Maggie Bradley
September 30, 2014
Slavery in the United States
Not So Simple
Commodification is undoubtedly the most essential aspect in the creation of slavery. African captives were stripped of their status of human beings and viewed as objects. They became commodities that could be traded and sold without hesitation. Although many consider economic interests to have been the sole factor for Europeans, politics, philosophy, and religion also played significant roles in the commodification that led to the establishment of slavery in the United States.
While it is erroneous to deem economic reasons as the only basis for the institution, financial systems did in fact fuel slavery. As the demand for the new agriculture commodities of sugar, tobacco, rice, etc. grew, it was obvious that the landowners needed more laborers. Kolchin asserts that “the initial demand for labor…was…color-blind”1. The Europeans only turned to Africa because of the availability of laborers and the eagerness of African merchants to sell them. As Europeans infiltrated the Gold Coast, African merchants became interested in the goods the foreigners were bringing with them. This increasing desire led to the purchase of European gold and other products in exchange for native captives2. At first landowners treated Africans somewhat like indentured servants, setting them free after an agreed upon period of work. However, as more indentured servants became free, the labor problem only multiplied. For the English, their “rights were preserved by destroying the rights of the Africans”3. This great need for workers facilitated the process of commodification because Europeans became desperate to solve the labor shortage. In their eyes, the only solution was to create a form of lifetime service that would also be more profitable.
The African polities’ constant pursuit of power was conducive in stimulating the slave trade by supplying the bodies that would be commodified. Originally in African civil wars, members of the vanquished party were beheaded. In the later seventeenth century, however, the victorious parties devised another fate for the war captives. As the requirement for labor increased, “states turned surplus people into valuable commodities”4. This transformation was possible because of the victorious’ belief that after a rebel was defeated, he would suffer severe social humiliation. Without dignity and social ties, a person was left in the middle ground where commodification was possible5. African kings were keen to trade the captives because the sale resulted in payment for the expulsion of a threat. This avidity to sell fellow human beings and disinterest of captives’ humanity set an example for the Europeans. Since Africans had already started commodifying their fellow countrymen, slave traders saw no problem in continuing the process.
Philosophers’ views of Africans also contributed to the European’s ability to commodify other human beings. Numerous famous philosophers such as John Locke, Aristotle, and Plato saw slavery “as fully compatible with human progress and felicity”6. Many suggested that some people were naturally weaker and needed to be ruled by the stronger humans. Philosophers’ beliefs about skin colors defined exactly who was worthy of power. To them, whiteness represented purity and enlightenment while blackness embodied evil and crudity7. The scholars created a new cultural matrix by accentuating the visible differences and classifying Africans as barbarians who were meant to be subjugated. “In finding slavery an acceptable part of the social order,” philosophers assisted in the sustainment of commodifying African captives8.
Similar to other philosophers, prominent theologians like Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas believed that the Earth had a hierarchy where some people were more fit to command than others9. In this case it was religion that determined who could lead. Christopher Brown says, “Europeans did not enslave other Europeans, because Christians did not enslave other Christians”10. When Europeans entered the Gold Coast, Christianity clashed with traditional African rituals. Shocked by the Africans’ lack of knowledge of their Christian God, Europeans dubbed the natives ‘savages.’ The Africans’ non-Christian religion provided Europeans with a reason to commodify them. Feeling like any unbelievers would already be damned, the Europeans not only felt no remorse in turning human beings into objects, but also were convinced they were doing the captives a favor. Slavery, they thought, would at least expose Africans to Christianity11. Thus, the European’s lack of knowledge about other cultures and their disdain for non-Christians led to the rationalization of commodification.
Ultimately, all of these factors culminated to create a state where commodification was possible. The process of commodification meant to break down the Africans by “always seeking to find the limits of human capacity for suffering”12. Once the process was complete, Europeans no longer considered slaves to be humans with emotions. Since “human bodies were treated as inanimate objects,” slaves became just a tally on a ledger or cargo that could result in profit13. Smallwood states that “the slave ship was not just a setting for brutality and death, but also a locus of unparalleled displacement”14. Slave traders demeaned the Africans by transforming them into puzzle pieces that could be manipulated to fill ships. Naked and crammed next to another person, a slaves was utterly humiliated. As soon as they had been bartered, slaves were deprived of everything that brought comfort to them. Even though Africans were subjected to an environment breeding despair, they never fully gave up hope.
Despite others seeking to reduce them to objects, the slaves constantly resisted these efforts by refusing to relinquish their humanity. Africans attempted to continue to function as humans in a variety of ways. Some people decided to commit suicide rather than face forced labor. Mothers “exhausted themselves to death in… efforts to attend to the needs of their infants”15. Captives would find ways to connect with those around them regardless of their different languages and cultures. Slaves asked each other questions about their fate and tried to comfort one another. When someone fell sick, the others attended to him or her. One captain recalled seeing a woman braiding another’s hair16. Even when they arrived in a totally unfamiliar place, the slaves still fought to retain their humanity. They found ways to resist masters and created their own culture in order to cling to some of the African traditions. Throughout their lives, saltwater slaves battled the commodification that was taking place by always reminding themselves and each other of their humanness.
People often assume that slavery just suddenly occurred. It is important to remember that slavery derived from a process of commodification. This process was not immediate and it was supported by many different factors. All these elements combined to generate a new system of thought that characterized Africans as objects. In the end, Africans displayed a tremendous amount of tenacity by refusing to let commodification dehumanize them.
Notes
1 Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 14.
2 Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2008), 28.
3 Edmund S. Morgan, “The Paradox of Slavery and Freedom,” in Major Problems in African-American History, 99-108, ed. Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown Vol. I: From Slavery to Freedom, 1619-1877 (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2000),104.
4 Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2008), 23.
5 Ibid., 63.
6 Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 64.
7 Charles McKinney, “The Evolution of the Slave Trade” (lecture, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, September 2, 2014).
8 Peter Kolchin, American Slavery: 1619-1877 (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003), 64.
9 Ibid.
10 The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, television series, produced, written, and presented by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (2013, PBS), online video.
11 Charles McKinney, “The Logic of Commodification” (lecture, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, September 9, 2014).
12 Stephanie E. Smallwood, Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2008), 35.
13 Ibid., 68.
14 Ibid., 131.
15 Ibid.,122.
16 Charles McKinney, “The Logic of Commodification” (lecture, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, September 9, 2014).
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