The Contribution Of Abolition Of Slavery To Racial Thinking - Essay Example

The Contribution Of Abolition Of Slavery To Racial Thinking Introduction In the current society, racism and slavery are some of the few human practices that elicit widespread outrage and condemnation from people in the globe. However, slavery has been in existence for long periods and Berlin (1998: 61) argues that the practice predates civilization. In early prehistoric times, slavery played a critical role in the economic development of prominent ancient civilizations. Similarly, racism is an ancient practice that persists to date. Slavery and racism are closely related and the debate on what preceded the other continues. This paper explores how the abolition of slavery contributed to racial thinking. Historical development of slavery and racism Slavery is a practice that involves ownership of one human being by another. The owned person is used as the property of the owner to provide free labour or services and other roles that the master demands. The origin of slavery is not clear and various historians have explored the practice in various ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia and Persia among others. Historians believe that slavery began with the inception of the earliest recorded agriculture in the Mesopotamia around 10,000 BC. Dandemaev and Lukonin (1989: 37) argued that as civilization and human organization developed the demand for human labour increased, leading to the entrenchment of slavery in the society. Initially, prisoners or captives of war and civilians seized during battles were used as slaves to provide free labor to their captors. However, the application of civilians and prisoners of war varied across different civilizations. Neilson (1992: 46) argues that social stratification is a precondition for slavery to flourish. In ancient civilizations, the classification of people along social, economic, religious and political dimensions among other factors began gaining momentum as the civilization and economic development progressed. This resulted to development of unbalanced relationship between different classes of people in the society such as the peasant and the noble associations. Therefore, slaves were obtained from the marginalized and the most disadvantaged classes to serve the interest or the demands of the people in the upper classes. In the history of human civilisation, Dandemaev and Lukonin (1989: 49) attributed the early agrarian revolution to the source of early slavery because it created economic disparities hence social stratification. In Mesopotamia one of the earliest cradle for human development, slavery was practised in all emerging civilisations. Mesopotamia is one of the earliest recorded regions that began ancient agricultural practices (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 82). The majority of slaves in Mesopotamia were mainly prisoners of war. Some of the earliest recorded evidence of slavery in the region was reported in the Babylonian code of Hammurabi at around 1750 BC (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 89). During this period, the slaves were foreigners, sourced from conquered territories. Egypt forms another important origin of early civilization and historians have recorded early involvement of slaves in the construction of pyramids and irrigation canals along river Nile. According to Jordan (1968), Egyptian rulers obtained slaves from the conquered foreign lands where both civilian and prisoners of war were seized. Some of the people used as slaves in Egypt included the Israelites and black Africans. Other early civilizations in Persia, Greece and Roman empires have an ancient slave practice, where captured civilians, prisoners of war and in some cases purchasing of slaves was undertaken to provide labor. In Greece, historians have recorded early large-scale slavery in 6th and 4th centuries BC (Dandemaev and Lukonin, 1989: 104). Some of the early major slave markets in Greece included Delos, Athens, Corinth, and Rhodes among other major cities. The slaves played a critical role in economic development of Greece civilization by providing labor in farms, mines and as military service men. Other early civilizations that depended on slaves included the Roman Empire. The Roman civilization had one of the most diversified slaves including black Africans from the sub-Saharan region, Anglo -Saxons from Britain, Italians and from other racial groups (Pager, 2007: 60). Nonetheless, slavery in the early civilizations was characterized by the exploitation of people on the basis of their purported inferiority to the slave owners or masters. According to Pager (2007: 83), racism is the belief in the superiority of a particular race over another which alludes to the conviction that moral and social characteristics of an individual are determined by his or her biological ancestry. Most people consider races as natural classes that reflect the significant different biological composition of people from diverse regions across the globe. In this case, people are classified on different races on the criterion of the observable physical characteristics such as skin color. This perception or categorization is faulty in spite of the apparent biological differences of people in diverse regions. According to Spohn, (2000: 72) race is a social rather than a biological category. Although it is a common practice for researchers to use physical characteristics to classify people in different racial groups, the social norms or conventions rather than biological features determine how the categories are treated in the particular society. Therefore, racial categories have been defined differently in diverse regions and across the various historical timelines. In the United States for instance, people with African ancestry are regarded as black since the Civil War while Americans with European origin are considered white. Similarly, people from East Asia are classified under the same race in the United States while in the home continent they fall under distinct racial groups such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans among others Berlin (1998: 77). Historically, various countries including the United States and Germany regarded various races as inferior to others. In Germany for instance, Jews were regarded as an inferior race leading to their widespread massacre in the Second World War. In the United States, the passage of immigration act in 1924 restricted the immigration of southern and eastern Europeans because they were considered “inferior races” (Pager 2007: 125). Therefore, racism and slavery have the close historical connection and it is difficult to establish the practice that started earlier in the course of human civilization. In ancient civilizations, people considered inferior were subsequently conscripted into slavery and other forms of degrading treatment from the superior races. The ancestry from a particular social class determined whether the future generations would be slaves or masters. Development of social classes in the early civilization resulted to stratification of people in diverse categories where certain groups of people were considered inferior because of their inherent biological traits. Hence, prisoners of war and civilians from conquered lands were subjected to slavery in early civilizations because of their apparent inferiority that seemed to justify their condemnation to servitude (Spohn, 2000). In early civilizations, the racial orientation of people was not the major criterion for subjecting an individual into slavery. However, in the following centuries, slavery was gradually racialised. In the modern United States, it is universally acknowledged that the ancestors of the current African American citizens were slaves, owned by white Americans. This implies that in the course of human development, the black race from Africa became the victims of slavery. As early as 6th century, Arab traders made voyages into the African continent to obtain slaves for sale to the willing buyers in Asia and Europe. Columbus discovery of America in the late 15th century generated a lot of interest from the larger European continent in the following periods (Jordan,1968: 207) The discovery of the new world marked the beginning of Trans Atlantic slave trade where Africans were shipped mainly from West Africa to work in sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean and North America. In addition, the discovery of the America resulted into mass immigration of Europeans into the continent, leading to mass displacement of native people in the continent. When Englishmen made their first voyages into the African continent in the sixteenth century, the physical complexion of the natives in addition to their distinct social and religious structures were very different from the Europeans. According to Berlin (1998: 53), the Englishmen found the African unreligious and completely different from English way of living. However, the dark complexion made a significant impression on the European’s perception of the Africans. The European described Africans as black, a description that carried intense meanings (Neilson, 1992). During this time, black color elicited powerful emotional reactions and Berlin (1998: 66) argues that the color was associated with evil, dirt, and wickedness. Hence, a black person was a disgrace, socially and morally evil, deserving punishment and poor treatment. Conversely, white was considered as the epitome of purity, beauty, beneficence, and Godliness. From this perception, it is apparent that the black heritage of the Africans was a justification to their enslavement in the previous centuries by the Arabs. The religious disparity between the native African and the English also played a critical role to racialize slavery. In the sixteenth century, Christianity was a major religious movement across the European continent but it had not spread into the African continent. In the earlier centuries, Islam had made considerable inroads into the African continent as a result of early interaction between Arabs and African during the early trade. However, a majority of Africans did not subscribe to any of those major religions. This does not imply they lacked any form religious orientation. African had an ancient history of worship that was distinct to the diverse cultures in the continent. However, the Europeans and early Arabs did not appreciate the existing spiritual practices, which they considered as evil, wicked and retrogressive. Consequently, it was imperative for the Africans to be converted to Christianity in order to enhance their spiritual purity (Pager, 2007). According to Berlin (1998: 83), early Europeans considered heathenism among the African as a significant defect that was not only evil but made the Africans inferior to them. In addition, heathenism was not considered as a form of religious deviance but as a form of resistance by the Africans to embrace civilization. Another distinct lifestyle that characterized native Africans included foraging food and hunting wild animals in the African jungles for subsistence. In addition, their mode of dressing was equally unconventional from the standard European lifestyle. These characteristics were considered inherent among all the Africans and hence the subsequent enslavement of the black people was attributed to their inferiority or barbarism. In the seventeenth century, many African men and women were shipped into distant American and European continents to work as slaves. During the enslavement, they were subjected to perpetual labour, maltreatment from their masters in addition to denial of basic human freedoms (Berlin, 1998). Therefore, slavery and racism portray a mutual relationship. Rather than slavery causing racism or racism contributing to slavery, both practices resulted to the development of the other aspect. Pager (2007: 16), argues that slavery and racism could have been equal cause and effect, that continuously acted upon each other driving the black race to complete maltreatment and degradation. The economic development especially in large plantation farms in the United States accelerated the growth of slavery. Children born to slaves grew to become slaves in the rest of their lives and the succeeding generations followed the tradition. In regions such as Virginia and Maryland, Berlin (1998: 38) argues that the legalization of slavery followed social practice, rather than the social practice following slavery. Abolition of slave trade and its impact on racial thinking After the American Civil War, slavery was abolished in united states and other European countries followed suit. Abolition of slavery implied that racialized class relations had been eliminated leading to a more free society that respected the rights of an individual person irrespective of his race or the colour of the skin. However, abolition of slavery resulted to the entrenchment of racial thinking especially in countries such as United States that had been founded on the principle of respecting human dignity. Spohn (2000: 25) argues that slavery created a harmful and long lasting impression of racist attitudes that persists and continues influencing countries such as the United States up to date. In the United States, the abolition of slave trade presented significant cultural problems that continue affecting relations between the minority African American and the majority white population. Since the abolition of slave trade, it is difficult to reconcile slavery and the governance of United States after it got independence from Britain. At independence, United States was founded on the principles of freedom, respect for life and the pursuit of happiness (Pager, 2007: 57). These principles are firmly entrenched in the American constitution and slavery elicits questions why such a country tolerated the dehumanizing practice. The treatment of African Americans as the property of the whites and subjecting the slaves to inhuman treatment definitely contradicted the American constitution. More importantly, the practice entrenched racial thinking because it portrayed the African Americans as inferior to the white people in the country (Berlin, 1998). Therefore subjecting them to slavery in a country that respected personal freedom, life, and pursuit of happiness implied that the black people did not deserve the rights because of their perceived inferiority. Consequently, the black race deserved dehumanizing and degrading treatment because of their perceived intellectual, moral and ethical incompetence. Spohn, (2000: 164) argues that the perceived intellectual inferiority of African Americans lead to the thinking that they could not be depended upon to make the rational decision of their own and therefore decisions should be made on their behalf. The purported moral incompetence of the blacks affirmed the misconception that the race is naturally dangerous, with strong inclinations towards violence, aggressive reactions, sexual abuse, robbery and other crimes. From these misconceptions, the enslavement of the black people demonstrated that they did not deserve liberty or personal freedom because of their inability to exercise it responsibly. Therefore, the abolition of slavery contributed to racial thinking in both the victims and the perpetrators of the practice. Both the black and white races became exceedingly suspicious and sensitive of each other in their interracial relations, a situation that prevails up to date. Some of the consequences of these suspicions include allegations of discrimination in employment based on skin color, the lasting impression that the black people are the main perpetrators of crime in the society, leading to their high and disproportionate arrest and detention. The racial thinking penetrated virtually in all sectors of human existence, including economic, social and religious aspects (Jordan, 1968). For many years, differences in economic development, social and religious integration between various racial groups have been associated with racial misconceptions. However, although some of the racially construed misconceptions have been disapproved in the recent past, they continue playing an important role in influencing interracial relations across the world. Conclusion The abolition of slave trade created a new social order across different societies in the world. Slavery and racism had caused lasting effects in the affected communities. Some of the effects included mass displacement of people, mass murders, discrimination and promotion of racial inequalities. In addition, cultural practices and traditions were disrupted resulting into social disorder (Berlin, 1998: 139). For any society to exist, social order must prevail in order to promote harmony, control and regulate the individual behavior of the people. Colonialism promoted racism further in the affected countries and native populations were subjected to further dehumanizing treatment. The colonialists disrupted the native’s social, economic and political structures, because of their perceived inferiority to the European governance and organization. Consequently, western practices such as capitalism, democracy, religion, formal education and commercial farming among other practices were introduced in the colonies (Spohn, 2000). Although most countries in the world are currently, independent from colonial rule, the influence of colonialist continues affecting their policies and governance creating social and racial hegemony. References Berlin, I. (1998). Many thousands gone: The first two centuries of slavery in North America. Cambridge, MA: CUP. Dandemaev, M., and Lukonin, V. (1989). The culture and social institution of ancient Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, W. (1968). White over black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550-1812. Chapel Hill: Oxford University Press. Neilson, J. (1992). Indian masters, black slaves: an oral history of the civil war in Indian territory. Panhandle Plains Historical Review. 65, pp 46-57. Pager, D. (2007). Marked: race, crime and finding work in an era of mass incarceration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Spohn, C. (2000). Thirty years of sentencing reform: The quest for a racially neutral sentencing process. Criminal Justice. 3, pp 67-85. Read More