Would you consider the slavery that occurred in America racially motivated?

Question

I'm britissh, middleaged and learned nothing about slavery. It seems to me it was more opportunistic than anything else. Those responsible didn't go looking for black people to inslave. I suspect if they had gone to china and could have done the same thing they would have.

Answer 1

I'm American, middle aged, and have studied the American Civil War for years. Slavery WAS racist - pure and simple - and YES, Americans would have used other races as slaves if that had been the commodity offered on largely European ships.
Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Dutch all traded in West African slaves. It is true that most West Africans were captured or gathered up by other Africans and then sold on the coast to European traders. The British became the predominant supplier by the 1780s which was the peak decade of African slave importation into the American South.
Britain then reversed its policy in the first decade of the 1800s and banned any nation from transporting Africans as slaves.
African slaves were not worked to death in America as they surely were in the Caribbean and Brazil. Slaves were valuable property in the South, a good field hand easily worth $1000, so they were usually not worked to death and they were encouraged to reproduce. African American people thrived in the South to the point that they outnumbered the white population in many areas. Four million African Americans were enslaved by 1860. The white population of the South was extremely concerned - even fearful - of releasing this many understandably angry people in their midst. White American owners lost their slaves after the Civil War, but they managed to maintain white supremacy in the South until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
"Those responsible" initially in the slave trade DID go looking to Africa for slaves as early as the latter 1500s. The slave trade was big business in the 1600s and especially the 1700s when Liverpool became a major source of shippers.
British morality overcame the profit incentive by ~1807, so you can be proud that English people finally put a stop to the widespread overseas trade in humans. We in America were left with a war to decide what to do with imported African people who have now finally (I hope) become a part of American society

Answer 2

Slavery around the World in history is Racially Motivated. The Stronger race at the time preying on weaker races. No matter where you look slavery is a curse of Mankind and unlike some of the people in this country and America saying that the British are to blame for the enslavement, they should stop being blinkered and look at the wider picture of the Dutch, Portuguese, French, American, Moor, Turkish, Viking, Saxon, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, African Nations, etc, etc, the list is endless to the races who enslaved others. If it was not for the Royal Navy in the 19th Century a lot more people would have been slaves.

Answer 3

Slavery is generally profit motivated rather than anything else. There is no doubt that this particular version involved Blacks as slaves and white Europeans as traders.It involved Black chiefs selling captive prisoners (but that was by no way the only source) and white American slave owners. In all cases (except for those exploited) the motive was money. Those responsible did look for Black people to enslave but probabaly because that was the source.

The racial thing probably followed the slavery thing. If ytou are treating a person inhumanely you are likely to excuse your behaviour by "sub humanising" them by a political or religious belief system. Black people had lived in Europe for centuires before this trade without a racist problem.

Slavery occurs now in all continents and probably most countries in some form. In Europe it is mostly in the sex industry.

Answer 4

Of course it was not racialy motivated. Slavery has been in existence as long as humanity,just about, so why does all the agonising about slavery focus on the 19th century? There were lots of slaves of all races, ask the Romans and the ancient Greeks about it, likewise the ancient Egyptians and any other nation you care to name. After the 1745 invasion of England by the Scots, many Scottish prisoners were sent to the West Indes as slaves as an alternative to executing them. It was not until the late 18th century that anyone saw anything wrong in the trade, and then the revulsion started in England. (Incidentaly, questioner,you spell British with a capital letter) The Algerians raided the coasts of France, especialy Brittany, for white slaves, and even raided villages in Cornwall for them. They even captured ships in the English channel for slaves.White slaves were worth more than black ones. They kept it up until a fleet of British warships besieged Algiers and just about levelled it before they would release their captives. The British made slavery illegal throughout the British Empire, in, I think,1803, the first nation in the history of the world to ban slavery! That is something that we should be shouting to the world instead of snivelling that we're sorry! The Royal Navy hunted slavers all over the world, including American slavers. If it had not been for the American revolution, many of whose leaders were slave owners, slavery would have been abolished in America seventy years before the Civil War. That war would never have happened, tens of thousands of young Americans would not have died,and the world would be different today.

Answer 5

Slavery so to speak was in the colonies well before the first kidnapped African set foot over here. It is well known that the Native Americans took enemy tribes' people as slaves when the tribes battled.
Also people seem to forget that many of the colonists got over here by offering themselves as Indentured servants, which was only a step up from slavery. The Indentured servant was indebted to the 'master' for 7 years. Yes the servant was paid, but it was never enough to completely pay the debt back, and many times there would be added expenses during those 7 years. So many had to agree to another 7 years and another 7 years before they saw their freedom from servitude.

Answer 6

Negative there! First and foremost other Africans SOLD their own people. You so need a big history lesson one that would take way too long to give here on YA. How about buying a history book and do some reading it'll help you not sound so stupid in the future! Granted I'm not trying to say slavery is right on the totall opposite men and women should not own or abuse another man or woman. But there is way more to it that just what you see at face value!

Answer 7

i think racism was the justification used to bolster slavery.

when you think of the american constitution which accepts that all men are created equal, it would have been impossible to decimate the native americans and enslave the labour needed to cultivate cotton, sugar and tobacco, without creating some sort of rationale.

i think you are right about china, they could have made the same argument there, except that china had an ancient and effective administration, so they were not open to slavery.

it's a chicken and egg situation, the relationship between slavery and racism was convenient and symbiotic.

Answer 8

Because whites have been a dominate Force for so long that no one uses that kind of mentality on them. Now things are leveling out except that old mentality is still there. Personally I think it is ridicules. But this is a learned idea. When people stop pointing fingers at other races for there problems and start to take responsibility for them. Then we will all be equal. Or at least more so. Until then, just be a bigger person and take responsibility for yourself. Just shake your head at all the stupid people that cant figure it out.

Answer 9

Of course it was racially motivated. Blacks were considered racially inferior, hence a commodity that could be brought and sold. What do you mean "those responsible didn't go looking for black people to enslave??? Why the hell did they go to Africa to buy and sell them then? Your comment about them going to China is stupid as well! Why would they have done it in China? Because they would have considered the Chinese to be racially inferior as well. So whether they got the slaves from Africa or Outer Mongolia race would have played the main part. Fortunately Britain needed the trade links with China so it would not have been feasible. Please read a book on slavery because your question is pretty dumb if not quite offensive.

Answer 10

No it was not racially motivated as we know it today. It was economic pure and simple.

They were not treated fairly and had no rights, but that has always been the case regarding an "enslaved workforce". Both the Greek, Romans and Egyptians had slaves. It was not racial, they were just captives made to do the work of others, sort of an enslaved workforce.

But it was not racial.