African Slavery in the New World

1. Defining Diaspora in a New World Context 2. Europe, Africa and Slavery in the Americas - why Africa? 3. Ideological Basis of Slavery - racing the “Other” 4. Slavery in the Caribbean, the US South and Canada - some major distinctions

Definition of Diaspora Greek verb “to disperse”: dia (through) and speirein (sow/scatter); The migration of a community through forced or self-willed exile and the efforts of that community to recreate “home” in new geographic spaces; Diaspora implies exile or bondage and the promise of return.

James Clifford “The term “diaspora” is a signifier not simply of transnationality and movement but of political struggles to define the local, as distinctive community, in historical contexts of displacement …. Diaspora cultures thus mediate, in a lived tension, the experiences of separation and entanglement, of living here and remembering/desiring another place” (Routes 252, 255)

Diaspora as cyclical relationship PastHistoryPresentCitizenshipFuture Promise of Return

James Clifford “In diaspora experience …. linear history is broken, the present constantly shadowed by a past that is also a desired, but obstructed future: a renewed painful yearning.” (Routes 264)

James Clifford “For black Atlantic diaspora consciousness, the recurring break where time stops and restarts is the Middle Passage. Enslavement and its aftermaths—displaced, repeated structures of racialization and exploitation— constitute a pattern of black experiences inextricably woven in the fabric of hegemonic modernity.” (Routes 264)

Stuart Hall “The paradox is that it was the uprooting of slavery and transportation and the insertion into the plantation economy (as well as the symbolic economy) of the Western world that ‘unified’ these peoples across their differences, in the same moment as it cut them off from direct access to their past.” (“Cultural Identity and Diaspora” 227)

Columbus in Context 1. Disintegration of feudal system 2. Bankruptcy of European monarchies 3. Rise of Islam 4. Emergence of theory of mercantilism

Triangular Trade

Sources of Slave Labour 1. Indigenous populations 2. European indentured labourers 3. African slaves

Africa as the source of slave labour was encouraged by existing conditions 1. Experimentation in sugar production off the West African coast; 2. Existing African systems of servitude; 3. Thriving overland Islamic slave trade; 4. European forts serving colonies off the coast; 5. Powerful and centralized African states

Adu Boahen “African scholars and politicians today must be honest and admit that the enslavement and sale of Africans from the seventeenth century onwards was done by the Africans themselves, especially the coastal kings and their elders, and that very few Europeans actually ever marched inland and captured slaves themselves. Africans became enslaved mainly through four ways: first, criminals sold by the chiefs as punishment; secondly, free Africans obtained from raids by African and a few European gangs; thirdly, domestic slaves resold, and fourthly; prisoners of war." (Topics In West African History 110).

Joseph Inikori “It is a mistake to talk of Africans exporting Africans or ‘African leaders’ exporting Africans In the Atlantic slave trade. There were no ‘African leaders in the 18th century. There were Asante leaders, Dahomean leaders, Oyo leaders, Kongo leaders, Benin leaders, and so on. The concept of pan-Africanism is a twentieth-century phenomenon; people on the continent and those transported abroad knew Nothing of such in the 18th century.” (“‘Wonders of Africa’ and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade” 1-2)

The Life of Gustavus Vassa “I could now speak English tolerably well, and perfectly understood everything that was said. I not only felt myself quite easy with these new countrymen, but relished their society and manners. I no longer looked upon them as spirits, but as men superior to us; and therefore I had the stronger desire to resemble them, to imbibe their spirit, and imitate their manners” (80-81).

Racial stereotypes in response to slavery 1. Sambo/Quashie/Uncle Tom 2. Mammy 3. Buck/Black Brute/Nat 4. Jezebel 5. Coon 6. Sapphire

Uncle Tom Caricature

The Little Black Sambo

Mammy Caricature

Caricature of the Black Brute

Nat Turner Revolt The 19th century popularization of the Nat stereotype (another form of the black brute) emerged, in response to the bloody insurrection led by Nat Turner on August 21, 1831, in Virginia.

Jezebel Stereotype

Coon Caricature

Sapphire Caricature

Mychal Massie on Michelle Obama “This country has made it possible for Michelle Obama to enjoy every privilege she and her family enjoy. Compared to the eloquent grace of Jackie Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and yes, even Rosalind Carter, she portrays herself as just another angry black harridan who spits in the face of the nation that made her rich, famous and prestigious” WorldNetDaily, February 26, 2008.

Slavery in the Americas: Some Distinctions 1. Size of slave production 2. Ratio of whites to blacks 3. Relationship to Africa