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
