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Introduction

Slave trade in America was one of the most demeaning eras in the history of humanity.  Once at destination in America, the sale of slaves would immediately start after alighting but could also be done on board ships. The sale was announced in public by flyers plastered on the walls of the city. The slave traders sold the captives by batch flow more quickly and easily.

Regulators comprised of African commanders. They accompanied the owners of plantation to determine the ethnicity of the slaves. Indeed, the choice of captives was in part based on the reputation of the original slaves’ ethnicities. In addition, buyers carefully examined the body of slaves in order to ensure they were in good health.

Payments for salves were made in either cash or in kind (sugar, tobacco, and cotton, indigo). Similarly, payments could be made instantly or later (on credit). That was why the wealthiest planters were given priority in the slave market.[1]

It would take between one to four weeks for the captain to sell his cargo of captives depending on their quality, supply and demand. After leaving, the suspended bridges would be dismantled.[2] The captain would buy the tropical products such as cotton balls, sugar barrels, bags of coffee and indigo for resale in Europe. This trade contributed to the prosperity of the major European ports. This paper argues that slave trade gave birth to racism and unprecedented rise of segregation of American society.

A brief chronology of slavery in the United States

The year 1619 marked the arrival of the first slaves in the United States. Between 1640 and1680, there was phenomenal increase in slave trade comprising of all the kidnapped Africans as commodities for exchange. In 1780, the state of Massachusetts adopted the first anti-slavery law while in 1819, the United States began considering trafficking (selling) of the slaves and kidnapping of Africans as an act of piracy (and therefore punishable by death). However, the nation did not abolish slavery. By 1820, slavery was officially abolished in the Northern States. Nonetheless, the North largely financed the South when it came to slavery activities. Adoption of the “Black Law” in Connecticut took place in1834.[3] The state prohibited educating blacks. Besides, a slave who managed to flee the South and gone to live in the Northern United States was to be given back to his master if captured. Anyone who received an escaped slave was punishable by a jail term.

In January 1839, a farmer by the name Joseph Cinque who was from the Mende tribe was kidnapped in Sierra Leone, as well as several other dozen members of his tribe.[4]  In June, after an arduous journey, they arrived in Havana (Cuba) and are sold to two Spanish farmers. The ship was sailed to Puerto Principe in Cuba. Once at sea, the slaves revolted and killed most of the crew. They demand to be returned to Sierra Leone. The captain accepted, but for two months, at night, he directed the ship to the United States. In August, the 43 slave survivors were claimed by their Spanish owners. Most slaves who were traded in America were captured and sold in a similar manner to work in plantation farms at no pay.

A legal battle between the Southern and Northern states with the quest to either abolish or reinstate slavery went on between 1850 and 1860. South Carolina seceded in 1860S and left the United States during the election of Abraham Lincoln. The move was followed by ten other states.[5]

In 1861, the 11 states got together under the name of the Confederate States of America. Their constitution prohibited slave trade internationally but allowed slavery. The Civil War began in April. The year 1865 marked the end of the American civil war which was won by the North. Slavery was eventually abolished in the United States.

Systematic segregation of blacks

Despite the abolitionist ideas of Jefferson and Washington, the 1787 Constitution was silent on slavery and actually recognized it implicitly. Officially, the Congress abolished the trade in 1808 and trafficking stopped from that date, except for isolated illegal cases of the trade. In 1830, the estimated number of slaves was 2 million while in 1860; the figure had doubled to 4 million. This explains why the American economy grew very fast to become a super power from the early years of civilization.

In the North, the freeman status given to blacks promised nothing like equality. It can be recalled that the blacks were excluded from voting (except in New England), schools, churches and transportation. The Blacks in the North were also increasing in number owing to the arrival of fugitive slaves from the South. Due to extreme pressure from the Southern slave owners, most of the black slaves escaped to the northern states.[6] However, the Congress passed a law in 1850 prohibiting fugitive slaves from the southern states.

President Andrew Johnson requested the southern states to amend their constitution so that they could be integrated into the Union. The new “black codes” was set up. However, it had no significant difference with the old one. Most blacks remained in the country pending the promised redistribution of land after abolition of slave trade. The white farmers saw these slaves as subversives, while the vast majority of blacks confined themselves to those lands.[7] The promised redistribution course did not take place, and as a result, most of the lands sold to the freed men were redeemed by the freed white rebels who employed their former slaves. Secret societies and the Ku Klux Klan act took shape and led to the burning of homes and crops belonging to blacks. Southerners managed to maintain white supremacy in economic terms. They also wanted to enshrine their demand within law and other institutions.

After being faced by the Southerners, the Office of the Libertines was created in 1865 by Lincoln. It worked towards the construction of schools and integration of blacks in public life.[8] Furthermore, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments adopted in 1868 and 1870 respectively promised to grant citizenship and equal protection by the law. Nonetheless, Southerners did everything possible to keep off blacks from the polls by complicating the registration on the electoral roll or violently threatening freed men who were potential voters.

In 1877, federal troops left the territory of the former Confederacy after an election and promised Republicans a candidate against Southern voters. The North abandoned the freed men in the hands of Southerners.[9]

The South was still predominantly an agricultural belt even though farmers suffered from falling prices. Consequently, some farmers organized themselves into radical agrarian associations comprising of white people. Sometimes, the latter worked with black organizations. Thus, in 1896, the black Republican and Populist Party together got a majority in the legislature of North Carolina. But this reconciliation was short-lived since blacks could not take leading positions in the American political scene. In addition, many whites feared losing their jobs. The white ruling class did everything to deprive blacks of their civil rights. They were frightened at the possible political role they could play. In the same way, many poor white farmers claimed that the right to vote openly dependent on the color of the skin.

The “grandfather clause” enshrined in law in Louisiana in 1896 automatically disenfranchised all the freed men by not giving them the right to vote. the Supreme Court was allied to the southerners by declaring in 1873 that there were two types of citizenship namely federal and regional. The fourteenth amendment related only to the first type of citizenship. In 1883, it said that the same amendment prohibited states and not individuals from practicing racial discrimination and in 1986, “Plessy versus Ferguson” established a long doctrine with clauses such as” separate but equals ” and ” separate but equal ” which endorsed segregation in schools. Hence, blacks were systematically segregated.

Slavery led to Racism

In 1880, 75% of blacks were living in the South. Many had already abandoned the countryside to dwell the cities where they could find jobs in factories. This massive urbanization transformed the lifestyle of the cities. Whites were already moving into areas inhabited by blacks, and laws allowed segregated neighborhoods.  Blacks were being confined in filthy slum settlements. The phenomenon was the same in the Northern states coupled with the gradual arrival of many blacks in urban as well as spatial segregation that took place. Between 1885 and 1900, a total of 2500 lynching of black had already taken place. Most of the lynching cases entailed sexual relationship between a Black and a white woman. In just one year in 1900, a total of 106 blacks were lynched in the country. Between 1900 and 1914, the figure stood at 1100.[10]

The pretexts were increasingly diverse such as homicide, robbery, and insult among others. The purpose of segregated social system was to prohibit mixing of races. This made blacks to feel that they were inferior to whites. In any case, interracial marriages were prohibited; public places and transport were systematically segregated while interpersonal relationships were strictly coded.

Economic power was not accessible to the freed black slave’s population. They were crushed by poverty and debt as well as controlled by whites.

 

Some black intellectuals like John Hope, a professor at Atlanta University, believed that the salvation of blacks would only come through the constitution driven by black elites comprising of businessmen and other entrepreneurs. The blacks began to visualize hope in churches. The church was indeed a major societal pillar for blacks since it was the only institution fully owned by them (places of worship were also segregated) and where individuals could express themselves freely.

Olaudah Equiano was a key personality in the expansion of empires and growth of slave trade in America. The Chesapeake Slavery, the Middle Passage, Africans and slave trade as well as the transatlantic slave trade were vital historical groundwork that occurred before the close of 1763. As a matter of fact, the Rice Kingdom came into being and firmly established itself as an unconquerable empire owing to the revenue from slave business. Slavery ushered the emergence of a unique society made up of African Americans. As a matter of fact, African-American only required persons to be assimilated as slaves from Africa.

From 1820, numerous reforms in the American economy began taking place. Probably, one would wonder why reforms were necessary in a nation that had gone through so much transformations and tribulations. As anticipated, the historical era of reform came as an impulse since it was hardly expected. Utopian communities were accustomed to reform agenda.

Black Africa was known to the Spanish and Portuguese navigators before the conquest of America. But Spanish and Portuguese avoided it for health reasons. They could not endure the unhealthy climate of the coast and those trying to establish themselves did not resist for too long before succumbing to local diseases.[11]

Conclusion

Based on the above occurrences associated with slave trade, it is evident that the American society was divided even further along racial lines. Even after the official abolition of slave trade in America a few centuries ago, the effects of this inhuman act are still being felt today. The American society is undoubtedly segregated. The long term effects of slave trade also masterminded societal hatred for no good reason. As much as the trade provided the much needed labor in American cotton and tobacco plantations (and of course boosted the American economy), it perpetrated one of the worst inhuman acts in the history of mankind. The mistrust that exists today between blacks and whites has got nothing to do with the color of their skins, but the fruits of slavery.

 

Bibliography

Allen Varlack, Christopher. “James Walvin. 2013. Crossings: Africa, the Americas          and the Atlantic Slave Trade.”African Studies Quarterly no. 4 (2014): 109-112.

Beamish, Ian. “Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619- 1807.” Canadian Journal of History no. 2 (2016): 426-432.

Clarence-Smith, William Gervase. “The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies,      Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas and Europe.” Africa no. 2 (1994):    275-287.

da Silva, Domingues. “Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave      Trade.” The Historian no. 2 (2015): 418-423.

Nickerson, Alberto. “Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade.” Journal of World History no. 4 (2006): 454-465.

Perdices de Blas, Luis, and José Luis Ramos-Gorostiza. “Blanco White, Spanish America, and Economic Affairs: The Slave Trade and Colonial Trade.” History of Political Economy 46, no. 4 (2014): 573-608.

Petley, Christer. “The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record.” Journal of American History 99, no. 4 (2013): 1329-1330.

          [1]. William Gervase Clarence-Smith, “The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas and Europe,” Africa no. 2 (1994): 276.

            [2]. Ibid., 277

            [3]. Luis Perdices de Blas and Ramos-Gorostiza José Luis,”Blanco White, Spanish America, and Economic Affairs: The Slave Trade and Colonial Trade,” History of Political Economy 46, no. 4 (2014): 574.

            [4]. Ibid., 576

            [5]. Ibid., 576

            [6]. Alberto Nickerson, “Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade,” Journal of World History no. 4 (2006): 454.

            [7]. Christer Petley,”The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record,” Journal of American History 99, no. 4 (2013): 1329.

            [8]. Ibid., 1330

            [9]. Domingues da Silva, “Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade,” The Historian no. 2 (2015): 421.

            [10]. Ian Beamish, “Final Passages:The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807,” Canadian Journal of History no. 2 (2016): 426.

            [11]. Christopher Allen Varlack, “James Walvin. 2013. Crossings: Africa, the Americas and the Atlantic Slave Trade,”African Studies Quarterly no. 4 (2014): 110.

 

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