Relationship Between Race And Freedom

Nowadays, we don’t tend to see a link between race and freedom besides that of the idea that every race is free, but back in the 1450-1650’s, a different story could be told about that link.
Europeans at this time were rising to the belief that they were the superior race, white. Many Europeans even began to believe that many of the other existing races belonged to them and this idea evolved into things like slavery and forced labor. Why did they believe this? and, Why in the world would they do that?, are question that have been asked by many times and there are several reasons and explanations for those questions and others like it. The slave trade demands, the colonization of the Americas, and the changing attitudes and beliefs on Africans as a whole, were the most important factors in changing the beliefs on race and freedom. …show more content…
Slaves were mainly white in the Mediterranean and slavery wasn’t associated much with race. This changed after the ottoman empire captured Constantinople and blocked off all slave trade to the eastern Mediterranean. This halt in trade led the Mediterranean parts of Europe to turn toward the sub-Saharan Africa, another place known for its slave trading. Portuguese found it to be quite easy to trade with local leaders and began bringing in massive shiploads of slaves to Europe. This factor was what brought in African slaves to Europe in the first place, and having these slaves be of a different race allowed for easy distinction. Their skin being a different color made them easier to spot in a crowd of Europeans which caused an association between race and