Slave Trade And Slavery
The experience of slave trade and slavery was not good. This is according to comments provided by various authors like Cornad, David Eltis and Stanley Engerman, Herbert, s Klein and love joy. The authors argue that a large percentage of the slaves were mistreated during the slave trade. For instance, the slaves were not provided with better living conditions and also environmental conditions. This made it hard for the slaves to survive. In addition, the slaves were not provided with medical treatment and this impacted them negatively and resulted to high death rate.
Most of the people who worked as slaves died poor. During the slave trade, a large section of the Portuguese persuaded Indians to sell themselves. The Indians did not understand what slave trade meant and they sold themselves to cotton plantation. After selling themselves, the Indians were mistreated and enslaved (Cornad, 1987).As the slave trade continued, the situation got worse. The death rate was high among African slaves after they arrived at Brazil. Most of the people found it hard to adapt to the slave ship and new conditions in Brazil and other countries that imported slaves.
Most of the slaves appeared skinny after a long journey and generally had poor health. Robert Edgar Cornad argues that the situation of the slaves was bad as the slaves were exposed to diseases from the Brazilians and their homeland. Most of the new slaves died quickly and those who recovered from the mistreatment found it hard to survive. This is because the Brazilians and other countries did not provide the necessary help to the slaves to enable them adjust to the conditions.
The new slaves were forced to work in the plantations and most of the plantations had inadequate medical care, hygiene, housing and food. Punishment and labor was common in the plantation and most of the slaves were unable to bear the situation. These factors shortened the life of the slaves. The average mortality rate for African was less than 8% under good condition during the first year and 6% in the second year. This is according to a report by an observer. Dr. Jose Rodrigue an observer provided a report about the hygienic rules in the plantations. José argued that most of the Brazilian did not observe any of the hygienic rules. They did not care what the Africans eat, how they lived, the hours they worked and the clothes they wore.
Jose claimed that the poor hygienic conditions in the plantations had increased the mortality rate and caused death of the Africans (LoveJoy, 1982).Slavery affected the rights of the slaves. For example, the slaves were not allowed to marry. Slavery was a barrier to matrimony. Most of the slaves were not allowed to marry like other people in the society. Most of the slave women gave birth despite the poor condition which affected fertility and led to still births. A large percentage of the slave children been were not able to reach maturity due to poor health and diseases.Most of the slaves were forced to work in the forms without any compensation. The number of men who were allowed to work in the plantation was high compared to the number of women .
This is because men were able to cope with the harsh conditions unlike women. In conclusion most scholars like Cornad describe the slave experience as bad as it had negative impact on the slaves and their families (LoveJoy, 1982).The slave trade lasted for more than three hundred years in many countries though the movement of slaves was miserable. For instance, the slave trade lasted for more than 300 hundred years in Brazil because of various factors. First, the slave trade lasted for long in Brazil because of the economic opportunities in the country .
This is according to Cornad. The wide range of opportunities in various commodities in the country motivated slave trade in the country. Most of the commodities for sale in the country provided market for slave trade in the country. For example, the sugar, gold and diamond in the country increased the demand for slaves. This prolonged the length of slave trade in the country. Other goods that attracted slaves included cotton, coffee and tobacco. The commodities forced the country to import a large number of slaves. In addition, the ease and cheapness of getting employees in Africa increased the period for slave trade.
Most of the countries like Brazil were able to get employees from Africa using various means like raid, war and exchange. The countries exchanged various products like tobacco, rum, arms and fabrics with slaves. The high demand of the commodities in Africa facilitated slave trade as the country was able to get ready market for their products (Cornad, 1987).Another factor that facilitated slave trade in Brazil was the population deficit in the country. The number of females in Brazil was low compared to the number of males in the country. This led to population deficit in the country.
Additionally, most of the children in the country were not productive and this lowered the population. The Brazilian government compensated by importing Africans. Countries like Brazil were able to get slaves from Africa at a cheaper cost. This in turn led to high number of slaves in the country and resulted to neglect and waste in the country. The neglect and poor environmental conditions in the country resulted to death of slaves. The neglect for slaves did not occur only in Brazil, but it was evident in other countries like Spain, France and England. The poor conditions in such countries led to increase in death rate among slaves. The high death rate in the countries resulted to high demand of new slaves to replace those who died.
The countries imported new slaves to cater for the shortage of slaves in the country and this made the slave trade to last in the country for more than three hundred years. Most people argue that if the countries had provided good living conditions for the slaves and environmental conditions, they could not have imported more slaves. Also, if brazil had encourage marriage and family, it could have reduced the number of slaves imported to cater for population deficit (Cornad,1987).Moreover, the slave trade lasted for long because the slave population did not reproduce itself. This is according to Eltis &Engerman (1993) and Cornad(1987).
The slaves in the country did not reproduce as the countries imported large numbers of male slaves and few women. This made it hard for the population to reproduce. A large percentage of the countries wanted workers, but not families and thus imported more men than women. Second, the population of the slaves did not increase because they were not provided with the right care. Children and women did not get proper care and this led to death and shortage in number of slaves. Further, the slaves died as a result of excessive labor, diseases and lack of treatment. Others became disabled (Eltis &Engerman, 1993).
The population static in the country showed a small number of women and this made it hard for the slave population to grow or remain stable. The number of males in 1786 was 116,291 and the number of women was 57,884.This is according to a census results released in minas Gerais. In 1782, the number of females in Northern town of Macapa was 213 and the number of men was 432 (Eltis &Engerman, 1993).The population of slaves in the Rio de Jainero province was not large. The population of slaves in the province was almost 183,720.The population consisted of almost equal number of women and men.
The number of men was 137,873 and the number of females was 86,139.The number of females working on the plantations was limited, but the number of men was high. The number of men to women in the plantation was 1:10 and this led to a small number of women until the end of slave trade. The small number of women led to more men being imported in the country and also men dominating the slave ship cargo. It also led to high demand of slaves in the plantations (Eltis &Engerman, 1993).Herbert Klein and Ben Vinson III have analyzed African slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors analyze the origin of the slave system in the area.
The authors argue that slavery lasted for long because of the changes in economic structures in the countries. Most societies in the 15th century held slaves, but the slaves formed a small part of the labor force. Most of the societies depended on the labor settled village agriculturalists and artisans. The agriculturalists and peasants relied on slaves. The importation market economy in the countries and other countries facilitated the development of slave trade. The authors argue that for slavery to become common in the society, it was important for the society to develop an importation market economy.
The largest share of the market came from non peasant farmers. The farmers relied on slave labor to increase production. Most of the market economies like the market economies in Roman Empire led to the development of slave trade in the region. The slaves in the Roman Empire did not have any right as the masters were in charge of the slaves. For example, the slaves did not have right to property and security, but the masters had.
Further, the demand for labor in various countries led to the growth of the slave trade. The conquest of the American hemisphere by the Europe did not led to growth of African slave labor in the world. Africans in various parts of the world like Europe and Atlantic island formed a small section of labor force in Europe. Most of the countries like Europe and America were unable to rely on their population and this forced them to rely on cheap labor from Africa.
Reference
Cornad,R.E.(1987).World of sorrow. The African slave trade in Brazil. Louisiana state university press, baton rouge and London.
Eltis,D.,&Engerman,S.L.(1993).Fluctuation in sex and age ratios in the transatlantic slave trade 1663-1864.Econmic history review, page 308-323.
Klein,H.S.,&Vinson III,B.(2007).African slavery in Latin America and the caribean.Oxford university press
LoveJoy,P.(1982).The volume of the Atlantic slave trade: A synthesis. Journal of African history, vol23, page 473-501
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