Scanned from: Van Dantzig, A, Het Nederlandse Aandeel in de Slawenhandel Fibula 1968 (in Dutch)
H-NET List forAfrican History and Culture [H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU] Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 From: Kenneth Harrow, MSU <harrow@pilot.msu.edu>
. . . slavery can not be understoodindependently of economic circumstances. again, as anon-historian, i will make the following claim based on my readings ofthe experts themselves who have stated that the march ofthe sugar cane production system, from the e. mediterraneanto w. mediterranean, to the islands near spain (13-14th c.),and then, a century or two later, down the w. african coastto such islands as fernando po, brought within the proximityof africa an economic system that demanded large numbersof agricultural workers who could harvest the cropcollectively.
thetransformation of sugar cane into sugar and then rum was systematizedand developed as an industry, even with industrialsecrets. it was spread across the atlantic to brazil by thesame portuguese who had instituted the plantationsystem in the islands off the african coast. and then, finally,it was spread by the dutch in the 1620-40 sugar canerevolution period into the w. indies.
slavery tookits form, its inhuman form, and spread to specificlocations, because the economic system it served requiredcertain kinds of labor which were easiest met by using slaves.
does it makeany sense, then, to talk about where slavery began? abouthow it existed in greece, egypt, russia, or ghana, as ifthe term slavery meant the very same thing?
finally, it isnot my intention to exculpate people in the past whocarried out such evil practices by claiming that economicsystems were responsible. it is just that one cannotunderstand their actions, motivations, practices withoutunderstanding what economic incentives were being served.
OTHER REFERENCES
Deerr Noël The History of Sugar 1949
Dunn, RS, Sugar and Slaves London 1977
Mattoso, Katia M. de Queiros, To Be A Slave in Brazil 1550 -1888, translated by Arthur Goldhammer, with a foreword by Stuart B. Schwarz, Rutgers University Press,1994. First published in French 1979.
Schwarz, SB, Sugar Plantations in the formation of Brazilian Society Bahia 1550-1835 CUP