Antam Goncalves Captivity

In 1441, captivity and future enslavement existed in the form of desire and impression. Antam Goncalves, a young, inexperienced captain of a ship, was set to ship out to west africa to gather mundane items, such as oils and golds. As ideas of promotion popped up, Goncalves initiated capturing captives from their destination. With bringing back live captives and returning back to portugal, Goncalves captured a high status man. The name of the prisoner was named Adhu, a man of royalty, a member of a noble family. Adhu pleaded for his freedom, and in exchange for Africans and profitable information to local areas where europeans can explore and capture more prisoners. As the population of captives increased, the europeans were forced to decrease
its size. As a result, some were sold for goods and others stayed captive and put to work. But doing so separated bonds with family members. Christianity played a role as the victory of capturing captives were from the guide and love of god.
As more africans were captured, before departure to europe/ middle passage, they were chained inside of a dungeon called slave castles. In the dungeons, many starved, developed diseases, and emotional distress over the loss of their freedom, and separation of loved ones. These castles were soon captured by the dutch and later renamed to cape coast castle. In the process of shipment of captives, many were transferred to other larger ships to be sold, evaluated their health, and if sick or dead, the crew would throw them overboard into the atlantic ocean. The living condition of these trips were unbearable to live as most did not live through to see the other side of the world. The transfer from captivity to slavery began in the 1600’s. Going to the Americas, europeans were promised wealth and property. But, in return, europeans would have to give up their pride and freedom in becoming indentured servants for a period of seven years. African did not have this option as they were taken be forced to become captives. Before there was a jamestown or any involvement of africans, there was the first colony in the area of the chesapeake bay called Roanoke, established by european explorers in the winter of
1606. The colony later became deserted, and a new colony called Jamestown was created by the investment of the virginia company. A colonist named John Smith prevented the next ghost town by creating temporary rules or militarized regime; dividing work gang with severe consequences. In 1617, John Rolfe, a colonist, came to jamestown with a variety of tobacco from West Indies.
This created profit for the virginia company as crops increased, profit multiplied, so did the need for laborers, specifically unpaid laborers. As land were captured from the natives, and colonies started to be built, colonists from massachusetts, Virginia, New York, and South Carolina, enslaved not only africans but also native americans. The Native Americans were traded, used for battle and capturing, and controlled over just as the africans did. However, this did not last as the trading diminished due to the concern of retribution from other Indians in the mid 1600’s. In the mid seventeenth century, colonists in Virginia were in desperate need of unpaid labor and solved this issue with adding slavery into the legislation and court rulings. The ruling would improve the desirable unpaid labor, but at the same time remove hope of africans freedom and owning property. In addition, this would have the africans not only be enslaved for the rest of their life, but also have their own children become one, and their descendants. Other laws were created due to incidents where the slave owner and white women would have interracial relationships with the slaves. Hugh Davis is an
example. He was found lying with a female “negro”. Many slave owners pregnated their women slaves and could have the decision of making the child their slave as well. However, for white woman lying with an african is unholy and disgraces their christianity beliefs. The women and african slave would both suffer the consequences, usually whipping as punishment. In 1640, punishments were weighted heavily on blacks rather than whites. In the event where two indentured servants and one enslaved african runs away from their owner, and unluckily gets captured. The two indentured servants would suffer heavy penalty, years added to their enslavement. But, unfairly, the african slave will undergo serious consequences, one being a slave for life. In 1676, The bacon’s rebellion started. This was due to indentured servants being pressured from the elite men in the colony. As they claimed for land, the colonial government could not dishonor their treaty with the indians, which then altered a massacre on the indians by the many servants. As the servants gained their land, importation of servants declined, and an increase of plantation occurred. Thus, the number of slaves increased. Every two decades the number of african slaves skyrocketed, from 3,000 in 1680 to 27,000 in 1720 in Jamestown. Slavery was placed in most colonies in the americas, as well as racial discrimination. Whites are seen as superior while blacks are inferior. African enslavement did not stop from the 1400’s to the 1700’s.