How Slavery was Motivated by Racism (Essay Sample)

Slavery Was Motivated by Racism
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Transatlantic slave trade had a lasting impact when it comes to Africa, Europe and the Americas. It had a major influence in capitalism, political as well as economic systems and, as a result, brought initial development to Europe which later spread throughout the world. Despite the fact that historians do not agree over its effects, it is at the same time very clear that slave trade and slavery at large played a major role towards the development of Britain as well as other major European countries and the U.S. The Industrial Revolution in Britain was fostered mainly through the production of textile and the most important thing to remember is that the raw material, i.e. cotton, was majorly produced and cultivated using slave labor. Despite the abolishment of slavery in Britain, profits of the trade continued to flow into the economy. (Brown, D. 560) It was as a result of the vast investments in slavery and slave trade which was still being practiced by other countries, namely, the United States, Brazil and Cuba. During the 19th century, the economic interest of European countries, such as Britain, resulted to more interference into African affairs and this was after the abolishment of slave trade all over the world. Towards the end of the century, the rivalry between the European powers against each other on the interests vested in Africa started and is what is nowadays termed as, “the scramble for Africa”. The major European countries invaded African nations and, as a result, established a colonial rule. (Wilson, C. 1790)
Most Americans tend to take race for granted and as an external fact not keeping in minds that it is the main reason behind the commencement of slave trade. (Reed, H.A 1802) It will be surprising knowledge to most American students to realize that even historians themselves tend to agree to the general idea that race is something of the past and has only undergone some modern inventions to make people behave as if it’s something relatively small and of no significance to the modern day world. The truth of the matter is that racism can be traced back to the ancient days and was the reason as to why some specific races were subjected to harsh living conditions. (Reed, H.A 1802) Historians have been working hard trying to establish the relationship between race and American slavery. This argument has been likened to the common “chicken and egg” debate: of the two which came first, racism or slavery? To put it in a simpler way was racism the cause of slavery, or a result? It is at the same time an important factor for students to consider the things at stake in this debate. Eric Foner-a historian-contends that race which he refers to it as the idea of diving humanity into well defined groups in association with the color of the skin. Eric argues that racism is a modern concept that had not yet been given full attention or can as well be said had not fully developed during the time the British started importing black Africans to work for them in their colonies. During that specific time of slavery, racism was not something to be widely discouraged as it is nowadays. (Brown, D. 560) The tendency to take the matter lightly resulted into slave trade. He continues to shed more light where he says that the main lines of humanity division during the time of slave trade were purely based on barbarism and civilization or Christianity and heathenism. The British of that time disdained all foreign peoples but at the same time they did not consider every English person to be as equal as the other. England was where the high hierarchical English people came from. England was believed to be divided into parts which were naturally and justly divided into inferior and superior levels with the members enjoying the varying degrees of freedom. This can be clearly seen from Eric’s description of the indentured servitude in English colonies. He goes ahead to point that African were made to work as slave and that was supposed to be a permanent and heritable. The main reason behind making Africans to be working as slaves was because black Africans were outside the territory of the British common law and could not be protected by the law to guarantee black African individual rights that were at an early stage of beginning to be implemented. (Brown, D. 560) After the period of American Revolution is when the concept of Race started to be mentioned around and put into some kind of consideration. In their defense of the existence of slavery at a place where all people were considered equal, the British argued that the high demand for labor was the actual reason for commencement of slavery and not racism as now perceived. That led to the conclusion made by Eric that slavery in any given democratic republic required racism as a reason for its justification. . (Wilson, C. 1790)
Counterpoint
The argument over the relationship between the American slavery and racial discrimination has given way to a several scholarships in the past half century. Oscar and Mary (historians) supported Eric’s argument that slave trade was an afterthought of the time of colonial development and that the resultant was American racism due to the gradual legal and economic humiliation of the enslaved people. The two argued that there was no “free” people among the English and that included their colonists. In addition, the few Africans who had arrived to the early Virginia colony brought a status that could be compared to that of the English indentured workers. As a matter of fact, African labor was considered inferior in the early years of colonialism as compared to English labor. Between 1660’s-1670’s, in an effort to attract the English indentured servants to work in Virginia colony, the Virginia legislature made the terms of service favorable to the English immigrants. (Wilson, C. 1790) After some period of time, the colonies became entirely dependent on the African laborer. Another factor that triggered the over-dependency on the black African slaves was because the English people did not need to appease the laborers and they could enslave them for life. Gradually, the Africans settled in the colonies and belonged to the basest level of the society. On the other hand, the desire and need to control the African labor among the English people led to the deterioration of the rights of the African race members. The general view for the African race was degrading and Africans were a degraded group of people. Another historian by the name Barbara Fields claimed that the white Virginians had not developed the ideology of race during the time of the colonial period. The claim supported the fact that racism was present by then but no one could openly come out and take the front row on fighting it. During the early times of civilization and when education was beginning to gain popularity, the schools were characterized by the color of the skin. Schools were divided along races and students from a different race would find it hard to be in a school whose majority was from a different race other than his or her. This can as well act as a good and perfect example to prove that racism was the main reason behind slavery only that during the past time it was not given enough lime light. (Reed, H.A 1802)<...