Evolution of Slavery

The institution of slavery is recorded by history as existing long before Africans began being shipped to the American Colonies. Slavery was heavily used by Egyptians, Europeans, and even Africans, before they were targeted for Transatlantic Trade. Early settlers of the North Americas did not use slaves as a general rule, they became useful as other events unfolded and their society developed. As colonists began settling down they became more and more aware of the abundance of resources that they had discovered in this new land. The initial short term practices of hunting and eating food reserves brought from Europe were eventually traded, in part, for longer term subsistence methods of farming, raising cattle, and the cultivation and marketing of cash crops. Large farms began growing crops not for the subsistence of a family or even a town; the goal for many became to export to other colonies and even overseas. The land dictated to the Colonists what should be grown, crops such as sugar, tobacco, coffee and cotton were both in high demand and grew well in the new country.

While these crops were a blessing to European settlers in an untamed land, they would prove to be the catalyst for what would become the trading of millions of slaves. The planting, maintaining and harvesting of all of these crops in a pre-industrial era was a task that required many hands. Sugar, the most profitable of all crops, was also the most labor-intensive to harvest, sugar cane was heavy, rough and difficult to cut. Dutch colonies in South America were among the first European colonies to use large scale slave labor. As trade between the Northern and Southern continents increased, those without slaves looked to those who had them and took note of the great economic advantage they could provide. Aside from the obvious monetary gains to be had by farmers there was a larger, furthering reaching benefit, the possibility that the move from subsistence farming to mercantilism that would allow for Americans to break free from their dependence on Great Britain. Yes, ironically, the freedom granted to American colonies from British rule was tied closely to the enslavement of another nation.

Origins of Slaves

Slavery did not always exist in its typical format of black Africans who were cruelly mistreated and who were the property of their master for life, it evolved to this state from other, more basic, forms. Indentured servitude was the predecessor to slavery, but despite its commonality of hard labor and abuse, it differed greatly. The greatest difference was that the term of service for servants had an expiration date, often 7 years from its beginning, while slavery was for life.  Induction into servitude most often resulted from a punishment for committing a crime, an alternative for homelessness and poverty, or to resolve an unpaid debt. On occasion, persons would subject themselves to servitude of their own free will, typically young men who wanted to escape or seek their fortune in America.

While indentured servitude filled the same role, and produced the same result of unpaid labor, the shortcoming when compared to slavery was that it did not last. The termination of a servant’s service not only resulted in the loss of a laborer but it also created an additional competitor in the marketplace. As pressure from the competitiveness of slave-owning farmers increased, slavery replaced indentured servitude as the labor-source of choice for plantation owners across the colonies. The initial source of many slaves was not across the sea in Africa, but rather the Native Americans that were already living on and working the land. Land-owners captured these Indians as slaves, but few were willing to endure the difficulties of maintaining them once African slaves became readily available. The knowledge that Indians held of the land was bittersweet for plantation owners, while it made Indians successful at planting and harvesting crops it also provided the Indians an enormous advantage should they be inclined to escape, which was often the case. Also part of the Indians home-field advantage was the support network they could tap into once on the lamb, a benefit that African slaves did not share.

Once African slaves were deemed the most desirable choice for unpaid labor and Americans’ desire for independence peaked, the demand for more slaves created an entirely new industry, the trading of slaves all along the Atlantic coast. As European and American ships arrived in Africa in search of “black gold” they found that the industry already existed there. For many years Europeans merely became new participants in the existing slave economy before they eventually influenced its mechanics in their favor.  Slaves in Africa consisted primarily of captives taken during war. War prisoners would be sold by their captors to neighboring tribes or to North Africans or Islamic Nations.  (Rediker, 75-77) Similar to European and American indentured servitude, Africans used slavery as a punishment for criminals they no longer wanted in their midst.

The continual arrival of European and American ships on Africa’s coast would eventually have great influence on the local slave market. With only limited numbers of criminals and war captives, European and American demand for slaves led larger African states to adopt a more involved role in the slave trade. As slaves primarily resulted from war, those involved in the trade began changing the definition of war and even promoted acts of war as a means for obtaining slaves. It eventually got to the point where “War was a euphemism for the organized theft of human beings.” (Rediker, 99)

Life on a Slave Ship
 

Once aboard a slave ship, slaves were in what is known as the “Middle Passage,” or the transportation phase of their journey. This time marked the beginning of the end for most of them, for if they survived the often deadly voyage, the best they could hope for was a life-time of hard labor. With limited communications with those who had gone before them, many slaves were unaware of what awaited them; the worst of the rumors was that they were to be eaten. Many of the rumors that circulated were devised by the slave traders themselves. With slaves outnumbering ship’s crew considerably, fear was the most effective tool for preventing insurrection. 

In order to instill terror among the slaves aboard trade ships, rebellious slaves were dealt with swiftly and harshly but most importantly, they were punished publicly, in hopes that others would behave in an effort to avoid a similar fate. Attempted mutinies or other higher offenses were often punishable by death, again always in public and usually by slow and cruel means. Starvation to death or to the brink of death was less effective as far as influencing the general slave population but it was also widely used as it allowed for the preservation of food stores. Sharks were naturally inclined to follow ships, lured there by the waste that was thrown overboard, but slave ships sometimes encouraged their presence with food, especially when docked in order to give the slaves one more reason to stay put. Despite the harsh consequences that could result, mutinies were attempted, almost always completely unsuccessful.

Violence at the hand of the crew and captain was not the only killer aboard slave ships. The living conditions that resulted from the containment of so many in the hull of a ship for extended periods of time led to the spread and development of disease. Exposure to new foreign illnesses spread especially fast. Another killer was the slaves themselves, many of whom did not take easily to the humiliating life of slavery and took their own lives. One slave after cutting his own throat and surviving, cut his throat a second time with his fingernails in an effort to avoid the life of a slave. While it cannot be said that any slave ship was pleasant, some were more tolerable than others. Some Captains were better compensated for healthy slaves and certainly for live ones, and they were as careful as they could be while still maintaining control.

Slave Markets