The concept of slavery is often associated in our modern minds with the enslavement of African Americans ancestors. However, this was only one of many forms of slavery dating back thousands of years. It did not always have the direct association with race that was present in the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead, it was a prevalent method of subjugation for a broad set of reasons throughout almost all past civilizations. Even now, there is the modern form of slavery as seen in human trafficking of men, women, and children. Like the slavery in Ancient Greece or the American South, slavery has throughout time taken on aspects of the societies in which it has been present.
As the reading notes, the word slavery itself does not at its root have associations with race. Instead, the word slavery comes from the word slav, which itself was synonymous with the blond-haired, blue-eyed Germanic people. As they spread throughout Europe and were reduced to slaves, their ethnic designation became a derogatory name and from it came the word slavery. I find it interesting that while we tend to associate slavery with that in the American South or even the Caribbean, that the slavery envisioned and practiced in Europe and to which the Slavs were subjected was in many ways far more brutal than that of Africans in the Americas. There is also the fact that though Europeans stole and sold away entire families of Africans to slave-owners in America and around the world, the Moors of Africa too were stealing and enslaving whites for the same purpose. However, while Africans were dehumanized to help justify and propagate slavery, white slaves stolen by the Moors had a chance for freedom and never truly lost their humanity.
I think, this is perhaps on of the central differences between to two groups and is additionally, the reason the enslavement of one group cannot be seen as retribution for the enslavement of the other. A white could gain his freedom through conversion he never really lost his humanity in the eyes of the Africans but rather his humanity was seen as a service to them. On the other hand, in the American South, whites attempted to justify the enslavement of another human being in the face of their own religious and political ideologies by literally stripping them of their humanity. As the reading notes, Indians and Africans were seen as akin to Satan and therefore these Christian slaveholders could fall back on their religion as a justification.
The tribes of Africa too further exacerbated the issue by assisting in slave raids or themselves performing the stealing. But like the Moors, it stands to reason that their views of slavery, their idea of owning another human being did not carry the same meaning and application of the whites. I wonder, if the tribe leaders themselves knew the full ramifications of the slave trade and how it would shadow not only the lives of those carried across the ocean but that of Africa as well. However, opposing this idea is the fact that blacks as slave-owners were often times as likely to debase their slaves as whites.
Underlying the information in this reading is the idea that while slavery in the American South was unique in some respects, particularly in its concentration on race, historically it has not been a matter of race. However, in the experience of blacks in America, before and after emancipation, slavery has left a legacy of racially motivated degradation and dehumanization that altered not only the practice but our perceptions of it.
As the reading notes, the word slavery itself does not at its root have associations with race. Instead, the word slavery comes from the word slav, which itself was synonymous with the blond-haired, blue-eyed Germanic people. As they spread throughout Europe and were reduced to slaves, their ethnic designation became a derogatory name and from it came the word slavery. I find it interesting that while we tend to associate slavery with that in the American South or even the Caribbean, that the slavery envisioned and practiced in Europe and to which the Slavs were subjected was in many ways far more brutal than that of Africans in the Americas. There is also the fact that though Europeans stole and sold away entire families of Africans to slave-owners in America and around the world, the Moors of Africa too were stealing and enslaving whites for the same purpose. However, while Africans were dehumanized to help justify and propagate slavery, white slaves stolen by the Moors had a chance for freedom and never truly lost their humanity.
I think, this is perhaps on of the central differences between to two groups and is additionally, the reason the enslavement of one group cannot be seen as retribution for the enslavement of the other. A white could gain his freedom through conversion he never really lost his humanity in the eyes of the Africans but rather his humanity was seen as a service to them. On the other hand, in the American South, whites attempted to justify the enslavement of another human being in the face of their own religious and political ideologies by literally stripping them of their humanity. As the reading notes, Indians and Africans were seen as akin to Satan and therefore these Christian slaveholders could fall back on their religion as a justification.
The tribes of Africa too further exacerbated the issue by assisting in slave raids or themselves performing the stealing. But like the Moors, it stands to reason that their views of slavery, their idea of owning another human being did not carry the same meaning and application of the whites. I wonder, if the tribe leaders themselves knew the full ramifications of the slave trade and how it would shadow not only the lives of those carried across the ocean but that of Africa as well. However, opposing this idea is the fact that blacks as slave-owners were often times as likely to debase their slaves as whites.
Underlying the information in this reading is the idea that while slavery in the American South was unique in some respects, particularly in its concentration on race, historically it has not been a matter of race. However, in the experience of blacks in America, before and after emancipation, slavery has left a legacy of racially motivated degradation and dehumanization that altered not only the practice but our perceptions of it.
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