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'via Blog this' Brazil was the last nation in the Western world to abolish slavery.
Slavery in Brazil shaped the country's social structure and ethnic landscape. During thecolonial epoch and for over six decades after the 1822 independence, slavery[2] was a mainstay of the Brazilian economy, especially in mining, cotton, and sugar cane production.
In certain African societies, there was very little difference between the free peasants and the feudal vassal peasants. Enslaved people of the Songhay Empire were used primarily in agriculture; they paid tribute to their masters in crop and service but they were slightly restricted in custom and convenience. These non-free people were more an occupational caste, as theirbondage was relative.[1]
The African slave traderefers to the historic slave trade withinAfrica. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in many parts of the continent, as they were in much of theancient world. In some African societies, the enslaved people were also indentured servants and fully integrated; in others, they were treated much worse. When theArab slave trade andAtlantic slave tradebegan, many local slave systems changed and began supplying captives for slave markets outside of Africa.
[edit]Modern slavery
In 1995, 288 farmworkers were freed from what was officially described as slavery, a total which rose to 583 in 2000. In 2001, however, the Brazilian government freed more than 1,400 slave laborers. Some believe that most cases probably go undetected. A national survey conducted in 2000 by the Pastoral Land Commission, a Roman Catholic church group, estimated that there were more than 25,000 forced workers and slaves in Brazil.[16]
In 2004 the Brazilian government acknowledged to the United Nations that 25,000-40,000 Brazilians work under work conditions "analogous to slavery." The top anti-slavery official inBrasÃlia, nation's capital, estimates the number of modern slaves at 50,000.[17] More than 1,000 slave laborers were freed from a sugar cane plantation in 2007 by the Brazilian government, in the largest anti-slavery raid in modern times in Brazil.[4]
In 2008, the Brazilian government freed 4,634 slaves in 133 separate criminal cases at 255 different locations. Freed slaves received a total compensation of £2.4 million (equal to $4.8 million).[18]
In March 2012, European consumer protection organizations published a study about slavery and cruelty to animals involved when producing leather shoes. A Danish organisation was contracted to visit farms, slaughterhouses and tanneries in Brasiland India. The conditions of humans found were catastrophic, as well the treatment of the animals was found cruel. None of the 16 companies surveyed was able to track the used products down to the end producers. Timberland did not participate, but was found the winner as it showed at least some signs of transparency on its website.[19] after the holocaust, the Portuguese slave trade was the biggest death toll.
Several nations such as the Ashanti of Ghana and the Yoruba ofNigeria were involved in slave-trading. Groups such as theImbangala of Angola and the Nyamwezi of Tanzania would serve as intermediaries or roving bands, waging war on African states to capture people for export as slaves. Historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. Without the complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.[2]
Slavery in African cultures was generally more like indentured servitude, although in certain parts of sub-Saharan Africa, slaves were used for human sacrifices in annual rituals, such as those rituals practiced by the denizens of Dahomey.[3][4][5] Slaves were not meant to be chattel of other men, nor enslaved for life. These differences between slavery and traditional indentured servitude were used by Western slave owners during the time of abolition in an attempt to thwart their slaves efforts to free themselves, for example by John Wedderburn in Wedderburn v. Knight, the case that ended legal recognition of slavery inScotland in 1776. Regardless of the legal options open to slave owners, rational cost-earning calculations and voluntary adoption of moral restraints often mitigated the more vicious uses of slaves throughout history. Unfortunately this rarely extended to the slave traders and transporters, who preferred to weed out the "worthless, weak "individuals.
The viewpoint that “Africans” enslaved “Africans” is obfuscating if not troubling. The deployment of “African” in African history tends to coalesce into obscurantist constructions of identities that allow scholars, for instance, to subtly call into question the humanity of “all” Africans. Whenever Asante rulers sold non-Asantes into slavery, they did not construct it in terms of Africans selling fellow Africans. They saw the victims for what they were, for instance, as Akuapems, without categorizing them as fellow Africans. Equally, when Christian Scandinavians and Russians sold war captives to the Islamic people of the Abbasid Empire, they didn’t think that they were placing fellow Europeans into slavery. This lazy categorizing homogenizes Africans and has become a part of the methodology of African history; not surprisingly, the Western media’s cottage industry on Africa has tapped into it to frame Africans in inchoate generalities allowing the media to describe local crisis in one African state as “African” problem.[6]—Dr. Akurang-Parry, Ending the Slavery Blame
Africans knew of the harsh slavery that awaited slaves in the New World. Many elite Africans visited Europe on slave ships following the prevailing winds through the New World. One example of this occurred when Antonio Manuel, Kongo’s ambassador to the Vatican, went to Europe in 1604, stopping first in Bahia, Brazil, where he arranged to free a countryman who had been wrongfully enslaved. African monarchs also sent their children along these same slave routes to be educated in Europe, and thousands of former slaves eventually returned to settle Liberia and Sierra Leone. [2]
When British rule was first imposed on the Sokoto Caliphate and the surrounding areas in northern Nigeria at the turn of the 20th century, approximately 2 million to 2.5 million people there were enslaved.[8] Slavery in northern Nigeria was finally outlawed in 1936.[9]
Elikia M’bokolo, April 1998, Le Monde diplomatique. Quote:"TheAfrican continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth)." He continues: "Four million slaves exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili ports of theIndian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million (depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean"[28]
Medieval slave trade in Europe was mainly to the East and South:Byzantine Empire and the Muslim World were the destinations,Central and Eastern Europe an important source.[29] Slavery in medieval Europe was so common that the Roman Catholic Church repeatedly prohibited it—or at least the export of Christian slaves to non-Christian lands was prohibited at, for example, theCouncil of Koblenz in 922, the Council of London in 1102, and theCouncil of Armagh in 1171.[30] Because of religious constraints, the slave trade was monopolised in parts of Europe by IberianJews (known as Radhanites) who were able to transfer the slaves from pagan Central Europe through Christian Western Europe to Muslim countries in Al-Andalus and Africa.[31] So many Slavs were enslaved for so many centuries that word 'Slav' became synonymous with slavery. The derivation of the word slave encapsulates a bit of European history and explains why the two words (slaves and Slavs) are so similar; they are, in fact, historically identical.[32]
So people have to constantly be revolting in order to not be taken advantage of? Can't we all just get along?
Mamluks were slave soldiers who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and theAyyubid sultans during the Middle Ages. The first mamluks served the Abbasid caliphs in 9th centuryBaghdad. Over time they became a powerful military caste, and on more than one occasion they seized power for themselves, for example, ruling Egypt from 1250–1517. From 1250 Egypt had been ruled by the Bahri dynasty ofKipchak Turk origin. Whiteenslaved people from the Caucasus served in the army and formed an elite corp of troops eventually revolting in Egypt to form theBurgi dynasty.[34]
The very earliest external slavetrade was the trans-Saharan slave trade. Although there had long been some trading up the Nile River and very limited trading across the western desert, the transportation of large numbers of slaves did not become viable until camels were introduced fromArabia in the 10th century. By this point, a trans-Saharan trading network came into being to transport slaves north. Zanzibar was once East Africa's main slave-trading port, and under Omani Arabs in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the city each year.[41][42] Most historians estimate that between 11 and 18 million African slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, andSahara Desert from 650 AD to 1900 AD,[43][44] Frequent intermarriages meant that the enslaved people were assimilatedin North Africa. Unlike in the Americas, enslaved people in North Africa were mainly servants and soldiers rather than labourers, and a greater number of females than males were taken, who were often employed as servants, forced into prostitution or to become the women of harems.[45] Swiss explorer Johann Burckhardt wrote: "I frequently witnessed scenes of the most shameless indecency, which the traders, who were the principal actors, only laughed at. I may venture to state, that very few female slaves who have passed their tenth year, reach Egypt or Arabia in a state of virginity."[46] It was also not uncommon to turn enslaved males, both African and European, into eunuchs via castration to serve as guardians to the harems.[47]
(Soldiers have always been disgusting child-rapers, according to this.)
David Livingstone wrote of the slave trade: "To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility ... We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path. [Onlookers] said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer. We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead ... We came upon a man dead from starvation ... The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves." Livingstone estimated that 80,000 Africans died each year before ever reaching the slave markets ofZanzibar.[50][51][52][53] Zanzibar was once East Africa's main slave-trading port, and under Omani Arabs in the 19th century as many as 50,000 slaves were passing through the city each year.[54]
(I bet they called him a "liberal" and an anti-capitalist.)
Atlantic Ocean trade
- Main article Atlantic slave trade
The first Europeans to arrive on the coast of Guinea were thePortuguese; the first European to actually buy enslaved Africans in the region of Guinea was Antão Gonçalves, a Portuguese explorer in 1441 AD. Originally interested in trading mainly forgold and spices, they set up colonies on the uninhabited islands ofSão Tomé. In the 16th century the Portuguese settlers found that these volcanic islands were ideal for growing sugar. Sugar growing is a labour-intensive undertaking and Portuguese settlers were difficult to attract due to the heat, lack of infrastructure, and hard life. To cultivate the sugar the Portuguese turned to large numbers of enslaved Africans. Elmina Castle on the Gold Coast, originally built by African labor for the Portuguese in 1482 to control the gold trade, became an important depot for slaves that were to be transported to the New World.[55]
(Enter Karma. Sugar is poisonous and causes diobesity. The descendants of the slave traffickers and the plantation owners are paying for the sins of their fathers. Many are fat, ugly, toothless, and losing limbs at an alarming rate, and still they won't stop with the "sweet tea" and the "Co-Cola." They are enslaved to their addictions and having little access to medical care. Worship of the Almighty Dollar has backfired. Sugar, like gold, is mostly useless.)
- Both are lifestyle related diseases.
- Insulin resistance is the key abnormality in both diseases.
- Diabetes is carbohydrates and calories problem and Obesity is calories and fat problem.
- If diabetes is insulin resistance then obesity is Leptin resistance
The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves were captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa.[citation needed] These expeditions were typically carried out by African kingdoms against weaker African ethnic groups and peoples. These mass slavers included the Oyo empire (Yoruba), Kong Empire, Kingdom of Benin,Kingdom of Fouta Djallon, Kingdom of Fouta Tooro, Kingdom of Koya, Kingdom of Khasso, Kingdom of Kaabu, Fante Confederacy,Ashanti Confederacy, and the kingdom of Dahomey. Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa, due to fear of disease and moreover fierce African resistance.[59]
They were all very inquisitive, but they viewed me at first with looks of horror, and repeatedly asked if my countrymen were cannibals. They were very desirous to know what became of the slaves after they had crossed the salt water. I told them that they were employed in cultivation the land; but they would not believe me ... A deeply-rooted idea that the whites purchase blacks for the purpose of devouring them, or of selling them to others that they may be devoured hereafter, naturally makes the slaves contemplate a journey towards the coast with great terror.[60]—Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795-7
King Gezo of Dahomey said in 1840s:
- The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth ... the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery
In 1807, the UK Parliament passed the Bill that abolished the trading of slaves. The King of Bonny (now in Nigeria) was horrified at the conclusion of the practice:
- We think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself.[68]
The enslaved people came from many different sources. About half came from the societies that sold them. These might becriminals, heretics, the mentally ill, the indebted and any others that had fallen out of favour with the rulers. Little is known about the details of these practices before the arrival of Europeans, and so it is difficult to tell if the number of people considered as undesirables was artificially increased to provide more slaves for export. It is believed that capital punishment in the region nearly disappeared since prisoners became far too valuable to dispose of in such a way.[69]
( That makes sense. Are we not artificially creating criminals here, putting them in jail, and forcing them into labor? Think about it: If the majority of Americans would vote to legalize weed, yet it remains illegal, what else would be the point of that? I don't smoke pot but I would love for it to be legal because it would give the liver of all the alkies I know a much-needed break. I come from a long line of alcoholics.)
Another source of enslaved people, comprising about half the total, came from military conquests of other states or tribes. It has long been contended that the slave trade greatly increased violence and warfare in the region due to the pursuit of slaves,endemic warfare was certainly common even before slave hunting had added such an extra inducement.[69]
Legacy of racism
Maulana Karenga states that the effects of the African slave trade were "the morally monstrous destruction of human possibility involved redefining African humanity to the world, poisoning past, present and future relations with others who only know us through this stereotyping and thus damaging the truly human relations among people of today". He cites that it constituted the destruction of culture, language, religion and human possibility.[86]
Abolition
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Beginning in the late 18th century, France was one of Europe's first country to abolish slavery, in 1794, but it was revived by Napoleon in 1802, and banned for good in 1848. Denmark-Norway was the first European country to ban the slave trade. This happened with a decree issued by the king in 1792, to become fully effective by 1803. Slavery itself was not banned until 1848 [87]. In 1807 the British Parliament passed theAbolition of the Slave Trade Act, under which captains of slave ships could be stiffly fined for each slave transported. This was later superseded by the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, which freed all slaves in the British Empire. Abolition was then extended to the rest of Europe. The 1820 U.S. Law on Slave Trade made slave trading piracy, punishable by death.[88] In 1827, Britain declared the slave trade to be piracy, punishable by death. The power of the Royal Navy was subsequently used to suppress the slave trade, and while some illegal trade, mostly with Brazil, continued, the Atlantic slave trade was eradicated in the year 1850 by senator Eusebio de Queiroz, Minister of Justice of the Empire of Brazil, the law was called Law Eusebio de Queiroz.[89] After struggles that lasted for decades in the Empire of Brazil, slavery was abolished completely in 1888 by Princess Isabel of Brazil and Minister Rodrigo Silva (son-in-law of senator Eusebio de Queiroz). The West Africa Squadron was credited with capturing 1,600 slave ships between 1808 and 1860 and freeing 150,000 Africans who were aboard these ships.[90] Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against ‘the usurping King of Lagos’, deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers.
(Go Isabel)
Although outlawed in nearly all countries today, slavery is practiced in secret in many parts of the world.[93] There are an estimated 27 million victims of slavery worldwide.[94] InMauritania alone, up to 600,000 men, women and children, or 20% of the population, are enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[95][96] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[97] It is estimated that as many as 200,000 Sudanese children and women have been taken into slavery in Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War.[98][99] In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[100][101]In many Western countries, slavery is still prevalent[contradictory] in the form of sexual slavery.[102]
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