Race And Freedom In The Early Modern Era

The Relationship Between Race and Freedom in the Early Modern Era In the early modern era, the relationship between race and freedom grew to be very different than what it was before. Before, race was not necessarily based on ethnicity and slavery was not based on race, there were many white, European slaves prior to this era. This changed greatly when race and freedom came to be very closely related. In 1444, the first ship of enslaved Africans returned to Lisbon. When the ship returned, the crown was delighted, this caused more shipments to be made. This is the start of where race and freedom became more closely related. Between 1490 and 1530, the slave trade increased, with the Portuguese bringing between 300 and 2,000 slaves to Lisbon each year. After this, slavery became intertwined with sugar and the demand for slaves increased. In 1518, transatlantic slave trade began. By 1550, slaves were being brought to Brazil. From there, the slave trade expanded more and most enslaved people were Africans. After its founding in 1621, the Dutch West India Company transported thousands of Africans to Brazil and the Caribbean. The Dutch West India Company came to be a big player in slave trade.
They also thought of them as barbarians because of their language and methods of war. These things made Europeans think of themselves as superior to the Africans, or that their race was superior of that of the Africans. This is where white superiority began to come into play. Some people even believed that the blacks were destined by God to become the slaves of the white people. This belief went back an argument from Greek philosopher Aristotle in which he stated that some people are naturally destined to become enslaved. Support for this belief also came from associations between sin and darkness in the