Changes in the British society in the 19th century, such as the industrial revolution and the transition of Britain’s slave trade to abolitionism affected Britain’s manner of colonization. Britain’s new industry demanded the production of raw material outside of Europe. Thus, causing Britain to once again turn to colonization in order to benefit their society. As Britain expanded its’ rule, it was able regulate the production and exportation of “Wheat from the American Midwest and southern Russia, meat from Argentina, bananas from Central America, rubber from Brazil, cocoa and palm oil from west Africa, tea from Ceylon, and gold and diamonds from South Africa.” However, the British demand of agricultural and raw goods conflicted with the abolition of slavery. Because, colonies were still responsible for exporting goods in order to feed the British industry, slavery continued despite the abolition movement. European expansion became more than just a quest for beneficial goods, but a brutal operation. European imperialism negatively affected women particularly by a process of dehumanization and subjection to slavery.
Along with the British expansion came the exploiting of African women. With the vast development of the British industry, scientists and researchers also began a new approach. In the 19th century the British saw themselves as the superior race. Scientists began studying beyond the physical differences of the African race, and began extreme research such as studying the differences between the European and African skull. Europe had reached a new period of enlightenment, and the African race became nothing more than mixture of a labor force and science project. The Europeans saw Africans as desperate barba...
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..., but turned the genders against each other as well. The demand for cash crop’s caused men take over what was once known as “women’s work” such as the production of cotton. Leaving the women take over strenuous agricultural and domestic tasks. Such mistreatment caused the African women to grow stronger, but also broke the spirits of many.
In conclusion, the transcript of Abina’s court case was an accurate and brave representation of the suppressed African women of her time. Abina was a product of dehumanization and slavery, yet she was not afraid to seek freedom. I believe a lot of African women may have accepted the role given to them in the 19th century; many did not have a choice. However, Abina’s will to runaway and take her case to court is beyond admirable. Thus, I believe Abina is both a representative of a larger group and an exceptional heroine.
The trans-Atlantic interactions from 1600 to 1763 significantly contributed to maintaining continuity and fostering changes in the labor systems in the British North American colonies. When the colonies were founded, plantations played an important role. The Europeans maintained continuity of labor systems since the demand for labor was high in the colonies. By using African slave labor, they endorsed change to the labor systems.
Laurence Hill’s novel, The Book of Negroes, uses first-person narrator to depict the whole life ofAminata Diallo, beginning with Bayo, a small village in West Africa, abducting from her family at eleven years old. She witnessed the death of her parents with her own eyes when she was stolen. She was then sent to America and began her slave life. She went through a lot: she lost her children and was informed that her husband was dead. At last she gained freedom again and became an abolitionist against the slave trade. This book uses slave narrative as its genre to present a powerful woman’s life.She was a slave, yes, but she was also an abolitionist. She always held hope in the heart, she resist her dehumanization.
In this story it clearly shows us what the courts really mean by freedom, equality, liberty, property and equal protection of the laws. The story traces the legal challenges that affected African Americans freedom. To justify slavery as the “the way things were” still begs to define what lied beneath slave owner’s abilities to look past the wounded eyes and beating hearts of the African Americans that were so brutally possessed.
Throughout history, it is not uncommon for stories to become silenced; especially, when such a story is being told by the voice of a slave's. Slaves were not granted the same equal rights as the free men. They also were not seen as whole individuals -- worth less than the average citizen, to be sold and traded as property. Abina Mansha was a female slave whom once lived in Asante but came to live in the British Gold Coast Colony during 1876, after being sold to Guamin Eddoo by her husband, Yawawhah. As Abina claims in her testimony, her purchase was no accident. "Slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire, a law extended into the Gold Coast in 1874. Yet ironically, the demand for laborers on the growing palm oil plantations and in the houses of those who own them means that the trade in slaves into the Gold Coast does not dry up following the war" (Getz and Clark, 2011, p. 6). Abina And The Important Men: A Graphic History written by Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke, but spoken in different perspectives, helps shed light on Abina's personal lifestyle; while the date and location provides us with further insight on how the world reacted to 19th century Western culture.
To expand, the European great powers took part in a tremendous race to colonize the world, and by doing so, enormous global conflicts began to take place. The revolution brought forth by the American rebels against the British created a tremendous and lasting effect on the globalizing world. Alongside the colonizing movement, originated new trade regulations, shifting alliances, and an ocean overran with commercial exploits (Bender 62). Colonies of the European superpowers, especially the thirteen American colonies, began to feel exploited, and further, were often denied the right commerce by their colonizers (Bender
...of the flatness of their noses…” (35) The descriptions on how Europeans physical appearance as difference in a exaggerate way from Africans play an important role in constructing race. Morgan gave us in Laboring Women many pictures that were display during the 18th hundreds, in there we can take a note how race was portray to the public.
After the Europeans captured the slaves they used them as trading exports. The British traded the
Throughout American history there have been many horrific tragedies and events that have impacted the country and its citizens but none can be compared to the evils of slavery. This “peculiar institution” was the fate of millions of African Americans who were subject to cruelty and contempt by their owners and society. They were treated as if they were animals whose only purpose in life was to please their white owners. It is shameful to know that it was condoned as a “necessary evil” and lasted for over two hundred years in North America. In the beginning, the public did not know the truth behind a slave’s life and the obstacles they endured and overcome to survive it. However, the reality is revealed in slave narratives of who lived during that time and wrote of their experiences. They tell the unheard truths of their masters’ cruelty and the extent it was given to all victims of slavery. In the slave narrative, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, she focuses on the torment of being a female in slavery and why it was a much worse fate than being a male slave.
“In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.
Gender in society has changed. In our present generation, women are displeased with the fact that society does not want them to do men’s work or labor, but during the 1800s, women would do anything to be relieved of the hard labor they endured. Labor is a productive activity, especially for the sake of economic gain. This definition alone describes the drive of plantation owners in Antebellum Georgia, economic gains. As readers there must be an understanding that labor is divided into skilled and unskilled labor. These two distinct types of labor determined who worked, how hard they worked, and what workers received in return. Plantation owners wanted not only the best slaves, but slaves that could make them a better profit. Here is where Gender comes into play. In Swing the Sickle for the Harvest is Ripe, Diana Berry suggests that gender disappears, which is true, but is only true during unskilled labor. During unskilled labor tasks men and women worked together day in and day out to maintain cotton and rice plantations, of which Georgia held the title as the leading producer. The women being more efficient and most commended for their labor in the fields , put in
During the eighteenth and nineteenth-century, notions of freedom for Black slaves and White women were distinctively different than they are now. Slavery was a form of exploitation of black slaves, whom through enslavement, lost their humanity and freedom, and were subjected to dehumanizing conditions. African women and men were often mistreated through similar ways, especially when induced to labor, they would eventually become a genderless individual in the sight of the master. Despite being considered “genderless” for labor, female slaves suddenly became women who endured sexual violence. Although a white woman was superior to the slaves, she had little power over the household, and was restricted to perform additional actions without the consent of their husbands. The enslaved women’s notion to conceive freedom was different, yet similar to the way enslaved men and white women conceived freedom. Black women during slavery fought to resist oppression in order to gain their freedom by running away, rebel against the slaveholders, or by slowing down work. Although that didn’t guarantee them absolute freedom from slavery, it helped them preserve the autonomy and a bare minimum of their human rights that otherwise, would’ve been taken away from them. Black
In the first segment of his film series, Different but Equal, Basil Davidson sets out to disprove the fictitious and degrading assumptions about African civilization made by various Western scholars and explorers. Whether it is the notion that Africans are “savage and crude in nature” or the presumed inability of Africans to advance technologically, these stereotypes are damaging to the image and history of Africa. Although European Renaissance art depicts the races of white and black in equal dignity, there was a drastic shift of European attitudes toward Africa that placed Africans in a much lower standing than people of any other culture. The continent of Africa quickly became ravished by the inhuman slave trade and any traditional civilization
For centuries, educated and talented women were restricted to household and motherhood. It was only after a century of dissatisfaction and turmoil that women got access to freedom and equality. In the early 1960’s, women of diverse backgrounds dedicated tremendous efforts to the political movements of the country, which includes the Civil Rights movement, anti-poverty, Black power and many others (Hayden & King, 1965). The Africa...
...help boost worldwide economy while promising a virtually unlimited growth and prosperity, if the British viewed Africa as a commerce partner instead of a source of free labor. A commercial relationship with Africa would open up doors to immense wealth opportunities for the much more industrialized Britain. As an always expanding market for textiles and other hand made goods, treated as human beings of equal worth, would become much valuable customers and many local goods could be exchanged. Additionally the African land is fruitful in mineral and resource wealth of the African continent offered vast opportunity to the more advanced economies. "The hidden treasures of centuries" would be available for European exploitation. "The manufacturing interest and the general interest are synonymous, The abolition of slavery would be in reality an universal good." (Citation)
Economic concerns of the British caused the colonization of British North America. Such economic concerns included the opportunity to acquire gold, silver, a North American waterway that would lead directly to China and the Indies, and the prospect of countering Spain's dominance in North America (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition to these economic reasons for colonization, the English were also seeking to obtain the essential "raw materials" in America that they had been previously buying from other European countries for exorbitant amounts of money and gold (Boorstin et al. 34). Great Britain also sought to solve other economic problems through American colonization. For example, England needed to replenish some of its diminishing materials and assets, generate another "market" to export its cargo and merchandise, maintain its powerful navy and "merchant marine" through business with new American colonies, and to provide a new place for the unemployed to settle rather than escalating populace/crime and the economic burden in its own cities (Boorstin et al. 34).