Tag: slavery

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History

American Slavery: Who Started It?

sailing ship

Spain and Portugal fought over the Americas. A treaty in 1494 determined which land belonged to which country, totally ignoring indigenous claims, of course. Portugal was mostly limited to Brazil.

Spain developed the plantation system of agriculture. During this time, the slave route was established. Spanish slave traders made deals with the Yoruba of Nigeria, the Fon of Dahomey, and the Fanti and Shanti of Ghana who already captured slaves through tribal warfare. They were cruel masters whose greed for Spanish trade made slavery into a business.

More slaves died while with the black slavers than died during the dreaded Middle Passage, according to Seabrook. That does not forgive the hideous conditions and abuse on slave ships!

The first African slave insurrection was at Veracruz, Mexico. Between 1570 and 1609, Gaspar Yanga, thought to be a Gabonese prince, led followers from plantation slavery to “star mountain” (the tallest mountain in Mexico) to form an African settlement. In 1600, they were joined by de Matosa’s group of African maroons. Today, a town of 20,000 mestizos still occupies the spot of the settlement. https://www.blackhistoryheroes.com/2011/05/gaspar-yanga-1570-african-slave-revolt.html

This is 78 years after Columbus, and it was not the last resistance.

One more thing: Spanish plantations were planted in Florida in the 1600s and 1700s until Florida became part of the United States of America.

So, I’m wondering why the push for black reparations for slavery is limited to the United States. Why aren’t these African countries included? Why aren’t European countries included in reparations? Is it lack of knowledge? Is it racism that omits reparations from African countries? Or is it greed instead of justice: targeting the USA because she is rich? What do you think?

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History

American Slavery: the European Invasion

The first and second waves of Eurasian immigrants resulted in the First Nations. The first invasion came into Alaska and worked its way down the west coast, deserts and mountains. The second wave came over the Atlantic Ocean and has been found as far west as Minnesota. Both of these originated in Turkey and the Baltic nations, but DNA differs enough to track them. It is possible that these immigrants brought the practice of slavery with them.

As far as we know, the next arrivals were the Vikings. Leif Ericson is said to have followed the directives of Icelanders who had sailed west far enough to spot land, but then returned. If this was during the last ice age, as some hypothesize, the Vikings could also have been directed by sailing south of the ice and by consulting their “sunstones.” https://phys.org/news/2011-11-viking-sunstone-myth.html

We know that Vikings dealt in slavery because slave markets have been found, including a large, active one in Ireland. But if they meant to enslave the Americans, they probably quickly determined that negotiation was the best policy. The Vikings were vastly outnumbered. Their widespread villages did not survive.

We think Christopher Columbus arrived next. Ferdinand and Isabella, his sponsors, were very clear: the inhabitants were to be Christianized and remain free. Columbus was under the authority of the crown, as would be all native inhabitants. Later the monarchs amended the instructions so colonists could require labor and tribute, supposedly to correct reported laziness.

But greed got the better of Columbus. When the king and queen heard of his enslaving and mistreating the Native Americans, they sent a ship to relieve Columbus of his governorship and bring him back in chains.

It was this protection of native inhabitants that forced European colonists to turn to Africa for slaves. They were not the first choice. So much for the anti-black racist argument of slavery.

Categories
History

Ancient and Pre-Columbian American Slavery

manacles

What is slavery? A slave was someone who was owned by another person entirely. Not only was that person considered to be property, but he or she also had no rights at all. Nada. Zip. The slave didn’t even have the right to life. Slavery has been around for a long time and continues to exist today in some nations.

When asked “When did slavery begin?” many people will say it has always been part of human history.

I disagree. Whether you believe in evolution or intelligent design, the human race is traced back to an original family. It is highly unlikely that slavery existed in tight family groups because slavery always enslaves someone who is an “other.”

Even when a group came into an area looking for supplies of obsidian, there does not seem to have been a war, but the groups worked together, although not always equally. It seems that the directing group had more advanced knowledge and arrived later.

There is one early cave drawing that shows two groups of armed men approaching each other. This has been interpreted as a battle scene. However, since we now have proof that man and megafauna lived at the same time (overprinted footprints, spear and arrow heads imbedded in megafauna bones), the picture could just as well be interpreted as a friendly meeting by two groups who always went armed for protection against animals.

When people began to construct city states and enormous structures such as monolithic stone circles (such as Stonehenge, which was not the first), we see suggestions of labor division with overseers and hierarchy, but we don’t know the labor structure.

The earliest mention of slavery that I have found was in the time of Sargon the Great. Some Bible scholars equate him with Nimrod mentioned in Genesis chapter 10. If so, he is described as “a great hunter before the Lord.” Considering the megafauna wandering around, that is saying something!

Jewish lore says Nimrod was a “ruthless leader,” a “merciless ruler,” and the “chief idolater.” Could it be that he believed his own press clippings and morphed into Sargon, who may have been the first to “hunt” men (in terms of warfare, not murder). Someone had to be the first to attack his neighbors.

Sargon conquered an enormous swath of land before he was stopped at the mountain passes of Turkey. We hail him as a great warrior. But if he was first, he attacked people who until then were ignorant of murder on a large scale. He wasn’t great. This was easy pickings. And it was immoral.

Once slavery was conceived, it spread across all of the earth, most likely through trading routes. Only one person successfully stopped it. A Chinese emperor abolished it. But after his death, that was reversed. After all, by now, slavery was considered normal. Indeed, since the definition of normal is “what most people are thinking or doing,” it was normal.

Meanwhile in the western hemisphere many, but far from all, nations and empires adopted slavery. This included nations in the area that today is the United States of America.