Felices Dias

HISTORY NOTES

TOPIC: Chattel Slavery

Definition:
The slave is defined as property with no legal or civil rights under the law. In essence the slave has no persona, not only can he be beaten atthe whim and fancy of the owner but his status as a slave is passed on from one generation to another and only the master could free the slave.

The Philosophical Origins of Slavery
On the originsof slavery, there are two main schools of crop:
1) The enslavement of Africans was as a result of the economic needs of Europeans in the Americas (including the Caribbean) Eric Williams, aleading proponent of the review argues in his capitalism and slavery
“Slavery was not born of racism but rather racism was a consequence of slavery unfree labour was brown, black and white.”

2) Theenslavement of Africans was as a result of racial and social prejudices, this view was championed by Wintrop Jordan
Economic Reasons for Slavery:
* There was an increase in the price of whiteindentured servants owing to the reduction in their supply African slave labour was becoming cheaper as the Triangular Trade became fully organized and the demand for Africans increased.
* TheAfricans were more productive. It was cheaper to enslave a black man “3 Negros worked better and cost as much as one white man” –Williams
* Africans were more suited to the rigours of plantationlabour.
* There was the perception that the Amerindian & White labour was finite whereas African labour was infinite
* Europeans had prior experience with African labour in the Canary Islandsand the Azores.
* Williams in work “From Columbus to Castro gives evidence of the fact that the enslavement of Africans came as a direct consequence of the failure of alternative sources of labourin the Caribbean in direct response to expansion of sugar cane cultivation that is sugar cane and its demand for labour led to the expansion of sugar cane cultivation and the black population for...