Lecture Notes: African Slavery in the New World

Introduction

• Focus on why most slaves in the New World were Africans.
• Slavery has existed globally across cultures and times.
• Enslavement of Africans in the Americas (17th-19th centuries) was not due to inherent traits.

European Colonization of the Americas

• Motivated by wealth (gold, silver, land, commercial crops).
• Early colonization by Spain, Portugal, Dutch, British, and French from 1492 to the 18th century.
• Wealth was initially acquired through forced labor of Native peoples.

Exploitation of Native Populations

• Native peoples were used for mining silver and gold, especially by the Spanish in Central and South America.
• Brutal treatments, such as working to death and mutilations, to increase mining efforts.
• Limited gold and silver found in regions like North America and the Caribbean shifted focus to agriculture.

Shift to Agriculture

• High-profit crops: sugar, tobacco, rice, later cotton.
• Europeans initially relied on indentured servants but turned to slavery for higher profits.

African Slavery in the Americas

• First enslaved Africans arrived in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia.
• Earlier, Africans had been brought to the Caribbean and Latin America in the early 16th century.
• Portuguese began enslaving Africans in the 15th century for trade purposes.

Reasons for Choosing Africans

• Early attempts to enslave Native Americans failed due to familiarity with terrain and high escape potential.
• Transporting West Africans made control easier and escape harder; people unfamiliar with the land.
• West Africans had agricultural skills suited for New World crops.

Chattel Slavery in the Americas

• Slavery was used to enrich colonists and wasn't necessary for colony development.
• By the 19th century, a large enslaved population existed; slavery became hereditary.
• Reproduction within colonies sustained the slave population.
• New racial ideologies justified enslavement based on race.

Conclusion

• African slavery was determined by economic and control factors, not racial superiority.
• Racialization and false race science were developed to justify slavery.
• Check related content on the origins of race in the USA for further understanding.

Reflection

• How this history impacts perceptions of race and slavery today.