Statement:
We chose documents 3.1 and 3.2 because they offer a great personal outlook of the slave trade at both the province level and the individual level. These documents tell us that this was a strict period of new reform where money was top priority even if it meant treating people like animals.
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think may have swayed the non-discriminatory enslavement of all skin colors in the 1400’s to the specific African American dark skin color enslavement in the 1600’s?
2. (Not really a question but) Notice how the underlying drive for enslaving people changed from “spreading Christianity” in the 1400’s, to making financial gains for the elite in the 1600’s.
3.1:
1. The authors argue that these laws are necessary for the “benefit and good” of the plantation and the residents within. They state that these laws are not to go against England, but to set up a guide on how to handle slaves that had not been laid down before.
2. The enslaved people from Azurara’s narrative were of all nationalities and no particular group was discriminated against by target, in this document it is clear that the “negroes” are the targeted group for discrimination and enslaved because of their dark complexion. The language used in Azurara’s narrative and this document are similar in that these enslaved groups were clearly seen as lesser people but the difference is in 1453 people felt pity for the enslaved servants and still saw them as human beings and by the 1660’s they were targeting a specific nationality of people and feeling no sorrow for treating them as property. Race formed the hierarchy of the Barbadian culture when it had little or nothing to do with hierarchy in the 1400’s.
3. The Barbados Assembly sought to enforce the new law provisions in 2 ways: