Brendan DePoy - Reaction Paper One

Commodification and Its Effects on Slavery

Slavery was a harsh and inhumane system that took human-beings and commoditized them into nothing more than tools for economic and social success. Slavery produced a society that took men, women, and children from the comforts of their own land and thrust them into a culture where they had no more rights than a simple utility. Not only was this sudden life change hard to adapt to, but it produced many different results. From suicide to rebellion, slavery stemmed many different effects on both the people of the United States and the country itself. Through the commoditization of slavery, the harsh conditions that the slaves had to endure to reach the United States, and the dynamics of commodity in the new world, slavery produced one of the darkest chapters in United States history that we can still feel the effects from today.

Beginning in the late fifteenth century off the coast of West Africa, slave captains began raiding and capturing African men and women to then be sold as commodities. These captured men and women found themselves beginning a journey of uncertainty that would literally change their lives forever. Instantly put into shackles, the captors immediately began the commodification process. Upon capture, slaves were: “stripped of material adornment, physically displaced, and torn from the social embrace of kin and community” [1]. The slave traders made every attempt to strip the slaves from anything that would allow them to have an identity. To the captors, the social aspects of the slaves were unimportant and all the slave traders saw when looking at a slave was a dollar sign. The process was simply a business transaction to the slave traders. The new world had produced a necessity for labor, and these slaves were the answer.  This was the hardest part for the newly captured slaves. Losing all forms of humanity, slaves faced a sense of psychological hopelessness do to the unknowing of where they were going, or what waited for them in this new life.

Loaded onto large slave ships and crammed into quarters with little to no room to move, slaves faced the harsh reality of simply being viewed as a commodity. The captains of the ships took any chance they had to disable normal social relations among the slaves on the ships. Slaves were, “segregated by sex in the quarters below decks when they came aboard, and it was common to erect barricades to separate men and women during time spent above deck as well” (76) [2]. This separation just further proved the attempts to break the slaves and truly turn them into commodities. One of the main issues that slave captains faced was keeping as many of their captives alive. This was strictly for profitability because every slave brought to market meant more money that the captain would make. A big question that each captain had to ask themselves was, ‘is it more profitable to pack the ship to capacity or to give the slaves more room in an effort to keep more alive?’ This created a very interesting dynamic, a dynamic so different than anything people live in today that it is hard to understand exactly what was felt back then.

Death was very prevalent on slave ships. Death was a very interesting aspect of the slavery process. The death of a slave was seen completely different in the eyes of a slave trader and in the eyes of a slave. This was caused by the commodification process. Only seeing the slaves as commodities caused the slave traders to not pity the slave who had died, but to simply pity their pocket books for the money that they had lost. The death of a slave to them was the same as when a piece of cargo was broke in shipment, they felt no grief. Slaves on the other hand, viewed death in a much different way. Some slaves used death as a way out. Suicide was viewed by many slaves as the final way to take back their humanity, the ultimate self-choice. But, as Esteban Montejo explained, “slaves did not just “throw themselves into rivers, they fastened a chain to their waists which was full of magic’” [3] This quote shows the heritage that each of the Africans brought with them from their home countries and their attempts to grasp onto their beliefs even until the very end. Others, due to the hazardous conditions of the ships, or exposure to new diseases were simply forced into death.

Once the slaves finally reached their destination, they soon realized the commodification process had only just begun. Unloaded off the ships that they had unwillingly called home for months, they now entered a world filled with growth and potential, just not for them. The slaves were taken to slave auctions where they were sold off to the highest bidder. The buyers truly acted as if the slaves were simple commodities, inspecting every inch of their bodies as if inspecting a fruit for bad spots. And then, the slaves were sold. The commodities received a number that now defined them, how much they were worth. The slaves were now owned by someone, they were truly a commodity. The notion of one human owning another human is one that is hard to understand. This process worked strictly because these owners did not view the slaves as equal humans and therefore were above them.

In the new world, the slaves made every attempt to regain any sort of humanity that they could. As Smallwood explained, “There was no more urgent task for slave ship survivors than to create a network of social relations adequate to their need for social belongings” [4]. Even after being taken from their home, commoditized, and sold to another human as property, the slave’s socialistic instincts still remained apparent. Slaves began families with other slaves at their new homes. Slave owners were not against these ties. As the families were created, more children were born that increased the slave-owners worth. But, this allowance of social ties should not be confused with the actual caring of the slave owners and their slave’s social standing. At any point, slave owners in need of money would sell these slaves, splitting up mothers and fathers from their own children. Some slaves also turned to rebellion in attempt at gaining back their humanity. From as small as working slow to as big as attacking their master or running away, rebellion was not uncommon, especially in the harsher southern agricultural states of the United States.

Slavery had a profound effect on society for white children as well. Children of slave owners were born into a world where slavery was the norm. Many of these young children, “came to take greater interest in the lives (and general welfare) of American-born slaves” [5]. This system created a society where two children would grow up side by side on the same plantation, but with one owning the other. This stemmed a society where race and slavery intertwined to create racism that carried on throughout the history of the United States, and can still be seen today to some extent.

All of these ideas tend to lead back to one single centralized idea that was the foundation for the slave process, commodification. The idea and application of commodification was the glue that held slavery together. Giving the captured slaves little to no forms of social identification not only allowed for easier transport of the slaves, but caused the slaves themselves to search for any sort of normality and humanity that they could. Using ideas including but not solely limited to suicide and rebellion, slaves attempted at any cost to regain a sort of normalcy that had been stripped away from them through the slave system. This constant struggle between the slave owners and the slaves shaped a society where violence and dehumanization were simply the norms; norms that would shape the world in ways that we are still influenced by today.