Origins of Slavery
‘Europe Supported by Africa and America’
William Blake, c.1777
Early American Social History, Term 2, Week 3
Intro
• What is slavery?
• Ideas of race
• The Slave Trade
• First slaves in North America
Hamitic Curse: Genesis 9
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18 And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of
Canaan.
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19 These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
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20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
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21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
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22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
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23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the
nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
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24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
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25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
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26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
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27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
Ideas of Race
• Eng notions of race come via Iberia,
and Ottoman Empire
• Fluidity of idea of race
• Connotations of ‘black’ in English
• Theories of monogenesis make it
difficult to see Africans and Amerindians
as sub-human
Reports of early travellers
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“in Ethiopia and in many other countries the folk lie all
naked….they wed no wives, for all the women there be
common” The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (14thC)
“one cannot know a man from a woman but by their
breastes, which in the most part be very foule and long,
hanging down low like the udder of a goate” The First
voyage made by Master William Towrson (1555)
‘[Africans are] very black; but the features of their faces,
and their excellent teeth, being white as ivory, make up
together a handsom ayre, and taking comliness of a new
beauty’ John Ogilby, Africa (1670)
‘a negro of the greatest beauty and majesty together: that
ever I saw in one woman. Her stature large, and
excellently shap’d, well favour’d, full eye’d, and admirably
grac’d’ Richard Ligon, A True and exact history of the
island of Barbadoes (1657)
‘[Africans are] black as coal. Here, thro’ custom, (being
Christians) they account themselves white men’ Journal
of a Voyage up the Gambia (London, 1723)
Gender
“I admired the quietness of the poor babes, so
carr’d about at their mothers’ backs…and how
freely they suck the breasts, which are always
full of milk over their mothers’ shoulders”John
Barbot A Description of the coasts of North and
South Guinea (1682)
“the custom of the country allows polygamy to
an excessive degree” William Snelgrave, New
Account of some parts of Guinea (1734)
African women ‘suspected of Bestiality’, unable
to “control their lust”
The labour problem in Virginia
• Not enough volunteer workers
• Solutions
– Indentured servants
– Indians – Sp precedent
– Africans – Sp precedent
First Africans
• 1619 “About the last of August came in a
Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty
Negars.” (John Rolfe)
Q of status
• Were first Africans slaves or
indentured servants?
• Case of Anthony Johnson
Economics of enslavement
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Cost of slaves vs Indentured servants
Problems of early death
Better markets for ships
Lack of cash
Slow uptake of African slavery
Atlantic Slave Trade
Captured Africans
Cape Coast Castle 1727
Cape Coast Castle 1973
Plan of Slave ship
Advert for slaves in 18thC Charles-Town
New York Weekly-Journal April 15, 1734
Gradual development of slave laws
• No British precedent
• 1640 - John Punch sentenced to life
servitude for running away in VA, not
extended term
• 1662 – Va law of hereditary slavery for
children of black mothers
• 1664 Md bans marriage between white
women and black men
• 1664 most colonies adopt lifelong servitude
for blacks
Conclusions
• North American slavery an “unthinking
decision” (W. Jordan)
• By 1700 slavery well established in
every colony