Slavery: Not Made In The USA

Slavery is and has always been a horror.  And, it was so in America.  Indeed, it afflicted North America even before it's independence from England.  And, like any disease, to understand it requires an understanding of how it began in North America.

Based on my readings, there were three migrations of slaves to North America.  The first involved Africans who had been in Spain, Portugal and other European countries.  No one took any special note of them as they were treated pretty much as indentured servants.  This was also the condition of many of the white Europeans who came to this country.

The second migration of Africans was from the Chesapeake area to the farms, where slaves were used in raising tobacco and other crops.  In the third major migration, the slaves were moved to the south where a major crop was cotton..

The sequence of African migrations is interesting because the first of the migrations was of Africans who came here not in slave ships, but as merchandise that called for some care -- not much care, but some.  These slaves were not locked in the wretched holds of slave ships as were the Africans that followed.  Also, these early slaves had some knowledge of Europeans and in most cases spoke in one of the European languages.  Their servitude was not very different from that of the many indentured Europeans.  Upon arriving in America, they were able to adapt to local conditions.

Later Africans to arrive to these shores found themselves in very different circumstances.  These later arrivals entered by why of the Chesapeake docks.  They were put to work harvesting tobacco and growing rice.  The last migrations of African to America was the one most noted; namely, shipping the slaves further south and west to tend the cotton fields.

From a presentation in the Ellis Island Museum (If course, slaves did not come through Ellis Island.  The following figures came from a poster board presentation on exhibit there.)  Half of all Africans sent to the new world were sent to Brazil.  They numbered roughly 4 million.  Roughly three million enslaved Africans were distributed among French, Spanish, and English islands in the Caribbean.  About one million were sent to America.

In America, as we well know, slaves were eventually freed under the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, January 1, 1863, following a horrible Civil War.  Slavery in Brazil continued until May 13, 1888, 25 years after it ended in America.  In the British islands in the Caribbean it ended in 1833.  In that year slavery was ended in all British territories except those under the authority of the British India Company.  There it ended 10 years later.

The misery for Africans sold into slavery did not begin on the west African docks were they were loaded into slave ships.  It began when a weaker tribe was captured by a stronger tribe, often in Africa's interior and marched to the coast were they were sold to owners of the slave ships.  The march was brutal and many died along the way.

But as we know, the freeing of Africans in America did not return to them their human dignity nor place in their hands the rights due all Americans.  Rather it was followed by a period referred to as Jim Crow that lasted around 90 years and was more onerous in southern parts of America than in the north.  But, generally, bigotry and racism could easily be found to a greater, or lesser extent, all over America.  Voting restrictions, rights to an equal education and other privileges enjoyed by whites followed slowly.

How are we to judges America's race relations compared to that of other countries?  What other country in this hemisphere has had a black leader. other than Haiti? That is not, of course, the ultimate yardstick by which to judge a nation's race relations.  There are other features that could be used as yard sticks.  America could do better; but frankly, in my opinion, we've done pretty well.  Even in a country like Haiti, largely devoid of whites, a light skin is favored.  The debate goes on.