In the previous section, we learned that slavery was an institution that knew no color. Anyone could become a slave and almost every culture/ society participated in the institution of slavery. The question that is now asked is: how did slavery transform into an even more brutal institution that identified Africans as the enslaved, and the whites as the enslaver? In order to understand how the institution of slavery evolved in the New World, we will start with an examination of the historical backgrounds of the European nations involved in the Age of Discovery.
The Century Before the Age of Discovery
During the 14th century, the Chinese dominated the seas. They were the most technically advanced nation in the world at that time. But in the 15th century, Portugal, followed closely by Venice and then Spain, began to catch up. Portugal was the first European nation to sail around Africa, and in being the first European nation to do so, they were also the first to discover a sea route to the much coveted Spice Islands, and along the way, find gold and slaves in order to increase their wealth.
Economics and Slavery in The New World
An underlying aspect that we have not discussed in detail but is consistent throughout this outline is the economics of slavery. We explained in detail who were the enslavers and who were the enslaved and what were slaves used for and the psychological effects that slavery caused on both the enslaver and the enslaved. But to truly understand slavery and how it fundamentally changed after the Age of Discovery as compared to before 1441 AD, one has to understand how economics (dollars and cents) influenced this institution.
The bottom line is that slavery has always been an industry for profit. The people who were enslaved throughout history have always been looked upon as ‘tools’ or ‘appendages’ to be used in order to make the enslaver (owner) wealthier. In addition to power and control, money and wealth has always been at the primary root of enslavement. One who has wealth lives better (have more time to engage in leisurely activities), and works less, and having slaves to do the work for you increases wealth. Before the Age of Discovery, a slave might be any color: white, brown, yellow, or black. Physical differences did not matter, as long as he/she could work. Pirates, warriors, and slave dealers were not concerned with the color of a person’s skin or the shape of his nose or the size of his lips, etc. when they captured someone. They all wanted slaves in order to increase their wealth. In Ancient Greece and Rome there seems to have been no connection between race and slavery. Captured whites and blacks were enslaved equally, and no one debated whether one race or the other was better suited to this condition, (although people from certain areas were thought to be better at certain tasks than others). A slave’s social origins were just as diverse and meant nothing to the enslaver. He/she could be from any class; a peasant, a king, illiterate and unskilled or a person of advanced professional or technical accomplishments. The work of the slave was as varied as his origins, but the bottom line was that the slave worked forcibly without compensation and generated wealth for the slave owners. Slavery has always been a profit driven industry, based on a system of using enforced labor to generate those profits. This color-blindness within the system of slavery as practiced throughout history eventually changed when the Europeans began to dominate commerce and trade in the New World, and within 150 years after 1441, the word “slave” and “African” became synonymous in the New World. How did this happen?
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