Racism And Slave Labor In The Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

This economic study will define the greater profitability and efficiency of free laborers in contrast to slave labor to debunk the myth of racial superiority in The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Williams (1961) defines the originations of racism and slave labor as a result of practical economic conditions of new agrarian colonies established by European governments in the New World. A shortage of free laborers and indentured servants presented the economic problem of sustaining agricultural colonies, which was resolved by kidnapping slaves from around the world to do this undesirable work. This labor market trend in the 17th and 18th centuries provided the necessary slave labor needed, but the commoditization of slaves with low skill …show more content…
In novels, such Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”, the presupposition of racial superiority as the cause of slavery and colonial imperialism in Africa. The main character, Marlow, is a ship captain for an ivory trading company, which defines the myth of white civilization as the “light” brought to “dark” Africa. In Marlow’s mind, the apogee of white civilization is purportedly emanating from London as part of the myth of racial superiority originating from ancient Roman times: “I was thinking of very old times, when the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago—the other day…Light came out of this river since” (Conrad, 2010, p.7). Marlow then journeys of an African river to find a man named Kurtz; an ivory trading agent that is supposed to represent the highest level of colonial civilization. However, Marlow begins to understand through experience the practical business model of colonialism, which results in his discovery of Kurtz’s insanity and the realities of economic trade behind the myth of racial superiority: “Here then, is the origin of Negro slavery. The reason was economic, not racial” (Williams, 1961, p.19). In economic and literary terms, the validity of racism in Africa presents the more rational aspects of economic analysis as a way to decipher the originations slavery and the more productive aspects of wage labor that came with the development of capitalist system of exchange in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Conrad’s novel defines the realities of British colonialism in the economic situation of Marlow and Kurtz, which expose the barbarity of European colonialism as a so-called “light” of white western civilization. Therefore, the cause of slave labor are founded on the practical aspects of production and business opportunities for early colonial