Nicolas Kane
History 498
Blog 1
Africans in Europe 1400-1600
Between the years 1400 and 1600 there was a drastic change in European society. The introduction of Africans into European culture changed tremendously due to the differing degrees of social and economic views. The introduction of slavery to Europe from Africa proved to change the way that the world had connected and interacted with each other. There was a vast difference in how they were viewed between Mediterranean Europe and Atlantic Europe and progressively changed throughout this two hundred year period.
African slaves in Africa were treated much differently than the slaves in Europe. African society needed slaves to control, conquer, and maintain their land while others dictated what they did. In Africa, a slave was not treated as property, but more as an active member of society. However, when slaves were introduced to Europe, the treatment of slaves differed immensely, often with cruelty and disregard. Often traveling on Slave Ships that were covered in disease and filth, slaves had much less respect in Europe than they once had in Africa.
Mediterranean Europe developed and sought after slavery due to their own economic interest. From the beginning of the 15th century towards the end of the 16th century there was a large amount of voyages and travels seeking the undiscovered on behalf of the Europeans. These explorations lead to the discovery of the Western African coast by the Portuguese. Slaves in the Mediterranean did both daily manual labor duties as well as worked in improving agriculture. Because the Mediterranean was a very diverse area, with largely integrated communities, the transition for African slaves into society was widely more accepted than that of the Atlantic. Fracchia suggests in his article that Africans had a movement of being visible to being nearly invisible as they were integrated more and more into society. This way of thinking by Fracchia is supported by the assumption that as African culture became more prevalent that the original slaves that were relocated would lose a sense of their routes and that their original culture would be lost. This idea however was rejected; because a cultures identity is being more and more common within society that does not mean that there will be a disappearance of Africans just because of cultural assimilation. Also, the large numbers of peoples relocated would make it nearly impossible for a culture to be completely invisible while being a part of everyday life. Because of this integration into Mediterranean society and the large numbers of people gathering there, the impact allowed a more flexible social order and Africans were more widely accepted into society, being able to distinguish their roles as being a positive influence on the region as a whole, as opposed to slaves of no cultural value or respect.
In Atlantic Europe, there was a completely different impact that slaves had on society and as a result, a drastic change as to how they were treated. “Many Europeans relied on observatiosn and evidence from Mediterranean Europe, and from Portugal, which had started exploring the African coast before Atlantic Europe.[1] Because of the aristocracy, the roles of African slaves and their domestic servitude was drastically different than that of the Mediterranean. Their roles were much more defined as slaves and the Africans brought over were treated as such. Because the amount of slaves in Atlantic Europe was smaller, and because there was not nearly as much diversity as the Mediterranean, they were treated more like foreigners rather than actually people from that region. “This division among the races heavily influenced the social hierarchy leaving the African slaves at the bottom. It did not matter if you were an African slave, a personal slave, or even free, if you were black you were automatically put into the lower class. “Africans in early modern Atlantic world could easily be viewed as pawns in the ongoing contests among the various European Powers.”[2] It was not until the end of the sixteenth century that slaves were really recognized as being active contributors to daily society. This was a significant realization that helped changed the face of slaves within Europe. It helped make their contributions and hard work more recognizable and appreciated amongst the hierarchy and high levels of society.
Africans and African slaves have always been important members in European society since the early thirteenth centuries. Essentially, how these slaves were treated was completely different wherever they ended up and their defined roles changed . When comparing slaves whom were transported to the Mediterranean opposed to the Atlantic Europe you can sense the freedom that these slaves had. With the Mediterranean being so much more diverse and widely accepting it felt as if the slaves were not really slaves as all but rather contributors to the good of society. When looking at Atlantic Europe the feel is completely different, slaves are portrayed more so as the slaves in the Civil War, working for somebody else’s cause and being forced to do so. While not being accepted into society right away, Europe, just as the Mediterranean realized the importance of these slaves and accepted them into their own society.
[1] Rodney, Walter “Africa in Europe and the Americas,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4 (Cambridge Histories Online, Cambridge University Press, 2008), Page 579.
[2] Michael Guasco, "Free from the tyrannous Spanyard? Englishmen and Africans in Spain's Atlantic World," in Slavery and Abolition, Vol. 29 (Routledge, March 2008), 13.
Bibliography:
Rodney, Walter “Africa in Europe and the Americas,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, Vol. 4 (Cambridge Histories Online, Cambridge University Press, 2008), 579-583.
Michael Guasco, "Free from the tyrannous Spanyard? Englishmen and Africans in Spain's Atlantic World," in Slavery and Abolition, Vol. 29 (Routledge, March 2008), 13.
No comments:
Post a Comment