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Negative effects of Europeans on Africa
Justified slavery
A quick context about the transatlantic slave trade during the 18th century
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Racism has had a great impact on our modern world. Whether it is a country that directly benefited or lost from racism, there is no doubt that racism was and arguably still is a huge driving force of how a society operates. Since racism is such an important subject to understand, the roots of this prejudice must be evaluated. Looking back in history, the Transatlantic slave trade played a big role in racism. The Transatlantic trade, designed to ship black Africans as slaves across the Atlantic, took place in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries and affected millions of people. Looking back at history, the Transatlantic slave trade was the root cause of racism due to the the economics and justifications used against the black African peoples …show more content…
Over the course of history, there have been many justifications of slavery. However, all of the justifications for holding black africans under slavery were racially based. “Blacks were simply deemed racially incapable of self-interest, self ownership, self-rule, and civilization itself.” (Carlander, Jay R. and W. Elliot Brownlee). These general (racist) ideas, by the height of slavery under the trade, were widely accepted. “Some Europeans were appalled to hear that Africans ruled themselves and possessed their own system of government. This disgust was justified by claims that Africans were barbaric and uncivilized” (Muhammad, Patricia M. 888). The racist justification normalized the idea that black Africans were inferior because of their race; this ideal survived the slave trade. These justifications appeared during the Transatlantic slave trade - thus, the racism against black africans that survived can be credited to the trade. Widely accepted racism against Africans was a result of the justifications of holding black Africans as slaves - which occurred during the Transatlantic slave …show more content…
Slavery has been around for a very long time - and with no doubt existed before the Transatlantic slave trade. A major key difference between those forms of slavery compared to slavery black Africans suffered during the Transatlantic slave trade, however, is the justification of keeping the people enslaved. For example, take the ancient Greek’s justification of their slavery - “On the one hand, the natural slave, due to an innate defect in his capacity to engage in practical deliberation, is morally inferior to those who are naturally free” (Harvey, Martin). Influential thinkers of the time didn’t endorse racially based justifications of slavery, either. “Aristotle himself concedes the essential hopelessness of attempting to draw a substantive master/slave distinction on the basis of putative physical differences between the two” (Harvey, Martin). This is an example of justification of slavery in ancient Greece, far before the Transatlantic slave trade - and racist ideas were not used in justification. Since racist justifications for slavery didn’t exist before the Transatlantic slave trade, the conclusion that racism is rooted in the trade can be drawn. There is also the argument that if slavery is inherently racially based, and if racism against black Africans existed before the slave trade, black Africans would’ve been the
Winthrop D. Jordan author of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812, expresses two main arguments in explaining why Slavery became an institution. He also focuses attention on the initial discovery of Africans by English. How theories on why Africans had darker complexions and on the peculiarly savage behavior they exhibited. Through out the first two chapters Jordan supports his opinions, with both facts and assumptions. Jordan goes to great length in explaining how the English and early colonialist over centuries stripped the humanity from a people in order to enslave them and justify their actions in doing so. His focus is heavily on attitudes and how those positions worked to create the slave society established in this country.
The thesis of this book is that slavery, racism and discrimination should be set aside and tough penalties laid for those who practice it. This can reduce it by a great percentage and each generations.
Hundreds of years have gone by still African American for the most part have directly and indirectly have been kept in a powerless position in the society by European American. One drop of African descend blood can deprive one from the list basic necessity of life, as a matter of fact, complexion does not count; one can be lighter than Mary and still be treated less human in Our Nig by Wilson, Frado was lighter than Mary, Ms. Bellmont’s daughter, still Ms. Bellmont treated Frado horrifically with no mercy. Slavery do not really care about age, nationality, or gender r neither do they care about their well-being of their slaves. In chapter 2, Interesting Narrative by Equiano- it gives a clear narrative
Slavery may well be one of the major causes of racism, and United States was one of its victims. Today, let’s visit how it all started in this country, how they overcame it, and how they moved on and faced what is now Juneteenth with bravery and joy.
The image of American slave traders popularized and ingrained upon the national consciousness is based predominantly upon the character of Mr. Haley in Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is one of brash and opportunistic men of dubious background, character and principles, inherently racist and brutish in nature, motivated solely by profit. Ironically this largely echoed the view depicted publicly in the pro-slavery oratory and writings, which typically minimized the importance of the trade and portrayed the traders as social outcasts from the genteel antebellum culture of the South, thus reinforcing this fictitious version of history. Close scrutiny by many prominent historians has unquestionably shown this image is not historically accurate however. Far from being social outcasts with no community ties, many traders were in fact prominent citizens holding important positions in government and business. The most enterprising and successful of their number took full advantage of the latest innovations in modern transportation and employed effective market and advertising strategies thus introducing a spirit of commercialism which was so prevalent in the North to the South's agrarian culture. While it can not be disputed the most of these men held strongly racist views and many committed appalling acts in the course of the business, most saw themselves as men of vision who were simply pursuing their own American dream of happiness and prosperity. In their estimation their business practices were no more unethical than those of Northern entrepreneurs and served a viable need to the public at large.
Let’s begin with racism, which dates back to as far as humans can remember. “It may be defined as the hatred of one person by another -- or the belief that another person is less than human -- because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes” One of the most known acts of racism was the enslavement of Africans in the new world. This racism was a result of the racist belief that black Africans were less human than white Europeans.
The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of, if not the largest scale movements of human beings from one part of the world to another by sea and could have been considered a mobile killing machine because of the horrible conditions. The numbers were so large that the slaves who came by slave trade were the most Old-World immigrants in the world. Even though there were only races of people enslaved during the Atlantic Slave Trade, African Americans were the most numerous. Records show 34,941 voyages during the time of the slave trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th centuries. The way that the Atlantic Slave Trade came about was cruel but not unthinkable. The capture and enslavement of African Americans was inevitable, the only question was when. A lot more slaves were taken to the South America than to the North America because the South “needed” them more. The South Atlantic economic system was based on producing crops, making goods and other things to sell. The enslaved people didn’t just skip into the ship with smiles on their faces. The Spanish colonists asked the King of Spain for permission to bring slaves to The New World to provide for them. Spanish Colonists were currently forcing Native Americans to do their labor for them but they were dying in large numbers because of diseases and lack of care from the colonists. The King of Spain gave approval to the colonists to import Africans and from then on Africans were transported there for use and labor and other needs of the Spanish colonists. During this time many African American slaves were transported. An estimated twelve to fifteen million African Americans were shipped throughout the world includ...
The Africans slaves were treated just as badly as the Native Americans if not worse. They were forced to work hard gruesome hours in a fields, never feed or kept in good health, they were branded like common farm animals and brutally tortured at any signs of disobedience and resistance. As European crops and materials grew in demand, more African slaves were brought to the New World for work, thus beginning the Atlantic slave trade Europeans justified the Atlantic slave trade, which was the buying and selling of African slaves, in different ways. Three commonly used excuses being one: “ Apologist for the African slave trade long argued that European traders purchased African who had already been enslaved and who otherwise would have been put to death.Thus, apologists claimed the slave trade actually saved lives.” As well as two: “ In the Christian world, the most important rationalization for slavery was the so called ‘Curse of Ham’ According to the doctrine, the Bible figure Noah had cursed his son Ham with blackness and the condition slavery.” The last justification was that Europeans, full of greed and power, needed more people that weren't of European descendent to do all the dirty, hard and dangerous work for them. All of
The crossing of Columbus over the Atlantic the world brought a new world order that broadens the perspective of so many lives during the enlightment era. This can be seen as noted in The British Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Abolitionist Struggle: Opponents of the Slave Trade as the literacy rate is increasing into a little over half the population in England and wales could read by 1800. This increase of literacy can be closely correlated to the industrialization of society that brought abought a new middle class that came about with the establish of the Atlantic slave trade.(xix, Oldfield) With this new urbanization of citizens, it allowed for the wider spread of the enlightenment ideals to spread wider than ever as populations increase
Racism or Slavery, which came first? Racism or slavery, neither, this essay will document the prejudice against Africans from Europeans that led to slavery and racism. Prejudice issues in a dislike for an individual or group of individuals. This dislike can be simulated by many differences that are shared, religion, culture, system of living (government and social practice), or in some cases looks. “Initially English contact with Africans did not take place primarily in a context which prejudged the Negro as a slave, at least not as a slave of Englishmen. Rather, Englishmen met Africans merely as other sort of men.
Most people would find it very hypocritical that the first European settlers of America came over for freedom of religion and to escape hate of the other religions, but were so quick to hate someone they had never seen before that didn’t share the same beliefs as them. Slavery separated families, degraded black people until they felt like animals, and placed value as property on another human being. Slave owners used this hierarchy to justify slavery and support that Africans were biologically inferior; Caucasians (whites) Ethiopians (Africans) Mongolians (Asians) Americans (Native Americans) Malayans (Pacific Islanders) (“Racism Timeline”).... ...
The slaves and slave owners in the Americas resulted in the concept of white supremacy, consequently causing vast social divisions among the wealthy Caucasians and poor Africans. These seemingly trivial actions to obtain affluence led America into the national issues that still patronize the United States to this day. Furthermore, “The plight and problems of workers today , black and white, may be directly traceable to African slavery in the United States” (Diggs 157). Even though, slavery was legalized during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, they were eventually slavery becomes a major rationale of the Civil War. Although, through this conflict and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, blacks in the United States allowed us to free the slaves they did not gain human rights until after the Civil Rights Act, thirteenth amendment, and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s were established. The social repercussions of bringing slavery in the United States via Triangular Trade needs to remain heavily embedded in our history courses in order to prevent recurrences of social oppression for future
Racism is one of the most revolting things within the vicinity of humanity. Many times it haunts our past, degrading our future. However, a good fraction o...
In order to justify keeping an entire race of people enslaved, slaveholders claimed that blacks were inferior to whites, placing them on the same level as livestock and other animals. “There were horses and men, cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding the same rank in the scale of being, and were all subjected to the same narrow examination” (73). The fact is, whites are not naturally superior over blacks. Therefore, slaveholders used a variety of contrived strategies to make their case that blacks were inherently inferior to whites. To...
Racism can be defined as "any set of beliefs, which classifies humanity into distinct collectives, defined in terms of natural and/or cultural attributes, and ranks these attributes in a hierarchy of superiority and inferiority" (Blum 5). It can be directly linked to the past and still, centuries later, serves as a painful reminder that race continues to be one of the "sharpest and deepest divisions in American life" (Loewen 138). What were the causes of racism? How did it develop historically? In order to answer those complex questions, I plan to examine the conditions of America's history from colonialism to present day society. It was these conditions of America's past that promoted the development of racist practices and ideas that continue to be embraced by many to this day.