This is it! This is my last Honors 240 blog post! It is in response to the film Amazing Grace and it discusses why the abolition of the slave trade and of slavery itself was such a lengthy process. I don't think it's really my best post, but enjoy anyway (as much as a discussion of slavery can be enjoyed)!
Beginning with the European Age of Exploration, which had its start in the fourteen hundreds and continued to accelerate in the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds, the stakes of the European economy (which over the centuries has evolved into what we now call the world economy) were significantly raised. Just a few hundred years before, Europe was a fractured society that survived on feudalism and agriculture. With the dawn of the Renaissance, Europe was fast becoming a sophisticated civilization whose economic hands reached far beyond the fields and pastures. The increased trade with Asia (especially China) brought a wealth of information (most importantly the knowledge preserved and developed by Islamic scholars) and commodities. The royalty, nobility, and the beginnings of the middle class realized that they were missing out on a lot of “stuff.” Thus, the economy grew. As European explorers discovered and conquered new lands, they realized that European nations could exploit the resources of these new lands and become leaders in the growing “world economy” (I hesitate to use that term in reference to this historical period, but I suppose I’ll use it cautiously anyway), perhaps even superior to the empires of the East. Thus, the economy continued to grow. Western Europe was becoming uncomfortably crowded anyway, and so colonies were established and settled in the New World and elsewhere. It was quickly evident, however, that even the excess of Europe could not adequately exploit the vastness of these new lands for all that they could give, nor provide what the motherland, Europe, demanded. A solution needed to be found. That solution was slavery.
Of course this is a very linear, oversimplified version of history, but it is a good explanation of how and why African slavery came to be, at least according to my understanding. Well, those European explorers/settlers/company owners/slave ship captains/slave merchants/slave owners were correct. The incorporation of slavery as a foundation for the quickly growing economy was a very effective means of exploiting the newly acquired land and the resources therein. The rich American soil, owned by English colonists and tilled, seeded, worked, and harvested by African Slaves, nourished many lucrative cash crops—first tobacco and later cotton, indigo, rice, et cetera. The more tropical lands to the south, including the islands of the Caribbean and the South American continent were perfect for coffee and sugar. Agriculture in the new world was much more than friendly Indians teaching helpless pilgrims to fertilize their fields with fish bones and plant them with corn, beans, and pumpkins which grow nicely together and make for a pleasant thanksgiving feast. No, agriculture in the new world was a massive and very successful commercial endeavor. All this was made possible by the institution of slavery. As the colonies expanded and the economy continued to grow, the slave trade continued to flourish so that fresh labor could be supplied. Even Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in the early nineteenth century, which was meant to reduce the labor necessary for cotton production, stimulated a boom in the slave trade because plantation owners (as a result of the cotton gin) expanded their vision of what they could produce and so expanded their labor force.
Yes, by the nineteenth century, more than two hundred years after the establishment of African slavery in the new world, the European economy continued to grow, as did the economy of newly independent America. England abolished its slave trade early on in the century. Other European powers followed suit or else had already done so. It took America quite a bit longer to follow that example. But why did it take so long for these Western nations to see the light, so to speak, and eradicate a practice that we now so easily recognize as evil? Well, because their economy was huge, it was built on the backs of slaves, its future health depended on the continued exploitation of slaves, and the health of the national and global economy is very important to every nation, no matter where or when in history. Reinforced by, and conversely contributing to, the sway of those economic motivations was a slew of theological and ethical views that confirmed (and, for many people, encouraged) the institution of slavery. It is very difficult for us to conceive how thoroughly integrated was the institution of slavery in the world economy. Even those areas where slavery was not practiced were completely dependent on the raw materials that slaves produced. The best contemporary analogy that I can think of (and this isn’t a very good analogy) is this: the complete and sudden elimination of slavery in the nineteenth century would be comparable to the complete and sudden elimination of gasoline today. The combination of economic, theological, and political reinforcements of the institution of slavery made it so difficult for the slave trade to be abolished.
--Christian Jacob Frandsen
P.S. I don't have a video for you. Sorry. But I would like to say that I plan on revisiting these topics on occasion in future posts. Yes, I wrote these posts because they were assigned and I had a regular deadline. In the future, when I don't have the pressure of time, I'll write more and perhaps go in new directions, beyond the scope of these original prompts. So be sure to continue to read!
