Coerced Labor

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1450 -1750 COERCED LABOR

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Coerced Labor. 1450 -1750. Historical examples of Slavery . Southeast Asia. Ancient Greco-Roman World. Muslim World. Black Sea Trade Network. Sub-Saharan Africa. Common Features. Status for slave holder Outward sign of social inequality - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Transcript of Coerced Labor

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COERCED LABOR

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HISTORICAL EXAMPLES OF SLAVERY

Ancient Greco-Roman World

Southeast Asia

Muslim WorldBlack Sea Trade

NetworkSub-Saharan Africa

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COMMON FEATURES

• Status for slave holder• Outward sign of social inequality• Most often productive capacity – agricultural

servitude, some cases domestic servitude• As a result of debt or prisoners of war – overtime

tradition (degree of permanence varied)• Trade networks made slaves a profitable

commodity• Gender roles and ratios a reflection of slavery’s

purpose

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NON-SLAVE COERCED LABOR

Serfdom

Corvee

American Mit’a System

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COMMON FEATURES

• Reciprocal in Nature• Based on

cultural tradition, precedence and political order

Like slavery, outward sign of social inequalities &

productive capacity, but

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BASELINE @ 1450

Slave / non-slaveProductive capacity – Labor , hard work

Valuable for productivityValuable as commodity

Social inequalityMotive: need/purpose

Locally developed &orchestrated

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS AFTER 1450

THAT PROVIDE HISTORICAL

UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHANGES TO

COERCIVE LABOR…

Big Ideas….Global trade networkTransatlantic exchange – west

coast of AfricaPlantation Complex Economy –

mines/monoculture

More Specific…Portugal – around Africa

Sugar Plantations (Cyprus, Atlantic Islands, Americas)Great Dying of Amerindians

Role of Interior Africa

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COERCED LABOR 1750

Still a sign of status, outward social inequality

and economic production…

• Race as dominating factor

• Plantation Complex predominant form for enslavement

• Profits from Trade as significant as monoculture product

Global Institutionalized

Network

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PHILIP CURTAIN U S I N G S TAT I S T I C S T O D E V E LO P H I S T O R I C A L U N D E R S TA N D I N G :

TH E ATL A N T I C S L AV E T R A D E : A C E N S U S

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EST. SLAVE IMPORTS TO THE NEW WORLD

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SLAVERY: A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

North America• natural reproduction• equal sex ratio, a high

birthrate, and a predominantly American-born population.

• only about 1/3rd of the population was enslaved

• Direct control by landowners and managers

• Greater disparity in slave ownership (1000s– 1)

• Two-category system of race

Latin America• Death rate 1/3rd higher• lower proportion of female

slaves, a much lower birthrate, and a higher proportion of recent arrivals from Africa

• 80 to 90 %of the population• Absentee landowners utilized

free black managers and mulattos as intermediaries

• intricate system of racial classification emerged

• more tolerant of racial mixing

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CURTAIN’S AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE

• Impact on Africa and Role of Africans

•Distribution of Slave Populations in the Americas

•Role of Sugar Plantation Complex

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PHILIP CURTAIN, RISE AND FALL OF THE PLANTATION COMPLEX

The feudal class was a military class not a group of agricultural estate managers. Agricultural production above the family level was organized through the village, but no one managed village agriculture in detail. Villagers, whether serf or free, worked the soil according to a system embedded in tradition and sanctioned by custom that had the force of law.

The lord of the manor was around somewhere, and normally had certain rights to the labor of the villagers and to the product of the land. He also held rights to a set of customary payments. But these rights were always limited, and they did not include the right to organize agricultural production as he saw fit…..

The point here is that the lord of the manor did not own the land. He was not free to use the land as he saw fit. All he owned was a set of customary rights.

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Discuss the change and continuity of plantation agriculture in Latin America between the

mid 1400s to 1750.

Baseline: No integration of Hemispheres large-scale agriculture among the

Aztecs and Incasmajority of people are peasants • mit'a system in Inca; tribute

empire

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GLOBAL CONTEXT: THINK BIG!

Rise of the WestReconquistaProtestant Reformationspread of ChristianityEuropean competition for control of global trade (Portuguese trading empire)Mercantilism / capitalism Treaty of TordesillasColumbian exchange

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LATIN AMERICA…Fall of empires to Spanishsuperior weapons/horses; dissatisfaction of groups

decimation of population; some flee to rural areas to maintain traditional farming methods

initial focus on mining, encomienda system (and Christianity)Batolome de las Casas (Tears of the Indians); Black Legend concern by monarch about power of landholders- New Laws of the Indies difficult to enforce; revolt by some encomenderos

plantation monoculture; cash crops--sugar (rum and molasses) ; export economy; triangular trade; African Slaves

miscegenation--dominated by people of European descent/some elevation to mestizo/mulatto class

alternative systems- repartimiento/mit’a system; peonage system (haciendas)

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PLANTATION ECONOMY Large capital investment Extensive labor force-Slave labor Encomienda – Native American population

too low African Slave Labor Intensive labor at multiple levels of

production– harvest, sugar mill, molasses Monoculture export Capitalist enterprise – Profits to produce

capital

Consider again Curtain’s Plantation segment

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END POINT 

large-scale plantation agriculture (sugar)

social hierarchy based on race exploitation of Amerindians African race-based Slavery coercive labor still in place beginning to question validity of the

system of slavery

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THESIS…Significant changes occurred in Latin America between 1450 and 1750. The age of discovery ushered in an era of European

domination that resulted in the destruction of existing Amerindian civilizations and dramatic transformations in the economic landscape. While agriculture continued to play an important role for a majority of the population who often toiled for the benefit of others, monoculture plantations worked by exploited indigenous people along with imported slaves became the norm .