AnthroPawlogy Unearthed 104: The Transatlantic Slave Trade

In this episode of Anthropology Unearthed we will take a deep dive into the Transatlantic Slave trade.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Lachlan Vester

What is AnthroPawlogy Unearthed?

Stories from the past and their impact on the present day. This podcast aims to illustrate how the past has a very real impact on the present. "AnthroPawlogy Unearthed" is a podcast from WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2.

00:01
Lachlan Vester
When you think of the darkest periods of Western history, what do you think of the World Wars? The American Civil War? While these wars cause irreparable loss, they falter in comparison to the Atlantic slave trade. The theft of life, liberty and identity from millions of people as they were ripped from their homes, forced onto slave ships, and sold throughout the New World is unimaginable. This is AnthroPawlogy Unearthed. I'm your host Lachlan Vester and today's episode is a heavy one yet again. I honestly find myself attracted to the macabre when brainstorming ideas for these episodes, but I promise there will be some lighter topics in the future. I hope. Before we get started today, I want to warn everyone that this topic is obviously heavy and does contain mentions of self harm, torture and sexual assault.

00:57
Lachlan Vester
If you are sensitive to any of these topics, I suggest you skip this episode. I feel like we all covered the Atlantic slave trade to some degree in grade school. However, I also feel that like most things, the public school system has failed most of us. I really cannot overstate the disservice done to most people by the American public school system. But you know. Anyways, that tangent aside, let's delve into the topic at hand. Before we get too in the weeds on this one, let's review what we all should know about the Atlantic slave trade. Firstly, there was a triangular system of trade where goods would flow from Europe to Africa. Those goods would then be traded for people, and those people would be traded to the Americas for goods that would be shipped back to Europe.

01:42
Lachlan Vester
Think of this like the worst trigonometry problem ever and you're almost there now. Slavery was not a new concept. By the time of the transatlantic slave trade within Europe, there had been a storied history of slavery through prisoners of war, manhunting, and even sacrificial slavery. All this is to say Europeans knew a thing or two because they had seen a thing or two. The idea of enslaving indigenous people was extremely attractive to colonial empires of Europe as they saw these entire cultures as lesser than and as a resource to be taken advantage of. By the time the Americas were discovered by Europeans, it was seen as a no brainer to them, not only to enslave the people who already lived there, but to ship in slaves as a commodity from the Old World.

02:26
Lachlan Vester
The enslavement of native people is seldom talked about, however, it is an important chapter in the story. In overly simple terms, the colonizers saw people in the New World as another resource to be conquered, especially in South America and the Caribbean, Native people were enslaved and forced to work on sugar plantations. Now, the American public school system makes it seem like the major hub of slavery in the New World was the American south, with cotton and tobacco plantations making up a massive part of the economy. However, nearly 90% of all people trafficked to the New World ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean. This was for one simple reason. People love sugar and tobacco. While this rings true today, trust me, the past was pretty much the exact same as today. There was just less TikTok drama and playboy Carti around.

03:19
Lachlan Vester
Slavery in Brazil was widespread and brutal. Shocker, right? In 1822, it is estimated that around 1/3 of all people residing in Brazil were enslaved. This is a sum of over 1.7 million people. Of course, this is in the context of globalism and colonialism. Even before contact, there was slavery in the region as native cultures started the practice in a much smaller scale, but in a similar way to the Europeans. However, post colonialism, there was a massive influx of people kidnapped, trafficked and eventually enslaved in Brazil. The absolute lack of humanity practiced by the slavers and plantation owners is absolutely gut wrenching. Brazil was exporting so much sugar that it accounted for nearly 90% of their total exports. One can only imagine how much grueling labor was required to produce that much product.

04:14
Lachlan Vester
Slavery wasn't ended in Brazil until the late 1880s with the golden act that proclaimed that no man should be enslaved within the country. By this time, around 15% of all people living in Brazil were enslaved and were freed by the act. Slavery was a horror that would begin from the moment one was kidnapped in their homeland and would not end until they died, be that at their destination or on the way there. It was a common occurrence for people to commit suicide by jumping overboard slave ships rather than face the horrific torture ahead of them. For most, however, it was already too late. Locked below deck for the duration of the voyage that could last months. Darkness was all encompassing. Squalor was everywhere. Most defecated where they lay because they were unable to move.

05:03
Lachlan Vester
They then had to live in these conditions for the entire length of the voyage. Disease was rampant among slave ships. Due to these conditions, there was nowhere to go and no one to save them. One could only hope for the release of death once they were captured by a trafficker. Now that we've covered the lesser known history of slavery in Brazil, let's pivot to North America. For my American audience, you're probably familiar with the gist of what I'm about to say from your Time in AP classes in high school or college classes. However, for those outside the United States and for those who took classes, for the people who loved their life, some of this may be shocking. Slavery in the United States was all about cotton, tobacco.

05:42
Lachlan Vester
The south was essentially dependent on these cash crops economically because it was free labor at the cost of the immense human suffering. And many white colonizers got extremely wealthy from it. Now's the time for a personal aside. I've been to a former plantation in Georgia when I was younger. I honestly wasn't able to comprehend what I was seeing at the time. My parents have always been a big fan of teaching us the past by taking us places. Seeing the absolute beauty of the opulent manner surrounding the grounds in contrast to the slave quarters puzzled a much younger and naive me. I couldn't quite understand that people could treat each other that way and that people actually lived like that. Looking back on it really does hurt my heart in ways I can't even describe.

06:36
Lachlan Vester
I've also visited Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, known for sexually assaulting his slaves. And while there was mention of slavery and the horrors that took place in the grounds, it takes a backseat to the grandeur of the manor and the grounds yet again. I really can't explain how these places made me feel at the time. The closest feeling I've ever felt was in the Czech Republic when I visited Terezin, a concentration camping ghetto used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. There's like this all encompassing darkness in those places that is unlike any other. The thing that has really stuck with me about places like that is the cold feeling. Even when it was summer at Monticello, there was an overarching chill that I never really got over. Those places harbor a kind of evil unlike any other.

07:25
Lachlan Vester
Even as a young adult, I have a hard time working out in my head how people can be so cruel. With that spiel out of the way, let's return to North America. The south had no intention of letting go of the lucrative business that was slavery. Even after the Civil War, sharecropping was essentially still slavery with extra steps. During the early years after the war, this practice was rampant. Now, we should all be familiar with the end of slavery and the reconstruction of the south, so I won't bore you with the details. However, we need to talk about the strain that slavery has left on the nation to this day. Now, we are skipping a lot of history you should have learned in high school, but I feel it's necessary in order to get to the bigger picture.

08:11
Lachlan Vester
The mental gymnastics required to enslave another human being leaves its mark on the Western world today in the form of racism. Despite the fact that any student of anthropology that has taken even one class in the subject ever can tell you that race is a social concept with zero biological basis, people still use it as a basis for their entire worldview. There's no lack of hatred in this world based on the color of someone's skin. In the modern day we still live in a world where hating someone based on their gender, ethnicity, faith, and yes, the color of their skin is an upsettingly common occurrence. Hate finds its way into nearly every place it can. We live in a country that claims to be the land of the free, yet mass deportations of innocent people are rampant.

09:00
Lachlan Vester
People have to fear for their safety when they go to take their kids to school. While this hate isn't directly descendant from slavery, and it is directly related to the way that the otherness of people is not understood and is used as a weapon to turn us against each other. We, the people, against each other. So now is the time where we take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Of course, this picture is pretty big, but it's an important one. The Atlantic slave trade is an ugly stain on the history of the age of exploration. From the moment Europeans realized they could make a profit in human trafficking, it was essentially over for anyone deemed lesser than by them.

09:42
Lachlan Vester
The system of stealing the lives of people to turn a profit would last for hundreds of years at the cost of millions of lives. These were the people with a story, hopes, dreams, aspirations in life. I know that might seem obvious, however, really sit and think on that as you go about your day today. For all the dreams you have, someone who was stolen from their home and enslaved had one too, and it was taken from them for someone to enrich themselves. So next time you set a goal, find something you like or feel free. Remember those who couldn't. Because if we don't remember them, if we don't tell their stories, who will. AnthroPawlogy Unearthed is A podcast from WKNC 88.1 HD1 Raleigh. Our theme music is produced by Sam White.

10:36
Lachlan Vester
I'm your host, Lachlan Vester, and I look forward to seeing you next time.