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Slides - Unit 4 - Beyond The Rivers of Babylon - Enslavement and Freedom of West Africans in The Caribbean
Slides - Unit 4 - Beyond The Rivers of Babylon - Enslavement and Freedom of West Africans in The Caribbean
Prisoners of war
“There clearly were persons in those societies who had been bought
or captured and subsequently incorporated on a basis different
from those born them. Many of them seemed to live and work just
as their so-called masters did, and Europeans, and often other
Africans could not tell them apart. Many were not even considered
saleable – and were therefore not chattels. In fact sometimes free
people were sold and slaves were not, or both could be sold. Some
slaves became rich and powerful and even bought people for
themselves. Others were put to economic use – sometimes working
on their masters estates – but they did not form a distinct or class
apart.” Suzane Miers & Igor Kopytoff
HowslaveryinWest Africa differed
from slavery in theCaribbean?
QUESTION
Enslavement in West Africa
It differed from Atlantic slavery in that there was no
dominant race factor to it
They lived with their masters under the same roof and
could progress from the status of a servant to a royal
Nature of enslavement in WestAfrica
The enslaved people were not just traded commodities to be worked to
death, but were also skilled producers in agriculture, crafts, mineral
processing, domestic activities and animal rearing
The owners of the enslaved in West Africa did not own the land but the
labour who worked the land
Treated badly
Ade Ajayi noted that “there was also significant variation in the nature and roles of slavery
in Africa and the New World, so much so that it has been suggested that it was misleading
to the point of distortion to go on using the same word to describe both systems”
Profitability ofWest African Slavery
West Africa provided a labour force that was tractable,
relatively immune to New World diseases, had a low
transportation cost and which had also had a low
purchase price.
Because of the low purchase price on the West African
Coast Caribbean slavery was very profitable for the
European traders and planters who took part in this trade.
Demand for African labour led to the de-population of
people from the West African coast.
Disproportionate number of males taken.
African chiefs
bartered
African people
for goods
They were
Nature of
accustomed to
Slavery not
Role of domestic
clear to them slavery
African
Chiefs
Economic and
This type of
Political
slavery not
advancement
their main aim degrading
Slave Coffle
Captives were
linked with
sticks or chains
on the neck to
prevent them
from escaping
whilst being
marched to the
coast
Slave Dungeons
Cape Castle Cape Elmina
A great many expired during the
voyage
Extreme overcrowding
Manumission
young and coloured
Manumission
18 t h century they more often have been male and
African born
Manumission
Offspring of white men and slave mothers always
had better chances of manumission