Slavery roots in Africa

Slavery that had been part of African for over 2,000 years transformed several times and impacted the people of Africa and those thought the world. It plays a factor in the impact Africa had on outside continents. Slavery changed from when it started in African to when it was abolished in the New World, so the nature of Slavery would depend on the period in timeframe that you looked at in African History.

 Slavery had existed in Africa before it came to the New World. To relate it to our studies, Baqt was unique to the Muslim world because it recognized that Christian Nubia was sovereign and exempt from the land of faith and land of the enemy. The Baqt bought peace and stability to the Christian Kingdoms of Nubia. But, it came with a price. Each year, Nubia was to deliver 360 slaves, men or women no children or old to the Baqt.  This ended, due to Islam and the Nile River limited access affected the contract.

Slaves had been exported from East Africa for 2,000 years. Slaves were part of trade; considered merchandise to be traded for money or to satisfy debts owed or Labor.  Salt production was in the Sudan, and was managed by the demand of Salt consumption. Slavery was a natural part of agriculture, iron, trade, religion, and ethnicity.  Kings controlled the sale of slaves, as he did ivory and gold.

Slavery took flight to new heights when the Indian and Atlantic Ocean worlds evolved by the nature of the oceanic trade into city-states not smaller patches of land.  Trade and Commerce kept the lifestyle of these city-states inhabitants being a dominated form of life; being supplied goods and slaves; left profits. Swahili Society was a big producer to support the ocean trading of slaves.

Swahili’s had profited hugely by slave trading. They had a system. Slaves shipped overseas were treated as chattel and thought of use like animals. Slaves kept on the coast, were divided into recognized categories of servitude from labors to trusted retainer.  Females were used as concubines, field hands, and domestic use for owners.  Former Slaves could never become full members of society.

In Africa, you had slave owners and slaves mostly were black, even though they were from different ethnic groups. They were thought of as means to enhance the status of the slave owner. Many African societies believed and practiced those children of slave owners by their slaves could not be sold or killed. The outlawing of slavery did not erase the pain and stigma of having been a slave due to society viewing them as not being a full part of that society. Many descendants of slaves were affected by this stigma for generations after slavery was abolished.

Since slaves were property of their masters they were the means to production and reproduction. The slaves had to carry out any request of their master no matter the demand or be punished in dehumanizing ways if necessary. The tasks that slaves performed really depended on what the slave owner needed. They controlled reproduction, physical and mental aspects of the salves lives.

 African slave women could be used for sex and could bear children they had a higher price than males. Women of course were more desirable than men; men slave owners had more use for them. They were able to perform more functions such as cook, cultivate, bear children, provide sex, and carry our business. Another sought after person that was most desired to be a slave more than women was a man that had his genitals removes. The survival rate after the removal was only 5% post-surgery, they could manage the house in the same manner his master did, but the man didn’t have to worry about the slave using himself as means to reproduce, and seduce or other means with women in the man’s house.

Slaves in Africa were captives often criminals, kidnapped, prisoners of war, or sold into slavery. In Africa, when you had slave owners and slaves mostly were black, even though they were from different ethnic groups. They were thought of as means to enhance the status of the slave owner. The status of the slave owner was shown by the size of their group. So the larger your group of followers determined power, wealth, and position in society. Women were prefer to men by 2:1. Women worked as the primary field producer working in the fields; also they could tend to domestic affairs within the household especially providing children.

The Swahili would divide up slaves into different classes. Exported slaves that were to be shipped where treated like animals, and this carried over to the New World, affecting how the New World citizens viewed, treated, and acted toward slaves.  Slaves that were kept on the coast were divided into subgroups. The slave could be recognized by their category depending on what activity they performed, the range was from lowest labor to trusted retainer.  Females were mainly used as field hands and concubines for their owner. But, a slave could never be a full member of society and when you died you were discarded in the same manner as an animal status by being thrown into a pit.

In the New World, Slavery was different. It was racial and for economic gain.  Slaves were considered property but not similar to that of Africa; dehumanization and cruel treatment was different than slavery in Africa. The furthered dehumanizing effects of chattel slavery made people view Africans slaves less than a complete person. Also, it allowed slaveholders more influence in Congress while still alienating black people throughout the United States.

The focus was men due to the labor that men provided, but usually they focused on boys about to turn into men because they could be bought cheaper. This was due to the intensive labor requirements of the people that provided the labor needed to harvest sugar cane. Then, when cotton became a staple good with high demand it pushed the slave demand higher due to how difficult cotton was to process before the cotton gin.

Slavery is when someone owns you, and you have no control over your own life. While African Slavery was not pleasant, it was neither a racial nor an economic institution.  The main focus of slavery was to increase the size of the group like family, clan, village, kingdom or empire. This is why women were favored over men. A slave women’s child was not always considered a slave in every situation. Children could be considered not a slave but part of the group in which their parents where bought into to, also children stayed with their parent and weren’t separated or sold. Slavery in Africa was not based on economics, so their treatment tended to be superior.

Slavery had existed for over 2,000 years and was fairly insignificant in Africa. When the trade routes in the 1400 did include slaves, it was nowhere near the amount that took place in the 1700s. Even in the 1500s, slavery was still a small part of society, but when the demand for slaves by Europeans raised so did slavery in Africa supply this new big industry. My personal opinion is that when we looked at the way the Swahili’s had profited hugely by slave trading and there system of how they treated Slaves by shipping them overseas as they are chattel; I think this carried over into the New World and started the first treatments of Slavery in dividing people by color of skin.

Chattel is Property; Personal property, movable or immovable, which is less than a freehold; for example, a book, a coat, a pencil, growing corn, a lease. But, the New World took it as a form as not a book or coat but animals; In fact, animals were treated better than slaves. America, slaves were not treated equal. Unlike Africa, children and old could be sold, murdered or dehumanized in various forms of cruelty. They didn’t have the rights to marry and faced separation from family. They had no rights as a citizen or could move to obtain that status after rights were revoked in Jameson; stating that after 7 years slaves would be considered free.

In the New World, slavery was an economic and racial institution. The main focus of slave ownership was due to strength and the ability to do heavy intense labor. The slave labor in the New World was crucial to the economic life of that on the colonies. The treatment of Slaves transformed Africans practices of slavery. Slavery in Africa became a more central, organizational component of African life. Also, slave-owners derived financial profits from the labor of one’s slaves. When working on plantations, slaves would be worked until they died to make sure the maximized the amount of profit they could acquire from the slave’s work, especially in plantations that produced sugar or cotton.

Slavery was also racial, in the means that your identity was paced on your skin color. Solely based on the color of your skin meant whether or not you were a free man or a slave and your children were not counted on to increase the size of your group or not considered a slave like in Africa, but also, were a slave. Slavery not just decided your fate, but your children’s too. Your children’s identity would be carried down through generations and be judged based on the color of their skin. Children in the New World were also separated from their parents, and couple from each other to be sold for a profit.

Unlike in Africa, the focus of slavery was due to the strength and ability to do intense labor. Slaves had no rights, and where subjected to dehumanization by being beaten or whipped by their masters.  The slave labor in the New World was crucial to the economic life of that on the colonies. The treatment of Slaves in the New World transformed Africans practices of slavery. Slavery in Africa became a more central, organizational component of African life. My personal opinion is that when we looked at the way the Swahili’s had profited hugely by slave trading and there system of how they treated Slaves shipped overseas as chattel; I think this carried over into the New World and started the first treatments of Slavery in dividing people by color of skin.

Slavery impacted the lives of Africans due to the large number in size of the people that got caught up in the Asian Slave trade. Some historians believe that there were approximately 12,580,000 slaves exported during the Asia slave trade. Between 1600 and 1900 alone there was an estimated 5,510,000 slaves involved in the Asian slave trade. Until the seventeenth century, the evidence of the number of slaves is derived mainly from literary sources, and maximum and minimum numbers must be estimated because there was hardly any direct data.

What happened next in the history of African that impacted the people there started the chain of events the led to the European nations seeking conquest and colonization over the African people. Due to religion and it influence over people started the humanitarian movement. Humanitarians like Dr. David Livingstone pushed with others, toward the abolition movement and change African life and culture. Abolition has historical roots that lay all the way back in black resistance to slavery in the 15th century as Africans were enslaved by Europeans.