West African Trajectories, Slavery and Abolitionism - Literature review Example

Slavery and Abolitionism Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Introduction The strange institution of slavery cuts a across the heart of American history, with the implications lasting long after it was abolished by Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, as well as the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution of the 1865. Indeed, African slavery can be traced back to nearly the beginning of European settlement in America. Additionally, slavery was a practice in several sections of the British colonial America. Still, the separation of these former colonies after the American Revolution, and into groups of "free" and "slave" created the backdrop for the Civil War (1861-1865). Indeed, the long-lasting legacies inherited of the Civil War and the American Revolution have created passions ineffaceable through time. On the other hand, published researches in the issue are abundant, although ranges of slavery’s human reality surpass the reach of quantitative measurement. Indeed, the demographic experiences that African slaves underwent during the colonial period has been collated and explained by scholars from a range of surveys and commercial reports. Based on this backdrop, this paper argues that high profitability from slavery to the slave traders did not promote the happiness and comfort of the slaves and the slave traders. Literature Review Benedetta (1994) reconfigured slavery using West African trajectories. In her work, Benedetta (1994) carried out document analysis of essays derived from a conference held in May 2007 at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (SOAS) to discuss the centenary of the abolition of slave trade by the British Empire. Benedetta (1994) commented that British‘abolition’ never truly ended slavery. In her view, the ways in which the institutions that perpetrated servile conquest have been restricted over time need to be analysed. Overall, Benedetta (1994) reviewed 10 essays critically with focus on West Africa in the modern age after the apparent abolition of slavery under the British rule From her review, it is critical to argue that theorists who have explored West Africa have reached the conclusion that in the process of emancipation of victims of slavery, slavery was not ended, rather it led to sustained forms of slavery, struggles and discrimination, and struggle. Most of the works Benedetta (1994) explored centred on Muslim domination along the marginal lands of the Sahara where Muslim nations prevailed or Islam influenced social construction and political discourse. While there are some exceptions to this, the focus of Benedetta (1994) work is on political discourses. She however attempted to pursue the reconfigurations. Benedetta (1994) explored the journeys of change and continuity in the post-colonial and colonial and eras in parts of West Africa. Benedetta’s (1994) analysis links a significant gap in conceptualising slavery within the history and modern-day West African politics. This is different from analysis by Klein (1999(, which centred on slavery in the colonial period, showing that what occurred was lost. Using a different perspective to that of Benedetta (1994) reflected on various periods of slavery without reflecting on the implication of this discovery within the colonialism context. The significance of viewing the endurance of slavery in the contemporary era of study through the 1960s have involuntarily confronted the research community with divergent problematic that Benedetta’s (1994) work attempted to confront with a degree of success. Indeed, while preceding changes in slavery have been perceived relating to the implication of slavery with the historical context, a barricade in confronting how slavery materialised under colonialism and further into post-colonial era exists. Still, Benedetta’s (1994) did not explore satisfactorily into the complexities of discrimination, stigma, in addition to the forms of collective memory relative to slavery historically ad well as how it shaped the present. Additional weak areas include the experiences and what occurred to slaves and their later day descendants. Still, Benedetta’s (1994) has performed her reconfiguration clearly conceptually. Klein (1999) shows the manner in which social status and slave descent has remained closely linked within the Sahara as well as the West African savannah regions. In his analysis, it is clear that disconnect between the past is clearer than real. Klein’s essay has a relatively better historical precision. Further, the depth his essay commands is not often addressed in Bernadetta’s (1994) work. In his expose, he shows the manner in which African-Americans who visit West African nations such as Ghana seek a homeland that is entrenched into the politics of developing the Ghana state. The analysis explores inherent contradiction of the politics of African Afro-centric scholars and the real politics that confront slavery, in addition to the legacy within certain national context in parts of Africa. In away, Klein’s cynicism is justified. The researcher offers an effective analysis while examining the relationship between the expectations that people have and the real outcome. Bernadetta (1994) also discussed the metaphors of slavery within Gambia’s political history, where relationships to past slavery are given reconsideration in the politics of governance. As She further illustrates that ways in which the ‘slavery’ past can be interpreted and misunderstood. While Benedetta (1994) attempts to offer historical and anthropological point of view on the tenacity of slavery as well as its reconfigurations, the difference emanating between history and anthropology as well as the way in which the matter of slavery has been handled within these two disciplines is seen as not satisfactorily resolved. Indeed, Benedetta (1994) appears to understand such likely implications as she seeks to tackle the conflicting paradigms in her introduction. Klein (1999) also failed to bridge the two disciplines. Additionally, Klein’s (1999) insightful overview of the intricate transition from slavery into freedom in West African country in the 19th and 20th centuries appears to be overlooked his anthropological essays. Schwarz (2008) provides a vital contribution to the issue of slave trade. His research and analysis represents a reappraisal of the slave trade as well as appreciation of its implications in shaping of the contemporary world. It further exposed the incredible data accessible to scholars of slavery. Schwarz (2008) pointed out facts regarding the personal accounts of the slave-trade captains. For instance, Schwartz (2008) examined the story of James Irving, who moved from humble beginning in Scotland into a slave surgeon and later into captain in the years preceding slaving in Liverpool. According to Schwartz (2008), James Irving’s ship shipped some 3,000 Africans into the United States. Schwarz (2008) used document review in his analysis to write and compile a significant volume that presents with remarkable primary data on slave trade. What materialises into a significant story on the linked between slavery and contemporary sensibilities on humanity, slavery, and racism. Through systematic review of literature on slave trade and abolitionism, Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) illustrate that an unexpected consensus regarding the inherent social value of slavery was introduced into the region just before ‘the War for Southern Independence’. Their underlying thesis is that slaveholders or slave traders were in most cases ashamed of their addiction to bondage with chattel, despite viewing slave trade in the abstract. Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) further argued that some slaveholder such as Henry Hughes and James Henry Hammond perceived slavery to being a tactically instrumental labour system that came due to the demographics, the local response to the climate, as well as the need to have many hands work in the field. Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) further comment that general interest in the defence of slavery came up as a response to global social formation. In their view, the standard story shows that few researchers perceive that the slaveholder viewed the slaves as the remedy to the global problems that characterised the industrial capitalism. Still, Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) discovered what they viewed as a reasonably extensive belief in ‘Slavery in the Abstract’. Subsequently, and to some extent ironically, Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) version of slaveholding in South America appears as convincingly explaining the needs of the poor in general. Based on Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) logic, the Southerners perceived slaveholding as a being a principle Christian act despite the social decay, suffering and uproar that characterised slavery. Indeed, as the War close near, Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008) suggests that the Southerners became increasingly comfortable with the notion that the ‘inferior’ races had to find their path into the Christian community through enslavement. To a considerable extent, Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) dutifully and repetitively declares its originality and emphasises its apparent provocative findings. Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) suggest that slavery was intended to be discriminatory. Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) work is however viewed to depend extensively on their imagination to re-establish the scholarly singularity they proposed that the Southerners had an abstract view of slavery. Indeed, they clearly write that the southern political economists have mostly‘rejected Slavery within the Abstract. Instead, they have contributed to it by introducing Malthusian population theory. However, after the war, these southerners, according to Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008), acknowledged that they had viewed Slavery in the Abstract. Still, few admitted to having hated black slavery either. At this rate, it is critical to argued that the repetitive dependence on thick argumentative basis instead of thin evidentiary claims is upsetting. At any rate, Fox-Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) acknowledged that a range of feature on defending Slavery in the Abstract existed. Examples include the political and sociological economy such as particular kind of Christian world view. According to Fox-Genovese and Genovese (2008), when scientific racism is presented as a ‘pillar’ of slavery in the Abstract, then the theorists afterwards proclaim that toned racism indicate concepts of modern imperialism that promise to render the slavery of the whites more pleasant to the tender-hearted’. Genovese and Genovese (2008) also point to the surprising fact that a great number of undermined southerners supported the reasoning that each society lay on some kind of personal dependency by 1850. Still, this conclusion also stands to be scrutinised to establish its weight. In fact, it is difficult to determine the newness of the statement regarding the correlation between and acknowledgement of the society’s unevenness as well as the defending ideological slavery in the abstract, as well as the fact that such finding warrants to be described as ‘astonishing.’ Taking this into perspective, it is easy to conclude that Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) work is admirably bold as it provides strong argument regarding a serious issue. Additionally, it summates a decade-long collaborative partnership that created a generation of writing about slavery in the south and slaveholding. It could therefore be argued that Genovese and Genovese’s (2008) work provides a thesis capable of prompting further research, since the researchers did not make up any follow up study to support their thesis that slaveholders or slave traders were in most cases ashamed of their addiction to bondage with chattel, despite viewing slave trade in the abstract. In a related study, Engerman et al (2003) shows that high profitability from slavery to the slave traders did not promote the happiness and comfort of the a section of the southern population. In their document review, Engerman et al (2003) established one reason for this as cases where the slaves were denied the benefits of their labor and self-advancement by acquiring skills and education. At the same time, the non-slaveholding whites also became affected by the profits from slavery due to the competition in the product and land markets, as well as because of slavery's implication on social development. Engerman et al (2003) argue that the adverse economic implication included the direct effects of effective accumulation of wealth through slave value. To this end, drawing on the standard macroeconomic model that depicted the public debt burden, the emergence of slave value "forced out." According to Engerman et al (2003), additional types of wealth within the southern portfolios and the reduced means of real capital formation. Based on this backdrop, Engerman et al (2003) attribute the comparative lad of the South, in terms of human capital investment, manufacturing, and transportation to the implications of capitalization of slave value. Engerman et al (2003) also established that a critical developmental issue that has experienced scholarly attention is the implication of slavery on urbanisation. The researchers claimed that the number by the slaves corresponded with the growth of towns. In their document review examined census data on slave populations within the southern cities between 1820 and 1860. In their finding, while the share of the slave population in cities was minimal. For instance, Charleston had substantial number of slaves, almost 12,652 in the year 1820. On the other hand, Mississippi River grew commercial expanded after 1820, as a result of slave trade. On the other hand, New Orleans transformed into the largest nationwide as a result of at 23,448 in 1840. Engerman et al (2003) also seek to correct the assumption that slavery was instituted exclusively on Africans. The researchers examine slavery during the early white settlement in South Caroline, where the native American were recurrently sough to capture and sell planters across the West Indies. For instance, after the emergence of rice and its sale in naval stores as exports after 1700, a great numbers of enslaved Indians were enslaved in the low country, reaching about 2,000 by 1720. Wong et al (2009) explores the implications of “freedom suits for the antebellum Anglo-American notion of being free.” The researchers combined culture, history, literature, and law to promote the legal history of slavery as well as freedom literary and cultural approach. As established from her work, Wong et al (2007) perceives the implication of a newly developing print culture to the rise of abolitionism in various countries in the Atlantic world. Wong (2009) further argues that the promotion equation of freedom and the right to through the Travel anti-slavery movement’s, particularly to travel to territory or a free state, or lose family ties that were valued by slaves themselves who were the subjects of freedom suits. high profitability from slavery to the slave traders did not promote the happiness and comfort of the slaves and the slave traders. This is since slaves were denied the benefits of their labor and self-advancement by acquiring skills and education. At the same time, the non-slaveholding whites also became affected by the profits from slavery due to the competition in the product and land markets, as well as because of slavery's implication on social development. The adverse economic implication included the direct effects of effective accumulation of wealth through slave value. Additionally, in the process of emancipation of victims of slavery, slavery was not ended, rather it led to sustained forms of slavery, struggles and discrimination, and struggle. Additionally, toned racism indicate concepts of modern imperialism that promise to render the slavery of the whites more pleasant to the tender-hearted’. Still, slaveholders or slave traders were in most cases ashamed of their addiction to bondage with chattel, despite viewing slave trade in the abstract. Some researcher however view slavery to being a tactically instrumental labour system that came due to the demographics, the local response to the climate, as well as the need to have many hands work in the field. General interest in the defence of slavery came up as a response to global social formation. In their view, the standard story shows that few researchers perceive that the slaveholder viewed the slaves as the remedy to the global problems that characterised the industrial capitalism. References Edlie L. Wong. Neither Fugitive nor Free: Atlantic Freedom Suits and the Legal Culture of Travel. New York, New York University Press, 2009, pp.368 Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese. Slavery in White and Black: Class and Race in the Southern Slaveholders’ New World Order, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008, 314 pp. Benedetta Rossi. Reconfiguring Slavery: West African Trajectories. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1994, pp237 Suzanne Schwarz. Slave Captain. The Career of James Irving in the Liverpool Slave Trade., Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2008, pp 212 Read More