The questions of why the Africans were enslaved, the origin of slavery as well as the connection between racism and slavery are highly contested debates. Many scholars have perceived that racism originated from slavery. However, many people believe that slavery originated from an economic perspective rather than racial ideologies.
According to Winthrop D. Jordan, a historian from the University of Mississippi, the European’s servitude and the Africans’ bondage occurred concurrently. Jordan viewed slavery as an economic motive. Since the plantations were increasing and the demand for labor was high, the enslavement of the Africans brought about a quick, calculated move to solve the economic crises. To capture an adult youth and transport him/her from the African continent into the Americas offered a cheaper solution than to raise children in the plantation systems. At that moment, the Africans (Negros) offered the cheapest labor than any other part of the world (Wiliams 1944).
Therefore, slavery was an economic strategy with little or nothing to do with race. Slavery involved both psychological and intellectual aspects. For this reason, the religious, cultural, and physical differences between Africans and Europeans were specifically narrowed to color. Since the Africans never believed in Christianity, this increased the negative perception of black people.
Moreover, David Brion Davis, a historian from Yale, expounded on the intellectual cause of slavery. Davis used a different approach in which color, as well as religious discrimination, played a major role in the enslavement of the Africans. According to his excerpt (Slavery and Human Progress), he indicates that similar racial stereotypes existed for both Muslim and Christian black Africans. Furthermore, he expresses that slavery in America and the Medieval Mediterranean was not exclusively an African affair; the other non-African slaves were also subjected to physical stereotype discrimination.
Bibliography
Wiliams, Eric. 1944. Capitalism and Slavery. Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press.
