Summary Of Ira Berlin, Generations Of Captivity?

As slaves were legal property and a part of capital. They were bought, sold and sometimes killed, thus they became a means of production and were reduced to a commodity owned by slave owners (Ritzer; 2002:51/53). The relationship between slavery and capitalism can be seen in the context of the creation of the America’s. African and Afro-American slaves were vital for the development of the America’s. An example of this is after the American civil war, even though the North had fought to abolish slavery.

Through the 16th to the 19th century, slavery was closely intertwined on a global scale on the basis of economics. Slavery, especially in the Americas, became a colonial and empirical institution, which then made those societies dependent on coerced, forced labor for many economical activities based on racial hatred and violence. At each stage in the transatlantic slave trade, African people experienced systematic violence and oppression, shaped by racist capitalistic ideas that white opportunists profited from. Slavery was never an inevitable outcome of African and European encounters, but it developed in this way because of the search for wealth and money, combined with severe white supremacy and ethnocentrism. As slavery continued to develop, and many countries, such as the emerging United States in the late 18th century, had slaves as a major part of their economic model.

Europe most certainly gained an economic advantage with the event of the Atlantic Slave Trade, as well as a lead in their progress in industrialization. With the new sources of labor presented in the Atlantic Slave Trade, America was another region that gained many developments in its economy, and society. Slavery played an integral part in ... ... middle of paper ... ...o be male, and how other female slaves were seen as a weakling, and a nuisance. There is no doubt that the Atlantic Slave Trade made an enduring mark on the regions of Europe, America, and Africa. The Atlantic System began with the need of available labor sources for large plantations.

Thus slaves were not seen as human but part of a larger machine that was being profited by colonizers. As slavery developed an complex social hierarchy emerged on plantations. At the bottom of the social order, but at the backbone of the plantation economy, were the field slaves. The field slaves were divided into "gangs" depending on the strength of their bodies. For example, "the first gang on any estate comprised the most able-bodied males and females, with subsequent gangs organized according to a descending order of physical strength and ability" (Knight 130).

They wanted to seek better life in North American, but they were sold to colonial rulers as slaves. We all know that selling black slaves was the most vicious dealing in human history. However, the huge quantity of profits of selling black slaves became the main source of capital accumulation for Americans. In 18th century, black slaves had decisive influences on development of south plantation. Since the products of south plantation were sold in world market, so the plantation economy was the commercial production of capitalism.

Arabs and Africans in the Swahili coast were responsible for the East African Slave trade in which changed globalization (Walker-Said, In class notes). Slavery was local in which existed in Africa prior to Europeans arriving. When slaves were traded off to Europeans, they were sent to Europe, the Caribbean, and the New world in order to be enslaved. Bringing African slaves into the world provided a global trading system, created global and culture diversity, and was responsible for the massive successful economy at the time. Slavery transitioned to becoming global system by bringing African slaves throughout the world, generating free labor and creating a successful economy in multiple societies.

Robinson (1984) affirms that there exists a close relationship between the growth of capitalism and slavery. Slaves were the property of slave owners; slaves were dehumanised because they were commodities that were sold and they represented unfree labour (Robinson, 1984). According to Marx (1984, 45), the profits made by the slaves were prime to the primitive accumulation which then led to the growth of manufacturing and industrial capitalism. The value created by slave labour was appropriated by the metropole, and this created immeasurable disparities of wealthy between the colonies and the metropole, both historical wealth and contemporary wealth (Robinson, 1984). For example, the raw material used in production of textiles, which led the Industrial Revolution in Britain, was slave-produced.

This chapter beings with the exploration of the Chesapeake area, with the introduction of Bacon’s rebellion. It shows the ripple effects of slavery growing to every inch of the area surrounding the Chesapeake. Berlins next section ranges from the Lowcounty South Carolina, Gerogia, and Florida areas. These areas were more effected by a cash crop and explained the effects that shaped the plantations due to the cash crops. The cash crop sped up the conversion to slave societies and demonstrated a different tone than the conversions upheld by the Chesapeake expansion.

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick reveals the truths behind slaves’ lives, the culture of slavery, as well as the psychological struggles these American slaves endured during this time period. Unlike the majority of colonist who fled to the new nation to escape issues in their former home, slaves’ were instituted into the trans Atlantic slave trade. From there, this is where slaves’ lives began to develop. When the Trans Atlantic slave trade began, numerous slaves were shipped into the Americas when the Portuguese search for gold fell short, they resulted in a much more plentiful commodity. A commodity of Humans developed to benefit the expanding of the European empire and their need for a work force.

Slave traders knew that by capitalizing on the mastery talents of these Africans they could become wealthy in other parts of the world. The Spaniards, the French, and the Dutch soon became part of the slave trade, and because of this, slavery grew to exponential proportions. The typical voyage for slaves taken by European traders started down the south coast of Africa into the Gulf of Guinea. They traded African slaves—human beings—for goods such as cloth, rum, brandy and guns. Then they would start on the second leg of this inhumane excursion.