Racism And The Slave Trade

In the beginning of the slave trade, in order to justify their trend in trading slaves, British created a supremacist belief system about the Africans. According to the British, African society was viewed as subhuman, uncultured and yet to be civilized in every way. The British trading of African slaves could not go on without this justification. The development of racism was highly associated with the beginning of slave trade because it was thought to be fair treating one race ruthlessly in light of the fact that they are just did not “look like us”. Therefore, the topic of racism or viewing a specific regional people as subhuman cannot be overlooked in any lessons of the slave trade. According to the British, black was associated with evil …show more content…
Richard Ligon, composed his book A True & Exact History of the Island of the Barbadoes on 1673, contradicting the famous perspective of the British. In this book, he made several points that demonstrates the British perspective of the Black Africans was totally mistaken. He believed “That there are as Honest, faithful, and conscionable people amongst them as amongst those of Europe”. Despite the general view of British that the black Africans are not worthy of responsibility and do not deserve to be treated fairly since they are ignorant, according to Ligon, there are Africans who are fit for taking responsibilities and contribute to the human society similarly as any British. As Ligon stated, “There be a mark set upon these people which will hardly ever be wiped off”. To elaborate, Africans were already categorized and marked as a different species in British point of view. British were unknowledgeable about the abilities of African people and underestimated the African society. There might be few individuals, such as Ligon, who would point out that Africans are just as any other humans and deserves to be viewed …show more content…
When on several occasions it was proved that Africans are talented and capable of being a far more useful than simply being a slave and work on those plantations, it went always unnoticed by the British because British knew that there aren 't any other society can be viewed and justified as subhuman, if not the Africans, and their reason to view Africans as subhuman wouldn 't be justifiable to the world as a result. It demonstrates the famous perspective of British to see a African as an ignorant and unreliable was inaccurate and an entire misconception. The stereotype in the British society raised the possibility of racially based discrimination that had a tremendous influence in the rise of sugar during the 1700s and it prompted to the idea to view the African slaves as subhuman and justify the act of brutality towards those poor African