The Atlantic slave trade by Herbert S. Klein - Book Report/Review Example

The Atlantic Slave Trade by Herbert S. Klein – A Summary The subject of Atlantic slave trade is one of the well-researched in the early modern period historiography, yet the new contributions continue to shed light on this page in world history. The study by Herbert S. Klein which is to be analyzed here represents an ambitious attempt to lay down a new concept of post-1500 Atlantic slave trade and its impact on both Africans and European colonies in the New World. In Chapter 1, the author deals with historical precedents and foundations for the wide-scale slave economies in the pre-industrial Western world. He observes that all major slave regimes, such as the Roman one, were ultimately founded on the utilization of slaves as the cheapest and most mobile labor force in agricultural occupations, rather than in household and specialized ones, and that the system of plantations, such as existed under Arab Caliphate in the eastern Mediterranean or in the Crusader states in Palestine and Cyprus, had to a significant degree presaged the development of the Caribbean system of plantation slavery (5-6). In Africa itself, the ‘pure’ slave systems were few and far between, the significant exceptions being the sub-Saharan empires (such as the Songay) or the mercantile city-states of the eastern coast (8). Nonetheless, the extensive slave-trade system arose in northern and eastern regions of African continent as early as the 900s, with 3.5 to 10 million slaves having been transferred through it until the 13th century (9). However, it was with the arrival of the Portuguese that the external slave trade gradually came to be more widespread than the internal one. The Portuguese, for the first time, extended the network of slave trade operations from the Mauritanian and Guinean coasts of West Africa to the more southern regions of modern Congo and Angola, laying the foundations for the slave hunt operations in the interior of the continent. The importance of African slave trade was, in the author’s opinion, increased due to the necessity to exploit natural reaches of the New World in the absence of opportunities for the use of either Native or free European workforce in large numbers. Therefore it was the African slaves that became a preferred source for the replenishment of servile labor resources. In Chapter 2, the author dwells on the particular factors that influenced the Europeans’ decision to rely on African slaves for the economic exploitation of their Western Hemisphere empires. He proposes several explanations for this development. Firstly, the Spaniards were limited in their ability to export the European free waged labor to their colonies by the fact that the wages in Europe were high enough and the employment in various fields (such as the Spanish imperial army) guaranteed enough for the laborers to risk crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the new lands. At the same time, the usefulness of Amerindian workforce for such endeavors as sugar plantations or precious metals mining was limited by the communal lifestyle of the conquered Indian tribes that were more amenable to the relatively non-coercive methods of peasant exploitation, as well as by high mortality rates after the contact with European diseases. Therefore the import of African slaves, thanks to high profits from precious metals mining, was relatively cheap and profitable for the Spanish Crown. The Portuguese were even more reliant on the African slave labor in their New World colonies, as the free laborers’ population of Portugal itself was extremely small and the conquered Indian tribes belonging to hunter-and-gatherer stage of social evolution were unaccustomed to forced labor, dying out en masse. That is why, it was more logical for the Portuguese to make use of the African slaves’ labor when dealing with the colonization and acculturation of vast landmasses of Brazil. Finally, the Northern European powers that succeeded Spain and Portugal as major colonizers in the 17th to 18th centuries were able and willing to use the masses of indentured White poor to substitute for servile labor in many important fields of economy, but had to rely on the African slave workforce for such spheres as sugar planting. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the subject of the economic and political situation in Africa in the period of the growth in Atlantic slave trade. The author notes that the sub-Saharan cultural world was directly tied to the Maghreb region of the Mediterranean, and the local African and Berber states were greatly influenced by the Islamic economic and cultural traditions, being integrated into the trade networks of the Mediterranean world. Nonetheless, it was the development of the Portuguese trade networks that brought an end to the domination of Arab slavers over the slave trade in Africans, making the European powers the greatest purchasers of the African servile labor force in the world. The author considers the development of Atlantic slave trade to be an important point in the decline of Arab mercantile influence in African continent. Chapter 4 turns the attention of a reader to the problem of European organization of slave trade in Africa. The subject of the division of functions between Crown-financed entrepreneurs and private traders is brought up, with the conclusion being made that it was mainly state-financed traders that had the greatest success in extending their operations along the Atlantic coast of Africa. It was especially notable in the case of English slave traders, where the chartered companies sponsored by the Crown, were first and foremost subjects of the commercial operations in this field. At the same time, the nationals of such countries as the Dutch Republic of Seven Provinces or Portugal were more discreet in their operations, relying less on the state support. This, on the one hand, gave them more opportunities for individual aggrandizement, but, on the other hand, made these traders more vulnerable to state censures and pirates’ depredations. The next chapter deals with the problem of involvement of local elites in the organization of slave trade. The author observes that the monarchs and leaders of chiefdoms of Africa had a great vested interest in developing the slave trade with the Europeans, as the latter brought to them the prestigious consumption goods and/or weaponry that were scarce or simply unavailable in Africa itself. The various African states and proto-states often organize their own expeditions into the interior of African landmass for the sole purpose of bringing more enslaved individuals for the transfer to European merchants. The result being rather frequent warfare between different African polities, the orientation towards slave trade with the Europeans led to the perpetual devastation of many regions of Atlantic Coast of African continent, inhibiting the development of many African peoples for decades and even centuries to come. The last three chapters are devoted to the subject of cultural and economic changes brought about by the spread of African slave trade in the New World, as well as the reasons and consequences for the perpetual end of the mass-scale slave trade in early 19th century. The author analyzes different effects and aftershocks of the slave trade in Black Africans, ranging from demographical (the formation of numerous Afro-American diasporas and communities in the majority of European colonies in America) to specifically cultural (the development of specific patois, customs and habits, etc. inherent in Afro-American culture). He observes that, despite being one of the main sources for creating colonial wealth and improving productivity, Africans, whether enslaved or emancipated, were generally relegated to the position of second-class members of society, being heavily discriminated against. The origins of racial hierarchies, both in Iberian and North European colonies and settlement, are dwelt on as well. The author believes that the termination of slave trade was conditioned not so much on the development of altruistic and emancipative tendencies in public consciousness among the European nations and their colonial societies, but rather on the lessening of economic demand for the slaves in colonies themselves. Unlike the Native Americans before them, the African slaves proved to be capable of their own reproduction, making mass import of the new slaves relatively costlier and unnecessary. In addition, in some colonies, such as Mexico, the use of local Amerindian labor force in corveé labor services became much easier and profitable than before, while in some other colonies the use of free waged labor became widespread as well. That is why the main reason for the cession of mass slave trade was more of economic, than of moral or philosophical nature. The reviewed research by Klein represents a spectacular attempt at summarizing the main causes and consequences of European slave trade with Africa’s Atlantic Coast. The author managed to have woven a comprehensive narrative of the developments in this sphere for the duration of three centuries, making it both interesting and highly analytical. Nonetheless, it should be noted that there are several flaws to this book, such as the relative absence of the research in social anthropology dimension of the Atlantic Coast slave trade and the lack of adequate assessment of the long-term impact of the trade on African society themselves. Despite this criticism, one has to acknowledge that Klein’s book is a highly useful and spectacular resource for the further research in this field. Works Cited Klein, Herbert S. The Atlantic Slave Trade. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Print. Read More