Page 118 - 1619 Project Curriculum
P. 118

SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 2019                                                                     5

               No. 1
                                    / Slavery, Power and the Human Cost




                                                                                 1455 - 1775














            Hand-colored lithograph by                     n the 15th century, the Roman Catholic Church divided     Denmark and England — seeking similar economic and geopolitical power
            Achille Devéria, 1830s.
                                            the world in half, granting Portugal a monopoly on trade in West Africa     joined in the trade, exchanging goods and people with leaders along the
                                            and Spain the right to colonize the New   World in its quest for land and     West  African coast,  who ran self-sustaining societies known for their
                                            gold. Pope Nicholas V buoyed Portuguese efforts and issued the Romanus     mineral-rich land and wealth in gold and other trade goods. They competed

                                            Pontifex of 1455, which affirmed Portugal’s exclusive rights to territories     to secure the asiento  and colonize the New World. With these efforts, a new
                                            it claimed along the West African coast and the trade from those areas. It     form of slavery came into being. It was endorsed by the European nation-
                                            granted the right to invade, plunder and ‘‘reduce their persons to perpetual     states and based on race, and it resulted in the largest forced migration in
                                            slavery.’’ Queen Isabella invested in Christopher Columbus’s exploration     the world: Some 12.5 million men, women and children of African descent
                                            to increase her   wealth and ultimately rejected the enslavement of Native     were forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The sale of their bodies and
                                            Americans, claiming that they   were Spanish subjects. Spain established an     the product of their labor brought the Atlantic world into being, including
                                            asiento, or contract, that authorized the direct shipment of captive Africans     colonial North America. In the colonies, status began to be defined by race
                                            for trade as human commodities in the Spanish colonies in the Americas.     and class, and whether by custom, case law or statute, freedom was limited
                                            Eventually other European nation-states — the Netherlands, France,     to maintain the enterprise of slavery and ensure power.



                                                                             ‘‘Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam,’’ painted by John Greenwood, circa 1752-58.









            Queen Njinga



            IN 1624,   after her brother’s death,
            Ana Njinga gained control of the
            kingdom of Ndongo, in present-day
            Angola. At the time, the Portuguese
            were trying to colonize Ndongo
            and nearby territory in part to
            acquire more people for its slave
            trade, and after two years as
            ruler, Njinga was forced to flee in
            the face of Portuguese attack.
            Eventually, however, she conquered
            a nearby kingdom called Matamba.
            Njinga continued to fight fiercely
            against Portuguese forces in the
            region for many   years, and she
            later provided shelter   for runaway
            slaves. By the time of Njinga’s
            death in 1663, she had made peace     Cultivating Wealth and Power

            with Portugal, and Matamba traded
            with it on equal economic footing.            provided political power, social standing and wealth for the church, European nation-states, New World colonies and individuals. This portrait

            In 2002, a statue of Njinga was     THE SLAVE TRADE
                                            by
                                               John Greenwood connects slavery and privilege through the image of a group of Rhode Island sea captains and merchants drinking at a tavern in the Dutch

            unveiled in Luanda, the   capital of   colony of Surinam, a hub of trade. These men made money by trading the commodities produced by slavery globally — among the North American colonies,
            Angola, where she is held up as an     the Caribbean and South America — allowing them to secure political positions and determine the fate of the nation. The men depicted here include the future
            emblem of resistance and courage.     governors Nicholas Cooke and Joseph Wanton; Esek Hopkins, a future commander in chief of the Continental Navy; and Stephen Hopkins, who would
                                            eventually become one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.



          ‘All children                                                                                                                   Continual


                                                                                                                                          Resistance

            borne in this country                                                                                                         ENSLAVED   Africans had known

                                                                                                                                          freedom before they arrived in
                                                                                                                                                         fought to

                                                                                                                                          America, and they
                                                                                                                                          regain it from the moment

                                                                                                                                          they
                                                                                                                                              were taken from their homes,
                                                                                                                                          rebelling on plantation sites and

            shall be held                                                                                  Race Encoded                   in urban centers. In September

                                                                                                                                          1739, a group of enslaved Africans

                                                                                                                                          in the South Carolina colony,
                                                                                                                                          led by an enslaved man called

                                                                                                                                          Jemmy, gathered outside
                                                                                                                                          Charleston, where they killed two
                                                                                                                                          storekeepers and seized weapons
            bond or free only                                                                              Into Law                       and ammunition. ‘‘Calling out
                                                                                                                                          Liberty,’’ according to Gen. James
                                                                                                                                          Oglethorpe, the rebels ‘‘marched
                                                                                                           THE USE of enslaved laborers

                                                                                                                                          on with Colours displayed,
                                                                                                           was affirmed — and its continual
                                                                                                                                          and two Drums beating’’ along
                                                                                                           growth was promoted — through

                                                                                                                                          the Stono River, entreating
                                                                                                           the creation of a Virginia law in

            according                                                                                      1662 that decreed that the status      other members of the enslaved
                                                                                                           of the child followed the status
                                                                                                                                          community to join them. Their

                                                                                                           of the mother, which meant that
                                                                                                                                               was Spanish Florida, where
                                                                                                                                          goal
                                                                                                           enslaved women gave birth to
                                                                                                                                               were promised freedom if
                                                                                                                                          they
                                                                                                                               African
                                                                                                           generations of children of
                                                                                                                                               fought as the first line of
                                                                                                                                          they

                                                                                                           descent who were now seen as
                                                                                                                                          defense against British attack. This
            to the condition                                                                               commodities. This natural increase       effort, called the Stono Rebellion,
                                                                                                           allowed the colonies — and then

                                                                                                                                          was the largest slave uprising
                                                                                                           the United States — to become

                                                                                                                                          in the mainland British colonies.

                                                                                                           a slave nation. The law also
                                                                                                                                          Between 60 and 100 black people
                                                                                                                          European
                                                                                                           secured wealth for
                                                                                                                                          participated in the rebellion; about
                                                                                                           colonists and generations of their

                                                                                                                                          40 black people and 20 white
                                                                                                           descendants, even as free black

            of the mother.’                                                                                people could be legally prohibited       people were killed, and other
                                                                                                                                          freedom fighters were captured
                                                                                                                             wealth to
                                                                                                           from bequeathing their
                                                                                                                                          and questioned. White
                                                                                                                                                            lawmakers
                                                                                                           their children. At the same time,
                                                                                                                                          in South Carolina, afraid of

                                                                                                           racial and class hierarchies were
                                                                                                           being coded into law: In the 1640s,
                                                                                                                                          additional rebellions, put a 10-year
                                                                                                           John Punch, a black servant,
                                                                                                                                          moratorium on the importation

                                                                                                           escaped bondage with two white
                                                                                                                                          of enslaved Africans and passed

               — Virginia law                                                                              indentured servants. Once caught,     the Negro   Act of 1740, which
                                                                                                           his companions received additional
                                                                                                                                          criminalized assembly, education
                                                                                                           years of servitude, while Punch was
                                                                                                                                          and moving abroad among the
                                                                                                           determined enslaved for life. In the
                                                                                                                                          enslaved. The Stono Rebellion was
                                                                                                           wake of Bacon’s Rebellion, in which
                                                                                                                                          only one of many rebellions that
                                                                                                           free and enslaved black people
                                                                                                                                          occurred over the 246 years of
                                                                                                           aligned themselves with poor white
            enacted in 1662                                                                                people and yeoman white farmers       slavery in the United States.
                                                                                                           against the government, more
                                                                                                           stringent laws were enacted that
                                                                                                           defined status based on race and
                                                                                                           class. Black people in America were
                                                                                                           being enslaved for life, while the
                                                                                                           protections of whiteness
                                                                                                           were formalized.
        ‘‘Sea Captains’’: Saint Louis Art Museum. Njinga: National Portrait Gallery, London.
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