Lessons not yet learned: legacies of colonialism and slavery

Abstract

FOCUS | FORCED LABOUR – THE WORLD TODAY AND THE LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM AND SLAVERY 7 28/3-4 | International Union Rights | Lessons not yet learned: legacies of colonialism and slavery Six European countries were responsible for the overwhelming majority of transportation of enslaved Africans to the New World colonies Daniel Blackburn is Director of ICTUR in London As many as 24 million diverse peoples are believed to have been enslaved across Africa for the purposes of supplying the transatlantic slave trade, which was active from the 16th to the 19th Centuries. Around 10 million survived the brutal process from initial capture, through the slave markets, transportation across the Atlantic, and, on arrival in the New World, exposure to unfamiliar diseases1. Those who survived the passage were sold into gruelling forced labour regimes, mostly in agricultural and agroindustrial plantations, in the economies that surrounded these industries, and in the households of the European planters. Many of those transported landed in Brazil, which was a major hub for slavery throughout the Americas, others were taken to sugar and tobacco plantations in the Caribbean and along the east coast of North America. The surge in the cotton trade from America to Europe began in the late 18th Century and drove the further internal forced migration of enslaved peoples from the east to the south. Conditions for the enslaved varied over time and between locations and crops, but generally consisted of long, exhausting, and (in sugar cutting in particular) dangerous work, in which they would be trapped for the duration of their lives. For pioneers of colonialism the slave trade brought wealth and power Six European countries were responsible for the overwhelming majority of transportation of enslaved Africans to the New World colonies during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. Portugal established an empire in the 15th and 16th Centuries and, in doing so, it became powerful on the world stage. Portugal’s domination and exploitation of its overseas colonies and its pivotal role in the transatlantic slave trade (Portuguese ships carried more than 4 million enslaved peoples - amounting to just under 40 percent of all those who were transported across the Atlantic) helped it to acquire vast wealth and power. Brazil, a Portuguese possession, was the main gateway for enslaved peoples brought to the Americas. Britain built the largest Empire in history, covering much of the world’s territory at its height. The colonial project involved the disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples, the appropriation of resources, and exploitation of conquered peoples on an industrial scale. Britain transported up to 3 million enslaved Africans to its plantations in the New World. Despite this grim record, in the early 19th Century Britain became the leading industrial nation lobbying for an end to the trade worldwide; the Royal Navy patrolling the Atlantic and forcefully boarding and diverting slaving ships. Spain established a vast and sophisticated Empire throughout the Americas from as early as the 16th Century. Much of this territory was acquired through military conquest. The indigenous peoples who inhabited these lands were displaced, killed in battle, and drawn into forced labour systems to work on Spanish industry and agriculture, including mining for precious metals. Huge numbers died from European diseases. Spain then transported more than one and a half million enslaved peoples from Africa to work in forced labour conditions in its New World colonies. France transported more than one million enslaved peoples to work across its colonies and plantations, and bitterly resisted the efforts of enslaved peoples to obtain liberation and independence. France was technically the first European power to abolish slavery throughout its territories, but re-instated the institution and attempted militarily to prevent the independence drive in Haiti. France later joined the mid-19th Century phase of abolition. Holland transported enslaved peoples from Africa to northern Brazil, to the Spanish colonies, and later to Suriname and Guyana. The Dutch part in the transatlantic trade is estimated at 5-7 percent (comprising at least half a million people), and the Netherlands was one of the last countries to abolish slavery in 1863. Freedom in Suriname only came ten years later, in 1873. Long after this, indentured servants in Dutch plantation colonies were still legally...