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ROPS Week 12- The Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Race- the idea that…
ROPS Week 12- The Origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Race
- the idea that humankind can be divided into distant and separate biological categories whose physical, intellectual and moral characteristics are inherited from generation to generation
Some historians argue for ‘race’ being a product of modernity
‘Proto-racism’- an origin form of racism in pre-modern societies
African Slave Trade- 1st century CE- association of Africans with servile status, particularly in Middle East/Arabia
By 4th century CE, retelling of story of curse of Ham- states that Canaan was the ancestor of dark-skinned people
In aftermath of 7th century Arab conquests, same interpretation appears in Islamic texts
Nobility- breeding- descent and blood- conflation of social status and biology
15th century- Limpieza de sangra (purity of blood)
16th century- race refers to blood lineage
Decline of the Mediterranean slave trade
Portugal and the mid-15th century switch to sub-Saharan Africa as source of slaves
Importance of sugar production in Canaries; Cabo Verde; Sao Tome
Papal blessing for enslavement of ‘heathens’ and ‘savages’ who could be ‘saved’
Christopher Columbus 1492
12-15 million- largest forced migration in history
9-10 million delivered alive from Africa
Trans-Atlantic Slave trade database
35,000 slaving expeditions 1514-1866
18th Century- race was a tool of Enlightenment thinkers to classify and systematise humankind
Growth of capitalism played major role in establishment and survival of African slavery in Americas- debate continues over whether racism played a part- Racism and capitalism weren’t bound together and racism came to characterise American slavery- well established in Spain and Portugal by the 15th century- European political turbulence and decline of Mediterranean slave trade reinforces this-
James H. Sweet, ‘The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought’, The William & Mary Quarterly, Vol. 54 (1997), pp. 143-166
Eric Williams
- ‘slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery’