Introduction
The image of Africans changed ever so slightly over the 200 year period of 1400 to 1600. Throughout all of Europe there were changes that were different for all of the countries in the Mediterranean part and Atlantic part of Europe. On the Atlantic side Africans were never seen as people. On the Mediterranean side Africans were people and able to live with white Europeans. In 200 years not very much has changed but this is just the first 200 years with Europeans living with Africans.
The Image of Africans in Europe
There wasn’t very much that had changed over this 200 year period. In the beginning Africans were not even seen or known to be living around most Europeans. They were invisible. They were in society but no one really knew who they were or what they did. “Africans disappeared as a separate and distinct section of the population, but their large numbers ensured a lasting impact.”[1] Soon there were more and more writings being printed and distributed about Africa and Africans in Atlantic Europe. Africans were being seen as people that were barbaric and savage. They were not meant to be a part of English society. “Reports from Europeans visiting Africa in this period reinforced the concept of the Africans as an inferior being, and even those morally opposed to the trade in slaves accepted this stereotype.”[2] On the other hand on the Italian Peninsula there were Africans but they were first seen as being higher in society compared to what they get named and seen as in later years. There was a time were Africans were considered more trustworthy to the royal King or Queen then their own family members. ”Musicians are not mentioned, but the role of these blacks as guardians of the royal treasury is noteworthy.”[3] This image of Africans would change throughout Europe, mostly on the Atlantic side, but in somewhat different ways.
In the Atlantic European countries and the colonies that they started overseas, there were many Africans that were more skilled in the kind of work that they were doing then their own masters. Africans were considered the lowest on the scale when it comes to society but that didn’t mean that they were not depended on by their masters to do the job that no one else would do. “It has been said of Brazil that ‘the Negro foremen on the plantation, or later in the gold mines, knew more about the technology, or later in the gold mines, knew more about the technological process than did many of the Portuguese owners; [and] from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, agriculture and mining enterprise in Brazil owed a large debt to the Negro laborers and technicians.”[4] Africans might have been seen as barbaric people but in the end they were very smart and could do heavy labor/skilled work better than most white Europeans during that time period.
For the English it was a different story. The English never thought about Africans as being higher class. They were always looked down upon and sometimes not even as human. “Writing at the dawn of the Elizabethan age, William Cunningham drew on numerous classical and contemporary authors to concisely summarize the prevailing literary representation of sub-Saharan Africa’s inhabitants: ‘the people [are] blacke, savage, Monstrous, & rude.”[5] In many writings and pictures that were made during this time period many Africans were seen and compared to known animals during that time period. They also thought that Africans couldn’t be changed just because of the color of their skin. What English people associated with dark skin made them out to be people that were ugly and couldn’t be saved or changed. “A Jew like Jessica can turn Christian, whereas the offspring of a Negro and a white will bear the signs – as Aaron discovered – of indelible difference.”[6] If you were white and you did the right things than you could be saved. There were even Muslims that would make their Christian overlords think that they converted to Christianity in order to make sure that they were not prosecuted. It was easy for them to get away with that sort of thing but if you were an African than there was no changing. You stayed the way that people saw you as otherwise you were in trouble.
Conclusion
Africans throughout Europe and in part of the new world were not seen as being human and not seen as being equal. Like on the Italian Peninsula there were some that were considered higher up in class compared to other Africans but they were still not equal. This is just the start of Africans not being a part of Europe and a part of society. There is still 400 years of slavery and discrimination to still go through. There are still many things that happen and many minds and societies that will change for the better and some will change for the worse.
[1] Rodney, Chapter 9: Africa in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Histories Online, 2008), 6
[2] Rodney, Chapter 9: Africa in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Histories Online, 2008), 13
[3] Paul H.D. Kaplan, “Black Africans in Hohenstaufen Iconography,” Gesta, Vol. 26, No. 1 (1987), 33
[4] Rodney, Chapter 9: Africa in Europe and the Americas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Histories Online, 2008), 28
[5] Alden T. Vaughan and Virginia Mason Vaughan, “Before Othello: Elizabeth Representations of Sub-Saharan Africans,” The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Jan. 1997), 25
[6] Alden T. Vaughan and Virginia Mason Vaughan, “Before Othello: Elizabeth Representations of Sub-Saharan Africans,” The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Jan. 1997), 37
You touch on a very important point about early Elizabethan thought when you state that "many Africans were seen and compared to known animals during that time period." This type of dehumanization is a crucial component to the overarching narrative that a society must invent to engage in the practice of slavery and still consider itself to be moral, humane, and just.I would have liked to hear your thoughts about how this English notion of the "African as not quite human" compares with Rodney's assertion that the Portuguese engagements in actual acts of enslavement along the African coast contributed greatly to their world view that Africans are inferior. Simply put, is widespread social propaganda more effective at producing a racist society than military subjugation?
ReplyDeleteYour blog was so easy to read, thank you for providing us with such a nice format. My overall interpretation of the readings was that there was a significant difference between the treatment of the African slave on the Iberian Peninsula and the Western European countries like Britain and France. I gleaned that religion had a lot of influence on the Iberian Peninsula which made for a less inhumane treatment of the African slave and assimilation into the Spanish culture.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your citation of, "If you were white and you did the right things than you could be saved. There were even Muslims that would make their Christian overlords think that they converted to Christianity in order to make sure that they were not prosecuted", did this mean that the African slave could never gain hope of being saved?
My perception was,especially from the Ivory reading that the bias towards the Muslims and the Jews was greater than towards the African, which made the Spanish more receptive to conversion of the African slave.
On a side note, I agree with your choice of going to Alaska, I visited Juneau and 2 other smaller cities and found so much beauty and cool history of the native Alaskans I would love to make that my home as well.
Overall this was a very well written paper, all of the points that were made were similar to my own and I agreed with almost everything you had to say. You paint a good picture of how the slaves were treated in European society as well as Mediterranean society and make it quite obvious that there was a substantial difference between the two.
ReplyDeleteYou make a strong argument on how the slaves were treated during this time period but state that there wasn’t much change. Everything that you said about how savagely they were treated and how they were treated in European society was correct however some slaves were able to gain that respect. I would of liked to have seen more of a progression of how the slaves were treated in comparison from when they were first entered into society and then some 100+ years later how they were treated as a comparison to how society was changing.
Everything that was said about the African Mediterranean population was dead on. You make a point to say that although they were not treated the best, they were still relied on society whereas in Europe they had to learn the hard way. Just a little more on the progression of the people and their integration into society would have put this over the top but none the less a great paper!
I found this to be an informative essay overall. I appreciated the incorporation of support from the assigned texts for each of your points, but it would have been helpful to have introduced and contextualized each quote rather than simply stating it after each assertion. It appears that you only incorporated a limited number of the assigned readings in your essay, and as you approach future essays, I suggest sampling from a wider variety of texts in order to better clarify your points. I was interested in your argument that the skill of African laborers compared to their white masters did not help improve their status, and I appreciated your elaboration on the image of Africans in England, but there was something to be desired about your thoughts on the image of Africans in Mediterranean Europe during this period.
ReplyDelete