Igbo Slavery During The 19th Century
Igbo Slavery
Slavery is the owning of another person and the person being enslaved has no free will and is property of someone who owns him. Many people back in the early days of civilizations had owned slaves or were slaves themselves since this was something common to practice and was perfectly legal. The Igbo people were one of the many African tribes to suffer from slavery and has a long and interesting history to it and is specifically focused during the 19th century. We will be focusing on some specific and important attributes about the Igbo slavery during the 19th century that include, gender impacts within Igbo slavery, how the Igbo people lived during the time of slavery, and slave trade in the Igbo communities.
As stated before, …show more content…
It is not known how many African men and women were enslaved, but it is estimated that there was around 637,500 Igbo slaves in total and 75% of them were taken to the Americas sometime during the 1800’s (Oriji 151). Most researchers who bring up the topic about slavery keep the percentages of male and female slaves equal. Although this is not meant to take away any information from the topic, but rather simplify it. To make its understanding easier and more general, but this type of information is still important in some aspects of slavery. Men were mostly needed for hard physical labor and management, thus made them more abundant and requested to be shipped to other regions like the United States or Europe. Women on the other hand stayed in Africa and took up the most percentage of the slaves there since most men, like stated …show more content…
Isichei (2013) stated in one of her studies about Igbo slavery that the people had to travel large distances for trading and also said “ You must be prepared to risk your life” (Isichei 30). The Igbo people enslaved one another when no one else did and traded very largely in it. It was dangerous, but very profitable. The only ones who could do it had to be strong enough to overpower their victim. They also took kids from their parents, and many other horrible things. These slaves were obtained in various ways, kidnapping, through heavy chaotic wars, punishment for crimes or taboos, not able to pay debts, etc. Parents even sold their children for resources like food, water, or
Slavery is the owning of another person and the person being enslaved has no free will and is property of someone who owns him. Many people back in the early days of civilizations had owned slaves or were slaves themselves since this was something common to practice and was perfectly legal. The Igbo people were one of the many African tribes to suffer from slavery and has a long and interesting history to it and is specifically focused during the 19th century. We will be focusing on some specific and important attributes about the Igbo slavery during the 19th century that include, gender impacts within Igbo slavery, how the Igbo people lived during the time of slavery, and slave trade in the Igbo communities.
As stated before, …show more content…
It is not known how many African men and women were enslaved, but it is estimated that there was around 637,500 Igbo slaves in total and 75% of them were taken to the Americas sometime during the 1800’s (Oriji 151). Most researchers who bring up the topic about slavery keep the percentages of male and female slaves equal. Although this is not meant to take away any information from the topic, but rather simplify it. To make its understanding easier and more general, but this type of information is still important in some aspects of slavery. Men were mostly needed for hard physical labor and management, thus made them more abundant and requested to be shipped to other regions like the United States or Europe. Women on the other hand stayed in Africa and took up the most percentage of the slaves there since most men, like stated …show more content…
Isichei (2013) stated in one of her studies about Igbo slavery that the people had to travel large distances for trading and also said “ You must be prepared to risk your life” (Isichei 30). The Igbo people enslaved one another when no one else did and traded very largely in it. It was dangerous, but very profitable. The only ones who could do it had to be strong enough to overpower their victim. They also took kids from their parents, and many other horrible things. These slaves were obtained in various ways, kidnapping, through heavy chaotic wars, punishment for crimes or taboos, not able to pay debts, etc. Parents even sold their children for resources like food, water, or