African-American Humanities
One of long-standing justifications for the Slave Trade has been that slavery existed in Africa prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade and that it was Africans who helped to initiate and sustain the Slave Trade by selling other Africans into slavery. The error of this argument is that it overlooks the type of slavery that as practiced in ancient societies of the Old World of Africa and the Mediterranean was more like a system of patronage or vassalage. In societies like those of Medieval Africa a slave was often someone who had been captured in battle or someone who was unable to pay an outstanding debt. There they would be incorporated into their captor’s or benefactor’s household as punishment, sometimes for a limited amount of time and sometimes for life. However, over time they were accepted as members in the new societies were free to work, marry, and become productive citizens of their new societies. Unlike the system of slavery in the New World, these slaves were valued for their skills, crafts, and intelligence rather than being seen as mere chattel whose only value was their potential labor power. Write short answers, [3-5 sentences] for each of the questions below. Each answer is worth 25 points toward a maximum score of 125 points. A well-written short answer should identify significant themes addressed in each lesson. Paste your responses in the assignment submission box by the date listed above, but also attach a document file for security and formatting purposes.
1. How was slavery in African societies different from the types of chattel slavery practiced on American plantations?
2. What types of European manufactured goods were typically exchanged for enslaved Africans during the era of the Atlantic Slave Trade?
3. How were political and economic relations in pre-colonial Africa affected by participation in the Atlantic Slave Trade?
4. Why were Africans preferred over Europeans and Native Americans as slave laborers in the New World?
5. What are some of the elements of African cultures that have survived in African American, Latino, and Caribbean cultures?
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