TOPICS IN CRITICAL RACE RELATIONSAFRICA, THE MIDDLE PASSAGE, AND

BLACKS IN COLONIAL NORTH AMERICA

Chapter 1-3 Review

The Racial Controversy: Egypt and Western Civilization

The race of Ancient Egyptians and their impact on western civilization has been a controversial topic in history.

Egyptians exhibited a mix of racial features and spoke a mixture of languages of both those in the fertile northern regions of Africa and southeast Asia.Afrocentricists and Traditionalists argue over the validity of Egypt’s role in founding the ideals of Western Civilization.

To Afrocentricists, Egypt is in Africa, therefore the Africans (not the Greeks and Romans) were the founders. To Traditionalists, the idea of race was fluid in Egypt due to its location. They also deny that Egypt founded philosophy and politics.

The Two Arguments

Afrocentricists Traditionalists

Egypt is essentially a black civilization.

Egypt influenced African, Greek, and Roman civilizations.

Blacks are therefore the founders for many of the ideals of western civilization.

Modern racial categories do not apply to Ancient Egypt.

Greeks developed modern philosophy and politics, the foundations of western civilization, not Egypt.

Western Africa: The Slave Trade

The densely wooded regions of West Africa were not as populous as the savannahs. In fact, it was not until the 15th and 16th centuries that agriculture replaced hunting and gathering in these areas.

The peoples of the West African forest region played a critical role in the slave trade either as slave traders or as slaves.

Senegambia, the Akan states, Yoruba, the Kingdoms of Benin, Oyo and Dahomey, and Igboland were all completely different from one another in their structure and societies.

Due to the small size of these kingdoms, and the warring over territory, they became susceptible to being enslaved or enslaving. Many tribes were stateless and without order as well.Also the location of this territory along with the profitability of the trade led to it being concentrated here.

Slavery: A Reflection of the Times?

The slave trade came out of the imperialistic desires of the larger European nations of Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and England. This was the Age of Exploration for Europe.

The need to expand and colonize new territories led Europeans into India, Africa, China, Japan and the East Indies. This also led to Columbus’s famed voyage to the West Indies.

Columbus enslaved the natives, but when they died off from disease and exhaustion, Europe looked to Africa for a workforce.

Since Africa had already established the trading of slaves for thousands of years, they were most suitable.The issue of Native Americans dying off and indentured servants becoming less available also led to the introduction of slaves into the British North American colonies in the 18th century.

Two Transatlantic Trading Routes

A triangular trading system developed from both England and the colonies. One brought sugar back to England, while the other brought sugar back to the colonies to make rum.

The British Triangular trade brought manufactured goods to Africa for slaves, which they brought to the West Indies for sugar, and then returned to England.The North American slave trade would bring rum to Africa for slaves, then bring slaves to the West Indies for sugar, and then return.

The Middle Passage: Conditions and Death

Each slave would be given a spoon and would share a bucket of cooked vegetables with about 10 other slaves. Many times they lost their spoon and would have to eat with unwashed hands, leading to disease.

Disease caused a large number of death on the slavers. Malaria, yellow fever, measles, smallpox, hook worm, scurvy and dysentery threatened the lives of both slaves and crew members.

The ship would only have 4 toilet buckets below deck, and many who were too weak to reach them would excrete where they lay.

Slaves were packed on planks measuring 5.5ft by 1.3ft and had about 20” of headroom. They were also chained to another slave, and epidemics and other illness killed 1/3rd of the cargo.

Suicide and mistreatment would also account for several deaths.

Seasoning Slaves

Seasoning was a process that made new Africans more like Creoles, or slaves born in America. This was a disciplinary process in which slaves would be converted into harder workers with better attitudes.

They would be given Christian, generic, or classical names. Also, they would have to learn the European languages. Many retained some African linguistics resulting in a Creole dialect.

This arrangement did benefit the new Africans though, since the Creoles and old Africans would acclimate them to the new world and teach them how to build, farm, and survive.

Successful Seasoning1) Survival: many slaves died in the

arduous process of seasoning.2) Adapting to food and climate: the

cooler climate and food unfamiliar to West Africa.

3) Learning the language: slaves needed to speak a Creole dialect good enough to take orders.

4) Psychological: slaves could not be suicidal.

The Fall of the Atlantic Slave Trade

In the early 19th century, England began growing morally opposed to the trafficking of slaves, and because they were an industrialized nation they did not depend on slavery either.

The slave trade was abolished by Britain in 1806 and by the US in 1807. Many defied these laws, and even the African kingdoms of Guinea and Central Africa fought to continue this trade.

The English, French, Belgians, and Portuguese used this issue of the slave trade as an excuse to establish colonial empires in Africa.

Although the slave trade was “banned,” countries like Spain still continued to ship Africans to their American colonies.

Bacon’s Rebellion & Chattel Slavery

Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 had a large role in the increased push for African slaves in the colonies, fought over the unjust governance of William Berkeley, and he led a group of poor white farmers and blacks against the “master class”This drove Britain to distrust white agricultural laborers and to depend solely upon enslaved Africans since they could not own guns or become free. This would also deter class conflicts between the whites.

Ultimately, this led to the belief that class conflict and prosperity rested solely on the denial of freedom to black Americans.

By using slaves that were restricted by codes and laws, the elite class would not have to worry about rebellions from a people who were free and could bear arms.

The Great Awakening’s Impact on Blacks

The turning point in African-American religion came with the religious movement known as the Great Awakening in the mid to late 18th century.

African Americans were attracted to the emotional preaching style of Evangelical ministers which mirrored many West African styles of worship, and many converted to Christianity

Christian churches opened their doors to blacks for the first time, and this led to more acculturation between blacks and whites, as well as a feeling of more equality.Some blacks began their own churches and others became ordained ministers who preached in interracial congregations.

Many slave owners used the master-servant relationship of God and his flock to their advantage, and controlled their slaves with the idea of salvation in the afterlife.

Slave Resistance & Rebellion

Slave resistance and rebellion began at the shores of Africa after being captured. Many times slaves would fight their enslavers to become free. On the slaver ships, slaves would commit suicide, refuse to eat, and sometimes rebel as in the Amistad case.

Once in the colonies, slaves would resist through more subtle means such as shirking duties, sabotaging equipment, and feigning sickness or injury.

In other cases, slaves would escape to maroon societies such as the Seminole Tribe in Florida, or they would live on the outskirts of the plantations as “outlier” societies.In other cases, newer African slaves led outright rebellions as in the Stono Rebellion near Charleston, NC in 1739.

These forms of resistance and rebellion ultimately led to a tightening of control through harsher slave codes and restrictions for slaves.