Week 2-Tues- Everyone enslaved at one time- Class Notes

Everyone enslaved at one time 

Slavery predates written records

Evidence of slavery predates written records of 11,000 years ago

In almost every society

debt-slavery, punishment for crime, the enslavement of prisoners of war, child abandonment, and the birth of slave children to slaves.

African slaves in China 8th-14th centuries AD

Arabs controlled a vast slave trade as far east as China from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries

Black slaves were just one of many commodities in the Arabs' large-scale maritime trade with China

Their trade peaked during the Tang and Song dynasty (960-1275).

Wealthy Chinese even owned African slaves

The Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 (Former Tang history) mentions that the Arabs sent delegates to the Chinese court in 651, marking the first recorded official contact between the Chinese government and the Arab caliphate.

By the ninth century, a sizable community of Arabs lived in Guangzhou, and the local residents saw seen African slaves on trading ships and in Arab homes.

Some wealthy Chinese people even owned African slaves, whom they used as doorkeepers.

Afro-China
“Chocolate City” in China today

Today, in Guangzhou, the area of Dengfeng/Xiaobei is what some people now call ‘the Chocolate City’, or ‘Little Africa’.

There are an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Nigerian, Congolese, Angolan, Ghanaian, and Malians, etc. in this community, mostly businessmen and their families; also students.

Proximity of China to Africa

“White” Slavery- Some Examples

Term “slave” derived from Slav

Comes from word “Slav” because in some early medieval wars many Slavs were captured and enslaved

Also Old French “sclave” and

from the Medieval Latin “sclavus”

Bible: Jews were slaves in Egypt during famine
Jewish people forced to exchange their bodies for grain (Gen 47:23-25)

Joseph- prime minister of Egypt

Joseph said to the people, "I hereby acquire you and your land this day for Pharaoh.  Here is seed; sow your land.  When the crop is produced, give one-fifth to Pharaoh and keep four-fifths for yourselves, to sow your fields and to feed yourselves, your wives, and your children."  They replied, "You have given us life!  We hope to continue to find favor in your eyes—for we are Pharaoh's slaves.“

Moses leads Exodus out of Egypt

Note: Bible not a historical document; cannot be used for historical verification purposes

Ancient Rome invaded area now known as Spain and captured slaves

206 B.C. – The Romans invaded what is now Spain

Romans’ language, Latin, became the dominant language. 

They conquered and enslaved the indigenous people.

Spanish developed from Latin.

St. Patrick a slave (Ireland's patron saint)
Lived in 5th Century AD

He had been a child slave in Ireland

Escaped, then later returned to the country where he had been a slave to be a Christian missionary among the people

St. Patrick really existed

Forced to Ireland from Britain as a slave at age 16

Escaped (on a boat) after 6 years of being forced to herd sheep and pigs

Became a Christian priest, and later a Bishop

Returned to Ireland as a missionary

Played a major part in converting the Irish to Christianity

Some of his writings survive, the Confessio and the Letter to Coroticus

The Moors invaded Spain -
conquered and stayed almost 800 years
(711-1492 AD)

711 A.D. – The Moors (Berber/Arab/African peoples of North Africa) invaded Spain.  Catholic Spain fought back against the Islamic Moors, who spoke Arabic.  (Spanish words that begin with “al”—like “álgebra”—come from Arabic.)

North Africa and Timbuktu - great repositories of knowledge during Europe’s medieval “Dark Ages”

The Spanish city of Granada means “pomegranate”). It is in the south, close to Africa, so it makes sense that the Moors could invade from the south.

A lot of Moor/Castilian intermarriage and mixing. Moors, Morenos, etc. “Pure” Castilian blood often a myth.

Moors also conquered Sicily for a time.

Proximity of Europe and Africa
(contemporary map)

1492 –Queen Isabella and King Fernando fought for many years, finally expelled the last of the Moors from Spain: “La Reconquista”. 

The Alhambra, a Moorish palace in the Spanish city of Granada, was the Moors’ last stronghold.

Granada is in the south, close to Africa, so it makes sense that the Moors could hold onto it longer than other cities. Even today, southern Spain has a North African cultural flavor, i.e. Flamenco dancing and singing.

Pictures of the Moorish palace, the Alhambra in Spain

Queen Isabella opposed Columbus’ plan to enslave Native Americans in New World

Isabella and Ferdinand sponsored Columbus’ explorations to see if he could find gold; wanted a Spanish empire.

Isabella was not favorable towards Columbus' enslavement of the Native Americans on religious grounds

She attempted to enforce the recent policies of the Canary Island upon the 'New World'

stating that all peoples were under the subject of the Castilian Crown and couldn't be enslaved in most situations.

The principles she established would have very little effect during her lifetime, however

The Irish Slave Trade- 1625

The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World.

His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.

By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat.

At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.

Irish Slave Trade

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade.

Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well.

During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England.

In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder.

In 1656, Oliver Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.

At one point, Irish slaves cheaper than African captives

African slaves were very expensive during the late 1600s (50 Sterling). Irish slaves came cheap (no more than 5 Sterling).

If a planter whipped or branded or beat an Irish slave to death, it was never a crime. A death was a monetary setback, but far cheaper than killing a more expensive African.

“White” Slavery in Africa and Middle East

More than a million Europeans were enslaved in North Africa 1530-1780

Historian Robert Davis: more than a million Europeans were enslaved by North African slave traders between 1530 and 1780.

A time of vigorous Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal piracy.

The number of white European slaves only a fraction of the trade that brought 10 million to 12 million black African slaves to the Americas over a 400-year period.

But the impact on Europe’s white population was significant.

1815: European slaves in Tunisia

Original caption: "Captain Croker horror stricken at Algiers, on witnessing the Miseries of the Christian Slaves chaind & in Irons driven home after labour by Infidels with large Whips. “

"The cruelties of the Algerine pirates, shewing the present dreadful state of the English slaves, and other Europeans, at Algiers and Tunis; with the horrid barbarities inflicted on christian mariners shipwrecked on the north western coast of africa and carried into perpetual slavery.” (more)

1815: European slaves in Tunisia

“Authenticated by Mr. Jackson, of Morocco; Mr. MacGill, merchant and by Capt. Walter Croker, of His Majesty's Sloop “Wizard”. Who in last July (1815) saw some of the frightful horrors of Algerine Slavery; to rouse general attention to which, this Economical Publication is issued. With an engraving. London: printed for W. Hone, 55 Fleet-Street. 1816"

July 1815, [Captain] Walker Croker

Proximity of Europe, Mediterranean and Africa- Captives taken back and forth

Depiction of Janissary Enslavement (“Devshirme”) of children  in the Balkans-  Janissaries – trained to become the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and crack bodyguards (14th century, practice ended 1826)

18th Century- Sweden ships women into “white” slavery to Ottoman Empire

Idealized depictions of famous women of color – set standards of beauty

Slavery and forced racial intermixing

Social stratification due to skin color, even among black people

Media images perpetuating European ideals.