Human Resources with Carlin

Ref: Dan Carlin (2022). Blitz: Human Resources. Hardcore History.

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Summary

  • Dan Carlin’s history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

  • Between the 15th and 19th centuries, ~28M Africans are enslaved (~12.5M to the Americas, 15-16M to North Africa).

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Why African’s?

  • There was an already wide and extensive slave trade existing in Africa.

  • There was an idea that several American Indian slaves were equal to a single African slave.

  • Africans had a pre-existing knowledge of how to work horses and how to farm on a large(r) scale.

  • Africans were more resilient to American and European diseases.

Economics

  • Sugar plantations; first from Brazil and then onto the Caribbean. 

  • Tobacco. 

  • Cotton, specifically after the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793.

  • Rubber.

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Misc Quotes

  • Part of what made the Renaissance was its re-discovery of Ancient Greek and Roman ideas.

  • Several Spanish friars including de Las Casas, wrote extensively about the evils of conquest and forced slavery of the Taino and others in the early Americas. 

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Terminology

  • Chattel Slavery: The lowest form of slavery; humans are kept and worked as animals or things.

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Chronology

  • 1800: Gabriel’s (1775-1800) slave rebellion; American bondsman Gabriel, the son of an African-born slave mother, grew up as the slave of Thomas H. Prosser. Gabriel became a deeply religious man and, in the spring, and summer of 1800, laid plans for a slave insurrection aimed at creating an independent black state in VA with himself as King. He planned a three-pronged attack on Richmond, VA that would seize the arsenal, take the powder house, and kill all whites except Frenchmen, Methodists, and Quakers. Gabriel’s Army of 1000 slaves assembled outside Richmond but dispersed due to a violent rainstorm that washed out bridges and inundated roads. Before Gabriel’s forces could re-assemble, VA Governor James Monroe, informed of the plot, ordered out the state militia. Gabriel and 34 of his companions were arrested, tried, and hung (Britannica, Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1792: A petition against slavery in the UK reaches 391,000 signatures (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 21/22 Aug, 1791-1804: The Haitian revolution is fought as a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). The revolution was originally inspired by Dutty Boukman (1767-1791), who died at the outset, but ended with ex-slave Toussaint Louverture emerging as Haiti’s most prominent General and first emperor. The revolution was a defining moment in the history of the Atlantic World and profoundly impacted institution of slavery throughout the America’s (Wiki, Human Resources with Carlin).

    • Feb- 22 Apr, 1804: Massacre of the White French in Haiti; Haitian General Jean-Jacques Dessalines orders the mass killings of all remaining whites on the island of Haiti. By the end of Apr, 1804, some 3K-5K white French were killed, raped, forced into marriage, and their property plundered (Wiki).

    • 1801: French General Leclerc arrives in Haiti with 26K soldiers. Within the year, nearly all are dead or unable to fight due to yellow fever (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1787: The Quakers of Portsmouth in the UK make their anti-slavery campaign official by forming the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave trade, joining forces with prominent abolitionists such as William Wilberforce (historytoday.com).

  • Early-Mid 16c: Portugal establishes numerous (slave) trading posts along the West African coastline (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1513: Portugal passes a law limiting the number of slaves allowed on slave ships (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1494: Treaty of Tordesillas; the Pope grants Spain and Portugal new world holdings (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1492: Columbus discovers the Americas while searching for a sea-route to Asia (Human Resources with Carlin).

    • In the ensuing years, native American’s suffer a population collapse from European diseases; experts approximate 75-90% fatalities hemisphere wide (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 1453: Turkish forces capture Constantinople, securing access and control over the Black Sea. The slave trade from the Black Sea region diverts to the Middle East (Human Resources with Carlin).

  • 869-883: The Zanj rebellion; a black-slave revolt against the Abbasid caliphal empire. A number of Basran landowners had brought several thousand East African blacks (Zanj) into Southern Iraq to drain the salt marshes east of Basra. The landowners subjected the Zanj, who generally spoke no Arabic, to heavy slave labor and provided them with only minimal subsistence (Britannica, Human Resources with Carlin).

    • Spring, 881-Aug, 883: Caliphal forces led by al-Muwaffaq lay siege to al-Mukhtārah from a special city build on the opposing side of the Tigris. Reinforced by Egyptian troops, al-Muwaffaq finally crush the rebellion, conquering the city and returning to Baghdad with Alī’s head (Britannica).

    • 879-880: Caliphal forces led by al-Muwaffaq organize a major offensive against the Zanj and, in 880, take al-Manīah (the impregnable), expelling them from Khuzistan (Britannica).

    • 878: Zanj forces seize Wāsit and establish themselves in Khuzistan, Iran (Britannica).

    • Apr, 872: Zanj forces defeat the caliphal armies led by al-Muwaffaq (Britannica).

    • Sep, 871: Zanj forces capture Basra (Britannica).

    • Jun, 870: Zanj forces gain control of Southern Iraq after capturing al-Ubullah, a seaport on the Persian Gulf, which cuts communications to Basra. Then then seize Ahvāz in SW Iran (Britannica).

    • Oct, 869: Zanj forces defeat a Basran force and, soon after, build a Zanj capital, al-Mukhtārah (the chosen- Arabic) on an inaccessible dry spot in the salt flats, surrounded by canals (Britannica).

    • Sep, 869: Ali ibn Muhammad, a Persian claiming descent from Ali, the 4th caliph, and Fatimah, Muhammad’s daughter, gained the support of several slave-work crews-which could number from 500-5000 men- by pointing out the injustice of their social position and promising them freedom and wealth. Ali’s offers became even more attractive with his subsequent adoption of a Kharijite religious stance: anyone, even a black slave, could be elected caliph, and all non-Kharijites were infidels threatened by a holy war (Britannica).

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