Why Is Global History Important for the Study of Slavery?

Psychology Research, January 2022, Vol. 12, No. 1, 24-28 doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2022.01.005

D DAVID PUBLISHING

Why Is Global History Important for the Study of Slavery?

ZHANG Xinyao

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom

The article evaluates the significance of global history in the study of slavery. This topic has been researched and understood by several researchers, who have analyzed various points of view on it. This article will explore how global history pertains to the study of slavery by collecting different instances from the worldwide history of slavery (Europe, Africa, and the Americas) by using the case study technique. Through the case study of slavery in a global context, the article seeks to have a clear impression of learning about slavery in greater depth. The article's result illustrates that global history is important in understanding slavery since it shows a wide variety of slavery's development in different locations. Finally, the article will broaden our understanding of slavery as a worldwide uneven process. Furthermore, the article may be used as a reference to comprehend how to evaluate slavery by taking different approaches into account, which encourages more individuals to explore new viewpoints and thinking concepts to contribute to the study of slavery. To some extent, the article is limited, because it only emphasizes the history of slavery after the medieval period, and it is worth mentioning that early slavery is not global circulation, which is not the main focus in this article. Future studies can investigate early history of slavery and compare with global history of slavery after 1500.

Keywords: Europe, Africa, the Americas, global history, slavery

Introduction

The research question of the article observes and interprets why global history is important for the study of slavery. This question needs to be explained by identifying the development of slavery from Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and summarizing how these regions define slavery and what factors cause their differences. This research question is complex, because slavery occupies a massive part of the history and needs to consider various aspects for a better understanding of global history's significance on the study of slavery. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize slavery rigorously to reshape the process of slavery in global history.

In early history, slavery has emerged as an institution in ancient civilizations and gradually rooted in human society. When the development of slavery was associated with the economy, an economic model that ignored human rights appeared the slave trade (Angeles, 2013, p. 2). As Columbus discovered the New World of the Americas, it symbolized a new chapter in global history. When new routes connected to Europe and the Americas until the end of the 15th century, the world was not separate anymore. It caused the expansion of the slave trade on a larger scale, known as the transatlantic slave trade among Europe, Africa, and the Americas. From a global perspective, commerce was developing, and trade was expanding, especially when Europeans shifted their focus on the Americas and the African continent due to the high demand for the cheap labor force, which was the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade (Strayer & Nelson, 2016, p. 473).

ZHANG Xinyao, Bachelor (Third Year), School of Humanities, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

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This article will discuss three regions' slavery, which are Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Then, the article will take the transatlantic slave trade as a symbolic event in the development of slavery by emphasizing the involvement among Europe, Africa, and the Americas and briefly discussing rebellions, the abolition of slavery and the slave trade, to explain the importance of global history to the study of slavery from the viewpoints of different historians. It is a unique case, because understanding and analyzing the worldwide process of slavery is based on different researchers' views of slavery via the use of various cases. This case also alludes to the prominent impacts of slavery at the time. This topic is important, because it presents a worldwide image of global slavery, allows audiences to learn more about slavery and bridge the gap between early slavery and global slavery, and examines the effects of slavery in a global context. At the same time, this research can also help comprehend slavery as an uneven global phenomenon, how these regions' slavery interacts with one another, and analyze how slave trade fractures the world's isolation.

The article is divided into the following sections. After the introduction, the article will introduce how Europe used the transatlantic slave trade to consolidate and extend the notion of slavery throughout the rest of the globe. The article will next depict the contributions of American plantation slavery and the transatlantic slave trade to the Americas. The article will then reveal how African slaves are coerced into participating in the transatlantic slave trade. Later in the article, it will briefly discuss slaves' rebellions and the abolition of slavery and transatlantic slave trade. Finally, the conclusion will synthesize all sections, underline the importance of this research, and identify potential limitations.

European Development of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Slavery

For Europe, the transatlantic slave trade was one of the sources of primitive accumulation of capital in global slavery. The first record of shipping slaves from West Africa over the Atlantic was starting from the 1440s (Inikori, 2003, p. 170). There were millions of people shipping across the Atlantic Ocean. According to Inikori, estimated between 12 million and 20 million slave labors transported from the 1440s to the 1860s (2003, p. 171). It could be seen that Europeans transported African slaves to the Americas through the transatlantic slave trade at the time; even Cannon also argues that Europeans regarded African slaves as marketable commodities (2008, p. 129). Davidson states that the slave trade was the foundation of colonial industry and business in European and American countries, and it dominated the relationship between Western Europe and the colonies (1959, p. 120). Similarly, Ismard also argues that "the medieval legacies of European slavery and forward to a consideration of its effects upon the recent history of capitalism" (2017, p. 13). Taking Britain as an example, Marx points out that Liverpool originally grew up by the slave trade, and the slave trade was its method of primitive accumulation (1909, p. 838). From 1709 to 1792, it increased from the first slave ship to 132 ships. At the end of the 18th century, the slave trade brought Liverpool a net income of 300,000 pounds per year. According to statistics, between 1783 and 1793, Liverpool merchants sent 878 slave ships with 303,737 slaves and a profit of approximately 2.36 million pounds (Marx, 1909, p. 838). From the slave trade, Europe gained benefits, accumulated capital, and expanded production. Commercial activities increased the accumulation of commercial capital, and then it fostered the establishment of European capitalism in Europe and its colonies (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 105). This global paradigm for the study of slavery connected both global history and the history of slavery as evaluating the transatlantic slave trade, and it avoided the criticisms of global history (Ismard, 2017, p. 14). European prosperity and development were linked to the slave trade due to hegemony and superiority in the dominance of slavery, which made Europe

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gradually become the center of the world economy (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 105). Besides these, Europeans used Christian imperialism to distinguish Europeans and African slaves. Europeans thought that God has depicted themselves "as the superior, natural masters, hereditarily pure, glorious, free citizens, while crafting subordinate status justifications for people of African descent as natural-slaves, inherently defective, depraved, and inferior" (Cannon, 2008, p. 131). Europeans utilized the justification of racial prejudice to oppress African slaves and benefit from the transatlantic slave trade. Thus, Europe accumulated primitive capital from the slave trade in a global context. It is worth mentioning that the connected history represented the significance in global history to understand slavery and the slave trade.

American Plantation Slavery Under the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Secondly, through the conquest of the Americas, the transatlantic slave trade gave a big picture of the history of western slavery in European contact with colonies. As Ismard discusses, the notion of slavery changed its forms in the Americas without the limitation between masters and slaves, but it illustrated the shape of the relationship from slaves' perspectives (2017, p. 17). In this case, the global history of slavery played a vital part in American forms of slavery. At the beginning of the slave trade, slave exchange has existed between Europeans and Africans in the Americas. It revealed that European colonial empires contributed to the small American slaveries (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 107). In terms of small slaveries, American slavery mainly focused on plantation slavery. One of the reasons for European's colonization was the development of the plantation economy in the Americas. Europeans needed more raw materials such as sugar and rum, since these were the most profitable commodities in Europe. Plantation required a higher labor-intensive, so eventually Europeans forced enslaved labor as a cheap and reliable labor source (Newman, 2013, p. 242). Although there was no doubt that slaves made contributions to economic prosperity in the plantation throughout the slave trade, slavery research showed that it was impossible to "conduct in such global-historical macro-connections as global history, plantation slavery, and the Atlantic slave trade" (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 89). From the Anglo-American historiography of slavery and the slave trade, hegemony was the main expression in slavery research; then, it led to the restriction of understanding slavery and the slave trade in global history. However, the plantation economy laid the foundation of slavery research from the examples of Cuba and Brazil (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 91). Additionally, the development of slavery was an uneven process in the Americas between the 18th and 19th century. For instance, slavery enabled the development of the south and promoted the development of the north for a long time in the United States. Ismard demonstrates that northern states were a free society by comparing with the slave society in southern states (2017, p. 21). This imbalance led to the abolition of slavery in the United States in the 19th century. According to a global-historical perspective, small slaveries in the Americas were distinct from great European slaveries. American plantation economy connected with global history and global slavery through slaves' participation, while massive global network through the slave trade consistently consolidated.

The Rise of African Slaves and Participation in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Furthermore, Africa witnessed the dark history of forced enslaved peoples' migration as an essential part of global slavery in the transatlantic slave trade. It was not an accident that Europeans chose Africans and forced them to participate in the plantation system in the Americas. Due to European colonization and land appropriation in the New World, Europeans desired forced labor supply; at the same time, they also failed to

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enslave indigenous people, when diseases caused the collapse of the local population in the Americas (Heuan & Burnard, 2011, p. 83). From the African perspective, they promoted the slave trade by exchanging slaves, because Africans tried their best to obtain more necessary weapons such as guns from Europeans to defend themselves from their enemies (Thornton, 1998, p. 98). If they did not tolerate this commerce, they would not acquire military technology. These factors led to the participation of African slaves in the transatlantic slave trade. In this process, these enslaved people formed early African diasporas in the Atlantic world (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 95). As Zeleza notes, there were different groups of African diasporas since they were in different countries, but they had similar migration experience and identity formation at this stage (2010, p. 10). This similar perception gradually shaped global African diasporas. From the side of global historiography, new approaches such as "racism and slavery" and "diaspora/migration history" throughout histories of diasporas emerged to understand slavery and the slave trade by studying "slave voices, life histories and experiences" (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 97). In terms of racial ideology and freedom, slaves were treated unequally by Europeans. When they became slaves, they were excluded from society, and they had no freedom. Their identities were regarded as "shame, dishonor, insecurity, lack of `freedoms' and loss of status, fatherlessness, as well as such degrading characteristics as slave names" (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 101). While slaves worked for plantation in the Americas, the notion of racial slavery was obvious from Europeans' attitudes towards slaves, so they developed some ideas about race and racial differences to distinguish slaves as their subject people (Newman, 2013, p. 201). This idea would challenge slaves' self-esteem, cause rebellions, and accelerate the end of slavery. Overall, Africans' involvement constituted the majority in the slave trade, when they provided the labor force for the American plantation. According to global histories of diasporas, African diasporas were developed by different African diasporas through integration, but they suffered from racial discrimination and no liberty.

The End of Slavery: Rebellions and Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade

In addition, slavery and the slave trade pointed out that slaves were not respected because of their inferior status, and then a discourse regarding the emancipation of slaves appeared based on the reflection of liberty. Just like Thornton said, "these discontented people were the resisters, rebels, or runaways. Each in his or her own way and according to his or her own means sought to alter the system and its rules" (1998, p. 272). Slaves' rebellion was against slavery and enslavement as an unfair institution. From the timeline of the history of slavery and a macro-historical perspective, abolition happened after slavery as the myth of the history of the slave trade (Zeuske & Fernbach, 2012, p. 88). The outbreak of slave rebellions threatened European colonization in the Americas and promoted the abolition of slavery. For example, the Haitian Revolution in St Domingue made a great success in ending slavery and other revolts in the Caribbean in the 19th century and impacted the British government's decision to abolish slavery (Heuan & Burnard, 2011, p. 221). Slave rebellions even occurred in the African continent as continuous influences globally (Heuan & Burnard, 2011, p. 222). By the end of the 19th century, both Europe and the Americas abolished slavery and the slave trade, as Britain and the United States were pioneers of antislavery at the beginning of the 19th century. The abolition of the slave trade was a gradual process, since it would destroy European economic benefits throughout the slave trade (Heuan & Burnard, 2011, p. 289). The process of abolition seemed like a chain of reactions that originated from slave rebellions, developed through the interpretation of abolition, and ultimately abolished slavery and the slave trade in the Atlantic world.

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The Reflection of Global Slavery

In conclusion, the participation among Europe, Africa, and the Americas in the transatlantic slave trade played a significant role in the consolidation and collapse of western slavery from a global-historical perspective, and slave rebellions established the basis for later abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the 19th century. Whether it was the slave trade and abolition, they showed the significance of global history to the study of slavery by revealing the process of the slave trade and different continents' responses towards the slave trade. Different historians proposed new global approaches to provide more perspectives for understanding slavery and the slave trade from these distinctive themes: European primitive accumulation of capital, American plantation economy, African forced labor population, and the relationship between slave rebellions and the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. The whole process has shaped the formation theory of the connected history of slavery in a global context. Under historians' efforts, abstract and vague events have been stripped down to a more precise and coherent picture. It is not possible to stop here in the search for the past. In the future, through the continuous efforts of generations of historians, a clearer picture of human history will emerge.

This article has examined slaves' reactions and the acceleration of eliminating slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, as well as how enslavement from Europe, Africa, and the Americas link with each other and form the process of global slavery. This article contributes to the critical analysis of global slavery and the consideration of its effects on global history, and it demonstrates that global slavery is a unique case study in that it requires information from various historians and analyses their perspectives to answer the research question. Moreover, this article contributes to a better scholarly knowledge of slavery in world history, the evolution of slavery from Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and the effects of slavery on human history. There are some limitations to this article. These examples provide limited explanations for early modern slavery and do not entirely explain slavery in other eras. Further research might concentrate on early slavery to compare it to global slavery after 1500 and study how elements change over time in the history of slavery. Additionally, to completely comprehend the history of slavery, it is essential to investigate further cases and viewpoints on the subject.

References

Angeles, L. (2013). On the causes of the African slave trade. Kyklos, 66(1), 1-26. Cannon, K. (2008). Christian imperialism and the transatlantic slave trade. Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 24(1),

127-134. Davidson, B. (1959). Old Africa rediscovered. London: Gollancz. Heuan, G., & Burnard, T. (2011). The Routledge history of slavery. New York: Routledge. Inikori, J. (2003). The struggle against the transatlantic slave trade: The role of the state. In S. Diouf (Ed.), Fighting the slave

trade: West African strategies (pp. 170-198). Ohio: Ohio University Press. Ismard, P. (2017). Writing the history of slavery between comparatism and global history. Annales HSS English Edition, 72(1), 7-40. Marx, K. (1909). Capital: A critique of political economy. Volume I: The process of capitalist production. (S. Moore & E.

Aveling, Trans.). F. Engels, (Ed.). Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co. Newman, S. (2013). A new world of labor: The development of plantation of slavery in the British Atlantic. Berlin: De Gruyter. Strayer, R., & Nelson, E. (2016). Ways of the world: A brief global history. Boston: Bedford. Thornton, J. (1998). Africa and Africans in the making of the Atlantic world, 1400-1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zeleza, P. (2010). African diasporas: Towards a global history. African Studies Review, 53(1), 1-19. Zeuske, M., & Fernbach, D. (2012). Historiography and research problems of slavery and the slave trade in a global-historical

perspective. International Review of Social History, 57(1), 87-111.

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