COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS

COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS
A WORLD WIDE INSTITUTION THAT HAS PERSISTED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME

A DEFINITION Slavery Earliest Records
Refers to a situation where one human being is considered to be the property of another A situation where a person is obligated to perform tasks for their owner without any choice involved Earliest Records Contracts from Sumer, Akkad, Babylon Code of Hammurabi (ca BC) Elaborate rules, descriptions Clearly slavery is an established institution

DOCUMENTS Contract for the Sale of a Slave, Reign of Rim-Sin, c BCE Sini-Ishtar has bought a slave, Ea-tappi by name, from Ilu-elatti, and Akhia, his son, and has paid ten shekels of Silver, the price agreed. Ilu-elatti, and Akhia, his son, will not set up a future claim on the slave. In the presence of Ilu-iqisha, son of Likua; in the presence of Ilu-iqisha, son of Immeru; in the presence of Likulubishtum, son of Appa, the scribe, who sealed it with the seal of the witnesses. The tenth of Kisilimu, the year when Rim-Sin, the king, overcame the hostile enemies. Hammurabi’s Code, c BCE 175. If a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry the daughter of a free man, and children are born, the master of the slave shall have no right to enslave the children of the free. 176. If, however, a State slave or the slave of a freed man marry a man's daughter, and after he marries her she bring a dowry from a father's house, if then they both enjoy it and found a household, and accumulate means, if then the slave die, then she who was free born may take her dowry, and all that her husband and she had earned; she shall divide them into two parts, one-half the master for the slave shall take, and the other half shall the free-born woman take for her children. If the free-born woman had no gift she shall take all that her husband and she had earned and divide it into two parts; and the master of the slave shall take one-half and she shall take the other for her children.

UNFREE LABOR IN THE FOUNDATIONS PERIOD
ALL LABOR WAS TO A GREATER OR LESSER DEGREE UNFREE

ANCIENT MEDITERREAN CULTURES
Slavery in ancient cultures was known to occur in civilizations Ancient Sumer All Mesopotamian cultures including the Persians The ancient Hebrews had been slaves and kept slaves Nomadic cultures kept slaves Ancient Egypt and Nubia Greece Mycenaean Greece had slaves as indicated by Homer and Hesiod Plato and Aristotle discuss it as it was widely accepted 30% of the population even in “democratic” city states were slaves Helots of Messina enslaved by Spartans; numbered 70% of population Rome and its empire Up to 1/3 of its population was slaves: warfare produced large markets, demand Recorded in legal documents, literature, art, and religious scripture Mine and galley slaves, agricultural slaves on plantations, gladiators, urban slaves Many tutors were slaves, paid a wage and could purchase their freedom Types Debt-slavery Punishments for crimes Enslavement of prisoners of war Child abandonment Birth of slaves to children

DOCUMENTS Aristotle: The Politics---On Slavery, c. 330 BCE
Let us first speak of master and slave, looking to the needs of practical life and also seeking to attain some better theory of their relation than exists at present. And so, in the arrangement of the family, a slave is a living possession, and property a number of such instruments; and the slave is himself an instrument which takes precedence of all other instruments.....The master is only the master of the slave; he does not belong to him, whereas the slave is not only the slave of his master, but wholly belongs to him. Hence we see what is the nature and office of a slave; he who is by nature not his own but another's man, is by nature a slave; and he may be said to be another's man who, being a human being, is also a possession. Plautus, Menaechmi, Act V, 220 CE Messenio, a slave, soliloquizes: Well, this is the proof of a good servant: he must take care of his master's business, look after it, arrange it, think about it; when his master is away, take care of it diligently just as much as if his master were present, or be even more careful. He must take more care of his back than his appetite, his legs than his stomach---if he's got a good heart. Just let him think what those good-for-nothings get from their masters---lazy, worthless fellows that they are. Stripes, fetters, the mill, weariness, hunger, bitter cold---fine pay for idleness. That's what I'm mightily afraid of. Surely, then, it's much better to be good than to be bad. I don't mind tongue lashings, but I do hate real floggings. I'd rather eat meal somebody else grinds, than eat what I grind myself. So I just obey what my master bids me; and I execute orders carefully and diligently. My obedience, I think, is such as is most for the profit of my back. And it surely does pay!

ANCIENT ASIA-PACIFIC The Greek historian Arrian writes in his book Indica: "This also is remarkable in India, that all Indians are free, and no Indian at all is a slave. In this the Indians agree with the Lacedaemonians. Yet the Lacedaemonians have Helots for slaves, who perform the duties of slaves; but the Indians have no slaves at all, much less is any Indian a slave.“ With regard to castes, this state is both true and false Castes performed the same functions as slavery but were not slavery The big difference is they are not owned by another but they have societal obligations These castes are not free to change their obligations or avoid them without problems Yet estimated 8 – 10 million slaves in India in 1840 East Asia Ancient China? Shang and Zhou had slaves but the importance declined Slavery as an institution waxes and wanes in Chinese history Peasants in Chinese history were often little better than serfs Owed regular labor and taxes to the state and to their landlords Slavery did however exist and was common until 1910 Ancient Korea? Almost all professionals were slaves During Joeson Dynasty (1392 – 1910) 30 – 60% of population were slaves Slavery was a form of punishment and hereditary Different categories of slaves including government owned, privately owned Government often gave slaves to elite as gifts Slaves could be inherited as property Southeast Asia and Polynesia A large slave class existed in the Khmer Empire and built Angkor Wat Many Siamese, Burmese provinces largely slave Slaves kept amongst most Malayo-Polynesian societies Hawaiians were a casted society with a slave class (outcast), some were sacrificed

DOCUMENTS Yu Hyongwon, Korean Confucian Court Scholar, late 17th century, Treatise on Slaves “I found that the name for slave first appeared when criminals were confiscated and enrolled as slaves for crimes they had committed. There was never a law in ancient times where someone innocent of a crime was forced to become a slave. In addition, the ancients never the penalty of those who had been enslaved for crimes to their descendants; how much less so if they were innocent of the crime.” Baron de Montesquieu, French philosophe, 1748 “At Aceh (Sumatra), everyone is for selling himself. Some of the chief lords have no less than a thousand slaves, all principal merchants, who have a great number of slaves themselves.

ANCIENT AMERICAS In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica
The most common forms of slavery were prisoners-of-war, debtors People unable to repay a debt could be sentenced to work as a slave Wars were common and prisoners of war had their uses in society, religion Warfare was important to the Aztec, Maya society Wars on surrounding areas provided the victims required for human sacrifice The Aztecs developed ceremonial wars called Flower Wars to acquire slaves for sacrifice Most victims of human sacrifice were prisoners of war or slaves Slaves also built temples 84,000 people were sacrificed at 1487 temple inauguration Slavery was not usually hereditary Children of slaves were born free Mayans over-slaving may have caused their own collapse In the Inca Empire Workers were subject to mita: they paid by work for the state Each ayllu decided which family member did the work It is unclear if this labor draft/corvée counts as slavery Slave-owning societies of the New World The Tehuelche of Patagonia The Comanche of Texas The Caribs of Dominica The Tupinambá of Brazil The fishing societies that lived along the coast from what is now Alaska to California The Pawnee, The Klamath Many of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast The Haida and Tlingit were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders Slavery was hereditary and most slaves descended from prisoners of war About a quarter of the population were slaves

SLAVERY AND RELIGIONS Slavery and the Jews Slavery and Christianity
It is condoned, even expected at times in the Torah Jews themselves were enslaved by the Egyptians Prisoners of war were frequently enslaved Debt bondage was another commons source for slavery It was illegal however to kidnap people for enslavement After six years of work, a slave was to be manumitted Slaves were freed every 50 years; could buy their freedom Slave trade was discouraged as was selling children Torah requires slaves to be treated fairly Slaves could not be forcibly converted to Judaism Slavery and Christianity The Old Testament sanctions slavery The New Testament does not condemn it Pro-slavers and anti-slavery forces both used Bible to support their causes Paul’s Letter to Philemon, 1st Corinthians: manumit your slaves! Essences, who were likely close to early Christians denounced slavery Many of the first converts to Christianity were slaves

DOCUMENTS Exodus 21 Paul’s Letter to Philemon
When you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall be given his freedom without cost. If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him. But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall remain the master's property and the man shall leave alone. If, however, the slave declares, 'I am devoted to my master and my wife and children; I will not go free,‘ his master shall bring him to God and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever. “When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do. But if her master, who had destined her for himself, dislikes her, he shall let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreigner, since he has broken faith with her. If he destines her for his son, he shall treat her like a daughter. Paul’s Letter to Philemon I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment, who was once useless to you but is now useful to (both) you and me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord. So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

CONTINUITIES FROM THE FOUNDATIONS PERIOD
CASTE LABOR

CASTES DEFINED Castes Most famous examples A rigid social-labor system
Defined social culture and social class including dress, entertainment In many cultures different castes spoke different languages or dialects of the same language Predetermined occupation, proscribed occupations – no choice in occupation Caste is inherited: changing of social status legally prohibited Legally proscribed endogamy Discouraged miscegenation Political power was a reserved right of one caste Legally defined social hierarchy set by law codes governing all aspects of life Often based on religious scripture and traditions Often based on skin color and ethnic heritage Origin of the word From Latin castus "pure, cut off, segregated“ Term applied to Hindu social groups in 17th century Comes from the Portuguese casta "breed, race, caste" First used by the Portuguese to describe inherited class Most famous examples Indian Varna-Jati system Mayan caste system Spanish-Portuguese colonial caste system

THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM
The Indian or Hindu Caste System The most famous of the caste systems and extremely complex It seems to have originated with the Indo-Aryan invasion (warriors, priests, herders) The system evolved where the Dravidians became dasas or enemies, conquered ones While Aryans were fairer skinned, the Dravidians were very dark skinned The Hindus do not speak of castes but varnas Varna comes from the Sanskrit word for color The Brahmins (teachers, scholars and priests) The Kshatriyas (kings, warriors and all positions of public administration) The Vaishyas (agriculturists , herders, merchants, and traders) Shudras (service providers , semi-skilled, unskilled laborers – do not own land) Each caste has caste duties and restrictions called dharma Jatis Within each varna are jatis or sub-groups based on occupation: there are thousands of jatis Jatis can also be religious or geographical in nature Surnames denote jatis: Gandhi means “green grocer” or Srivastava means “military scribe” Dalits (Pariah, Outcaste) Originally included foreigners, tribal peoples, nomads who were considered ritually unpure Excluded from society Colonial rule (British) may have intensified stratification, lessened any mobility Caste System Among Non-Hindus Jains, Buddhists deny caste but converts brought caste with them Some Buddhists deny ahimsa – other Buddhists relegate them to a caste type system Although Jains deny caste their jaats (jatis) have similar rules as a caste Christians and Muslims often could not avoid the caste system Converts to these faiths usually came from specific groups, geographies More than 70% of Christians are Dalits but Catholics in Goa and Kerala came from higher caste groups Arabs who settled in India have a higher caste than local converts – there is even an untouchable Muslim caste

SKIN COLOR AND CASTE

IT’S A RELIGIOUS THING

DOCUMENTS Manu Samhita (Law of Manu), Chapter 1, 87 – 91 , c. 200 CE
But in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent one, assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet. To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda), sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and accepting (of alms). The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures; the Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and to cultivate land. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes Arrian: The Anabasis of Alexander, Book VIII India, first century CE The Indians generally are divided into seven castes. Those called the wise men are less in number than the rest, but chiefest in honor and regard. For they are under no necessity to do any bodily labor; nor to contribute from the results of their work to the common store. Then next to these come the farmers, these being the most numerous class of Indians; they have no use for warlike arms or warlike deeds, but they till the land; and they pay the taxes to the kings and to the cities.The third class of Indians are the herdsmen, pasturers of sheep and cattle, and these dwell neither by cities nor in the villages. They are nomads and get their living on the hillsides, and they pay taxes from their animals. The fourth class is of artisans and shopkeepers; these are workers, and pay tribute from their works, save such as make weapons of war; these are paid by the community. The fifth class of Indians is the soldiers' class, next after the farmers in number. They practice military pursuits only. Their weapons others forge for them, and again others provide horses; others too serve in the camps, those who groom their horses and polish their weapons, guide the elephants, and keep in order and drive the chariots. The sixth class of Indians are those called overlookers. They oversee everything that goes on in the country or in the cities; and this they report to the King, where the Indians are governed by kings, or to the authorities, where they are independent. The seventh class is those who deliberate about the community together with the King, or, in such cities as are self-governing, with the authorities. To marry out of any class is unlawful -- nor must the same man practise two pursuits; nor change from one class into another, as to turn farmer from shepherd, or shepherd from artisan.

HISTORY OF CASTES Casted societies are not limited to India In Europe
Ancient Greece Ancient Greek society was divided into free people and slaves Only free, land owning, native-born men could be citizens Only citizens were entitled to full protection of the law in a Greek polis Spartan helots were best example: permanently enserfed population Ancient Rome Original Roman society had patricians and plebeians Only patricians could hold offices of state Patricians and plebeians could not intermarry Medieval Society In medieval Europe, the estates of the realm were a caste system The population was divided into nobility, clergy, and the commoner Commoners were divided into burghers, peasants or serfs, and the estateless Originally based on occupation, estate became inherited, low social mobility In Africa Africa has casted societies based on tribes, occupations, and religions Osu caste systems in Nigeria, Cameroon derived from indigenous religious beliefs, discriminate against "Osus" people as "owned by deities" and outcasts Mande societies in West Africa have caste systems divided by occupation and ethnic ties. The Mande caste system regards the jonow slave castes as inferior. Wolof and Fulani caste system in Senegal are divided into three main groups, the freeborn nobles, slaves and slave descendants, the outcast people of caste. Sahrawi-Moorish society in Northwest Africa has tribal castes with the Hassane warrior tribes ruling and extracting tribute from the subservient tribes. Although lines were blurred by intermarriage and tribal re-affiliation, the Hassane were considered descendants of the Arab Maqil tribe Beni Hassan, and held power over Sanhadja Berber-descended zawiya (religious) and znaga (servant) tribes. The so-called Haratin lower class, largely sedentary oasis-dwelling black people, have been considered natural slaves. Where different groups exist and skin color is a factor, caste is common

CASTES IN ASIA-PACIFIC
Caste in China The 2nd Warring States or Three Kingdoms Period (220 – 589 CE) The Southern and Northern Dynasties showed such a high level of polarization Northerners and Southerners referred to each other as barbarians Southerners were often not racially Chinese but Sinicized Hill peoples who wrote in Chinese Several dynasties of Northern and especially Southern China (the East Jin, Song, Qi), had a social configuration divided mainly into two classes in along political and cultural lines The dominant noble class, Shizu (literally "Noble Family") controlled most of the government offices and functions in the court. Most of the time they also had kinship ties to the Emperor The other class, Hanmen ("The Austere Family") were largely excluded from all aspects of political, cultural life The Mongol Yuan Dynasty Yuan subjects were divided into four castes Northern Han Chinese occupied the second-lowest caste Southern Han Chinese occupied the lowest one Ancient Hawaii was a caste society People were born into specific social classes; social mobility extremely rare Ali’i, the royal suuwop class This class consisted of the high and lesser chiefs of the realms They governed with divine power called mana Kahuna, the priestly and professional class Priests conducted religious ceremonies, at the heiau and elsewhere Professionals included master carpenters, boat builders, chanters, dancers, genealogists, physicians, healers Maka’inana, the commoner class Commoners farmed, fished, performed simpler crafts They labored not only for themselves and their families, but to support the chiefs and kahuna. Kauwa, the outcast or slave class They are believed to have been war captives, or the descendants of war captives Marriage between higher castes and the kauwa was strictly forbidden The kauwa worked for the chiefs and were often used as human sacrifices

CASTES IN THE AMERICAS Amerindian Societies
Inca, Maya, Aztec, and other societies were casted The major difference was between Ruling elite (priest, warrior, ruler) Peasants and slaves Merchants (if they existed) and artisans formed an intermediate group Intermarriage was prohibited and occupations determined by your caste Portuguese and Spanish Casted Colonial Societies Reasons for the Development of Casted Society (called castas) Iberian societies were strongly feudal, hierarchical and rigid in social outlook Transplanted to Americas as it had been used with conquered Iberian Muslims After the 1520 conquest, miscegenation between European, Indian occurred With the arrival of Africans, a similar pattern also occurred Iberians developed social system based on racial hierarchies Peninsulares: Whites born in Europe, come to Americas as senior colonial officials Creoles: Whites born in the Americas to parents of European descent Indians formed the second most numerous race in the Iberian colonies Mestizos: People of mixed European-Indian descent Castizo: People with one mestizo and one Spanish parent Cholos or Coyotes: people with one mestizo and one Indian parent Mulattos or Pardos: people with one European and one African parent Morisco: people with one Mulatto and one European parent Albino: one Morisco and one European parent Zambos: mixed Indian and African descent Negros: Africans

MAYAN CASTES

CASTAS IN PRACTICE Livelihood and Location
Whites Tended to prefer mid-latitude climates, taking Indian lands to ranch Peninsulares lived almost exclusively in the capital cities Creoles migrated between their urban town homes and their ranching haciendas Neither group could be an artisan or handle cash as it would impact social status Mestizos Tended to live in urban settings, towns near whites Had a monopoly on small commerce, artisans in colonies Africans, Mulattos Tended to live in lower altitude, hot and humid climates Their occupations were related to plantations, heavy labor, portage Mulattos were the intermediaries between Whites, Mestizos, Blacks Indians Tended to retreat to marginalized lands not good for plantations, too high Primary occupation was farming, weaving Mestizos were the intermediaries between Indian elites and whites All had distinctive, different clothing, language, entertainment The best documents to study on this are caste paintings

VERTICAL ZONATION Castes by Geography

CASTE PAINTINGS Español con India, Mestizo
Mestizo con Española, Castizo Castiza con Español, Española Español con Negra, Mulato Mulato con Española, Morisca Morisco con Española, Chino Chino con India, Salta atrás Salta atras con Mulata, Lobo Lobo con China, Gíbaro (Jíbaro) Gíbaro con Mulata, Albarazado Albarazado con Negra, Cambujo Cambujo con India, Sambiaga (Zambiaga) Sambiago con Loba, Calpamulato Calpamulto con Cambuja, Tente en el aire Tente en el aire con Mulata, No te entiendo No te entiendo con India, Torna atrás

UNFREE LABOR FROM THE POST-CLASSICAL TO THE MODERN PERIOD
SLAVERY

SLAVERY AND ISLAM Slavery predates Islam in Arabia
The nomadic Arab tribes kept slaves Majority of slaves were Ethiopian in origin Minority were Caucasian origin Slaves bought from Ethiopians, Byzantines, Persians Abandoned children, kidnapping, sale of children permitted Two types: children born to slaves, purchased slaves Some females were bought and prostituted The Quran and Slavery Muhammad, His Companions bought, sold, traded slaves Multiple references to slaves, slave women, concubinage Also discusses kindness towards slaves, manumission Accepts the institution of slavery The word 'abd' (slave) is rarely used More common ma malakat aymanukum ("that which your right hands own") Lawful enslavement for unbelief, prisoners of war, birth in slavery Cannot enslave a Muslim but not required to manumit a convert Yet Islamic lands were the last to abolish slavery In 18th century one-fifth of inhabitants of Istanbul were slaves Slave markets in the Muslim world existed until late 19th and early 20th centuries Many Muslim states did not abolish slavery until the mid-20th century Even today Interpol keeps statistics on slaves in Muslim lands Most common type of slave today is the concubine and the camel-boy jockey

Early Arab Slave Trade The oldest of the slave trades: 14 centuries to 4 centuries Avoid using the term Muslim for a trade which predates Islam Began middle of 7th century ; exists today in Sudan, Mauretania The Muslim Arabs took control of the Classical Slave Trade Pre-Islamic Slave Trade Upper Nile Slave Trade out of Nubia: slaves shipped to Egypt Ethiopian slaves shipped across Red Sea to Arab ports From cities such as Mecca and Medina, slaves moved to Fertile Crescent Two of the first martyrs of Islam were Ethiopian slaves Sumayyah bint Khabbab: she was killed when she failed to renounce Islam Bilal was tortured by his master for his acceptance of Islam This slave trade drew most of its people from Africa To 9th Century C.E. The Early Muslim Expansion Muslims allowed to enslave infidels, apostates, polytheists, prisoners of war War booty of expanding Muslims included rights to slaves Initial Roles of Slaves Plantation or agricultural work in some areas Slaves generally directed towards service work in urban areas Sign of wealth, respect to own a slave Early Slave Revolts Late 9th century Zanj Rebellion in Iraq Many historic episodes

SLAVERY AND AFRICA Elikia M’bokolo, African historian, from April 1998 interview with Le Monde Diplomatique. "The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth). Four million slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean" 500 to 750 CE Islam expelled Byzantines from North Africa, Egypt isolating the Christian states in Nubia, Ethiopia Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north Islam moved southwards along Nile, along desert trails into Nubia where it was resisted by the Christians It moved westward along the coast of Africa (called the Maghreb or West) The Sahara was thinly populated But there had been city-oases living on a trade in salt, gold, slaves, cloth, and agriculture enabled by irrigation They were ruled by Arab, Berber, Fulani, Hausa and Tuaregs. Their independence was relative and depended on the power of the Maghrebi (Morocco) and Egyptian states Africa During the Post-Classical Age Sub-Saharan Africa West Africa was called bilad es sudan in Arabic, meaning land of the Blacks This constituted the Sahel region running from the Atlantic to modern Sudan It provided a pool of manual labor for North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Saharan Africa Region was dominated by certain states: Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu In Eastern Africa The coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were controlled by native Muslims, Arabs were important as traders The blending of the Arab and Bantu cultures would produce the Swahili Civilization Nubia and Ethiopia had been a "supply zone" for slaves since Ancient times – it continued to be one The Ethiopian coast particularly the port of Massawa and Dahlak Archipelago Had long been a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior even in Aksumite times Most coastal areas were largely Muslim and the port itself was home to a number of Arab and Indian merchants The interior remained Christian and warred with the Muslims of Somalia, the Ogden Desert and Eritrea

AFRICA, 975 – 1450 CE

DOCUMENTS The 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz, an Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj (Bantu)slave, wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan ("Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites"), in which he stated that Blacks: "...have conquered the country of the Arabs as far as Mecca and have governed them. We defeated Dhu Nowas (Jewish King of Yemen) and killed all the Himyarite princes, but you, White people, have never conquered our country. Our people, the Zenghs (Negroes) revolted forty times in the Euphrates, driving the inhabitants from their homes and making Oballah a bath of blood. Blacks are physically stronger than no matter what other people. A single one of them can lift stones of greater weight and carry burdens such as several Whites could not lift nor carry between them. They (Zanj) are brave, strong, and generous as witness their nobility and general lack of wickedness." Al-Jahiz also stated in his Kitab al-Bukhala ("Avarice and the Avaricious") that: "The Zanj say to the Arabs: You are so ignorant that during the jahiliyya you regarded us as your equals when it came to marrying Arab women, but with the advent of the justice of Islam you decided this practice was bad. Yet the desert is full of Zanj married to Arab wives, and they have been princes and kings and have safeguarded your rights and sheltered you against your enemies. You have never seen the genuine Zanj. You have only seen captives who came from the coasts and forests and valleys of Qanbuluh, from our menials, our lower orders, and our slaves. The people of Qanbaluh have neither beauty nor intelligence. Qanbaluh is the name of the place by which your ships anchor.."

AFRICAN SLAVERY Slavery in African cultures
More like indentured servitude Slaves were not chattel nor enslaved for life Slaves were paid wages, able to accumulate property Could buy own freedom, could achieve social promotion Some even rose to the status of kings Little difference between slaves, free peasants, feudal vassals Used primarily in agriculture; paid tribute in crops and services Slaves were more an occupational caste as bondage was relative But ownership of slaves was a sign of wealth and influence Ethiopian and Eritrean slavery were essentially domestic Slaves served in the houses and were not employed to any significant extent for productive purpose. Slaves regarded as second-class members of their owners' family: they were fed, clothed, protected Slaves generally roamed around freely and conducted business as free people Slaves had complete freedom of religion and culture Women were taken as sex slaves Slaving in Africa: Those Who Sold and Those Who Captured Ashanti of Ghana and the Yoruba of Nigeria had economies largely depending on the trade Many like Nyamwezi of Tanzania served as intermediaries making war to capture Africans The Slave Trade out of Africa Berbers and Arabs: controlled the flow of slaves out of Africa in North Africa and East Africa Europeans Europeans could not work for long in many parts of Africa due to the deadly diseases which killed them Europeans had to rely on native rulers, states to obtain slaves European officials in Africa often supported, installed rulers agreeable to their interests They favored one African group against another to deliberately ignite chaos and continue their slaving activities

HOW WIDESPREAD WAS SLAVERY?
Slavery and Select African States In Senegambia between 1300 and 1900, close to one-third of the population was enslaved Ghana, Mali, Songhai about a third of the population were slaves In Sierra Leone in the 19th century about half of the population consisted of slaves In the 19th century: ½ the population enslaved among Duala, Igbo, kongo, Kasanje, Chokwe Among the Ashanti and Yoruba a third of the population consisted of slaves The population of the Kanem (1600–1800) was about a third-slave It was perhaps 40% in Bornu (1580–1890) Between 1750/1900 from 1/3 to 2/3 of entire population of Fulani jihad states consisted of slaves ½ population of Sokoto formed by Hausas in the northern Nigeria was slave in 19th century Between 65% to 90%population of Arab-Swahili Zanzibar was enslaved. Roughly half the population of Madagascar was enslaved Towns and ports involved in the slave trade North Africa: Tanger (Morocco); Marrakesh (Morocco) Algiers (Algeria); Tripoli (Libya) Cairo (Egypt) ; Aswan (Egypt) West Africa Aoudaghost (Mauritania) Timbuktu (Mali); Gao (Mali); Bilma (Niger) East Africa: Bagamoyo (Tanzania) ; Zanzibar (Tanzania); Kilwa (Tanzania) Sofala (Beira, Mozambique) Horn of Africa Assab (Eritrea) ; Massawa (Eritrea) ; Nefasit (Eritrea) Zeila (Somalia) ; Mogadishu (Somalia) Arabian peninsula Mecca (Saudi Arabia) ; Zabid (Yemen); Muscat (Oman); Aden (Yemen) Socotra (Indian Ocean)

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADE
The Trade Focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa People traded were not limited to a certain color, ethnicity, or religion Included Arabs and Berbers especially in its early days. Later during 8th, 9th centuries Most of the slaves were Slavic Eastern Europeans, Scandinavians People from surrounding Mediterranean areas especially Christians from Iberia, Italy Persians, Turks, peoples from the Caucasus mountain regions Black African origins. Later toward the 18t h and 19th centuries slaves increasingly came from East Africa Characteristics Women favored over men: 2 to 1 is estimate Slaves used primarily as urban, domestic slaves especially porters, households, concubines Lesser numbers used as agricultural, plantation slaves, eunuchs, slave soldiers The Numbers 11 to 18 million black African slaves crossed Red Sea, Indian Ocean, Sahara Between 9.4 to 14 million Africans went to the Americas in Atlantic trade Out of Europe: 15th to 19th Century Berber, Arab pirates controlled North Africa Their ships raided coasts, captured ships: later suppressed by US, UK in late 1810s Miguel Cervantes was the most famous of these slaves Between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans enslaved (“White Slaves”) Ottoman Turks, Tartars of Black Sea sold hundreds of thousands into trade

DOCUMENTS In 14th century North Africa, the Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote in his Muqaddimah: When the conquest of the West (by the Arabs) was completed, and merchants began to penetrate into the interior, they saw no nation of the Blacks so mighty as Ghana, the dominions of which extended westward as far as the Ocean. The King's court was kept in the city of Ghana, which, according to the author of the Book of Roger (El Idrisi), and the author of the Book of Roads and Realms (El Bekri), is divided into two parts, standing on both banks of the Nile, and ranks among the largest and most populous cities of the world. The people of Ghana had for neighbors, on the east, a nation, which, according to historians, was called Susu; after which came another named Mali; and after that another known by the name of Kaukau ; although some people prefer a different orthography, and write this name Kagho. The last-named nation was followed by a people called Tekrur. The people of Ghana declined in course of time, being overwhelmed or absorbed by the Mulaththemun (or muffled people; that is, the Murabites), who, adjoining them on the north towards the Berber country, attacked them, and, taking possession of their territory, compelled them to embrace the Muslim religion. The people of Ghana, being invaded at a later period by the Susu, a nation of Blacks in their neighborhood, were exterminated, or mixed with other Black nations. From these interactions and conquest arose a slave trade with the interior of Africa along the Sahel region.

ARAB SLAVE TRADE OUT OF AFRICA
Facts about the slave trade People captured, transported, bought, sold by many actors The trade passed through a series of intermediaries Enriched both local Muslim aristocracy and Arab merchants Slavery fed on wars between African peoples and states Moroccan conquest of Ghana, rise of African Muslim states began process Wars gave rise to an internal slave trade The conquered owed tribute in form of men, women reduced to captivity In the 8th and 9th centuries CE Caliphs tried to colonize African shores of the Indian Ocean Merchants and governments initiated commercial purposes. Sultans in Cairo sent slave traffickers on raids Against the Christian Nubian states Against the Black pagan villages of Darfur The Trade of Slaves out of Africa Supply Zones vs Ports or Portals Supply zones were areas where merchants obtained slaves Ethiopia, Nubia, Darfur, Interiors of East Africa Transition zones along Sahel and West African forests Slaves were then shipped to a port or portal to leave region Caravans left sahel cities: Timbuktu, Gao Journeyed from oasis to oasis across Sahara to Mediterranean ports Swahili Ports to Red Sea Ports or to Persian Gulf or to India Slaves used to carry goods on caravans; they were then sold, too Slave Markets in Market Towns of Key Cities Slaves were often bartered for objects of various different kinds In the Sudan: they were exchanged for cloth, jewelry, iron artifacts, salt In the Maghreb, they were swapped for horses In the desert cities, lengths of cloth, pottery, Venetian glass beads, dyestuffs, jewels The trade in black slaves was part of a diverse commercial network Even gold coins and cowrie shells were used as money

Salt, gold, & slaves across the Sahara
INTERRELATED TRADES Salt, gold, & slaves across the Sahara

Later Arab Slave Trade Comparisons with Atlantic Slavery
Slaves in Muslim lands had a certain legal status Had obligations to as well as rights over the slave owner Slavery recognized, elaborately regulated by Sharia law Emancipation of slaves was recommended but not compulsory Slaves tended to be used as soldiers, servants and not for agriculture Position of the domestic slave in Muslim society was in most respects better than in either classical antiquity or the nineteenth-century Americas Economic situation of such slaves were no worse than and even in some cases better than free poor members of the same society.[ Political Power: The Slave Soldier Examples Arab sultans used slave soldiers Came to favor Turkish slaves Mameluks in Post-Classical Arab World Slave soldiers Often of Turkish, Slavic, Circassian origins Slaves converted to Islam and served the sultan Over time became a powerful military caste within Islam The Ghulams of Persia were another example The Turkish Janissaries were the last example The army of the Sultan of Morocco was largely slave Slave Sultanates of Egypt, Delhi

DOCUMENTS James M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493
The advice of the vizier was followed; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in the Muslim religion and arms, and the new militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervish. White and black face are common and proverbial expressions of praise and reproach in the Turkish language. Such was the origin of these haughty troops, the terror of the nations. They are kept up by continual additions from the sultan's share of the captives, and by recruits, raised every five years, from the children of the Christian subjects. Small parties of soldiers, each under a leader, and each provided with a particular firman, go from place to place. Wherever they come, the protogeros assembled the inhabitants with their sons. The leader of the soldiers have the right to take away all the youth who are distinguished by beauty or strength, activity or talent, above the age of seven. He carries them to the court of the grand seignior, a tithe, as it is, of the subjects. The captives taken in war by the pashas, and presented by them to the sultan, include Poles, Bohemians, Russians, Italians, and Germans. These recruits are divided into two classes. Those who compose the one, are sent to Anatolia, where they are trained to agricultural labor, and instructed in the Muslim faith; or they are retained about the seraglio, where they carry wood and water, and are employed in the gardens, in the boats, or upon the public buildings, always under the direction of an overseer, who with a stick compels them to work. The others, in whom traces of a higher character are discernible, are placed in one of the four seraglios of Adrianople or Galata, or the old or new one at Constantinople. Here they are lightly clad in linen or in cloth of Saloniki, with caps of Prusa cloth. Teachers come every morning, who remain with them until evening, and teach them to read and write. Those who have performed hard labor are made Janizaries. Those who are educated in the seraglios become spahis or higher officers of state. Both classes are kept under a strict discipline. The former especially are accustomed to privation of food, drink, and comfortable clothing and to hard labor. They are exercised in shooting with the bow and arquebuse by day, and spend the night in a long, lighted hall, with an overseer, who walks up and down, and permits no one to stir. When they are received into the corps of the Janizaries, they are placed in cloister-like barracks, in which the different odas or ortas live so entirely in common that the military dignitaries are called from their soups and kitchens. Here not only the younger continue to obey the elders in silence and submission, but all are governed with such strictness that no one is permitted to spend the night abroad, and whoever is punished is compelled to kiss the hand of him who inflicts the punishment.

20TH CENTURY SUPPRESSION
The 19th Century No slavery abolitionist movement in Muslim world Abolition within Muslim world fueled by Western abolitionism But as Westerners abolished slavery, demand for slaves rose Many Muslims protested, resisted as slavery was allowed in Sharia Since Quran was state law: what Quran permits is legal! First Abolitions European powers ended slavery in their colonioal territories Often fought wars against slavers, slavery with local Muslim rulers Sudan Madhist state, war with Oman-Zanzibar, French West Africa are examples Evidence of 19th, 20th c. Slave Trade and its suppression English travelers in Arabia noted large number of Africans Arab merchants bought, sold Chinese, Malays as slaves in East Indies Slavery permitted in Ottoman Empire until outlawed in 1908 After World War I, UK, France pressure Muslims to abolish 1925: Slaves still bought, sold in Saudi Arabia (Wahabi Influence) British pressure Saudi Arabia in 1927 to end trade Pressured Saudi Arabia to end slavery in 1936 Constant evidence that slavery exists on fringes of Muslim society

SLAVERY AND EUROPE Western, Northern, Eastern Europe
Very common at end of Classical Age St. Patrick sold as a slave only to return to Ireland Church, many rulers issued bulls, orders to end slave trade Slavery declined as serfdom spread: no need for slavery Christians could not be enslaved Influential slave trade from pagan Slavic lands to Mediterranean Word slave itself comes from sklabos meaning “Slav” Monopolized by Jews selling Slavs to Cordoba Ended with Christianization of Slavic lands Iberians had slaves, plantations on Azores, Canaries c. 1450 English Plantations in Ireland treated Irish very much like slaves Slavery in the Crusader States Crusaders in the Holy Land inherited slaves, added prisoners of war Acre became a major slave market Western Muslims (Iberia, Sicily) Constant warfare between Christians , Muslims produced prisoners of war Iberian slave trade linked into North African slave trade and routes Serfdom Compared Serfdom in medieval Europe was separate and distinct from chattel slavery Serfs were tied to the land and obliged to work the land for their lord They were not chattel property: serfs could not be bought or sold Usually could not be removed from their land, absent criminal or civil violations Could be used as soldiers which most Christians avoided doing with slaves

B LACK SEA SLAVERY The Byzantines The Vikings The Khazars
Maintained Roman definitions of slavery especially manumission, purchasing of freedom Slaves: descendants of enslaved mothers, debt slavery, prisoners of war The Vikings Kept slaves called thralls – thralls were cheaper than cattle A child born of a thrall woman was a thrall But a child born of a free woman and thrall man was free Enslaved Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Celts; used slaves to colonize Iceland Slave trade was a cornerstone of Viking Rus-Byzantine commerce Spread of Catholicism to Scandinavia ended slavery The Khazars Turkish tribe converted to Judaism, formed powerful commercial state Provided Slavic slaves to markets in Byzantine Empire, Caliphates Kievan Rus, Muscovy, and Golden Horde The slaves were usually classified as kholop Master had unlimited power over life: he could kill him, sell him, or use him as payment upon a debt The master was responsible before the law for his kholop's actions. Slavery a result of capture, selling oneself, being sold for debts, crimes, marriage to a kholop Until 10th c. the kholops represented a majority among the servants who worked lordly lands Slavery remained a major institution in Russia until 1723 1382: Golden Horde sacked Moscow, carrying off thousands of inhabitants as slaves. For centuries the Khanates made raids on Russian principalities for slaves and to plunder towns In Crimea about 75% of the population consisted of slaves The Black Sea Remained an active slaving area long after slavery abandoned in West Mongols, Tartars, Russians, Genoese, Venetians actively engaged in slave trade

DOCUMENTS Justinian’s Code, 6th century CE
We ordain that slaves, or tributaries, or inquilini shall remain with their lords. For, when, dismayed by a fear of Ioss, each landowner begins to drive away those who are unknown to him, the will to flight will not be with the slaves; for no one deserts his lord knowing that there is nowhere a refuge for him as a fugitive. But either each one will employ those known to be free men, or will dismiss him who feigns freedom, fearing that he will be liable to those punishments which are ordained by the law. If, therefore, any known fugitive be found anywhere, his detainer shall bring to our fisc twelve pounds of silver, but we decree that to him whose slave he is he shall bring another of the same value in addition to that same fugitive. Lest there be any further doubt, if any one is descended from a bondwoman and a slave or adscripticius and a female slave, who is (and this might be worse fortune) either of bond or of servile rank, we decree that those things which were provided in former laws for such offspring, born of bondwoman and freeman, shall be left in their present state, and the offspring procreated from such connection shall be of bond status. But if any one were born either of a slave and a bondwoman or of a female slave and a bondman, he should follow the condition of his mother and be of such condition as she was, either slave or bondwoman; which rule has hitherto been observed only in cases of marriage between free and servile. For what difference is evident between slaves and adscripticii when both are placed in the potestas of a lord and he is able to manumit a slave with his goods and to expel from his dominion an adscripticius with land?

BLACK SEA TRADE ROUTES

A NEW SLAVE TRADE BEGINS
State Formation and Warfare in Africa Portuguese arrived just as many cultures began large state development State formation accompanied by warfare Europeans bought slaves who were captured in warfare between African states Some Africans made a business out of capturing other Africans and selling them Enslavement became a major by-product of war in Africa Some states expanded through deliberately making war to obtain slaves for European nations Slavery formed an important element of political life which the Europeans exploited Criminals punished by enslavement became prevalent as slavery more lucrative Convicts were sold, used in local domestic slave market The Slave Trade was redirected Originally the slave trade went north into the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade Europeans provided a large new market and redirect an existing trade People living around the Niger River transported from these markets to coast Sold at European trading ports in exchange for muskets, manufactured goods The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the last two decades of the 18th century Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa On land African kings controlled the slave trade Local diseases were very deadly on Europeans Local African kings fiercely guarded their territories, slave markets The Special Case of Kongo and Ndongo (Angola) The environment in this part of Africa was hospitable to Europeans However a very powerful and old state – Kongo – dominated the area Portugal acquired slaves by cooperating with Kongo, who was frequently at war with its neighbors Portuguese alarmed by Kongo (converted to Catholicism, had large army, sent diplomats to pope) Portugal established a colony in Angola: played Kongo, its main rival Ndongo off against one another Eventually Portugal conquered Ndongo enslaving warriors, free citizens, nobility Of 50 million Africans sent into slavery, 50% died in Africa due to warfare

DOCUMENT John Wesley, founder of Methodism and abolitionist, Thoughts Upon Slavery, 1774 In what manner are they procured? Part of them by fraud. Captains of ships, from time to time, have invited Negroes to come on board, and then carried them away. But far more have been procured by force. The Christians, landing upon their coasts, seized as many as they found, men, women, and children, and transported them to America. It was about 1551 that the English began trading to Guinea; at first, for gold and elephants' teeth; but soon after, for men. In 1556, Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to Cape Verd, where he sent eighty men on shore to catch Negroes. But the natives flying, they fell farther down, and there set the men on shore, "to burn their towns and take the inhabitants." But they met with such resistance, that they had seven men killed, and took but ten Negroes. So they went still farther down, till, having taken enough, they proceeded to the West Indies and sold them. It was some time before the Europeans found a more compendious way of procuring African slaves, by prevailing upon them to make war upon each other, and to sell their prisoners. Till then they seldom had any wars; but were in general quiet and peaceable. But the white men first taught them drunkenness and avarice, and then hired them to sell one another. Nay, by this means, even their Kings are induced to sell their own subjects. So Mr. Moore, factor of the African Company in 1730, informs us: "When the King of Barsalli wants goods or brandy, he sends to the English Governor at James's Fort, who immediately sends a sloop. Against the time it arrives, he plunders some of his neighbours' towns, selling the people for the goods he wants. At other times he falls upon one of his own towns, and makes bold to sell his own subjects." So Monsieur Brue says, "I wrote to the King," (not the same,) "if he had a sufficient number of slaves, I would treat with him. He seized three hundred of his own people, and sent word he was ready to deliver them for the goods." He adds: "Some of the natives are always ready" (when well paid) "to surprise and carry off their own countrymen. They come at night without noise, and if they find any lone cottage, surround it and carry off all the people." Barbot, another French factor, says, "Many of the slaves sold by the Negroes are prisoners of war, or taken in the incursions they make into their enemies' territories. Others are stolen. Abundance of little Blacks, of both sexes, are stolen away by their neighbours, when found abroad on the road, or in the woods, or else in the corn-fields, at the time of year when their parents keep them there all day to scare away the devouring birds."

MAPPING THE SLAVE TRADE

GEOGRAPHY OF THE TRADE Where did most slaves originate
The civil war in Kongo furnished the first large amounts of slaves; Ndongo, Angola The Niger River's Igbo-inhabited region: tiny states which warred with one another West African Forest Region: the rise of Dahomey, Oyo, Ashante saw great warfare Slave Market Regions and Participation Eight principal areas used by Europeans to buy, ship slaves to Western Hemisphere The number of slaves sold to the new world varied throughout the slave trade Certain areas produced far more slaves than others Between 1650 and 1900, million African slaves arrived in the Americas Slaving Regions Senegambia (Senegal and The Gambia): 4.8% Upper Guinea (Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone): 4.1% Windward Coast (Liberia and Cote d' Ivoire): 1.8% Gold Coast (Ghana and east of Cote d' Ivoire): 10.4% Bight of Benin (Togo, Benin and Nigeria west of the Niger Delta): 20.2% Bight of Biafra (Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon): 14.6% West Central Africa (Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola): 39.4% Southeastern Africa (Mozambique and Madagascar): 4.7% Port factories After being marched to the coast for sale, slaves waited in large forts called factories Around 4.5% of deaths during the transatlantic slave trade occurred here About 820,000 people died in African ports such as Benguela, Elmina and Bonny

SLAVE TRADE REGIONS

DOCUMENTS Manikongo (King of Kongo), Nzinga Mbemba Affonso, letter to the King João III of Portugal in the 1500s “Each day the traders are kidnapping our people—children of this country, sons of our nobles and vassals, even people of our own family. This corruption and depravity are so widespread that our land is entirely depopulated. We need in this kingdom only priests and schoolteachers, and no merchandise, unless it is wine and flour for Mass. It is our wish that this Kingdom not be a place for the trade or transport of slaves. Many of our subjects eagerly lust after Portuguese merchandise that your subjects have brought into our domains. To satisfy this inordinate appetite, they seize many of our black free subjects.... They sell them. After having taken these prisoners [to the coast] secretly or at night..... As soon as the captives are in the hands of white men they are branded with a red-hot iron.” King Gezo of Dahomey said in the 1840s: “The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery…”

ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE The Atlantic Slave Trade also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade The trade of primarily African people supplied to the colonies of the New World Occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean It lasted from the 16th century to the 19th century Most slaves were shipped from West Africa and Central Africa Taken to the New World (primarily Brazil and Caribbean) Generally slaves were obtained through coastal trading with Africans Most historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12 million Africans arrived in the New World The Atlantic slave trade is divided into two eras: 1st and 2nd Atlantic Systems The First Atlantic system The trade of African slaves to, primarily,South American colonies of the Portuguese and Spanish empires; It accounted for only slightly more than 3% of all Atlantic slave trade. It started in about 1502 and lasted until 1580 when Portugal was temporarily united with Spain The Portuguese traded slaves themselves Spain relied on the asiento system awarding merchants from other countries the license to trade slaves to their colonies During the first Atlantic system most of these traders were Portuguese, giving them a near-monopoly during the era The Second Atlantic system Was the trade of African slaves by mostly English, Brazilian, French and Dutch traders The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean colonies, Brazil and North America Resulted as European countries built up economically slave-dependent colonial empires in the New World By the Numbers Slightly more than 3 percent of the slaves exported were traded between 1450 and 1600 16% percent of African slaves were exported in the 17th century More than 50% of the slaves were exported in the 18th century The remaining 28.5% in the 19th century

TRIANGULAR TRADE Initial Labor Systems in the Americas Changes
Encomienda – feudal manor concept from Iberia uses Indian serfs Mita – Indians required to work for Spanish, borrowed from Incas Bonded labor with Europeans Indian Slavery Changes For a variety of reasons Indians did not make good slaves Warfare and diseases decimated the native population Indians were not reliable, hardworking Europeans decided some Indians were worth more as allies than as slaves The Catholic Church saw them as “noble savages” waiting to be converted The Catholic Church outlawed Indian slavery and placed Indians under the protection of Rome The French and English actually made alliances with Indians Africans as Slaves Were readily available and cheaper due to an existing slave market Portuguese and Spaniards already had slave plantations using Africans on Canaries, Azores Existing import of small numbers of slaves into Europe through Lisbon Africans were acclimated to the type of labor in the type of climate prevalent in the Americas The Triangular Trade The first side of the triangle was the export of goods from Europe to Africa A number of African kings and merchants took part in the trading of slaves from 1440 to about 1900 For each captive, the African rulers would receive a variety of goods from Europe These included guns, ammunition and other factory made goods The second leg of the triangle exported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean Slaves went to slave plantations in Americas (Brazil, British North America) and the Caribbean Islands The slaves were exchanged for primary products produced in the area The goods were the products of slave-labor plantations and included cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum The third part of the triangle was the return of goods to Europe from the Americas These goods were processed into finished goods Brazil not part of the Triangular Trade as it had a basic industry producing manufactured goods

MANY TRIANGLES

MIDDLE PASSAGE TO AMERICAS
The Middle Passage After being captured, held in the factories, slaves transported to Americas Research estimates 12.5% of slaves died during the Middle Passage This is around 2.2 million Africans Africans were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces on ships for months at a time Measures were taken to stem the onboard mortality rate Enforced "dancing" (as exercise) above deck Force-feeding slaves who tried to starve themselves. Conditions on board also resulted in the spread of fatal diseases Some committed suicide by jumping over board Before trade completely ended in 1853, 15.3 million slaves arrived Seasoning camps 33% of Africans died in the first year at seasoning camps Found throughout the Caribbean Many slaves shipped directly to North America bypassed this process Slaves destined for island, South American plantations endured ordeal The slaves were tortured for the purpose of "breaking" them Many saw this as a similar process to breaking horses) Jamaica held one of the most notorious of these camps 5 million Africans died in these camps

DOCUMENTS The Life of Gustavus Vassa , by Olaudah Equiano was the first first-ever slave autobiography, using his slave name, written after he was freed and living living in England. The autobiography covers all of Equiano's life - his boyhood in the Gold Coast , his capture and transportation to the West Indies, and his success in business - a success which enabled him to buy his freedom. The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country. When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, I found some black people about me, who I believed were some of those who had brought me on board, and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and long hair. They told me I was not: and one of the crew brought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass, but, being afraid of him, I would not take it out of his hand. One of the blacks, therefore, took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, throw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to despair.

NEW WORLD DESTINATIONS
The Spanish Americas The first slaves to arrive as part of a labor force appeared in 1502 Sent to the island of Hispaniola Now Haiti and the Dominican Republic Over 300 years would receive the largest numbers of slaves Cuba received its first four slaves in 1513 Slave exports to Honduras and Guatemala started in 1526 Colombia received its first slaves in 1533 El Salvador, Costa Rica and Florida in 1541, 1563, 1581 respectively Brazil The single largest recipient of African slaves: 35.4% First slaves arrive in 1550 and in late 1600s Brazil produced most of world’s sugar French, Dutch Americas French, Dutch were late comers to slaves, plantation economies in the Americas The English Americas South Carolina Spanish tried to establish a colony in the Carolinas Original Spanish settlers brought slaves, who revolted and ran off to join Indians First African slaves arrived in January of 1526 English North America The 17th century saw an increase in shipments Slaves arrived in the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 Slaves eventually bought by Maryland, Delaware, both Carolinas, Georgia The English Caribbean and Guiana Irish immigrants brought slaves to Montserrat in 1651 In 1655, slaves arrive in Belize

THE GEOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN SLAVERY

ECONOMICS OF SLAVERY The plantation economies
Built on slave labor 70% of slaves were used to produce sugar, the most labor-intensive crop The rest were employed harvesting coffee, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and some mining The West Indian (Caribbean) colonies of the Europeans Some of their most important possessions They went to extremes to protect and retain them In 1763, France agreed to cede New France in exchange for keeping the island of Guadeloupe In 1780, UK sent whole navy to protect Barbados from French navy which blockaded Yorktown Slave trade profits Returns for the investors were not absurdly high (around 6% in France in the 18th century) But they were considerably higher than domestic alternatives New evidence today indicates much of the capital for the Industrial Revolution in UK came from sugar profits Risks were important for individual voyages Investors mitigated it by buying small shares of many ships at the same time They were able to diversify a large part of the risk away Between voyages, ship shares were freely sold and bought French St. Dominique (Haiti) The single most profitable European sugar colony in the Caribbean Probably bought more slaves than any single colony Death rate was so high and life expectancy so short that slave trade was constant Conditions were so bad that in 1791 there was a successful slave rebellion British West Indies Colonies UK entered the sugar colony business late Used British naval supremacy and control over key islands to ensure profit Jamaica, Trinidad, Leeward Islands and Barbados, British Guiana gave it an important edge A handful of individuals made small fortunes After 1791 slave rebellion in Haiti (St. Dominique), Britain had a near monopoly The British people quickly became the largest consumers West Indian sugar became ubiquitous as an additive to Indian tea

SUGAR AS CULPRIT

DOCUMENTS The Life of Gustavus Vassa by Olaudah Equiano, an ex-slave, c. 1770s Another negro man was half hanged, and then burnt, for attempting to poison a cruel overseer. Thus, by repeated cruelties, are the wretched first urged to despair, and then murdered, because they still retain so much of human nature about them as to wish to put an end to their misery, and retaliate on their tyrants. These overseers are indeed for the most part persons of the worst character of any denomination of men in the West Indies. Unfortunately, many humane gentlemen, but not residing on their estates, are obliged to leave the management of them in the hands of these human butchers, who cut and mangle the slaves in a shocking manner on the most trifling occasions, and altogether treat them in every respect like brutes, They pay no regard to the situation of pregnant women, nor the least attention to the lodging of the field negroes. Their huts, which ought to be well covered, and the place dry where they take their little repose, are often open sheds, built in damp places; so that when the poor creatures return tired from the toils of the field, they contract many disorders, from being exposed to the damp air in this uncomfortable state, while they are heated, and their pores are open. This neglect certainly conspires with many others to cause a decrease in the births as well as in the lives of the grown negroes. I can quote many instances of gentlemen who reside on their estates in the West Indies, and then the scene is quite changed; the negroes are treated with lenity and proper care, by which their lives are prolonged, and their masters profited. To the honor of humanity, I knew several gentlemen who managed their estates in this manner, and they found that benevolence was their true interest. And, among many I could mention in several of tbe islands, I knew one in Montserrat whose slaves looked remarkably well, and never needed any fresh supplies of negroes; and there are many other estates, especially in Barbados, which, from such judicious treatment, need no fresh stock of negroes at any time. I have the honor of knowing a most worthy and humane gentleman, who is a native of Barbados, and has estates there. This gentleman has written a treatise on tbe usage of his own slaves. He allows them two hours of refreshment at mid-day, and many other indulgencies and comforts, particularly in their lodging; and, besides this, he raises more provisions on his estate than they can destroy; so that by these attentions he saves the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy, and as happy as the condition of slavery can admit. I myself, as shall appear in the sequel, managed an estate, where, by those attentions, the negroes were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work by half than by the common mode of treatment they usually do. For want, therefore, of such care and attention to the poor negroes, and otherwise oppressed as they are, it is no wonder that the decrease should require 20,000 new negroes annually, to fill up the vacant places of the dead.

SLAVERY IN BRAZIL Slavery in Brazil shaped the country's social structure and ethnical landscape During the colonial epoch and until 1889 slavery was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy Slaves used in sugarcane production, coffee, cocoa, mining especially gold Brazil obtained 35.4% of all African slaves traded in the Atlantic slave trade More than 3 million slaves were sent to Brazil to work mainly on sugar cane plantations In 1889 blacks and mulattos outnumbered Europeans and Indians Around 1550, the Portuguese began to trade African slaves Indians began to die out or avoid contact with the Portuguese Catholic missions began to organize, Christianize Indians putting them outside of legal slavery Obtaining new indigenous slaves was becoming harder and harder Portugal controlled slave trade out of Africa and in Africa had sources, support of African states Portugal abolished slavery in 1780 but it continued in Portuguese colonies The Portuguese Slave Trade with Africa The Portuguese did not have a triangular trade pattern Brazil was allowed to manufacture materials or buy directly materials needed Brazil bought its slaves directly from Portuguese slavers, colonies in Africa: Angola, Mozambique The African slaves were useful for the sugar plantations They were less vulnerable to tropical diseases Slaves were owned by upper and middle classes, by the poor, and even by other slaves The benefits of using the slaves far exceeded the costs to the owners After 2-3 years, slaves repaid the cost of buying them Brazil's plantation owners made lucrative profits per year Life on the Plantations Very harsh manual labor Work on sugar cane fields involved slaves using hoes to dig large trenches They planted sugar cane in the trenches and then used their bare hands to spread manure

LIFE IN BRAZIL

ASPECTS OF BRAZILIAN SLAVERY
Indians and Slavery Brazil had a very large Indian population in the interior Slave trade with Africa existed AND Brazilians enslaved Indians Indians and Blacks thrust together, often inbreeding Bandeira Slave traders called Bandeirantes originated in Sao Paulo They were adventurers of mixed Portuguese and Indian ancestry They penetrated the interior of Brazil in search of Indian slaves Their slave raids depopulated whole regions of the Amazons The Jesuit Missions In the Amazon Basin, southern Brazil and Paraguay Missions introduced Christianity, schools, agriculture, industry to Indians This put them outside legal ability to be enslaved Jesuits had organized their Reductions along military lines to fight the slavers Jesuits protected Indians until 1700s when Spain and Portugal helped disband the Jesuits After Jesuits were outlawed as a religious order, bandeirantes raided the missions for slaves Quilombo Escaped slaves formed Maroon communities Maroons are runaway slaves living in the countryside, forests Played important roles in countries such as Suriname, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica In Brazil the Maroon villages were called quilombos The most famous was Quilombo dos Palmares Runaway slave communities first mentioned in 1602 By 1690 estimated population was 30,000 Palmares had developed a republican confederal government of ten communities Chief allocated land, passed laws while the community engaged in agriculture, industry, commerce Cooperated with the Dutch in their attempted conquest of Brazil Finally destroyed by Portuguese military action in 1894

SLAVERY IN HAITI 1758 Racial Code Racial Conflicts 1789
White landowners began passing legislation that created a rigid caste system One caste was the white colonists or blancs A second was free blacks, mixed-race Known as mulattoes or gens de couleur, free people of color These tended to be educated, literate and often served in the army or as administrators on plantations Many were children of white planters and slave mothers Males often received education, artisan training, sometimes propertyfrom their fathers, and freedom Third group was made up of mostly African-born slaves A high rate of mortality among them meant that new slaves were being continually imported They spoke a patois of French and West African languages known as Creole Racial Conflicts White colonists and black slaves frequently had violent conflicts Gangs of runaway slaves known as maroons, lived in the woods away from control They often conducted violent raids on the island's sugar and coffee plantations These attacks established a black Haitian martial tradition of violence and brutality to effect political ends 1789 Slave population on the island totaled at least 500,000 by 1789 They were mostly African-born The death rate in the Caribbean exceeded the birth rate so imports of enslaved Africans continued The slave population declined at an annual rate of two to five percent, due to harsh conditions There was an imbalance between the sexes, with more men than women Some slaves were of a creole elite class of urban domestics, (cooks, personal servants and artisans ) Domestic slaves were born in the Americas, while those born in Africa labored under abusive conditions Among Saint-Domingue’s 40,000 white colonials European-born Frenchmen monopolized administrative posts. Planters, the grand blancs, were chiefly minor aristocrats: most returned to France as soon as possible Lower class whites, petit blancs, included artisans, shopkeepers, slave dealers, overseers, and day laborers. Saint-Domingue’s free people of color numbered more than 28,000 by 1789.

IMAGES OF HAITIAN SLAVERY

EMANCIPATION BY REVOLUTION
The French Revolution of 1789 Abolished Slavery and granted citizenship to free people of color In May of 1791 white plantation owners refused to comply with this decision Within two months isolated fighting broke out between former slaves and the whites August 22, 1791 Slaves of Saint Domingue rose in revolt and plunged the colony into civil war Revolt begun by Dutty Boukman, a high priest of vodou and leader of the Maroon slaves Slaves gain control of northern part of the island, sought revenge on their plantation owners Plantation owners well armed and prepared to defend themselves They retaliated by massacring black prisoners as they were being escorted back to town by soldiers Within weeks, the number of slaves that joined the revolt was approximately 100,000 Slave revolt expanded, killing 2000 plantation owners and burning 180 plantations 1792 The success of the slave rebellion scared France and European colonial powers Free blacks given full rights and citizenship and France dispatched an army to island Spain and the United Kingdom cooperated to halt the spread of the rebellion By 1794, slavery abolished formally and all black males granted citizenship and voting rights But revolution had killed 24,000 whites and 100,000 blacks Touissant L’Overture A self-educated former domestic slave After UK invaded Saint-Domingue, he decided to fight for the French if they would free all the slaves Many enslaved Africans were attracted to Toussaint's forces He insisted on discipline and restricted wholesale slaughter His forces expelled the Spanish, halted the English but demanded autonomy from France Invaded Spanish Santo Domingo and freed the slaves there! In 1801 he wrote a constitution with autonomy naming himself president for life Napoleon invaded the island to restore French rule and slavery L’Overture was eventually betrayed to the French

A REBELLION IN IMAGES

DOCUMENTS Thomas Carlyle, famous English historian of the French Revolution “not so much as Sugar can be had; for good reasons ... With factions, suspicions, want of bread and sugar, it is verily what they call déchiré, torn asunder this poor country: France and all that is French. For, over seas too come bad news. In black Saint-Domingo, before that variegated Glitter in the Champs Elysées was lit for an Accepted Constitution, there had risen, and was burning contemporary with it, quite another variegated Glitter and nocturnal Fulgor, had we known it: of molasses and ardent-spirits; of sugar-boileries, plantations, furniture, cattle and men: skyhigh; the Plain of Cap Français one huge whirl of smoke and flame! What a change here, in these two years; since that first 'Box of Tricolor Cockades got through the Custom-house, and atrabiliar Creoles too rejoiced that there was a levelling of Bastilles! Levelling is comfortable, as we often say: levelling, yet only down to oneself. Your pale-white Creoles, have their grievances: — and your yellow Quarteroons? And your dark-yellow Mulattoes? And your Slaves soot-black? Quarteroon Ogé, Friend of our Parisian Brissotin Friends of the Blacks, felt, for his share too, that Insurrection was the most sacred of duties. So the tricolor Cockades had fluttered and swashed only some three months on the Creole hat, when Ogé's signal-conflagrations went aloft; with the voice of rage and terror. Repressed, doomed to die, he took black powder or seedgrains in the hollow of his hand, this Ogé; sprinkled a film of white ones on the top, and said to his Judges, "Behold they are white;" — then shook his hand, and said "Where are the Whites, Ou sont les Blancs?" ... Before the fire was an insurrection by the oppressed mixed-race minority. So now, in the Autumn of 1791, looking from the sky-windows of Cap Français, thick clouds of smoke girdle our horizon, smoke in the day, in the night fire; preceded by fugitive shrieking white women, by Terror and Rumour. ...“ The 1805 Constitution of Haiti Articles: 2. Slavery is forever abolished. 3. The citizens of Haiti are brothers at home, equality in the eyes of the law is incontestably acknowledged, and there cannot exist any titles, advantages, or privileges, other than those necessarily resulting from the consideration and reward of services rendered to liberty and independence. 12. No whiteman of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein. [Deposition to 12] All property which formerly belonged to any white Frenchmen, is incontestably and of right confiscated to the use of the state. 14. All concept of color among the children of one and the same family, of whom the chief magistrate is the father, being necessarily to cease, the Haitians shall hence forward be known only by the generic appellation of blacks.

SLAVERY IN THE U.S.A. Slavery in the United States
First slaves in English North America: Jamestown, 1607 Ended with Civil War and the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865 Indentured Servitude Prior to Slavery Indentured Servitude of both whites and blacks Paying of transportation to the New World and working to repay debts was the first system Indentured servitude never could supply the amount of labor needed by plantations Rise of Slavery Indentured servitude could not provide the needed labor Colonial courts began to define slavery based on race (non-Whites) and religion (non-Christians) White servants bought their freedom and left the system with a few years as colonists needed Slavery in the Southern Colonies to 1865 Most slaves were black but there was a small number of white slaves Most slaves were owned by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks did as well The majority of slaveholding was in the southern United States; northern states gradually ended it Most slaves were engaged in an efficient system of agriculture, with farms of fifteen or more slaves Ninety-five percent of black people lived in the South, comprising one-third of the population there Slavery did not spread northward due to the nature of the soil in the region, types of crops grown Principal importers of slaves were sugar and cotton growing regions When land more suitable for these crops was discovered towards the west, slavery spread westward Settlement of Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee,Kentucky involved slavery Slave Trades An estimated 645,000 were brought to what is now the United States from Africa After 1807 slave trade was outlawed but internal sale of slaves became important commercially Presence of African women, less harsh conditions led to rise of black population in the US The slave population in the US rose to four million by the 1860 Census Slavery was the major issue of the American Civil War

IMAGES OF AMERICAN SLAVERY

THE INTERAL U.S. SLAVE TRADE
Second Middle Passage or the Internal US Slave Trade Slave Trade ended in 1807 but slaves were still needed Slaves bred for sale in an internal market An estimated 1,000,000 slaves moved from Old South to New South by 1860 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas received the most In the 1830s, almost 300,000 were transported Every decade until 1860 at least 100,000 slaves moved from their state of origin In 1820 a child in the Upper South had a 30% chance to be sold south by 1860 Slave traders relocated a majority of the slaves that moved west Only a minority moved with their families and existing owner. Slave traders had little interest in purchasing or transporting intact slave families, Equal numbers of men and women were transported so population could grow Some traders moved their "chattels" by sea Norfolk to New Orleans was the most the most common route Baltimore, Charleston, and Galveston were also active markets Most slaves were forced to walk Regular routes were established, served by a network of slave pens, yards, warehouses As the trek advanced, some slaves were sold and new ones purchased. Slaves Settled and Cleared the Frontier Life on the frontier was very different from experiences in the seaboard colonies Inadequate nutrition, bad water, exhaustion from journey, work produced casualties Most new plantations were established at rivers' edges As resistance increased, work output fell, overseers increasingly resorted to violence

THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE

LIFE ON THE PLANTATION Room and Board House and Field Slave
Slaves fed, clothed, housed, provided medical care at bare minimum Some slave owners permitted slaves to keep earnings, gambling profits Religion was allowed if it kept slaves in place; education was illegal House and Field Slave Treatment of slaves varied with the slave's skin color Darker-skinned slaves worked in the fields Lighter-skinned house servants had better clothing, food and housing House slaves often related genetically to the owners of the house Often this group was manumitted more often than dark-skinned slaves Slave Codes and Black Codes Slave overseers authorized to whip and brutalize non-compliant slaves. Laws fined owners for not punishing recaptured runaway slaves Slave codes authorized, indemnified or even required the use of violence Both slaves and free blacks were regulated by the Black Codes Their movements monitored by slave patrols Sexuality and Slaves Owners wanted slaves to have children – to produce more slaves Slaves were the legal property of slaveholders: could do anything to slaves Rape was common as were black mistresses to white plantation owners Slave overseers were expected to make sure female slaves stayed pregnant Children who resulted from such rapes were slaves Children took the status of their mothers unless freed by the slaveholder

LIFE ON A PLANTATION

DOCUMENT The law of Virginia ordains: "That no slave shall be set free upon any pretence whatever, except for some meritorious services, to be adjudged and allowed by the Governor and Council; and that where any slave shall be set free by his owner, otherwise than is herein directed, the Churchwardens of the parish, wherein such Negro shall reside for the space of one month, are hereby authorized and required to take up and sell the said Negro by public outcry.“ The law of Jamaica ordains: "Every slave that shall run away, and continue absent from his master twelve months, shall be deemed rebellious." And by another law, fifty pounds are allowed to those who kill or bring in alive a rebellious slave. So their law treats these poor men with as little ceremony and consideration, as if they were merely brute beasts! But the innocent blood which is shed in consequence of such a detestable law, must call for vengeance on the murderous abettors and actors of such deliberate wickedness. The law of Barbados exceeds even this: "If any Negro under punishment, by his master, or his order, for running away, or any other crime or misdemeanor, shall suffer in life or member, no person whatsoever shall be liable to any fine therefore. But if any man, of wantonness, or only of bloody-mindedness, or cruel intention, willfully kill a Negro of his own, he shall pay into the public treasury fifteen pounds sterling! and not be liable to any other punishment or forfeiture for the same!" Nearly allied to this is that law of Virginia: "After proclamation is issued against slaves that run away, it is lawful for any person whatsoever to kill and destroy such slaves, by such ways and means as he shall think fit."

ABOLITIONS COMPARED Influences on the Abolitionist movement in the America Industrialization required a specific skill set which most slaves could not acquire Paid labor more lucrative than slave labor – owners had fewer expenses, workers worked for less The Enlightenment questioned slavery as another form of oppression: seen as a social evil Religiously influenced abolitionism strong amongst Quaker, Methodists European immigration provided surplus labor cheaper than slavery The United States Northern industrializing states emancipated their slaves between 1780 and 1804 Southern states tied to plantation economies and King Cotton continued to support slavery Northern states manumitted their slaves, paid the slave holders gradually American Colonization Society shipped ex-slaves and free blacks who volunteered Liberia William Lloyd Garrison declared slavery to be a personal sin, founded Abolitionist movement Some abolitions such as John Brown hoped to use armed force and slave uprisings to achieve goal Ex-slaves became celebrities: Frederick Douglass wrote Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass. Harriet Tubman helped organize the Underground Railroad to help slaves flee north to Canada Some slave uprisings that used armed force include Vesey Uprising, Nat Turner’s Rebellion Rise of Republican Party and Civil War were most responsible for abolition of slavery The Spanish Americas and Caribbean The Spanish Americas largely abolished slavery as a process of their independence movements Spain retained only Puerto Rico and Cuba, where slavery was permitted UK abolished slave trade in 1806 and slavery in 1833 Brazil Brazil did not end slavery with independence because landowners dominated Brazil Despite abolition of slave trade, Brazil continued an illegal trade directly; trade abolished in 1850 Emancipation was gradual: 1871 sons of slaves emancipated; 1885 slaves over 60 freed Brazil agreed to end slavery during the Paraguayan War if slaves enlisted in the army A drought in the late 1870s ruined cotton, coffee, cocoa in Northern Brazil and bankrupted plantations Slavery finally abolished in 1888 by Princess Isabel: landlords retaliated by declaring a republic

UNFREE LABOR FROM THE POST-CLASSICAL TO THE MODERN PERIOD
SERFDOM

SERFDOM Definition of Serfdom Where did feudalism and serfdom exist?
The socio-economic status of unfree peasants under feudalism Specifically relates to manorialism It is bondage, modified slavery which developed during Post-Classical Europe Serfdom was the enforced labour of serfs on the fields of landowners In return for protection and the right to work on their leased fields Serfdom also involved work in forestry, mining, transportation, crafts. Manors formed the basic unit of society during this period The lord and his serfs were bound legally, economically, and socially Serfs were laborers who were bound to the land They formed the lowest social class of the feudal society Serfs were also defined as people in whose labor landowners held property rights In Russia, an estate was measured by the number of "souls" landlord owned Where did feudalism and serfdom exist? Southwest Asia Persian Classical Dynasties and Muslim sultanates under Caliphates and later Safavid, Qajar Dynasties Ancient Mesopotamia Egypt from Sixth to Twelfth dynasties Parts of the Caucasus Mountains including Georgia Byzantine Empire after 1000 CE South and Central Asia Muslim India (Dehli Sultanate, Mughal India) Tibet and Bhutan East Asia China (Zhou Dynasty and end of Han Dynasty) Japan during the Shogunates to 1867 Chinese Qing Dynasty ( ) maintained a form of serfdom Europe Western Europe: France, England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark Spain had a form of serfdom (encomienda system) Eastern Europe: Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Baltic States Southern Europe: Croatia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina “Grain Pays”

HISTORY OF EUROPEAN SERFDOM
History of Feudalism in Europe Evolved from agricultural slavery in the late Roman Empire Spread through Europe around the 10th century Flourished in Europe during the Middle Ages but lasted until 19th century in some countries The Black Death broke the established social order and weakened serfdom For example, serfdom was de facto ended in France by Philip IV, Louis X and Philip V With the exception of a few cases, serfdom had ceased in France by the 15th century After the Renaissance Serfdom became increasingly rare in most of Western Europe Grew strong in Central, Eastern Europe ("later serfdom") In Western Europe In France French nobles maintained seigneurial privileges over peasants Serfdom was formally abolished in France in 1789 In England, Scotland, and Ireland The end of serfdom began with Tyler’s Rebellion Was fully ended when Elizabeth I freed the last remaining serfs in 1574 There were native-born Scottish serfs until 1799 (coal miners) Italy never developed serfdom In Eastern Europe Serfdom persisted until the mid-19th century It persisted in Germany, Austria-Hungary until mid-1800s Rumania from mid-1700s to mid-1800s Was abolished in Russia, Poland, Ukraine in 1861 to 1864 In Finland, Norway and Sweden feudalism was not established and serfdom did not exist. Comparisons between Slavery and Serfdom According to census of 1857 private serfs in Russia numbered 23.1 million The United States had approximately 4 million slaves by 1860 The British Empire had 776,000 slaves when it abolished slavery in 1834.

THE LIFE OF THE SERFS

HOW DID SERFDOM WORK? The Word Serf The Feudal Society
Originated from the Middle French "serf“ Can be traced further back to the Latin servus meaning "slave“ In Late Classical Age and most of the Middle Ages serfs were usually called coloni Slavery gradually disappeared Legal status of these servi became nearly identical to that of coloni (colonists) The term changed meaning into our modern concept of "serf“ Current meaning was first used in 1611 and the term "serfdom" was invented in 1850 The Feudal Society The Serf Class System Freemen or free tenants were like rent paying tenant farmers (highest population in England) Villeins was the most common serf, rented homes from lords, worked lords’ land and their own Half-villeins owned half the land of villeins but owed full labor, duties to the lords Cottagers owned no land of their own, worked full time for lords and received housing, food, clothing However half-villeins, cottars or cottagers, and slaves also existed The serfs had a specific place in feudal society as did lords and knights In return for protection, a serf would reside upon and work a parcel of land held by his lord There was thus a degree of reciprocity in the manorial system as the lord protected the serfs The serf "worked for all" while a knight "fought for all" and a churchman "prayed for all" Serfs, villeins, half-villeins all owed other aides to the lords for special services (banalities) All had to pay to use lords’ equipment including mills, plows The serf worked harder than the others and was the worst fed and paid Comparing Serfs to Slaves A serf could own land and property A manorial lord could not sell his serfs as a Roman might sell his slaves If lord chose to sell his land, serfs associated with that land went with it to serve the new lord Further, a serf could not abandon his lands without permission, nor could he sell them

DOCUMENTS Justinian’s Code, mid-6th century CE
Since throughout other provinces which lie under the control of our serene majesty, a law has been passed by the fathers which detains the coloni by a certain law of all time, so that they are not allowed to depart from those places, the fruits of which support them, nor to desert those lands which they once took up for cultivation, and since this is not allowed to the land-holders in Palestine, we ordain, that even throughout Palestine no colonus shall altogether of his own right boast himself a freeman or wanderer, but according to the example of other provinces he shall be attached to the lord of the land so that he may not be able to depart without suffering penalties; moreover, we further decree that full authority of recalling him may be given to the lord of the estate. Louis the Pious, King of France, Duties of the Coloni, 817 CE As to the coloni, they either serve as serfs of the Church or make some kind of fixed payment: this is the agrarian tax according to the opinion of the steward. The steward sees to it that each gives according to what he has; out of thirty muids he gives three muids, and each pays pascuarium according to the custom of the district. He is to plough, sow, enclose, harvest, haul, and put away the crops from the regular enclosures---which are four ten-foot measuring rods in width and forty in length. He is to enclose, reap, gather, and put away one arpent in meadow. Every colonus ought to collect and put away corn to the value of a triens for seed. He is to plant, enclose, dig up, extend, prune, and collect the harvest of the vineyards. They each pay ten bundles of flax. Four hens they must pay also. They give palfreys or go where they are ordered. They do carriage service with a cart up to fifty leagues; to go further is not expected. They are assigned to the demesne houses, haylofts, farms; they have a reasonable amount of land for earning the tax, and when necessary they pay it in a lump sum.

THE ABOLITION OF SERFDOM
The Decline The Black Death Killed off millions of serfs Serfs began to bargain for better conditions If conditions not met, sold labor to higher bidder Wage labor began to appear in Western Europe Many lords willing to manumit their serfs for a fee Serfs began to pay off their obligations Serf Revolts appeared and made continuation problematic Price Revolution, Silver of New World drove down grain prices The French Revolution began the process of ending serfdom The Revolution ended it in France Napoleon’s troops often ended serfdom in areas they liberated The Industrial Revolution and Revolutions of 1848 The old social system was no longer viable for the new industrial age Legal systems began to favor enclosures by landlord rights Industrialization and 1848 Revolutions out an end to serfdom in West Eastern Europe Serfdom arrived later and expanded as grain production expanded By 1800s serfdom met increasing industrialization Autocratic states under pressure to modernize ended serfdom Nationalism often coincided with emancipation of serfs “Grain Does Not Pay”

TEMPORARY UNFREE LABOR IN HISTORY
“TRIBUTE-LABOR”

TRIBUTE LABOR SYSTEMS The Corvee The Mita The Spanish Repartimiento
Labor which serfs and peasants had to perform for aristocrats on their land It was a set number of days yearly – sometimes involved pay Examples in Ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, China, Incas, some African states Most common during the Post-Classical Age of Western Europe European colonies often used a hut tax in the form of labor of Africans The Mita A forced labor or public labor system utilized by the Incas as a form of tribute The set time was a season or unit of time Required by rulers on community projects especially road repair, buildings The Spanish Repartimiento Outgrowth of the quasi-feudal encomienda system of required labor for Spaniards Spaniards in their American empire exacted forced labor from the Indians Local villages were required to provide a specific number of workers for a specific time Not slavery – workers were not owned but slavery like conditions occurred Most notorious use of repartimiento occurred at Potosi in Bolivia Ended as Indians ran away too often, villages too uncooperative In 19th and 20th century Americas Quite common as a form of labor in Mexico, Brazil Indians forced to pay off debts to the wealthy in labor Peonage in Mexico is an example Sharecropping, Tenant Farming in USA after slavery are examples

INDENTURED LABOR An indentured servant Its History
The laborer is a form of debt bondage worker Is under contract to an employer for a specific amount of time Contract usually three to seven years for physical labor Pays for food, drink, clothing, lodging, etc. while under contract In Modern period purchaser of labor would pay for transportation Many indentured servants moved to work in other locations Companies, people would pay the workers to relocate and include it as fees to be worked off Its History This type of labor recorded extensively in the ancient world The Torah sets rules to govern this type of labor We also see it as a form of contract in the Greco-Roman World First method used to provide labor to English North America Used by Europeans seeking to move to American colonies including Caribbean Used in labor intensive production of tobacco, sugar, cotton, coffee Often used by poor, common Europeans as a way to immigrate to Americas Used often by Africans seeking work, too Labor supply from Europe to Americas began to dry up Indentured servants often could become wealthy landowners once worked contract off Laws and Courts Provided for punishment for runaway servants Gave owners of contract rights over servants until contract complete Men could not marry, women could not become pregnant, could not move without permission Contract could be sold to someone else for duration of time

IMAGINING SERVITUDE

DOCUMENTS Gottlieb Mittelberger, On the Misfortune of Indentured Servants (1754) When the ships have landed at Philadelphia, no one is permitted to leave them except those who pay for their passage or can give good security; the others, who cannot pay, must remain on board the ships till they are purchased, and are released from the ships by their purchasers. The sick always fare the worst, for the healthy are naturally preferred and purchased first. Every day Englishmen, Dutchmen and High-German people come from the city of Philadelphia and other places, in part from a great distance, and go on board the newly arrived ship that has brought and offers for sale passengers from Europe, and select among the healthy persons such as they deem suitable for their business, and bargain with them how long they will serve for their passage money, which most of them are still in debt for. When they have come to an agreement, it happens that adult persons bind themselves in writing to serve 3, 4, 5 or 6 years for the amount due by them, according to their age and strength. But very young people, from 10 to 15 years, must serve till they are 21 years old. Many parents must sell and trade away their children like so many head of cattle; for if their children take the debt upon themselves, the parents can leave the ship free and unrestrained; but as the parents often do not know where and to what people their children are going, it often happens that such parents and children, after leaving the ship, do not see each other again for many years, perhaps no more in all their lives. It often happens that whole families, husband, wife, and children, are separated by being sold to different purchasers, especially when they have not paid any part of their passage money. When both parents have died over half-way at sea, their children, especially when they are young and have nothing to pawn or to pay, must stand for their own and their parents' passage, and serve tffi they are 21 years old. When one has served his or her term, he or she is entitled to a new suit of clothes at parting; and if it has been so stipulated, a man gets in addition a horse, a woman, a cow. When a serf has an opportunity to marry in this country, he or she must pay for each year which he or she would have yet to serve, 5 to 6 pounds. But many a one who has thus purchased and paid for his bride, has subsequently repented his bargain, so that he would gladly have returned his exorbitantly dear ware, and lost the money besides. If some one in this country runs away from his master, who has treated him harshly, he cannot get far. Good provision has been made for such cases, so that a runaway is soon recovered. He who detains or returns a deserter receives a good reward. If such a runaway has been away from his master one day, he must serve for it as a punishment a week, for a week a month, and for a month half a year.

“COOLIES BY ANY NAME” Coolies Abolition of Slavery Recruits
Often applied to workers from Asia paid for labor for a contracted time Specifically a term for those who were sent to Chinese (Japanese, Korean, Filipinos, Vietnamese) American West, California, Peru, Panama East Asian workers in Hong Kong, Macao, Shanghai and Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Singapore Oceania including Pacific Islands, Hawaii Indians Indian Ocean Islands of Mauritius and Reunion Some Pacific and Caribbean Islands – Fiji, Trinidad and Tabago, Guianas South Africa especially Natal Province and Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar Abolition of Slavery British outlawed slavery in 1807 followed by US, Europeans But labor intensive industries needed cheap labor Sugar cane, coffee, or cotton plantations; mines, railway building, mining of guano Urban domestic labor including laundries, construction workers, porters, maids Recruits Mostly from the poorest population in India, China Later as Europeans destroyed local industry, lower classes also began to sign up Recruitment was supposed to be honest but much trickery, dishonesty Many of the same conditions common to slavery continued with indentured servants After contract fulfilled, many settled in the region they had worked Brazil and the Italians End of slave trade necessitated labor for Brazilian plantations; abolition in 1888 made it imperative Brazilian government contract with Italians to migrate for labor, permanent settlement Brazil was also trying to whiten its population (decrease ration of Africans to Europeans)

IMAGES OF THE COOLIES

DOCUMENTS Pierre Denis: from The Coffee Fazenda of Brazil, 1911
The houses of the colonists are not as a rule scattered among the coffee-shrubs; they form, according to the importance of the fazenda, a hamlet or village of regular construction, having nothing of the disorder of a European village. To be precise, it is really only a small city of laborers, just as the colonist is only a rural proletariat. The house is of bricks or mud, often white-washed, and only moderately comfortable, but the climate of Saõ Paulo is extremely mild, and life is passed almost entirely in the open air. As for diet, it is sufficient. Bread is rare, for neither wheat nor rye is a usual crop, but they are replaced by meal prepared from boiled maize, polenta, manioc, and black beans. Each fazenda constitutes a little isolated world, which is all but self-sufficient and from which the colonists rarely issue; the life is laborious. The coffee is planted in long regular lines in the red soil, abundantly watered by the rains, on which a constant struggle must be maintained against the invasion of noxious weeds. The weeding of the plantation is really the chief labor of the colonist. It is repeated six times a year. When the coffee ripens, towards the end of June, the picking of the crop commences. Sometimes, in a good year, the crop is not all picked until November. The great advantage enjoyed by Saõ Paulo is that the whole crop arrives at maturity almost at the same moment. The crop may thus be harvested in its entirety at one picking...This entails a great reduction in the cost of production and of labor. At the time of picking the colonists are gathered into gangs. They confine themselves to loading the berries on carts, which other laborers drive to the fazenda; there the coffee is soaked, husked, dried, and selected, and then dispatched to Santos, the great export market. All these operations the colonists perform under the supervision of the manager of the fazenda. A bell announces the hour for going to work; another the hour of rest; another the end of the day; the laborers have no illusions of independence. What really enables the colonists to make both ends meet is the crops they have the right to raise on their own account, sometimes on allotments reserved for the purpose set apart from the coffee, and sometimes between the rows of the coffee-trees. They often think more of the clauses in their contract which relate to these crops than to those which determine their wages in currency. . .It even happens at times that the colonists produce more maize than they consume. They can then sell a few sacks at the nearest market, and add the price to their other resources. In this way crops which are in theory destined solely for their nourishment take on a different aspect from their point of view, yielding them a revenue which is not always to be despised.

THE IMPACT OF UNFREE LABOR ON REGIONS AND TIME PERIODS
CONCLUSIONS

CLASSICAL MEDITERRANEAN
Greece Greeks enslaved anyone Aristotle and Plato had no moral problems with it, saw it as natural Athens enslaved island poleis which resisted its power Sparta enslaved Messinians as helots Greek societies were on their way to being casted Hellenistic Monarchies relied heavily on slave labor Delos and other states developed trade, markets based on slave labor Highly commercialized agriculture based on slavery flourished Rome Distinguish between the Republic and the Empire Commercialized latifundia based on slave labor replaced small farms Small farms could not compete with slave labor for profitability Under the empire 1/3 of inhabitants were slaves Military expansion produced vast, lucrative slave markets The end of expansion saw end to new slaves and caused economic problems Romans relied on slave labor and avoided innovations that might disrupt society Slave revolts, work slowdown were common End of the Period Many of the first Christians were slaves Empire gradually evolved serfdom as a replacement for slavery

HISTORIC ASIA India East Asia Southeast Asia
Original conquest society of victors, vanquished became permanent Class structure replaced by caste structure Upheavals handled by the caste system Caste endures upheavals – provides stability in unstable times, events Militaristic cultures absorbed into Kshatriya Trade, commerce produces “guilds” which become jatis of Vaisaya Rigidity of Caste System produced rivals, encouraged converts Jains and Buddhists challenged Brahmanism Islam, Christianity, Sikhs challenged mature Hinduism Shudra castes furnished many indentured servants after slavery Vaisaya caste followed sudra in diaspora to manage commerce Vaisaya caste responsible for many changes under British East Asia China Peasants little better than serfs Land reforms, peasant issues always critical to reform, revolution Mass of peasants provided stability, wealth or instant problems Peasants’ culture resisted change, opposed modernization in later centuries Korean slavery existed until 1910 enhancing aristocratic control, lack of change Japanese peasants largely free on marginal land with rights Southeast Asia Slavery, feudalism, serfdom, free peasants co-existed making micro-cultures, regions Vietnamese peasants resisted Sinization, French, Japanese and Americanization Neither the Spanish nor Americans could eradicate feudal structures in Philippines Military nature of Burmese, Thai societies meant serfs, peasants, slaves Indonesian islands encouraged plantation economies and serfs, slaves, etc.

HISTORIC MIDDLE EAST Southwest Asia and North Africa
Major contributions Mameluk, Slave Soldiers; eunuchs protecting harem Urban unskilled labor doing heavy, dirty work Made great wealth for many commercial interests in region Has least come to terms with its roles in, impact of slavery What the Quran permits cannot be made illegal as Quran is the word of Allah Many Muslims deny the existence of slavery or their role at all in trade Muslims may be equal to Allah, Quran, Muhammad but not to all Muslims Fair skinned Muslims have more social, political, economic influence, rights Black, darker Muslims marginalized whether Middle East, North Africa, South Asia Large segments of many states in region have African blood, descent Black Muslims enslaved (against Quran) and converts to Islam not freed (encouraged by Quran) Issue of Modern Sudan The state is led by White Arab Muslims (Northerners) State is warring against Blacks in Darfur, Nubia, South (largely Muslim, Christian and Animist) A Continuing Slave Trade States were the last in the world to abolish slavery (many only after World War II) INTERPOL, UN Agencies, others all confirm slavery exists, continues in area Young boys often kidnapped to ride as camel jockeys; women for sex Thousands of Africans have been freed from slavery recently Indentured Servitude Saudis, Gulf States contract regularly for foreign laborers to build major construction projects These men and women have few rights, endure harsh treatment

HISTORIC AFRICA Slavery was neither unusual or new to Africa
Records of slavery, slave trade as old as the written word in Africa Slavery was considered normal but not inherited nor social stigmatizing Most slaves were urbanized, for domestic labor although some farming Slavery, slave trade still exist today (INTERPOL, UNESCO) – Darfur! Slavery Prior to 1500 Was not intrusive to African society but was a major source of wealth Laws, traditions protected slaves and gave them rights Slavery After 1500 The Slave Trade produced a flat population – no growth Demand fueled vast array of slave markets, protracted slave wars Slavery massively disruptive to Atlantic African, East African societies Slavery fueled rise to power of many states Slavery stagnated economic growth – all resources in slave trade Siphoned off some of the best Africans, whose skills were lost forever Led to generations long rivalries between slaver tribes and those they enslaved Abolition of Slavery resisted in Africa due to Islam, wealth it made End of slavery saw colonial powers use alternate labor practices in Africa Slavery produced massive diaspora of Blacks around Atlantic, SW Asia, India Most Caribbean islands have predominately African descended populations 1/3 of Brazilians are African descent African culture has become mainstream in the Americas

LATIN AMERICAS Post-Classical forms of Tribute Labor became model 1450 – 1750 Spanish, Portuguese transport encomienda feudal system of Iberia Incan mita draft of villages copied by Spaniards followed by reparatimiento In rural areas distant from capitals remained a normal practice through 20th century Rimland Cultures Lowland coastal areas of Caribbean, Brazil have large African populations These regions saw plantation economies, commercialized agriculture Slavery made Caribbean, Brazil the richest areas of the world for years Likely that slavery capitalized the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain Today these areas – except Brazil – are the poorest, most unstable in region Many islands are still not independent – Puerto Rico, Dutch Antilles Produced casted societies and institutionalized racism Africans in region are often people without a history and without a voice Descendants of Africans are most marginalized of people in Americas today Skin color became a visible badge of inferiority hard to hide The Haitian Revolution Was a shock to the educated European world when it occurred Scared the Europeans and tended to encourage cooperation against slaves After the revolution, fair skinned Blacks came to dominate the country The major African impact on the Americas has been a syncretic culture Debt Peonage, Indentured Servitude remains strong in region Strongest in countries with large Indian populations Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala

THE UNITED STATES Indentured Servitude Slavery made the South possible
Produced the first settlers in the future US Provided needed skills to areas lacking skills Was a cheap way to move across Atlantic 13th Amendment ended slavery, share cropping and tenant farming lived a long time Slavery made the South possible Whites did not clear, settle the land – black slaves did Slave labor made King Cotton that made many planters very wealthy Slavery was at the core of sectionalism, main cause of Civil War Southern colonies would not have joined North if North had outlawed slavery 1789 Constitution could not have succeeded had slavery been abolished States rights hinged on slavery issue Only southern states screamed state’s rights and only over slavery issue Compromises from 1820 to 1854 all dealt with admission of slave, free states Republicans were abolitionists: South did not secede until Lincoln was elected Slavery becoming increasingly unviable in Industrial Revolution Slavery Produced a Moderately Casted Society Slave Codes became Black Codes became Separate but Equal of Plessy v Ferguson Blacks were segregated wherever they lived – even in the North Ex-Slaves formed majority of cowboys in West and some major Cavalry units World Wars, Jazz and Rock N’ Roll led to major reforms, acceptance of blacks Most Americans of African descent do not live in South today but Northern cities

EUROPE: WEST AND EAST All forms of unfree labor existed, were legal
Slavery not formally abolished until early 1800s Slavery as an issue was largely outside of Europe in colonies Very few slaves in Europe period after 1500 Strongly discouraged by the Churches BUT it made UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland rich, rich, rich! Europeans were one-half the Atlantic Slave Trade in all its horrors Azores, Canaries saw plantations using slave labor; Ireland under UK came close Russia, Ukraine and Southeast Europe under Ottomans saw greatest slavery Serfdom was most persistent from 400 to 1850 Italy, Scandinavia, British Isles never really developed it Concentrated in France, Central Europe, Eastern Europe Included share cropping, tenant farming, corvee system Led to partially casted society during Post-Classical Era In Western Europe made unprofitable by Black Death, phased out Ended by French Revolution in West Industrial Revolution needed free labor able to contract for wages Ended by 1848 Revolutions, Governments in Eastern Europe 18th c. Indentured Servitude existed and quite common until 19th c. Wage “Slavery” After 1750 The most prevalent was low paid workers Industrialists, managers took great advantage of unskilled, less skilled labor This was largely ended by rise of unions, socialist parties, legislation

ESSAYS CCOT DBQ C/C Comparative Slaveries in Americas, Africa
Labor Systems of 19th c. which replaced slavery C/C Compare and contrast any two slave trades: (1) Trans-Saharan; (2) Trans-Saharan; (3) Early Arab; (4) Black Sea; (5) Ancient Mediterranean Compare and contrast different slave systems in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States Compare slavery with either serfdom, casted labor or indentured servitude Compare the abolition of slavery and/or serfdom in any two of the following regions: (1) Haiti; (2) Latin America; (3) Eastern Europe; (4) the United States; (5) Muslim countries CCOT Analyze how unfree labor systems changed from 500 to 1900 in any one region: (1) the Americas; (2) Africa; (3) Europe

COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS

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COMPARATIVE UNFREE LABOR SYSTEMS

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