The Economics and Disorientation of Slavery

The Economics and Disorientation of Slavery

In the institution of slavery, economics and disorientation are important influences which shaped slaves and the slave trade. Within their books Saltwater Slavery, by Stephanie E. Smallwood, and American Slavery, by Peter Kolchin, the magnitude of these two forces is revealed. Basic economics created the demand for slavery in the new world, made it economically sustainable to transport human cargo across the Atlantic and motivated the purchase of slaves in the New World. In Western and sub Saharan Africa many different kingdoms fought each other to capture slaves. Once slaves were captured their journey began with an increasing amount of disorientation as they were carried from their homeland, to the coast, across the Atlantic and finally sold at their final destination: the crop fields of the New World. Over the course of their journey slaves often found their plight and disorientation intertwined with the powerful forces of economics.

A slave’s first encounter with the forces of economics would be at the moment of their capture. Unbeknown to them, European demand for slaves in the new world was extremely high. The Portuguese and English were in desperate need of cheap labor to work in economies “centered on gold and other mineral resources (diamonds) in Brazil, on rice in South Carolina, and on continually expanding sugar production in Portuguese, English and French-American colonies” (Smallwood 29). Furthermore, this demand was created in part by the fact that native slaves were too difficult to manage, they succumb too quickly to western diseases, they escaped too easily and “there were simply not enough Indians in the colonies to fill the settler’s labor needs” (Kolchin 8). African slaves were attractive because of their general resistance to western diseases and their inability to escape once in the New World.

The second instance when slaves would come into contact with the forces of economics is when they boarded their slave ship bound for the Americas. Here captains and shipping corporations would try to make the trans-Atlantic voyage as economically profitable as possible. All costs were monitored to the point that slaves found themselves in miserable conditions, life was scaled “down to an arithmetical equation” where “the lowest common denominator” was found (Smallwood 43). Boats were often overcrowded to unimaginable proportions and slaves found themselves packed so tightly together that they could barely turn around. Living in such closely packed and poor conditions, slaves were kept alive because of the profit that their sale at market provided and “suffered under a calculation according to which economic considerations weighed more heavily in the balance than human need” (Smallwood 45).

The third instance in which slaves encounter the forces of economics was at their final destination where they would disembark their ship and be prepared for sale. After the long journey “carrying slaves from Africa to the Americas also doubled the price of slaves” (Smallwood 157). Once off their ship, they would be fed, groomed, and oiled in order to offer a superficial appearance of healthiness for the many perspective buyers who came to market in search of their next big investment. The grooming of the slaves was an attempt by the owners to offer consumers more value, slaves were chosen “as they do horses in a Market; the strongest, youthfullest, and most beautiful, yield the greatest price” (Smallwood 158). If a slave looked healthy and lustful then consumers were willing to pay a higher price for the commodity.

Each time slaves encountered these economic forces, first on the plains of Africa at the time of their capture, then on the slave ships common to the Gold and Ivory Coast, and finally in the slave markets of the Americas, they simultaneously encountered disorientation. At each juncture what they thought they knew and what they took for granted was questioned, eroded, destroyed and then rebuilt. Along the trail which the forces of economics paved, slaves encountered new environments, cultures, and systems of beliefs which caused damaging disoriented.

At the time of their capture slaves were first introduced to the institution of slavery, and at this point they were the least disoriented because they were still in their homeland. As slaves, however, were marched down from the inlands to the coast they came into contact with foreign tribes and were introduced to different cultures. Here their social status changed from one where they were free to one where they were still part of society but needed to be subservient to their captors. In this part of the slave trading process black slaves were not extremely disoriented because slavery was part of the culture. When they were taken to the coast, however, things changed dramatically.

The major moment of disorientation occurred when they were sold to Europeans and taken aboard slave ships. For many Africans the ocean was a new sight and it challenged their spiritual understanding of the world which did not offer any comfort to their being at sea. Many slaves “attributed dangerous supernatural powers to the watery realm” (Smallwood 125). In other words “the open sea challenged African cosmographies, for the landless realm of the deep ocean did not figure in precolonial West African societies as a domain of human (as opposed to divine) activity” (Smallwood 124). Embarking a slave ship offered further disorientation because slaves faced the unknown. Many did not know where they were going or why they were leaving their homeland. Rumors were pervasive and oscillated from the truth to the outrageous where some slaves believed that they were bound to be eaten by cannibalistic Europeans.

Upon landing in the Americas, slaves encountered disorientation at the largest level. Once in markets they were bought and moved to fields or mines to work. There they struggled to hold on to their culture and traditions from Africa. In America slaves “had to address the problems of their unique displacement” (Smallwood 182). They had to understand their geographic disorientation as well as their cultural disorientation. After surviving an arduous trans-Atlantic voyage many did not understand where they were geographically but attempted to escape anyways, traveling East in the hopes of returning home. Others attempted to return home in the afterlife by decorating graves with canoes in the hopes of crossing the ocean to return home.

At each major juncture of the slave trade we see that disorientation accompanied the forces of economics which were at play. Where there was an increase in demand we see individuals being torn from their homes and thrown into slavery. When “maximizing the size of slave cargoes maintained the rate of return that investors demanded” we see that culturally unique understandings of nature and of the world are challenged (Smallwood 70). Finally, where slaves arrived in the Americas and were prepared for sale it is evident that they struggled with their unique geographical and cultural displacement. In each of these cases economics is shown to be a driving force behind the disorientation endured by the slaves taken to the New World.