The Impact of Transatlantic Slavery to the British Society - Essay Example

?Lasting and Encompassing: The Impact of Transatlantic Slavery to the British Society I. Introduction Slavery, which s back to the period ical Antiquity, has existed throughout history and throughout different cultures and civilizations, in one form or another. The trading of slaves, which is a well-documented fact, became one of the most dynamic economic activities back then and determined the power and wealth of nations that participated in such a form of business (Diene, 2001). To be sure, the most powerful and the wealthiest nations were the ones who took active roles in this massive scale of human deportation and trafficking. The early 17th century witnessed the dawn for the British to be considerably one of the most successful slavers in the Atlantic region. During these years, the kingdom emerged a key player in a commercial undertaking which “linked the economies of three continents, often called as the Triangular Trade” (UNESCO, 2010). Until the time arrived when the British could no longer stand the horrendous practice of slavery and decided then for its abolition. Economic Motives The main players in the triangular trade, England, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and the United States, among others, were not able to resist the commercial attractiveness of slavery and were drawn to do their best to benefit from it. Mainly driven by economic and political reasons, these fierce maritime and colonial powers ventured in the abduction and selling of African peoples, to enslave in their homes and plantations (Walvin, 2007). Sir John Hawkins, under the blessing of Queen Elizabeth 1, followed in the footprints of the Portuguese in navigating the western coastlines of Africa and enslaving people in the 1560s (Rodriguez, 1997). The Britons thought it was risky business, but they could not refuse the immense economic gains that awaited them. By fair and foul means, Britain outplayed its European rivals and became the premier slave trader until 1807. Major trading ports that dealt with this business were established in Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow and London. Some other smaller British ports also followed suit. The number of vessels for slave trading were built in the nation’s several shipyards and sailed through the ‘Slave Coast’ carrying goods such as guns and other ammunition, textile and metals in exchange for human beings. For certain, the trade was an extremely lucrative business. The immense degree of consumption and productivity of the people is said to be its point of departure (Inikori & Engerman, 1992). Rise of Industrial Revolution As the ports in Bristol and Liverpool became prosperous and generated more jobs, so are the residents of both cities who invested their financial resources into developing several industries. This gargantuan industrial progress began in 1750 and continued for many decades. Some who obtained adequate sums of money sourced from the production of tobacco, sugar and cotton poured in their capital into warehouses, quaysides, factories, trading houses and banking institutions. Factories sprouted in the metropolis, particularly in textile and mills. Coal mines burgeoned in the rural areas, as well (Packer, 2007). Thus, the positive economic reverberations of the time were felt everywhere. This is in harmony with John Maynard Keynes economic theory which upholds the view that the “balance between supply and demand would ensure full employment” (Keynes, 2006: xvii). “The systemic operations instituted in slave trading, accordingly, were adapted and applied during this period” (Rice & Poulter, 2007). Thus, it is safe to infer that the workings in plantation slavery were the engines which drove the creation of the Industrial Revolution in Britain that influenced other countries of the Western hemisphere and the whole world to move along. The Modernisation Theory and the Theory of Social Development which uphold that progress and evolution of societies are irrepressible bear truth on this fact. Sugar and the British Cuisine The African captives were then transported to most European colonies in the Americas where agricultural industries started to flourish. While in the US, cotton became the main produce of the southern states, the British Caribbean produced sugar and exported supplies all over the European and American markets. Slaves in Jamaica and Barbados who produced great amounts of this sweet commodity were considered the first industrial workers of the world (Walvin, 2007). The immense supply of sugar derived from the colonial territories of Britain shoved in the discovery of the ‘British sweet tooth.’ Due to this more-than-enough provision of refined sugar, the English national cuisine was transformed. Sweets, cakes, biscuits, toffee and rum became an overnight sensation and the people’s favourite even to this date. Tea, once an exotic beverage from the East, became a lasting obsession among the many upon the addition of the sweetener. The whole gamut of all the produce derived from the colonial plantations was aptly described by Walvin (1994) in his rhetorical masterpiece: “Tobacco for the pipes of Englishmen, rum to chasten the foulness of life between decks on British warships, coffee for the chic society of London's clubs, sugar to cheer the pitiful diet of the labouring class” Ebony and Ivory The legacy of slavery into the British society extends beyond economics; in fact it held a profound effect into the genetic make-up of the present population as interracial contact was hardly avoided (Martin, 1999). Lord Chief Justice Mansfield ruled in 1772 that no slave shall be transported back to Africa without their consent. This legal decision, in one way or another, did not discourage the slaves to stay in Britain and in fact incited them to search for their fortune in the land (Fryer, 1984). Shakespeare's Othello delved into a somewhat taboo subject on love between persons of different race or color. But the case during this period of British history is far more different than Shakespeare's idealisation of the subject. Because slavery viewed women slaves as a property of their masters, so the latter had the right to sexually abuse them. Sexual services were unwritten codes in the domestic relation between the master and the slave. Generally, children born out of this circumstance were also expected to work as slaves. Hence, mixed-bred offsprings resulted from this situation of the British society during the said period and lasted for generations. Enduring Racism During the mid-18th century, it was a trendy style for wealthy ladies to have a black child as servant. This child perpetually stays at the side of the owner and was often subjected to humiliation in social gatherings. Such was the degrading position of a child slave: laying the groundwork of the institution of racism. The trading of enslaved Africans, undeniably, gave rise to a racialised Atlantic world and planted the seeds of racism and racial discrimination which would endure for ages (BBC, 2005). The ugly assumptions and prejudicial notions about Africans and other people of colour still bear tremendous impact to the British society and most nations in the Atlantic world even today. In the words of Fryer (1984: 134), “race prejudice is based on the cultural and psychological, racism is economic and political.” He further launched a syllogism to explain this point: racism is to race prejudice as dogma is to superstition. This denotes that it is really hard to delineate the difference between the two, but one thing is for sure on this, that slavery is one big aspect that brought about these negative attitudes of the whites towards the blacks. Pioneering the Fight against Slavery The death of humanity haunted the English people, who long considered themselves as committed to the preservation of human rights and the restoration of liberty. Though indeed, it was an irrational move in pragmatic terms, the abolition of slavery actually commenced first in Britain. While in France a revolution was raised and in the US a civil war, in Britain it was practically grounded on morality and ethical considerations that certain individuals advocated that slavery be abolished. It has to be noted, too, that there were also British (white) slaves who were distributed to the colonies of Britain in the Americas to work in the plantations (Jordan & Walsh, 2008). This made slavery even more deplorable to the English people. The beginning of campaigns against slavery can be traced back to the early 18th century, when a group of intellectuals and industrialists, later named the ‘Lunar Society’, frequently gathered and intensively debated the subject. The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was established by William Wilberforce in 1787. In Birmingham, Joseph Sturge (1793-1859) became a leading figure in the fight versus transatlantic slavery. Since then, a great deal of antislavery societies, mostly religious-based groups and middle-class citizens, emerged and fought for the total dissolution of the institution of slavery (Quirk & Richardson, 2010). Gradual emanation of antislavery laws was since introduced. Then in 1807, the cornerstone of their revolution arrived as the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was signed into execution. Ultimately, the Emancipation Act freed the enslaved and obtained them opportunity to work for compensation (Sherwood, 2007). The next couple of years were then spent by Britain in the noble task of encouraging other nations to follow its bold step and decree a similar renunciation (Mathieson, 1967). Abolionists’ Literary Contributions Except for a poem written by James Boswell (1791), No Abolition of Slavery; or the Universal Empire of Love, literary geniuses of England helped the cause of the abolitionists through their writings. They performed a role which society expects them to do. Such action is in accordance with the views in Role Theory and Status Attainment Theory. At Sir Wilberforce’s appeal, William Cowper produced two poems that denounced slavery, The Negro’s Complaint in 1788 and Pity for Poor Africans in 1787. Early feminist and abolitionist Hanah More wrote the emphatic Slavery, A Poem (1787), while widely-respected romantics such as William Blake (The Little Black Boy, 1789), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Wretched Lot of the Slaves in the Islands of West India, 1791) also expressed their disgust over the ‘excessively inhuman’ practice of slavery (Hinks et al., 2007). In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park (1814), the issue of slavery was also tackled. A child asks his uncle who was an owner of a sugar plantation in Antigue about the subject and only receives ‘dead silence’ as answer. This was subject to critics’ varied interpretations even today (Wallace, 2006). Moreover, William Wordsworth penned a melancholic sonnet Toussaint L’ouverture and Aphra Behn (1688) released her true-to-life based novella Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave. Mary Wollstonecraft in her Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) defined the slave trade as a “overly wicked root of spiritual degradation which devoured 'upon human flesh' and consumed the 'very soul' of society” (Thomas, 2000: 85). Personal histories of African slaves such as Ottobah Cugoano, Ignatius Sancho, Phillis Wheatley, Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano were also highly publicized throughout the Atlantic region (Swaminathan, 2009). These magnum opuses of literary art are now considered living testaments of English history and are generally taught in classrooms. Contemporary Depictions and Pop Culture At present, there are numerous novels that talk about the subject of slavery in England. The list of English writers and their works includes, but is not limited, to: Barry Unsworth (Sacred Hunger, 1992), Caryl Philipps (Crossing the River,1993), Graeme Rigby (The Black Cook’s Historian, 1993), Fred D’Aguiar (The Longest Memory, 1994), Philippa Greggory (A Respectable Trade, 1995), S.I Martin (Incomparable World, 1996) and David Dabybeen (A Harlot’s Progress,1999) (Wallace, 2006: 125). A film about the heroic life of William Wilberforce in his two-decade struggle to abolish the British slave trade (Metaxas, 2007) was released in 2007 as a commemoration of the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Act. Entitled Amazing Grace, by the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, the historical depiction of slavery in 17th and 18th century England evoked different emotions from viewers (Baehr et al, 2007). The fact that these viewers were disturbed only meant that forever they will cherish that part of history in their memory. The book The Amazing Grace of Freedom: The Inspiring Faith of William Wilberforce, the Slaves' Champion was also published in the same year. Embracing Multiculturalism Social historians and cultural scholars all agree that Britain has become a melting pot of diverse cultures where varied religions, languages, traditions and political affiliations exist: a case of multiple ethnicities of people (Omi & Winant, 1986). Since the era of transatlantic slave trade, various nationalities and ethnic identities turned up in the country and interacted with the citizens. Throughout time, positive acceptance governed people’s minds that different cultural backgrounds exist in the nation, and thus stimulated the British to accept multiculturalism as a fact of life. But this is not a universal law. The struggle of these people of different cultural background cannot be denied, so as the ones who cannot accept such cultural mixture. As Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx (1848) immortalized in the Communist Manifesto, “societies’ histories are about their constant struggles.” Because these groups of people would somehow compete for the depleting resources available, Conflict Theory may also be examined to decide on this case. Amid oppositions from both the ‘originally British’ and the migrants, multiculturalism remains an indispensable aspect of the British nation. It has become a subject of much debate of all members of the society; nowadays, many think it is bad to the British society. Still, its existence cannot be denied. In an interview, however, Professor Bernard Crick affirmed that “Britishness does not mean a single culture” (John, 2004). III. Conclusion Slavery constitutes several dark chapters of historical accounts among nations and is marked as a ‘dehumanizing’ effort by humans themselves. For Britain, the period when it engaged in the triangular trade was a traumatic event in its history. However, it acknowledges that transatlantic slavery brought forth many a great impact to its society. This multifaceted impact extends horizon and transcends time. Britain pioneered the abolition of slavery. It is a fact that the present British generation should be very proud of. Yet, the evil legacy of racism, prejudice, oppression and unfair labour practices can still be felt in society even today: the work of the abolitionists, who were the predecessors of the contemporary civil rights advocates and social reformists, is not yet complete. References Baehr, T., Wales S., & Wales, K. (2007). The Amazing Grace of Freedom: The Inspiring Faith of William Wilberforce, the Slaves' Champion. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf. Behn, A. (1688). ‘Oroonoko or the Royal Slave (Mobi Classics)’, MobileReference. . March 6, 2011. Boswell, J. (1791). ‘No abolition of slavery; or the universal empire of love: a poem’, Project Gutenberg, . March 9, 2011. British Broadcasting Corporation. 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