Defining Characteristic 3:

Slavery was motivated by money and business. However, the practice was justified using science and religion.

Introduction

From the first two characteristics of slavery, we learned how the European empires and independent American states enslaved millions of people of African descent. The system said that Europeans were at the top of the racial hierarchy and enslaved people were at the bottom of the hierarchy. This meant they had a lower social status because of their race. Enslaved people were considered property.

The third defining characteristic of the systems of slavery used in the Americas shows a contradiction. Countries such as Britain, Brazil, and the United States were proud supporters of freedom and liberty. However, they all used and profited from slavery. How could they justify keeping people enslaved if they supposedly supported freedom? What really made them willing to enslave other human beings?

Today’s world supports access to equal rights. It might be difficult to understand a time when laws were intended to create social inequality. To understand slavery, we have to understand the difference between motivations and justifications. The motivations for slavery are the reasons why people wanted to use slavery in the first place. The justifications are the beliefs that were used to legalize and maintain this horrible and unfair form of labor.

What were the motivations for using enslaved labor?

The use of enslaved labor in the Americas was about money. Its sole purpose was to generate wealth for European members of society. In order to generate this wealth, the people of African descent at the bottom of the racial hierarchy lost their freedom. In this period, wealth was created by selling goods for a profit. For example, if it costs $10 to make a product and you sell the product for $30, you make a profit of $20.

Labor was one major cost of making a product. Slavery helped Europeans spend less on labor. They did not have to pay their workers and they could force the enslaved to work as many hours as possible. As a result, European business owners made a bigger profit. The enslaved were forced to work in various settings, including cotton plantations, mines, and homes throughout the Americas.

Regardless of the kind of labor, the enslaved were not the “employees” of the people for whom they worked. Rather, the law considered these people the “owners” of the enslaved, and the enslaved were their “property.” Unlike an employee, the enslaved could not ask for fair pay or seek other work opportunities. Only those who owned enslaved people could determine their work conditions.

Slavery ended in the Americas in the nineteenth century, but today we can still see evidence of all the personal wealth it generated. Most of the profits made from the use of enslaved labor in the Caribbean, for example, were sent back to countries in Europe. These funds were sometimes used to start other businesses. Other times the funds were spent on maintaining luxurious lifestyles.

Below, the top photo shows the luxurious Harewood House in Leeds, England. Today, it is still celebrated as one of the “Treasure Houses of England.” It was built in the mid-eighteenth century by members of the very wealthy Lascelles family. The Lascelles made their money using enslaved labor on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Compare this image to the artist William Clark’s 1823 painting below. This shows enslaved men, women, and children at work on a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Consider how these images show two extremes of wealth and poverty, yet they represented the same system of slavery.

What were the justifications for using enslaved labor?

The motivations for using enslaved labor were clearly about making money. But the justifications for an enslaved labor system based on race were often explained in very different terms. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, religion was used to justify enslavement. Some supporters of slavery argued that slavery existed in the Bible. Other said it was God’s plan that Africans be enslaved.

In the eighteenth century, people began using science to explain ideas about race. However, it’s clear that these scientific arguments were built on racist ideas. People argued that science proved people of African descent lacked intelligence. Some doctors even argued that freedom was damaging to the mental health of the enslaved. None of these claims had any evidence, and scientific research has proven them wrong.

Conclusions

Slavery is illegal in these societies today. Later in this course, we will explore how it became illegal.¹ It is important to remember, however, that we still deal with the consequences of slavery in the present day. What are some ways in which the effects of slavery continue today? How do the justifications for slavery continue on in racist ideas and language?

In the present day, it is important to understand and reflect on the historical relationship between racism and economic opportunities. Today, there are often racial differences between rich and poor communities. In what ways are the economic situations of rich or poor communities a consequence of slavery? A deeper and more correct understanding of this troubling past allows for a better understanding of the present. It can help us develop solutions to the social problems and challenges we face today.

1 In fact, slavery is illegal in all nations today. However, it is still present, illegally, in many forms and in many places.