apr. 2010. Print.
