Aquil Reaction Paper- Commodification Of Human Beings Essay

Aquil Muhammad

Professor Mckinney

History 205

September 29, 2014

The Commodification of Africans During Slavery

The commodification of Human Beings, specifically African Slaves, is a common narrative throughout most dialogues regarding the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. There are a plethora of Literary works that deal with this reality; however, the theme of commodification of humans is perfectly represented in one specific book by Stephanie Smallwood that details the History of the African Slave Trade. In her book, Saltwater Slavery, Stephanie Smallwood deals repeatedly with the theme of commodification and dehumanization of Africans during slavery. Smallwood gives a detailed account of the process by which slaves were captured, shipped and enslaved; as well as the thorough approach behind systematically demoting African captives from human beings to products exchangeable on a global scale. The author shows that the dehumanization of these beings is caused and perpetuated by three things—the transport of Africans to foreign lands, the marketplace used to sell these individuals and the methodical system that inhibited them from integrating into “proper society”.

Smallwood spends a significant portion of her work detailing the way slaves were transported from Africa to Europe and America. When the slaves were placed on the ships, they were put in iron shackles and surrounded by prison walls (Smallwood 35). Chained together, they were packed like sardines into ships, with captors trying to fit as many slaves as possible onto any single ship in order to maximize profit. Smallwood suggests that by packing the slaves in this way, captors showed their views—in their eyes, these Africans were not human. She says, “Slaves became, for the purpose of transatlantic shipment, mere physical units that could be arranged and moved at will.” (Smallwood 68) The packing of slaves is the first step in the commodification process. By approaching these peoples as goods to be shipped rather than people, slavers chipped away at their perceived humanity. Furthermore, Smallwood suggests that the actual movement of these people from their homeland furthers the process of dehumanization. She says, “…thereby produced their desired object: an African body fully alienated and available for exploitation in the American marketplace.” (122) By placing these people, unwillingly, into ships with unknown destinations, separated from everything they know, captors alienated their captives. However, the process did not end there. When slaves stepped off the slave ships, they were introduced to the marketplace—and the dehumanization continued.

After slave ships reached their destinations, slaves were taken to marketplaces. There, they were unclothed and given a monetary value based on their physical features and other ‘superficial cues’ (158). Once they were given a price, the slaves were bid on, sold to the highest bidder and commenced into slavery. Additionally, a ledger was kept at the marketplace in order to record the sale and transfer of property from one owner to the next. In Smallwood’s words, the use of this ledger “reduced an enormous system of traffic in human commodities to a concise chronicle of quantitative facts.” (71) This marketplace system further minimized the slaves’ humanity, thus turning them into nothing more than merchandise. Smallwood says, “The economic exchange had to transform independent beings into human commodities whose most ‘socially relevant feature’ was their ‘exchangeability’.” (35) She goes on to say, “”Captives learned that…their exchangeability on the Atlantic market outweighed any social value they might have.” (52) With both of these passages, Smallwood shows that slaves had no rights and they were only as good as the work they could provide, with no place or value in society. Also, for slaves that were too sick or in any other way unable to perform the required labor, a secondary market was available. Many owners went to this market to purchase slaves at lower prices, hoping that if the slave recovered or improved, they could be sold for a higher price. (177) This act, similar to that of purchasing a car, fixing it up and selling it for a higher profit, further shows the commodification of these slaves.  However, not only did the marketplace directly reduce the worth of the slave by enabling them to be sold; it also created a mindset that allowed the captors and sellers of these slaves to believe that they had done nothing wrong. By viewing these people as nothing more than the sum of their parts, slave owners were given a moral free pass. They were allowed to profit from the pain and anguish of a people without the moral burden. The author says, “Buying people who had no evident social value was not a violation or an act of questionable morality but rather a keen and appropriate response to an opportunity.” (62) The opportunity Smallwood is referring to here is the opportunity to profit from the sale and labor of human beings. But in order to profit, the slaves could not be seen as human beings. In this way, a cycle arose furthering the distance the Anglo-Americans felt between themselves and the slaves.

Finally, a meticulous system was set up that not only dehumanized slaves, but also perpetuated the mindset enabled by the marketplace. For example, there are many accounts of slaves that ran away, just to be caught, brought back to their owners, punished and put back to work.  This system further facilitated the view of slaves as property, propagating their commodification. Smallwood says,

Physical incarceration and social alienation played a role; but ultimately the power of these and other constraints lay not in their immediate material effect but in the overarching system justifying the commodification of Africans.” (56)

The transport and exchange of these human beings partially reduced their status as humans, but the actual system that they were forced in to is what removed this status all together.

            Overall, Stephanie Smallwood’s book describes the process by which the enslaved Africans’ status as humans was reduced. This was a three-prong process, consisting of the transport, exchange and a system of forced hopelessness. Together, the transport and exchange of these individuals demoted the enslaved Africans from human to commodity. Furthermore, a system that justified the commodification of slaves while also instilling a sense of haplessness in those individuals perpetuated the idea that they were not human. Smallwood suggests that in these ways, the dehumanization of slaves was achieved. 

Reaction Paper #1

Houston Hynes

September 28, 2014

Response Paper #1

Although native Africans were capturing and supplying African war captives to the slavery regime, this constant flow of human trafficking was fueled by Europeans alone.  The Portuguese landed in the early 15^th century with primarily gold and trade-oriented goals. Their arrival initialized a series of large changes for Africa and it’s peoples. Introduction of maize to Africa led to the transition from hunter and gathering communities to more permanent agriculture based settlements as well as population growth. This combination of variables along with the New World need for labor forces, geographic location in relation to Europe and evolutionarily advantageous African immunities provided the perfect historical storm for the slavery regime to develop out of Africa. From 1580-1640, already more than 700,000 Africans had departed on trans-Atlantic journeys, largely terminating in Brazil, Lima, Cartagena, and Veracruz via the Portuguese, but around the later date of this half-century period the English, French and Dutch were increasingly becoming players in the African slave trade. By the middle of the 17^th century England and Holland were the dominant slave trade powers. Around the same time, increasing imperial tendencies and war destabilization and firearm introduction in Africa created a steady supply of slaves. The volatile and unstable African environment seemed to develop perfectly with English dominance of the slave trade. This coincidence allowed the English to exponentially increased the commodification of African people, only to change the fate of Africa once again via European manipulation.

The origin of the commodification of people raises many questions and overall is difficult to rationalize. There are several explanations as to why the African people were subject to this monstrous process, including Africa’s geographic location in relation to Europe, immunological advantages, ‘endless’ supplies of African people, cultural and physical differences as compared to Europeans, among others, yet none of these explanations can attempt to rationalize the transformation of people into property. Some sense can be made of the commodification process by examining the initial assimilation of war captives into a marginalized slave. Considering that many new war captive communities were destroyed and families separated, not to mention many were traded and sold numerous times things were bleak for war captives. No single group or person is solely responsible for the commodification process. Yet the root of this process lies with the ‘social death’ or assimilation of a person with no ties and no structure to function like a normal person does. This initial dehumanization in Africa most definitely plays a role in commodification, although it remains debatable where and who started the process. Europeans are largely to blame, only further distorting the horrendous fate of enslavement. Using ledgers like those used for tobacco and rice to keep track of people, packing ships to full carrying capacity by allocating inhumane amount of space for individuals, insufficient food and medical treatment and most importantly using extreme violence to reinforce insubordination. These examples merely brush the surface of what enslaved Africans endured before, during and after their respective trans-Atlantic journeys.

As masses of enslaved Africans arrived the Americas, if they survived, they were sold again and dispersed far and wide amongst Caribbean, South, Central and North American territories only further reinforcing commodification. Whether it was the sugar plantations in Brazil or tobacco plantations in Charleston, South Carolina, ‘social’ death still existed. With a large language barrier, unfamiliar territories, and memories of the trans-Atlantic journey fresh in their memories, it is utterly impossible to gauge the distress and disorientation of any enslaved individual at the time. Simultaneously, upon the arrival of the first Africans in American, a new culture began to develop. This new culture was not solely African or American in scope, but as a combination of the two. Peter Kolchin explains it best in American Slavery 1619-1877 when he suggests that Frazier’s ‘Americanization’ or Herskovits ‘African survival’ cannot totally explain the African American culture with out the other. With this new developing culture many of the American barriers reinforcing the idea of people as property began to dissolve. As more and more African Americans began to read and write and turn to Christianity, as well as when revolutionary rhetoric began to develop, American slaves began to find loop holes to why slavery was inhumane, unchristian and contradictory to the freedom American founders were preaching and in turn fighting for. These contradictions were apparent and highly visible to all Americans, yet it was always ignored because slaves were property not people.  Conceptual humanity, American law and even Christianity were all bent to allow slavery to be considered one of the only exceptions to things all things considered American.

In reality slavery had existed for thousands of years before the American slavery regime was even in the process or beginning, yet this idea of commodification, of stripping a person of essentially everything that constitutes a person was new. After analyzing truly enlightening literature like Saltwater Slavery, Major Problems in African American History, and American Slavery 1619-1877 it remains difficult to conceptualize this idea of commodification and the inhuman practices associated with it. The trans-Atlantic journey and the American slavery regime are some of the most terrifying and horrendous historical processes in current history. Yet in light of these everlasting and unchangeable terrors, lies the resilient and powerful multi-century struggle that is the African American culture.

Bakari Williams

History 205

Professor McKinney

28 September 2014

            It is truly fascinating to read these books and think of all the knowledge that was not shared when in high school.  One of the fascinating parts about the books was that there was not a hero that followed each story.  In high school when discussing the issues of slavery, here comes Abraham Lincoln, the man who is given praise for freeing slaves.  When discussing the civil rights movement, here comes Martin Luther King Jr. speaking about a dream he has, and miraculously, everything changes immediately.  That did not happen though.  These books cut through the bullshit, and they give the straight facts.  They tell the history of slavery, and they help understand how the world was shaped the way it was.

            When reading Smallwood’s Saltwater Slavery, there are quite a few moments in the book that stick out and cause one to wonder.  In the first few chapters, there are pictures and it speaks of the catalogues in which they would write their inventory of slaves.  The fascinating thing was that when the names of the slaves were being written, they were either given an entire new name, or they were not given a name at all.  This was a very significant way in which Africans were turned into commodities.  The question that rises is, “what is a name?”  The simple answer would be that a name is a grouping of several letters of an alphabet, or other symbols.  Once these symbols and alphabets come together to make a name, they have created not just a word, but rather they have no created an identity.  Therefore, by stripping the Africans of their name and replacing it with other name, but rather they are stripping their old identity and creating a new one.  One then begins to think when seeing African Americans on the street not just, “Who are you?”, but one can dig a little deeper and ask the question, “Who were you?”. 

            In Holt’s and Brown’s Major Problems in African American History, they raise the question of which one came first, slavery or racism? What was fascinating was one of the assumptions presented by Kenneth M. Stampp, and he said, “that innately Negroes are, after all, only white men with blacks skins, nothing more, nothing less.”  It’s a fascinating assumption because he is saying that it doesn’t matter whether slavery or racism came first, for they are both wrong.  There are many different type of races that make up the world that we live in.  However, if you take away the color of ones’ skin, if you take away the different languages people speak, and if you take away the different cultures, you end up with one single race.  You end up with the human race. 

We are all equal in the fact that we are all different. We are all the same in the fact that we will never be the same. We are united by the reality that all colours and all cultures are distinct & individual. We are harmonious in the reality that we are all held to this earth by the same gravity. We don't share blood, but we share the air that keeps us alive. I will not blind myself and say that my black brother is not different from me. I will not blind myself and say that my brown sister is not different from me. But my black brother is he as much as I am me. But my brown sister is she as much as I am me.

Africans were not seen as equals toward whites because they looked different. Africans were thought to be wicked, unholy, and devilish, while whites were considered to be pure, holy, and divine.  It was truly a belief of the white man, during the time of slavery, that by taking an African from his homeland was nothing but a favor to the African.  Whites used religious justification by saying that they were saving Africans and introducing them to Jesus.  Can the brutal actions that were seen in slavery be justified by religion?  There are numerous verses in the Bible, which talk about equality.  John chapter thirteen, verse six says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”  Galatians chapter three, verses twenty-six to twenty nine says, “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized in Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”  There are also Bible verses, which tell how one should love and treat their neighbors.  There is Mark chapter twelve, verse thirty-one which says, “The second is this, ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”.  Luke chapter six, verse thirty- one says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  If there was real concern about showing the Africans the way to Christ, snatching them from their homes, stripping them of their identities, turning them into products, shipping them away, and forcing them to do labor was definitely not the way to for that one.

The questions that might arise after the readings are, “What would America be like if there was no slavery?”, “Who would that person be if the names of slaves had not been stripped from them?”, and “How has slavery affected the relationships between blacks and whites today?”. 

Tate Mulligan Reaction Paper #1

Kathleen Tate Mulligan

Reaction Paper Number One

September 29, 2014

History of Slavery

mulkt-18@rhodes.edu

Commodification and its Effects on Humanity

The process of commodification of Africans throughout the period of slavery attempted to dehumanize the African slaves, but even though the methods were gruesome, the European and American colonists failed. The Africans rose above the system of commodification, specifically during the Middle Passage, enduring physical, mental, and spiritual abuse by the slave traders. The endurance the African population showed in the United States was magnificent because they beat the system of commodification and death that was seemingly unbeatable in the Caribbean and South America.

The purpose of commodification of Africans during the Slave Trade was to transport humans at the lowest price and get them to the final selling destination alive. Men were considered the labor workers, and the “strongest, healthiest men” would go for the highest prices. [1]The slave traders’ ideal boat load was full of strong men that were middle aged so they could be advertised as long-term field workers.  Women were seen as reproductive vessels, and they were the “easiest to obtain and to dispose of” in Africa. [2]  Women were easy to control in the whole process of abduction, imprisonment, and marketing and were looked at as less of a threat to security. The European slave traders would buy the slaves - many as prisoners of war, in Western Africa from African slave traders.  For the African tradesmen, it was profitable to sell the captives or trade them for European trade goods. [3] The fear of rebellion from the slaves was in both the slave traders from Europe and Africa. Both traders had strategies to suppress the slaves, and ultimately the strategies enforced the commodification of the slaves. The Europeans slave traders had it down to a science how to keep a slave alive without spending more money than necessary. The food, water, and personal space that each slave was given for each passage was considered. [4] The idea was based on economic strategy and how much profit the slave traders and their companies could reap.  The captains tried to keep it as impersonal as possible when interacting with the African slaves. The slaves were mere numbers on a sheet of paper, and many of times not much thought was given to the descriptions of the slaves.[5] As well, the European slave traders would buy African slaves from many different ports and ethnic tribes to eliminate the chances of large numbers of the same community being on the same boat to reduce communication and ideas of rebellion. [6]When it came time to sell the slaves in the Americas, they were looked at like animals by the North and South American planters, “stark naked and therefore (no one could be) deceived” of what they were buying. [7] The absolute humiliation and indecency the slave traders had for these slaves was inhuman, yet the slaves continued to seek and hold onto their humanity. The slaves were under such horrible conditions that the European slave traders were trying to strip the Africans of who they were and reduce them to the lowest denominator.  The theme of commodification is a major reason why the slave trade happened. The Africans kept their humanity by staying alive and dealing with these problems together.

The forced immigration of the Africans slaves was called the Middle Passage, and the journey consisted of unthinkable inhumanity, yet the slaves endured the violence with their boat communities. Some of the mental challenges included the “profound displacement” the Africans suffered, created a sense of isolation that humans of this time period had never experienced before.[8] The African tribes were not knowledgeable of the ocean or the maritime sciences that the Europeans were engaging in. Their sense of distortion from the ocean and its “relentless motion” was an alarming factor for the Africans. [9] The Africans were constantly asking questions of where they were and where they were going, and with many of these questions, they answered them with “magic” because some kind of explanation would be better than no answer at all.[10] One of the ways the slaves tried to grasp a sense of time was through moon cycles, because “certain days held (certain) rituals.” [11] These traditions were an important part to the spirituality of the African tribes. The spiritual tradition was one of the things that kept the slaves sane, and created a commonality within the African communities that many of the Europeans could not relate to, or did not understand. One of the cruelest parts of the attempt to commodity the Africans was the hopelessness the Africans saw in death. In Africa, the funeral rituals of the family members were essential for the person who had passed away to go into the afterworld with their ancestors. The boats of the Middle Passage were “marked by the absence of the traditional rituals” because normally there were no family members available to perform the rituals if a person passed away on the boat. [12] Many of times, the slaves would be  described as having a  “mixed melancholy… [and had become] morose, moody, and unresponsive.”[13]  The African slaves saw no hope in their new lives yet saw no comfort in death if they could not be with their ancestors.

As well, the physical conditions of the Middle Passage contributed to the commodification of the slaves. “Sweat, vomit, urine, and excrement painted the decks,” - where the slaves lived on the boat. [14] The slaves were packed in so tightly into the boats that “on average there were some three hundred or more people” on the boat and many of times the “children (were the) fillers to top off the cargo.” [15] The shear lack of space depressed the immune systems of the slaves, and many of them became sick and died. [16] The women of the slave community were able to wander freely on the deck, but were at the mercy of the crew and were “available for exploitation.”[17]  The slaves were battling commodification mentally, spiritually, and physically, but it was not an individual battle; they were battling these injustices together. Africans who were enemies in their homelands turned towards each other, helping one another survive the upward battle of commodification.

Because of the unity of the African slaves, the Europeans were constantly in fear of rebellion on the boats. So afraid they would “pray to send some shackles,” meaning the power of the unity of the African slaves was a real force. [18] The proof that the dehumanization through commodification of the Africans did not work was in the fear of the Europeans, because if the Africans were in fact not human after this process, the Europeans would have no reason to fear the African slaves. The tactics that the Europeans and African slave traders created were out of fear of rebellion from the slaves, and to deny how they really were treating other human beings.  The Africans survived the system of slavery, and because of it, the foundations of the United States of America were built on the blood, sweat, and tears of these Africans and their kin.

Tyler Jones Reaction Paper

Tyler Jones

September 29, 2014

Prof. McKinney

History 205

It is an oddity that for Americans at large, the customs and the culture of West African natives are never brought to the forefront when discussing the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  They are generally an unknown entity when discussing American slavery.  Their viewpoint can only be inferred so much through the primary sources of the many captain logs or the diaries of slave traders.  Visualizing the cramped spaces that these men and women had to occupy on a ship can be represented through pictures and diagrams.  But without a sense for their culture, it is difficult to confront how they coped with their captivity.  Smallwood’s “Saltwater Slavery” takes into account Western African’s history and culture while simultaneously breaking down the economic influences that are the driving force of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.  These two forces collide against one another, leading to actions and reactions between the oppressed Africans and their oppressive captors and owners. The Transatlantic Slave Trade economic success allowed for the European countries to expand and grow this inhumane industry at the expense of a growing community of West African tribes and nations. 

            The shift among African’s themselves due to economic pressure can be seen in the observations of two white men. 

“During his residence on the Gold Coast from 1614, to 1620, Samuel Brun observed that warfare nearly always led to the taking of heads.  Not only were men beheaded, but it was also a common practice summarily to execute the women and children.” (Smallwood 21)[1]

Taking heads after the battle was over had been a customary practice among the Gold Coast natives, yet as Johann Muller came to find that that practice had given way towards the selling of prisoners of war.  The slave trade was a profitable business practice early on for the victors of war.  Selling off unwanted prisoners that could potentially revolt for other goods to help expand a growing nation was a win/win.  They turned a liability into a commodity.  The various nations were growing and were starting to take shape along the Gold Coast. Trade among the Europeans accelerated the growth of these small kingdoms.  The potential for an Empire along the Gold Coast was there.  Because they controlled the gold mines, the powerful merchants were able to protect their own citizens from capture and enslavement, allowing for these nations to slowly grow in power.  The economy along the Gold Coast was booming for a while, yet when the gold mines ran low towards the beginning of the 18^th century the dream of an empire died. For the demand for slaves had only increased with time, and with the lack of gold, the merchants along the Gold Coast lacked the bargaining power to keep slavers away from their own. A thriving culture systematically was washed away, as the commodification of African slaves had become an incredibly booming industry for all involved.  The Gold Coast became known as the hotbed for new black bodies.  The Transatlantic Slave Trade took away not only individual freedom, but a budding world power was snatched because of it.  The downturn for the gold coast was drastic as it became the hotbed for enslavement. 

            A more individualistic struggle between the two sides can be se through the eyes of the Slave Captain Snelgrave.  The exchange between him and his slaves whom had tried to mutiny illustrates just how deep and strong the economic forces at play were.

“Snelgrave asked “what had induced them to mutiny,” to which they replied that he “was a great Rogue to buy them, in order to carry them away from their own Country; and that they were resolved to regain their Liberty if possible.”(Smallwood 57)[2]

Snelgrave was stunned that they rebelled against him, as they were his property.  A sea captain of experience was genuinely shocked that a group of people taken against their will were trying to revolt, because that is how strong the slave trade industry was.  He was stunned because they were not people but cattle to be shipped and sold.  They had already “forfeited their freedom”2 so it was unfair for them to try to revolt against him.  The commodification of human lives had taken complete effect. Even if they were to escape, there were fugitives that would have been captured and sold to somebody else for profit. 

            Smallwood’s “Saltwater Slavery” illuminates just how strong the slave trade industry was.  It had destroyed the balance within the Gold Coast and crippled their bubbling nation states and had stripped slaves of their humanity.  The Gold Coast was pillaged for their bodies to slave away in foreign lands.  Leaving the only world they knew for a world of hardship was made scarier by the cruelty of their captives. As once they became slaves, they lost their right to be a human.

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[1] Smallwood, Stephanie E. "The Gold Coast and the Atlantic Market in People." In Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008

[2] Smallwood, Stephanie E. "Turning African Captives into Atlantic Commodities." In Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008

Nick Parinella- Reaction Paper 1

Nick Parinella

History 205

Professor McKinney

September 26, 2014

Reaction Paper 1- Slavery; the Commodification of Humans

            Throughout all the readings in the class thus far, one major theme in all of them is the commodification of people into products. The slaves in America had lives before slavery, even though it may seem like they did not. Slaves did begin birthing their children into slavery, however Africans were not always slaves. At some point in history, people began forcing Africans into slavery, which lead to viewing them as commodities instead of humans.

            A few hundred years ago, the Gold Coast was important for exporting gold, however it eventually became better known for exporting slaves. At first, war captives were shipped with gold to help with labor. Then people started believing the labor was more valuable than the gold itself. In a matter of time, people were craving slaves more than gold, and some humans began to be commoditized. Certain areas of Africa “became a more reliable outlet for slaves than for the precious metal”[1]. The process of the commodification of humans began by selling war captives into slavery, who had their freedom taken away during battle. Over time, the slaves became more appealing, and people began selling Africans into slavery, regardless if they were war captives or not.

            Africans were taken from their homes and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to foreign lands along with other goods. Since the captains only cared for the slaves as products, they shipped as many slaves as they could without killing them to maximize their profits. The captains did not care about the conditions or comfort level of the rooms on the ships that the slaves were kept in. Usually the slaves were crammed into small, dark, barely-ventilated rooms for weeks or months at a time. They would only be let out to the top of the ship for an hour a day to get “exercise” and fresh-air. Inside the cabins, they had to sit and live surrounded by their feces, urine, and vomit. When loading the ships, the captains would bring just enough food and water for the slaves to sustain life, not to satisfy their hunger and thirst. Stephanie Smallwood wrote that “slaves became, for the purpose of transatlantic shipment, mere physical units that could be arranged and molded at will—whether folded together spoonlike in rows or flattened side by side in a plane”[2]. Children were used to fill in the small, empty spaces on the ships like a game of Tetris, except with slaves. Through this process of taking Africans and shipping them across the ocean to America, people began viewing them as commodities. Therefore, traders did not feel bad for making the slaves live in these conditions because transporting slaves across the Atlantic was strictly business, and they shipped them as business products.

            Slaves were also dehumanized when their entire lives were compressed to a single line on an inventory sheet. When captains were loading their ships, they had an accountant keep track of all their slaves. They would write down their name, sex, and height and make sure they were on the ship. The captains did not care about anything else regarding the slaves’ families, friends, religious views, lifestyle, or status in their town; all they cared about was if their “product” was on the ship. Smallwood wrote that “through their graphic simplicity and economy, invoices and ledgers effaced the personal histories that fueled the slaving economy”[3]. These accounts took the entire life of a slave and converted it into a single line on a document. The captains also had insurance on the slaves like they were merchandise. One of the insurance policies covered death from drowning, but not from starvation. After running low on water, “the captain of the Zong ordered 132 Africans thrown overboard”[4]. The slaves drowning is like losing goods in the ocean, which could happen to any product, but starving is a human quality, which is not covered. The insurance policy proves that they treated slaves no differently than other products on the ship. The captain of the Zong was more concerned with making money and conserving water than he was for the slaves’ lives. He threw them overboard without any regret just so he could get some extra cash from the insurance company.

            A tactic almost all slave traders used was capturing slaves from different towns and villages and shipping them together. Therefore, the slaves would not know anyone and could not communicate with each other. This lessened the chance of an uprising as well as created a feeling of loneliness and hopelessness. Without anyone to communicate and share their story with, the slaves would lose hope of continuing their lives and would accept their life as a slave. It is difficult to share one’s story and ideas when no one speaks the same language. In Saltwater Slavery, Smallwood stated that “on the ship at sea the logic of commodification reached its nadir”[5]. While the slaves spent weeks and months at sea with complete strangers, they struggled to continue life as subjective beings. Their time spent on the ship made them realize that they were now commodities.

            Once the slaves arrived in America, they were put to work on plantations and more and more slaves were continuously brought over. Taking another humans freedom and forcing them to work may seem inhumane, but to the slave owners they did not see a problem. To them, the Africans were already slaves when they got them. They did not personally capture the Africans and turn them into slaves; they simply purchased a product. The slave owners convinced themselves slavery was not bad because they were simply doing what everyone else was doing and that was buying a good with their money. Throughout the next couple hundred years, as slaves had children and generations of people grew up with slavery, it just seemed natural. After the first slaves were brought over to America, the children of slave owners were raised with slaves around and therefore believed it was a normal part of life. After multiple generations grow up and live with slaves, ideas develop that slaves are simply products and a part of everyday life.

            Africans were not always viewed as commodities, but through the Atlantic slave trade and the Gold Coast, the transformation happened. Once people began to realize that slaves were extremely helpful and how easy it was to enslave someone by taking them to a foreign country, slavery became popular. Once captured, slaves were treated the same way as all the other products on the ship. They were shoved in tight spaces, checked for inventory, and shipped across the ocean to the buyers. These steps, combined with generations of people having slaves do all their labor lead to the transformation of Africans into commodities.

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[1] Smallwood, Stephanie E. Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2008), 26.

[2] Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora, 68.

[3] Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora, 98.

[4] Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery, 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), 19.

[5] Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery a Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora, 122. 

Myles Darby's Reaction Paper

Myles Darby

9/28/14

Professor McKinney

Reaction Paper #1

           One of the most important and surprising aspect of slavery in the United States is the commodification process they were forced into. Instead of being seen as an actual human being, they are only seen as objects that can simply make them money. Before the trading of slaves became as prominent as it did, gold was one of the major commodities. Evidently, gold can be sold, traded, lost, and destroyed because it is an object. This is where the problem begins. White and European slaveowners believed that since these people were of a different color, they had to find a way to suppress them. If the blacks were not suppressed, then they may find a way to overthrow the whites. Because of this, the slaveowners treated slaves like objects, and not human beings. The fact that they viewed them as objects and not people, somewhat gives them a reason or excuse to treat the slaves how they did. Although there  is no justification for slavery, there are always two sides to a story. The slaveowners also viewed the slaves as heathens because they did not believe in Christianity. They thought they were helping them by bringing them over, and exposing them to Christianity. In an extremely strange way, the slaveowners felt like they were doing the slaves a favor by bringing them over. Going back to the commodification process, slaveowners did the bare minimum to keep their slaves alive. They fed them just enough for them to slave alive, to save money and maximize their profit. However, this may not be even the worst part of it. The ships the slaves came on were hell on a boat. The ships were extremely overcrowded to get as much “profit” on the boat as they could. If the ship could hold a maximum of 200 people, the slaveowners would try to fit 250. Slaves could not move at all on the boats, there were no bathrooms, many slaves were seasick, and these trips took months. The thought of life on these boats is beyond unbearable. If slavery was not bad enough, their transportation to death could not have been worse. To the slaveowners, slaves were no more than objects. They did not have families to them, or names, or any prior life. Because of this mindset slaveowners had, it was okay to them to treat them how they did. They were simply an object that could make them money, or lose their money. They could do nothing else, and they were nothing else to slaveowners. They did not care if they were tired, hungry, or exhausted from working all day. All that mattered, was maximizing their profit the highest they could. This meant by any means necessary, and slaveowners seriously took this saying to heart. The idea of a human becoming an object is very difficult to even imagine. The fact that someone can break down a person so much to the point where they think death is a better option is unbelievable. Slaveowners deprived slaves of every single human aspect that makes someone human. They could not eat by themselves, have their own freedom, or even have the opportunity to read and write. This is insane because the work done by slaves is what vitalized the American economy, and was the major force behind it. Without slavery, the American economy would not be even close to what it is today. Although slaves were probably aware of this, there was no way that they were going to free their slaves. There was too much money to be made, and this process had been going on for so long that it worked like clockwork. The only way this process could be ended was for a slaveowner, or powerful white males to stand up against it. There was no way a slave could do this alone because they have no authority, or even a voice at all. 

       Another key theme from this material is the sense of community slaves constructed after coming to America. As soon as they are sold, their whole lives are taken. Their identity, names, background, religion, traditions and customs, and most importantly, their freedom. Slaveowners try to break the slaves down as much as possible, so they will have no way to revolt. Families are taken away, spouses separated and siblings torn apart. Even Africans from the same tribes are separated while on the boat, so there is no way possible for a revolt. If slaves cannot communicate with each other, then they cannot unite as one and stage a revolt. Even after all of these attempts to dissemble their sense of community, slaves somehow made a way out of no way. They made their own language so they could communicate with each other. Created secret songs that only they knew, so they could sing around their masters without them having any idea of what they were talking about. They also found a way to tell time by observing the environment and the sun placement. This is very interesting because slaves were smart and innovative enough to find their own way of telling time. They somehow found a way to build a meaningful life out of nothing. They developed a three step system of trying to develop a community. They had to figure out who they truly were, created a kinship with other slaves, and also realized that more slaves were coming. The main reason for this construction of community was so that they could make this “endless purgatory” seem not as bad. They knew that they could not fully escape slavery in just one setting, and that it would take these small steps of building a community to ease the pain somewhat. 

        Commodification and the sense of community have a somewhat strange, but direct relationship. Because of the commodification process, slaves needed to find a way to get themselves out of it. They were being treated as inanimate objects by their masters, and decided to join together although they were all from different backgrounds. After joining together and developing a relationship and community with one another, they could bond more, and help each other out. Most of them felt like they were no longer alone in the world, and that they could now talk to others about their thoughts and feelings since they were all going through the same thing, together. 

Laurel Galaty Reaction Paper #1

Laurel Galaty

Prof. McKinney

History of Slavery in the US

9/29/2014

Discussion of an event as horrific and prolonged as the trans atlantic slave trade begs the question: How could anyone have forced other people to live through such terrible conditions and treatment? This question haunts anyone studying the slavery that developed in the colonies because it was one of the most brutal and thoroughly demeaning forms of slavery that has ever developed in human history. The answer, according to the authors of the texts used in this class, is clear. The commodification of African slaves was a crucial element in the evolution of slavery in the United States, and it was present from the establishment of slavery as an institution to beyond the abolishment of slavery.

In Stephanie Smallwood’s Saltwater Slavery,  she begins by explaining that Europeans were not the first to find slaves along the Gold coast. It was actually African Merchants that began buying African people as slaves. She says “Gold-bearing African merchants traveling to the coast from upland forest territories required large retinues of porters to transport the bulky European goods they purchased. To meet this need, it was a simple matter for Portuguese traders to supply slaves alongside the textiles and metals they sold to African buyers”. This is important to note because when Europeans began to take advantage of the people available for purchase, they were not introducing  a new concept; selling people as goods was common practice. Also important to note was that African merchants were major players in human trade. As nation states in Africa warred, prisoners of war were commonly sold into slavery, and the increase in slavery in the 18th century was in part due to the African Elite realizing that profit could be made by sending their captives to the coast to be sold. Smallwood explains “In the closing decades of the seventeenth century a pattern was establishing itself as wars… began to send some among their captives to the waterside”. The process of commodifying humans was not instinctual, or even necessarily racial. The commodification of slaves began as those seeking profit began to realize the economic possibilities of turning people into dollars.

Of course, once people were sold into slavery, their commodification was furthered by slave traders’ attempts to maintain their businesses. Since the expense of “shipping across the Atlantic doubled the price of slaves”, Tight packing ships became common practice, and “as the ship’s physical dimensions were fixed, crowding ever more bodies onto its decks… was key to a slave ship’s profitability”. The comfort of the cargo was abandoned to ensure that each shipping was as profitable as possible. Food was not measured to maintain the health of the individual. Because profit was at stake, they had “an exceedingly narrow range within which to subsist… between absolute or near absence of food at worst and daily rations even at best too scanty and nutritionally limited to supply nourishment beyond a minimal level”. Food was carefully calculated to minimally preserve life, and if there was too little even then, it was distributed in such a way that would control death rates within the group. The lack of acknowledgment of each slave as an individual with needs that varied from the group continued their commodification in their Atlantic crossing.

When slaves reached the colonies, their commodification reached new heights. Smallwood uses the term “slaves in chains” to illustrate the way that an African Person in the colonies is forever marked as a slave. Even if they ran, they would not be able to find an area where they would not be recaptured and sold, even if their original purchaser could not be found. Smallwood explains “as they tried to return, if not ‘home’, then to any alternative place of social belonging, they discovered that time and circumstances were firmly against them”. Without a means to integrate themselves socially into any aspect of the society that they have been forced into, they lose their identity as people. Rather, they were now universally recognized as property, and would remain that way their entire lives.

In his essay The Paradox of Slavery and Freedom, Edmund S. Morgan points out that “The rise of liberty and equality in this country was accompanied by the rise of slavery. That two such contradictory developments were taking place simultaneously over a long period of our history, from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth, is the central paradox of American history”. He argues that there is evidence to suggest that black Africans in america were not always so entirely regarded as inferior people. For example, he asserts that “There is no evidence during the period before 1660 that [African Americans] were subjected to more severe discipline than the other servants”. By recognizing that Africans were at least allowed similar status to white servants, Morgan recognizes that commodification had not fully formed at this point. It wasn’t until the oppression of indentured servants became dangerous that the colonists turned overwhelmingly to slave labor. He explains “To have attempted the enslavement of English-born laborers would have caused more disorder than it cured. But to keep as slaves black men who arrived in that condition was possible and apparently regarded as plain common sense”. The mass enslavement of Africans required that their commodification continue after they step off the boat. In this way, Morgan’s essay is not only successful in describing the paradox of slavery and freedom developed in America, but also how the commodification of Africans became a useful tool in expanding America’s economic strength.

From all of these points, it’s clear that commodification had a heavy influence on the evolution of the trans atlantic slave trade. It was a critical component at every step, and it did not cease once slaves arrived on Western shores. While there are certainly other themes that are essential to the story, it’s critical that commodification remain at the front of our minds as we consider how one of the most essential pieces of the economy became a horrific scar on our history. 

Lucy Rosenbloom Reaction Paper #1

Lucy Rosenbloom

Due: September 29, 2014

Slavery in the United States

Professor McKinney

Indentured Slavery

Although Europeans did not invent the concept of slavery, Europeans were responsible for the differences in the way white indentured servants were treated compared to the way that black African slaves were treated.  This created the concept of race-based slavery.  The commodification of the slave industry resulted in blacks being dehumanized.  Although, indentured servitude was often used as a way for whites to become enslaved in the seventeenth century, it was merely a temporary form of slavery.[1]  Indentured servants never relinquished their humanity.  They were still considered humans because of their light colored skin.  This did not make them a commodity, but rather an employee to the master.  The same cannot be said about Africans.  African slaves were treated simply as an object of property, while white indentured servants were treated as human property.  This difference of humanity is key to understanding the commodification of African slaves.

Both black slaves and white indentured servants were considered pieces of property.  Both groups also often received the same torture and harsh punishment for lack of cooperation, such as attempting to escape.[2]  Lastly, there were high percentages of both indentured servants and slaves who died at a young age before being able to achieve their freedom.[3]  Providing the same types of labor for their master was the extent of the similarities between indentured servants and slaves.  The dehumanization of slaves conflicted with the humanization of white indentured servants.  The differences between these two groups in the eyes of the master far outweigh the similarities.

Indentured servants were able to maintain their humanity while enslaved, unlike Africans.  For many years, indentured servitude was actually preferred to African slavery amongst the colonists.  Firstly, indentured servitude was less expensive than the African slave trade prior to the late seventeenth century.[4]  After the creation of the Royal African Company in 1672, it became less expensive to import African slaves.[5]  However, prior to this time, there we more benefits for colonists to employ European indentured servants.

A benefit of using European indentured servitude over African slavery was the lack of a language barrier.[6]  Europeans were able to immediately start work and follow the directions given to them the minute they arrived because they understood English.  African slaves, on the other hand, did not speak English and required a period of supervision and adaption before they were able to become productive bodies.  In the short term, the idea of indentured servitude was much more attractive than African slavery because it was less expensive and produced immediate results.  As an incentive, fifty acres of land was also given to the employer for each indentured servant.[7]  This was land that they were able to keep long after the servant had paid his or her dues in labor.  In contrast, African slavery was more expensive upfront, and required more preparation.  African slaves did not come with free land.  However, owning slaves did have its benefits.

African slaves were a long-term investment.  If the landowner could afford the upfront costs, they would undoubtedly profit from the end result.  Slavery, unlike servitude, was permanent.  There was no expiration date on the amount of labor one slave could produce.  Also, if a slave gave birth, the child automatically was born into slavery and became property of the slave owner.[8]  This gave slave owners a logical, financial, and beneficial reason justify raping their female slaves.  This forced a switch from a paternal construction of family, to a maternal one.  Slave children would take on the slave status of their mother instead of the free status of their father.  White men could continue to rape slaves without having to worry about the children claiming to have “free blood.”

European indentured servants were able to assimilate into colonial society once released from servitude.  Many of these former servants were even able to own slaves or other indentured servants themselves.[9]  This ability to assimilate was due to more than just the familiar light color of European skin.  Indentured servants maintained their humanity throughout their servitude unlike African slaves.  This is prominent when examining the education provided for Africans versus Europeans.  Simply put, slaves were not educated.  This was due mainly to fear of rebellion and the dehumanization of Africans.  Africans were not seen as intelligent and were even thought to have a smaller brain than whites.[10]  Many children who were indentured servants were educated during their service.   They were being prepared for their future lives of freedom.

While there were many similarities in the physical abuse endured by white indentured servants and black slaves, there were far more differences in the treatment of these two groups.  These differences are what lead to the ability for indentured servants to maintain their humanity.  Once taken away, humanity is difficult to get back.  It can take decades and generations to achieve.  Not only does one need to believe that they are equal humans, but they also need to be able to convince society of this as well.  Humanity is more than just something one believes to possess.  It is a framework for the social construction of all people and things in the world.  A silent social hierarchy is created by one’s humanity.  By losing their humanity, slaves were not only inferior to whites in the eyes of the masters, but to themselves and the greater slave population as well.

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[1] Charles McKinney, “Slavery in the United States.” Class Lecture, Rhodes College, Memphis, September 23, 2014.

[2] Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Want, 1993), 10.

[3] Ibid., 10.

[4] Ibid., 12.

[5] Ibid., 12.

[6] Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 107.

[7] Kolchin, American Slavery, 9.

[8] Ibid., 12-13.

[9] Charles McKinney, “Slavery in the United States.” Class Lecture, Rhodes College, Memphis, September 2, 2014.

[10] Willem Bosman, “Willem Bosman, a Dutch Trader, Describes the Details of Bargaining for Slaves, 1701,” in Major Problems in African-American History vol. 1, ed. Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000), 42-49.