Slavery's Global Impact and Economic Justifications, Yesterday and Today
Slavery’s Global Impact and Economic Justifications, Today and Yesterday
Slavery existed in some form in every region of the world. During the earliest civilizations, slave labor built nations and empires in Europe, Egypt, Greece, Asia and Africa. Thousands of years later, the Portuguese, Dutch and English realized the profit value that a market in human capital would provide. Africans were exported from their homeland to the New World under the most miserable conditions imaginable. Prof. Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship, A Human History says, “We’re fascinated by all the tall ships except the most important one, and that’s the slave ship. And that one we can hardly bear to look at”. Slaves were packed like sardines below the ships stinking decks, and as many as 1.5 million perished as a result of illness, suicide, insurrection, and sometimes murder by example (Rediker, 2007). African slaves were treated as less than human, and used as labor for the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean. They were considered the cash cow of the modern world’s economy; the human capital that would be central to the growth of the economy in a country that was nearly torn apart by abolition, civil war and slave revolts as a result of state’s rights and the slavery debate. The history of slavery is firmly rooted in our consciousness from pre-Columbian to colonial days and it is up to the reader to wrestle with and conceptualize the complexities of slavery’s history. While slavery has historically been the catalyst that has brought outrage and racial unrest, slave owners justified the need for slavery because it was considered to be beneficial to the country for economic reasons. Abraham Lincoln once said “Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of a man who wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself.” The inhumanity of slavery subjected Africans to much suffering upon their arrival to the
New
Slavery existed in some form in every region of the world. During the earliest civilizations, slave labor built nations and empires in Europe, Egypt, Greece, Asia and Africa. Thousands of years later, the Portuguese, Dutch and English realized the profit value that a market in human capital would provide. Africans were exported from their homeland to the New World under the most miserable conditions imaginable. Prof. Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship, A Human History says, “We’re fascinated by all the tall ships except the most important one, and that’s the slave ship. And that one we can hardly bear to look at”. Slaves were packed like sardines below the ships stinking decks, and as many as 1.5 million perished as a result of illness, suicide, insurrection, and sometimes murder by example (Rediker, 2007). African slaves were treated as less than human, and used as labor for the sugar cane fields of the Caribbean. They were considered the cash cow of the modern world’s economy; the human capital that would be central to the growth of the economy in a country that was nearly torn apart by abolition, civil war and slave revolts as a result of state’s rights and the slavery debate. The history of slavery is firmly rooted in our consciousness from pre-Columbian to colonial days and it is up to the reader to wrestle with and conceptualize the complexities of slavery’s history. While slavery has historically been the catalyst that has brought outrage and racial unrest, slave owners justified the need for slavery because it was considered to be beneficial to the country for economic reasons. Abraham Lincoln once said “Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of a man who wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself.” The inhumanity of slavery subjected Africans to much suffering upon their arrival to the
New
References: Beetz, K. (2009) "Slaves and slavery in ancient Asia and the Pacific." In Bogucki, Peter, ed. Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World. Retrieval date June 15, 2009, New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008 Rediker, M. (2007). The slave ship, a human history. Viking Press. Penguin Group. October 4, 2007 Rodriguez, J.P., & Day, A. (Ed.). (1999). Chronology of world slavery. EMERALD JOURNAL, 14(1), p