TThe long history of slavery in the United States has been at the center of public debate during the past two presidential campaigns. During the 2016 US presidential election, the public debate on reparations for slavery resurfaced, with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leading the charge for reparations. Since then, renewed debate over Confederate monuments has erupted in violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the brutal killing of George Floyd has left the legacy of slavery alive in deadly and dangerous ways. has become clear.
Public conversations about the legacy of slavery and demands for reparations continue to gain traction. Some states, such as California, and cities, such as Boston, have established special commissions to study the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and develop reparations proposals to redress the harm caused by these atrocities. was installed. Still, several Southern states, including Florida, have introduced new bills proposing bans on teaching topics related to slavery and race.
But chattel slavery was not unique to the United States. The largest number of enslaved Africans were transported to the Caribbean and Latin America. Indeed, Kamala Harris’ candidacy is a great reminder of the need to understand the roots and consequences of human bondage throughout the Americas. She has a direct connection to this painful history, as her paternal ancestors were enslaved not in the United States but in Jamaica, a British colony in the Caribbean. Ms. Harris’ family has roots in St. Anne’s Parish on the island’s north coast, where Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the United Federation of African Communities (UNIA), was born.
The history of slavery in the United States cannot be separated from the history of human bondage in the Caribbean. To understand this painful history, we also need to look at the history of Latin America, especially Brazil, where the largest number of enslaved Africans were deported. The era of the Atlantic slave trade.
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Between 1501 and 1875, approximately 12.5 million Africans were brought to the Americas. During this period of the Atlantic slave trade, nearly 300,000 slaves were transported on slave ships from African ports to mainland North America, and more than 3.4 million were disembarked in England and France. West Indies.
Although estimates of the Atlantic slave trade are constantly changing and increasing, more than 5 million enslaved men, women, and children landed on the shores of Brazil. This represents the largest number in the Americas and more than 10 times the number of African prisoners of war transported to the United States from the African continent.
Many believe that slavery in Latin America was a benevolent institution. Some scholars and students believe that slave owners freed their slaves out of pure generosity, that enslaved people were part of the slave owner’s family, and that racism does not exist in countries like Brazil. I think he accepted the idea that he wouldn’t.
But nothing could be further from the truth. As in the British colonies of North America and the Caribbean, working and living conditions for enslaved people in Latin America were similarly violent and even more deadly. On the lucrative sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil and the Caribbean, life expectancy was much lower than in the United States. Harsh working conditions and gender imbalance undermined the “natural” growth of the slave population. Therefore, slaveholders continued to import newly enslaved Africans to work on these plantations. In urban areas, the number of enslaved women often exceeded the number of enslaved men. However, on the streets of Brazil’s cities and towns, they were constantly monitored and exposed to all kinds of violence. In the households of slave owners, enslaved women were regularly subjected to sexual violence.
Enslaved people fought this system of oppression every day. In Latin American and Caribbean cities like Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Kingston, and Havana, bondwomen worked all day selling food on the streets to buy the freedom of their loved ones. In Brazil, blacks often made up the majority of the population in cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. This concentration fueled their efforts to preserve their language, divinity, foodways, artistic practices, music, dance, and festivals. Particularly in port areas, where bonded people worked on the docks or as sailors, sometimes crossing the Atlantic, enslaved people maintained connections with newly arrived enslaved Africans, from whom news and They even obtained goods from their homeland of Africa.
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In Brazil, as in West Africa and West Central Africa, bond women were central to this process. They dominated the market. They also became central figures in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion whose temples spread throughout Bahia, Maranhão, and other states across the country.
Not only in the United States, but throughout the Americas, Africans (particularly African women) and their descendants played a central role in building the economic, social, and cultural fabric of the Western Hemisphere by fighting back against their owners. Ta. They go to the cities, plant and harvest sugar and cotton, nurse the children of slave owners, and care for their own children.
But why is this important for the 2024 election?
Anti-Black racism remains one of the most enduring legacies of slavery in the Americas, so understanding the scope of slavery in other parts of the Americas beyond the Americas will help us It helps us face more honestly this painful history of non-American violence. It is not an anomaly, but rather part of a long, shared human history in Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Viewing slavery in this broader perspective provides a deeper understanding of U.S. history. It encourages us to take a more compassionate and tolerant view of the future of the United States and our increasingly diverse population, and thereby challenges hate speech against immigrants. Many of the immigrants, like Kamala Harris, are also people of African descent with historical ties to slavery. and elsewhere in the Americas.
The history of slavery on the continent is American history, and if we want to build a better world, it needs to be included in textbooks and taught in schools.
Ana Lucía Araujo is a historian and professor at historic Black Howard University in Washington, DC, and author of Humans in Shackles: An Atlantic History of Slavery (University of Chicago Press, 2024).
Made by History guides readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by expert historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
