Last week, everyone did a really fantastic job with the posts in the comments - keep it up this week! If you did last week's activi, you don't have to do any more until October; however, any extra posts will help your participation grade, so if you're quiet in class this is your chance to boost that grade.
For this week, you also had three readings from the course reader: Nzinga Mbemba, Richard Ligon, and Thomas Phillips.
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR SECTION:
1) What is Mbemba asking for in the letter he is writing to the King of Portugal? How do you think Mbemba sees the Europeans?
2) How does Ligon describe the practice of slavery in the Americas? In your opinion, does he consider slavery moral, immoral, or something different?
3) Phillips describes the process of acquiring slaves in Africa. How were slaves found? Who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade in Africa?
ACTIVITY - due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 12th (if you choose this week's activity)
Think about what you know about the institution of slavery in the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade. Hopefully, reading these primary source will help give you a more global view of slavery & its impact. Pick something from the readings that you found surprising, or that challenged something you knew about slavery or the slave trade. State which reading it was from, what it was that was new to you, and how it creates a more complicated picture of the slave trade or slavery.
NOTE: if you've noticed, I've used two separate terms - slavery and the slave trade. Why do you think I make distinction between the two? We'll talk about this more in class.
For this week, you also had three readings from the course reader: Nzinga Mbemba, Richard Ligon, and Thomas Phillips.
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR SECTION:
1) What is Mbemba asking for in the letter he is writing to the King of Portugal? How do you think Mbemba sees the Europeans?
2) How does Ligon describe the practice of slavery in the Americas? In your opinion, does he consider slavery moral, immoral, or something different?
3) Phillips describes the process of acquiring slaves in Africa. How were slaves found? Who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade in Africa?
ACTIVITY - due by 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 12th (if you choose this week's activity)
Think about what you know about the institution of slavery in the Americas and the Atlantic slave trade. Hopefully, reading these primary source will help give you a more global view of slavery & its impact. Pick something from the readings that you found surprising, or that challenged something you knew about slavery or the slave trade. State which reading it was from, what it was that was new to you, and how it creates a more complicated picture of the slave trade or slavery.
NOTE: if you've noticed, I've used two separate terms - slavery and the slave trade. Why do you think I make distinction between the two? We'll talk about this more in class.
To me Thomas Phillips was the most interesting and semi enlightening reading. He delved more into the acquiring of in the slave trade, dealing with the king of a slave trading country. I didn't know so much before about the slave trading politics of it, I assumed it was Europeans come there, buy the slaves and leave, whereas this text showed that it was much more complex with the Congo King trying to weasel his way into more commodities and the European Captains competing against each other for the better slaves. They delved into great detail of the attempted trickery of the trade, for example the King would shave the hair off slaves to deter the Europeans from determining the age of the slaves they were trying to buy. And as well as forcing them to buy the King's slaves, that were in turn worth much less and were just not as good as the other slaves they came to buy, but were forced by tradition to go forth with it anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe part that surprised me the most came from the narrative of Thomas Phillips. I always kind of pictured the slave trade as the Europeans using their military power to forcefully remove Africans from their homes. I never realized that it truly was a trade and that many kings and other Africans actually sold many of their own people into slavery for payment from the Europeans. The slave trade in this sense is much more complicated than the way that I initially viewed it.
ReplyDeleteShane Walter 11:30a.m.
The two readings that stood most out, bringing surprising information to me were in the Nzinga Mbemba and Thomas Phillips readings. With Nzinga Mbemba, I did not think officials of African kingdoms actually had the guts to plead with and beg European rulers to eliminate slavery in their kingdom. I was always under the impression that the Africans let the Europeans walk all over them because of fear, along with not enough technology and advancement of the more developed traders. However, I learned my assumption was clearly wrong as Nzinga Mbemba asked the Portugal king to leave his people alone.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Thomas Phillips reading, I was surprised to see that a slave trader actually held some sympathy toward the slaves. One part that stood out to me was, "...some commanders have cut off the legs and arms of the most wilful, to terrify the rest...I could not be persuaded to entertain the least thought of it, much less put in practice such barbarity and cruelty to poor creatures..." (122). It is comforting to know that not all white people favored the awful treatment of the slaves. I find it ironic, however, that someone who feels so strongly toward the blacks well being to want to force them into slavery. I also was unaware of the complicity of slave trade, as surgeons examined potential slaves, and how there was an actual list of the most prized trading items. I thought the slaves were literally just thrown into a ship, and it sailed off to the Americas. I was clearly wrong in this aspect.
I thought that the Thomas Philips reading was the most interesting. It really shows, along with the other two readings as well, the complexity and politics involved in the slave trade at this time. Before reading these, I did not know much at all about how the actual acts of trade were conducted. Seeing all of this complexity makes the slave trade more important in history in my eyes, not just a simple movement of people to become slaves.
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting to read the Thomas Philips accounts because it seems like he was battling with the idea and morality of slavery during the course of the events. He refers to the brutality towards the slaves as barbaric and seems to pity the slaves. He states, "I can't think there is any value in one colour more than another, nor that white is better than black..." (122). Yet, he still seems to talk about them in a belittling way and remains involved in the slave trade.
I think these accounts really complicate the concept of the slave trade. It seems to be guided by politics and business in cases like these rather than morality and the belief of whites being superior by nature.
The reading I found most interesting was A true and Exact History or the Island of Barbadoes. I always imagined that there could not be a worst treatment than that of slavery; so finding out that servants had the greater mistreatment was very surprising. Thinking about it though makes sense. These three readings explain in detail the extensive business that slavery was. So it is understandable that the masters would want to protect the lifelong investment they made by taking care of their slaves and limiting the amount of physical work they did. Whereas the servants were only theirs for 5 years so the owners must get the most value out of their investment by giving them extensive work and limited food and rest.
ReplyDeleteAfter these readings I understand why they treated the servants and slaves as such, but I would have never guessed it before.
Anastasia Noffsinger
Vicki F 11:30
ReplyDeleteIt may be embarrassing to admit, but the reading that I learned the most from was the Nzinga Mbemba reading. Whenever I had previously thought about the slave trade, I always thought about slaves being sent from Africa to the Americas. This reading revealed that there was a large amount of slaves moving to Europe and how much of an impact the Europeans had on the slave trade. I also never realized how much of an impact royalty had on the slave trade. I don't know why I believed that royalty tended to be hands off when it came to slavery. I thought that the only people involved in the slave trade were plantation owners, but I didn't think about the impact that the royalty had.
I found the Richard Ligon, "A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes" to be quite intersting. The conditions these african americans went through were very harsh. We all have learned about the conditions African Americans faced in slavery at some point or another in our education. But, the part that I found to be intersting was when it described how the slaves would get from 6pm to 6am off, and on sundays they had the whole day off. I have always had this vision of slaves working non stop and getting no days off and had little time to sleep or have breaks. I understand they went through terrible conditions and many died from being overworked, I just found it odd that the owners allowed to have a day off and were essentially free to do whatever they wanted. And personally, I was under the impression that the owners felt like they were being kind and considerate to give the slaves a day off.
ReplyDeleteLike Michelle Forbes, I too found the account by Thomas Phillips to be the most interesting. I struggled to decide whether Phillips believed the act of trading slaves was moral or immoral. Like Michelle mentioned above, he did seem to point out that there should be no difference between men based on color, yet his actions seem to contradict his words. I was also intrigued by the portion that discussed how cappasheirs would groom their slaves (product) so that the buyers would not be able to judge their age. I was very appalled by the fact that the purchased slaves were then marked with a hot iron. Were they not already put through enough discomfort? This account did open my eyes to more of the politics behind slavery. I had always grown up thinking that slavery was simply white males capturing Africans because they believed they were superior to them and using them for cheap labor. I never knew of the economics and politics behind the slave exchange.
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Section: Thursday at 10:20 am
James C. 11:30
ReplyDeleteI think that the most interesting reading was the Nzinga Mbemba because I was not aware that Africans actually protested Kings, such as the one in Portugal. What I found particularly surprising is what Mbemba was complaining about which was the depopulation of his land and the unfairness of the the priests who were sent there. He never actually mentions the cruelty of slavery which leads me to believe there is a large difference between slavery and the Slave Trade. He is concerned with the Slave Trade because of the destruction it is causing in his land. Even though he may not be witnessing actual forms of slavery in Africa, he knows that the slave trade system is taking away from his kingdom. I am surprised that he feels he can compromise with Portugal just by sending letters to the King, but I think the main point in the reading is what he is protesting. His letters really show there is a difference between slavery and the trade system, and as a ruler, he is angry with the effects of the system on his kingdom.
The tone that Nzinga Mbemba uses when he talks of the depopulation of his country by the Portuguese merchants seems very matter-of-fact and even naive as he writes, "they grab them and get them to be sold; and so great, Sir, is the corruption and licentiousness that our country is being completely depopulated, and Your Highness should not agree with this nor accept it as in your service." He is talking about his countrymen being sold, one by one, into slavery and how such actions are destabilizing his kingdom. However, he does not show any anger over the merchant's actions and he does not describe any punishments that he will inflict if the King of Portugal does not take control of his people and their actions. It just does not sound like the caring plea/threat of a King watching his country disintegrating right in front of him. Personally, I find this letter annoying and the act of a weak and wimpy leader. It does not surprise me that the King of Portugal did not go to the effort to stop his subjects since he was not given any real reason to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe Nzinga Mbemba passage was very interesting because it was coming from the African's point of view and illustrated how slavery was not forced upon Africans as much as it was part of a political, economic, and religious arrangement set up with European traders. It also doesn't quite fit with the idea that African people were totally complicit or willing to take part in the slave trade; Mbemba seems to be expressing that the Portugese gave him a raw deal in cutting his kingdom into the trade circuit. I am also surprised that he has Christian objections not just to slave trade but to the presence and excess of the trading of goods and the merchants visiting the land, which he sees as corrupting his people and turning them away from God when he thought they would come to convert his people - I also did not know there were African leaders who were Christian or interested in spreading Christianity. It gives a great illustration both of how the native peoples of Africa felt jilted but also did want to maintain advantageous relationships with Europeans.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really interesting and surprising experience reading the three articles about slavery. However, I would like to talk about two of them because both Richard Ligon's "A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes" and Thomas Philips's "Buying Slaves at Whyah" have interested me but in distinct aspects.
ReplyDeleteThere was once a problem obsessing me for a long period of time, which was why didn't servants or slaves revolt the masters for freedom. It is confusing because slaves had ascendency of population and this advantage could have fixed the insufficiency of weapons especially in place around equator like Barbadoes where rain forests dominated the landscape and firearms would not function so well. Why didn't they fight? It is not until I read Richard's story that I realize the reason:"Besides, there is a third reason, which stops all designs of that kind, and that is they are fetched from several parts of Africa who speaks several languages, and by that means one of them understand not another."(116) The quote indicates the tragedy of African slaves:shortage of communication resulted in physically and spiritually torturous life. This was similar to the Japanese's invasion into China when Chinese had great ascendency not only in population but also in territory. However, it was because of separation of governors who scrambled for rights and territories that made China fell apart and gave the Japanese great opportunity of invasion.
When I read Thomas's article, a thorough appreciation should be done from two perspectives. First, he presented and implicated his protest about anti-slavery though a detailed description of the process in which slavery trade was done. This is a very interesting method of expressing because it pushes readers into the scenario of slavery trade and hence think about how problematic it was.
Moreover, when Thomas said: "the devil is white, and so paint him"(122), he insisted his point that people should not only judge other groups of people simply because they were not in the same group. This is far more decent than how I imagined the white masters during the slavery trade would be. However the article also raises one question: What made the prejudice resulting from racialization of slavery so lasting while open and enlightened ideas like Thomas's opinion so neglected?