Why Did Europeans Enslave Africans?

why were most slaves in the new world africans especially considering west africa is thousands of miles away from the americas in europe [Music] slavery has existed in multiple forms throughout history and across a wide variety of cultures but slavery in the early americas meaning the north american colonies central america south america and the caribbean was ultimately powered by the labor of enslaved africans and their descendants and there's an important question many people don't stop to ask why africans there was nothing inherent to the social or psychological makeup of west africans and their descendants in the 17th through 19th centuries that made them more prone to enslavement so to get to the heart of our question we should first ask ourselves why did europeans set out to colonize the americas to begin with okay so before i dive into the answers to these questions i think it's important to note that there is no such thing as benevolent slavery since any system that's predicated on the exploitation and extraction of labor through violence and force cannot be considered fair however the purpose of this rough timeline is to sketch a comparison without creating hierarchical values of assessing harm inflicted on enslaved people to set the scene of the early american colonies european powers such as spain followed by portugal the dutch british and french ventured out in search of conquest and capital their early explorations of the americas starting in 1492 and continuing up until the 18th century weren't driven by wanderlust and a desire for adventure no matter what dignified versions of colonization we learned in the movie pocahontas instead they were looking for one primary thing wealth and this could mean gold and silver or it could mean land farmland and commercial crops the driving incentive for exploration was to increase european power and to fatten the royal coffers but initially slavery was not the source of this wealth the early spanish colonists to central and south america in the 16th century rested control of silver and gold mines that had been controlled by incan and aztec empires by forcing native groups to extract silver and gold from the mines they had already established colonists were able to meet their desires for high profits with low labor costs aka no labor costs because they weren't exactly intent on paying anyone and the colonists were brutal by working native people to death cutting off limbs if they didn't extract enough materials quickly or threatening them with murder the spanish were able to increase their mining efforts in these regions and to meet their specific demand for increased wealth throughout the 16th century and despite european expectations in other regions like north america or the caribbean there weren't huge repositories of gold and silver to send back to europe but even though there was little precious metal to be found the monarchies and the early colonists who arrived in these areas were equally intent on yielding high profits so they turned to crops that yielded high profits like sugar tobacco rice and later cotton in order to assure the highest profits they began to look to slavery since european laborers and indentured servants required payment or other forms of protection so next we have to ask when did colonists in the americas turn to the african continent as a site for extracting slaves the first enslaved africans arrived in the north american colonies under control by the british the areas that would later become part of the us in 1619 when 20 were forcibly transported to jamestown virginia by the dutch but the first enslaved africans had arrived in the caribbean and latin america prior to that starting as early as the first decade of the 16th century because remember folks the colonies established in the americas plural cover south north and central america plus the caribbean and not just the present-day us but the transportation of african people into slavery began before the colonization of the americas according to an article by professor dr hakim adid the portuguese began enslaving africans in the 15th century when they arrived on the african continent for the purposes of trade around that time they were enslaved africans among other enslaved and free populations in portugal so even though it wasn't the only or necessarily most widespread form of slavery at the time this 15th century precedent would set the stage for later decisions surrounding slavery that were to come in during colonization in the americas but at that point in time captivity wasn't extended exclusively to black people or people from the african continent and was often the result of raids warfare or slave trading that included islamic traders west african groups and europeans among others okay so we've established the precedence leading up to the explosion of the west african slave trade so our final question is why did european colonists start to look exclusively at west africans as a source of slave labor and how did the emergence of shadow slavery in the americas differ from pre-existing forms remember that the colonies were established to make money for royal families and wealthy colonists and a small class of wealthy colonists who owned large plantations looked to increase their margins through not paying for the labor that generated their cash crops so it wasn't that slavery was needed to develop the colonies but rather that it was decided that this was the quickest way to enrich the people invested in getting rich black slaves continued to arrive in the caribbean north america and south america through the 16th 17th and 18th century and it wasn't until the 19th century that slavery began to be eradicated however by this point there was a large slave population in the americas and the condition of slavery was considered legally hereditary with children taking the status of their mothers in perpetuity when europeans arrived in the americas colonists found that the previously established system that relied on enslaving conquered enemies was not functioning for several key reasons namely first early attempts in the americas to enslave native americans proved difficult because they had familiarity with the terrain of their own nations and land as a result the potential for escape or revolt was high this made using a system of leading raids and then enslaving whoever lost the battle less achievable since colonists had little to no idea how to survive in these new regions and often fell prey to diseases which europeans had no immunity to namely malaria the subsequent rampant genocide of native american people and the introduction of new diseases that decimated their population namely smallpox from europe made widespread enslavement less possible but by transporting people from west africa to the americas european colonists wanted greater ability to control enslaved populations by making escape more challenging and reducing the risk of those who did flee blending into neighboring native nations although the fact that there continued to be slave revolts amongst enslaved africans and their descendants proves that this calculation was often mistaken second west africa was often the source of forced and kidnapped laborers because of its proximity to seaports which made contact between these three locations more possible also laborers from west african countries were more familiar with the agricultural methods needed for mass cultivation of these kinds of crops in the new world so how does it all add up well even though the slave trade brought an estimated 9 to 12 million people here from africa as cargo colonists eventually resorted to reproduction within the colonies as a method for sustaining slavery this meant that slavery could be passed down as an inherited status from mother to child and to justify this never-ending enslavement we started to see the evolution of false race science and racialization used as a justification for why one group of people specifically people of african descent were the only ones who could be enslaved but this shift erased the reality that prior to turning to west africa as a labor source slavery existed across racial lines and was dictated more by battles and military capture than by skin tone the resulting idea we had about race evolved out of a desire by people engaging in the slave trade to find an after the fact justification for enslaving people from one specific region over others this history of racialization is covered in our episode on the origins of race in the usa so check that out if you want to learn more so what do you think got anything to add to this historical puzzle any other resources or thoughts to share drop them down below since this is obviously a much bigger timeline than i was able to fully cover today and be sure to dig down into the works cited to keep reading so that's it for now and we'll see you next week hey guys thanks for chiming in on last week's episode about shaving here's what some of you had to say kelsey iango on facebook pointed out that in the medieval period it was considered fashionable for women to have high foreheads and some shaved back their hairlines to achieve this desired effect i certainly won't be trying to reach this old school beauty ideal by trimming off my edges but it does show us how fashion trends and norms have impacted what's considered normal in the world of beauty standards so thanks for sharing kelsey cindy calloway also on facebook noted that as an esthetician she notes that you pluck chickens but tweeze hair i love a good adage so i may start using this one thanks cindy adaptive reasoning on youtube wants an episode on why women's nipples are considered taboo in some cultures but men's aren't good question and one that i see popping up a lot in online debates so i'll be adding this one to the list of potential fan pick ideas that we're mulling over thanks adaptive reasoning both for the logical and measured screen name choice and for the suggestion and emily giordano also on youtube wants an episode on the history of keeping animals as pets rather than domesticating them for agricultural purposes i'm more than happy to make this episode a reality if someone agrees to let me bring a puppy into the studio i'm not saying if i don't get a puppy that it's a complete deal breaker but i also really want a dog so thanks for the suggestion emily that's it for this week remember to keep sharing subscribing and following on facebook and youtube and i'll see you here next week hopefully with a puppy

Channel: Origin Of Everything

Views: 5,340,880

Rating: 4.4869642 out of 5

Keywords: african, slavery, usa, americas, genocide

Id: opUDFaqNgXc

Length: 9min 17sec (557 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 10 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/kyrtuck]

It made more sense in terms of travel distance, Arab slave catchers already worked in East Africa, and Africans were more disease resistant than other groups of people.

[u/SerbianGod]

North East Africa was busy occupied by Ottomans.

[u/Stephen885]

IIRC They werent rounded up like animals, they were sold to europeans/americans by other africans. They would often enslave a conquered tribe.

[u/WellshireOnFire]

Because West Africa is geographically closer to America than East Africa? Seems obvious.

[u/RelicAlshain]

That was where it was most profitable to buy them from

[u/Teachtaire]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say there is a larger power differential between someone abducted from remote West Africa as opposed to someone who had ties to local groups... which are actively in competition against the colonial powers.

In that light, the revolutionary history of various Caribbean slave-states is somewhat explained; one could say that the smaller area/fewer groups in competition allowed for more interaction between those disempowered groups - intermarriage and alliances allowed for them to acquire enough power to successfully rebel.

edit oh, it was a video, gonna have to watch that now, feel like a bit of a dolt. My bad.

This girl is rad!

[u/Explainr5]

Slavery has existed throughout history in various forms across the globe, but who became enslaved was almost always based on military conquest. This is an interesting breakdown on why Europeans travelled thousands of miles to enslave people from a particular geographic region.

[u/Frognaros]

Slave comes from the word Slav. In the middle ages, much of the slaves were from Slavic territories.

Source: http://wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Student&va=slave

Or you can google it.

[u/travelingfrog]

Due to access. Mainly things such as distance, known routes, and established trading ports.