Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello and welcome to African Elements. In this episode, The African American Frontier:
Africa and the Atlantic World. In part 1 of the series on the African American frontier,
we examine the significance of Africans on the American frontier focusing in the Atlantic
Slave Trade. We'll start by defining (or redefining) the meaning of the frontier, and we will see
a firsthand account of the middle passage. Lastly, we look at the impact of the Middle
Passage on both sides of the Atlantic. How did the meeting of east and west transform
the African continent? What impact did American frontier have on Africans who were transported
there? All that coming up next.
Let us begin by defining the term “frontier.” For the purpose of this program, I will define
the frontier as the point, region, or cultural space in which two or more groups of people
meet -- a definition forwarded in the 1960s by scholar Jack Forbes. The way I am defining
the term deliberately contradicts many of our popular notions that view the American
frontier as the extent of American settlement westward and frames the frontier in terms
of “progress.” To the extent to which this one-sided view of the frontier does take
into account the indigenous people of the Americas, it views them as barriers or obstacles
to American progress in general and Anglo civilization in particular. The definition
I am giving you challenges our traditional notions of a frontier by specifying that a
frontier setting involves at least two groups of people and frontier history becomes the
study of the interaction between those groups. By this definition, had Christopher Columbus
sailed across the Atlantic in 1492 and found a continent completely devoid of people there
would have been a no interaction between two or more groups of people, and thus no frontier.
As it turns out, Columbus did encounter numerous groups of people. Among them were the Arawak.
the Arawak informed Columbus that there was a horrible people on a neighboring island
– who they referred to as the Carib – and that these people ate human flesh. In fact
if you look up the word “cannibal” in the dictionary you would find in the entomology
of that word that it comes from a corruption of the word “Carib.” The entire region
came to be known for these horrible human flesh eaters, who actually refer to themselves
as “Taino,” and that is how the Caribbean came to be named. That aside, it seems obvious
that the Arawak and the Taino have a history of conflict with one another and that history
is going to play a role in how the European conquest unfolds.
The way I have defined the frontier here paints a very different picture than the one we are
accustomed to with regard to the European conquest of the Americas. Rather than the
Europeans coming over and simply overwhelming the Native Americans with superior weaponry
are technology, the indigenous people become more active agents in the historical circumstances
surrounding them. We have seen a similar turn of events unfold in Episode 3: Africa in Historical
Context, West Africans were not simply passive victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade, but made
choices. Choices that made sense at the time, but had dire consequences. Those choices were
based on historical circumstances and centuries of interaction and conflict between various
groups. Because the frontier -- or meeting place between the various groups -- was often
hostile nature, one group of West Africans had no moral qualms about selling members
of an enemy group to European slave traders. We can apply a similar model to the frontier
that was created when Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean and created a frontier
complex that included not just Spanish/Native American interactions but interactions between
the Spanish and Taino, Spanish and Arawak. We have to understand that Native American
history does not begin in 1492, and that the a historical backdrop of interactions between
the Taino and the Arawak was established well before contact with Europeans. In doing so,
a very different picture emerges. One in which historical rivalries help to explain why certain
groups of Native Americans were willing to cooperate with Europeans and the conquest
of the other groups of Native Americans. Additionally, as we’ll see, when we throw Africans into
this frontier complex a far more different picture emerges as we look at the significance
of interactions between Africans and a variety of other groups.
The Middle Passage was one leg of the of the Triangular Trade between Europe, Africa and
the Americas as part Atlantic Slave Trade. You of the have heard me refer to the Atlantic
Slave Trade as "abysmal," in that the depths of the brutality Africans experienced can
never be fully captured. As Toni Morrison has cautioned, to do so is impossible: “Language
can never ‘pin down’ slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance
to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable."
Olaudah Equiano, however, does offer us just a glimpse of one persons ordeal. Equiano's
book, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa the African, provides
a rare firsthand account the middle passage from someone who actually experienced it.
A warning to viewers. This excerpt contains graphic scenes that may be disturbing to some
viewers. His narrative begins on the continent of Africa through the middle passage and continues
by chronicling his experience in the Western Hemisphere and, finally his emancipation.
As he's being brought on board the slave ship that is to take him to the Western Hemisphere
he writes: "Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me
abandoned to despair. I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country,
or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly:
and I even wished for my former slavery, in preference to my present situation." That's
a very profound statement that he makes there because as we've seen slavery is nothing new
in terms of human history. Egyptians did the Romans did it, the Greeks did it, west African
did it, but he makes clear that there is a very sharp distinction between slavery as
existed in West Africa and what he was experiencing. A watershed moment in terms of human history.
He continues: " I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation
in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, with the loathsomeness
of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat,
nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to
relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on
my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think,
the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced
anything of this kind before; and although not being used to the water, I naturally feared
that element the first time I saw it; yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings,
I would have jumped over the side; but I could not; and, besides, the crew used to watch
us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the
water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting
to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating.... One day, when we had a smooth sea, and moderate
wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together (I was near them at the time),
preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings, and jumped
into the sea; immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was
suffered to be out of irons..." They took him out of irons because he was sick."...
also followed their example; and I believe many more would very soon have done the same,
if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed."
Later, he writes of the justification of slavery -- the Western justification of slavery as
a rescue from barbarism. He answers that assertion by writing later on: " O, ye nominal Christians!
might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God? who says unto you, Do
unto all men as you would men should do unto you. Is it not enough that we are torn from
our country and friends to toil for your luxury and *** of gain? Must every tender feeling
be likewise sacrificed to your avarice? Are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered
more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus
prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together,
and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers
their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which,
while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors
even to the wretchedness of slavery."
Equiano's narrative reveals several things about the institution of slavery in a global
context. One, slavery was never anything new. West Africa was no exception. If you recall
our earlier discussion of the frontier, West Africa was full of meeting places between
2 or more groups of people who considered themselves distinct from one another. As is
often the case when 2 or more groups of people meet, there was conflict. With conflict comes
warfare, with warfare comes war captives ... and what do civilizations tend to do with their
enemies who they have captured during warfare? They, of course, enslaved them. That is the
reason why the institution of slavery is about as old as human civilization itself. Slavery
had existed prior to the arrival of Europeans and continued from the very beginnings of
West African civilizations of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, and continued when Muslims arrived
on the scene. By the time Europeans arrived on the scene the institution of slavery and
the slave trade was already well-established and well entrenched. There was simply no reason
why Africans would've thought the trading slaves to the Europeans was any different
from anything they had done for centuries. Again, recall our discussion of the frontier
and how it can illuminate the choices people make as active agents in the historical events
unfolding around them. While we can look back and see the devastating impact of those choices,
we can also see how the choices Africans made in selling enemy groups to European slave
traders would have made perfect sense to them at the time.
It also must be stated, however, that the Atlantic slave trade was a radical departure
from slavery we have seen in world history up to that point. Slavery up to that point
is typically been a way of incorporating populations. It was a way of the Egyptians to Egyptianize
a population. It was away for the Romans to Romanize a population. It was the way for
the Muslims to Islamicize a population. Slavery as it existed in the Atlantic slave trade
is radically different. For reasons that we see in Episode 4: Slavery in Black and White,
slavery in the era of the Atlantic slave trade developed specifically as a means of separating
out a population. So slavery becomes intergenerational, black folks get tagged with slave status,
and a stay of slave status as a way of separating them out in the population -- very radically
different from any type of slavery we've seen up to that point.
In addition to Equiano's narrative, we have evidence of the particular hardships women
faced on the middle passage. Often sequestered from their African male brethren in separate
compartments below deck, African women were easy *** targets for European slave traders
on the long trans-Atlantic voyage.
Seasoning was a disciplinary process intended to modify the behavior and attitude of slaves
and make them effective laborers, acculturate them to the new life and work routine of the
Americas. As part of this process, the slaves' new masters gave them new names, the language
was literally beaten out of them as well as their native religion which was often a vehicle
for resistance and rebellion. That is the reason why, as we saw in Episode 5, Africans
adapted by modifying their religion so that they could disguise it as a European mode
of worship. Planters housed slaves undergoing seasoning
with the old Africans and Creoles - 2nd generation Africans who were born in the Americas, who
were worth three times the value of unseasoned new Africans.
As you can well imagine the impact of the slave trade -- of the Atlantic slave trade
-- on the African continent was absolutely devastating. As we discussed in the first
lecture, Africa in Historical Context, Africa was at one time a thriving center of world
commerce it was a specific chain of events that led Africa from the wealthy kingdom of
Mali under Mansa Musa to the slave trade and colonialism, poverty, disease, conflict and
Africa that we know today. As we have discussed previously, West Africa have built this wealth
around the trans-Saharan trade. But what happened in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, Europe
was forced to find an alternate route around Africa to get what it needed in Asia. Once
that happened in a cheaper route was found -- bypassing Africa and effectively cutting
Africa of the picture -- the trans-Saharan collapsed and with it, the West African kingdoms.
What follows is the same thing that followed in Europe with the collapse of the Roman Empire.
You have warlordism, people vying for what's left of these collapsing empires. With warlordism,
feudalism comes conflict. Conflict goes hand-in-hand with slavery -- for centuries people had conquered
their neighbors and made slaves of them. And that happened at a particular moment in history
when Europe happened to be in a state of expansion. So, Africa is ripe for colonization at this
particular critical moment.
The Atlantic Slave Trade was devastating on many levels. The sheer scale of it was devastating
-- estimates on the sheer numbers vary, but the most common estimate of the persons who
were transported from Africa to the Western hemisphere ranges from about 9 to 11,000,000.
Still more elusive is the number of Africans who died over the 3 centuries in which the
trade was conducted. Between the death marches from the interior to the coast where they
were held in factories awaiting transportation and the arduous middle passage, some have
estimated that up to 35% died before they ever reached the Americas. The seasoning process
also took a heavy toll. An estimated 15 to 50% died within 7 years of crossing the Atlantic.
With such a wide variation in the estimates of between 35 and 80% of those who left Africa
having perished, the number dead ranges widely between an extremely low estimate 6 million
and an upper extreme 150 million. Most scholars put the number between 20 to 40 African souls
lost on the middle passage -- a holocaust of unprecedented proportions.
So, the sheer numbers -- the depopulation of the continent of Africa (particularly West
Africa) -- is going to take a huge toll in terms of human resources. Additionally, you're
taking a specific segment of the population. Mostly male -- that's very different from
the Islamic slave trade on the trans-Sahara -- and from specific age sets. In West Africa
are you looking at a cultural practice of dividing society along specific age sets -- usually
from seven year sets. So we have from 1 to 7 being one age set, from 7 to 14 being another
age set and so on. And there are specific rites of passage to mark the transition from
one age set to another. Those are usually marked with elaborate rituals. You see this
all of the globe. In Native American ceremonies you have scarification rituals. You have,
for example, in Southeast Asia -- in Polynesia -- you have tattooing (that's where the practice
of tattooing comes from) as you are going from one age to another. And if you're familiar
with the film the color purple there's a scene in which Celie is about to shave Mr. -- is
about to cut his throat. And what's going on in that scene -- it's very complex scene
-- where there's this flashback to what's going on with her children in Africa as she's
sharpening the blade to shave Mr. ...
What we are seeing here is a scarification ritual that takes place as one of the children
is being cut with a particular blade in a particular ceremony to mark the transition
from one age set to the next. What that basically says is, "I'm no longer a child. I am ready
to enter the next phase of my life. So not only was the slave trade devastating in terms
of sheer numbers, but you have primarily males were taken from the contract of Africa as
a result of this warfare who were traded to Europeans -- and males of a particular age
set. Mostly from the 14 to 28 age set. What happens as a result is described in the book
by a West African author, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. What he describes in his book
-- this is the first of a trilogy of books on West Africa that captures this historical
moment -- is that the society that's built on these age sets just collapses. Because
one aide said is built on the other, if you remove one or two age sets, society is no
longer able to maintain a sense of continuity. That's the reason why we see such continuity
of African culture in places like Brazil to such an extent that until very recently people
in West Africa studying traditional West African religion actually went to Brazil.
That’s it for this episode. You can see everything you’ve seen here as well as the
entire archive of episodes at my website www.africanelements.org. You can also join the discussion on our Facebook
Group African Elements. I'm Darius Spearman. Thank you for watching.