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.