THIRD WORLD AND TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE

ANICHE, ALEXANDER (2018) THIRD WORLD AND TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. In: The third wold in social science erspective. Fasman Educational & Research Publication, pp. 27-59. ISBN 978-2986-16-X

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Abstract

According to Onyia and Aniche (2008:89) slavery is a system of stratification in which a man is in the eyes of the law and public opinion, and in respect to other parties, a possession of another. Slavery, as understood and practised by European settlers in America, was vitally different in concept from that of Africa and other parts of the Third World. Both in theory and in practice, to an European, a ‘slave’ means a person who is absolutely a property of his master. Neither in law nor in custom did the slave have the protection against the whim of his master. The slave could never own property, never marry without his master’s consent, nor could he ever earn his own freedom or beget free descendants. He was a tool to be used and a tool to be discarded when broken ... he could be sold away from his family or witness his children being taken away to disappear forever under auctioneer’s hammer. There was no obligation on the owner to treat his slave with consideration and humility, and it was not a crime if a free man killed a slave. In Africa, the legal position of a slave was not much better but his customary situation was significantly different. According to Bandwell (2007), slaves were well treated in all parts of Africa. They were treated almost like free members of the household. They were allowed to acquire wealth, marry, and raise children. As a household slave, he was regarded as a member of his master’s family and received comparable treatment with the free members of the community. He was a worker with rights. He was mostly unlikely to be sold away from his family or harshly treated unless guilty of serious misconduct. If he proved to have high managerial ability or military skill, he could rise to a position of eminence in his master’s household. In the Niger Delta, for example, he could even be the head of the household; and elsewhere, more than one conquering general or senior administrator started life as a slave. The situation was much the same throughout the Muslim world, which had its religious code of conduct on the treatment of slaves. By these standards, the slave who crossed the Atlantic was indeed an unfortunate creature. All too often he was destined to work intensively on enormous plantations or in underground mines. He could labour long hours for no reward save the lash of the overseer when his effort slackened. There would be no personal contact between him and his master for the enterprises were colossal in scale and the labour

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions:	Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
Depositing User:	mrs chioma hannah
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2019 15:21
Last Modified:	24 Sep 2019 15:25
URI:	http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/2079

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