Roles of Women in Transatlantic Slave Trade
Introduction
Transatlantic slave trade entailed transportation of the enslaved Africans in millions from North and West Africa to America through the Atlantic Ocean for sale between the 16th and 19th Centuries. The trade involved Africa, where slaves were the primary commodity, America with coffee and sugar and Europe exporting textiles, wine, and arms. The trade also referred to as “The Triangular Trade,” since it covered three voyages that are from Europe to Africa, then Africa to America, and lastly, America to Europe. The European economies were dependent on the use of slave labor for the production of sugarcane and other valuable commodities (Behrendt, Eltis, Florentino & Richardson, 2014). One of the significant implications of the slave trade was the change in social norms. This study, in details, explores the roles of women during the transatlantic trade. The paper examines in depth the implication of the trade, especially to women during the transatlantic trade was one of the significant slave trades between the 16th and 19th Centuries.
Transatlantic Trade and Role of Women versus Men Roles in the Slave Trade
The slave trade was essential to the European nations since they were competing with one another in creating an overseas empire. The slave traders considered slaves as cargo to be shipped to the Americas as fast and as cheap as possible. The Africans were transported to America to work on rice fields, cocoa, tobacco, coffee, sugar farms, gold and silver mines, construction industries, and also as domestic servants. By 17th century slavery had become widely accepted such that the African slaves and their offspring, considered as the legal property of the owners. The Africans were regarded as commodities of sources of work and traded at the markets like other household items. Some of the most significant transatlantic slave-trading countries were the British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian and the Danish. The number of African slaves shipped across the Atlantic in over 400 years was estimated to be between 12 and 15 million). It is estimated that more than a third of the total number of slaves were women. Women in the slave trade carried a triple challenge. They were discriminated against, exploited, and discriminated based on their skin color and gender. This led to massive suffering to the women compared to their male counterparts. Men were considered reliable and competent and thus classified in the first gang group where their primary duties were supervisory and disciplinary workforce, and the rest of the activities carried out by women (Allman, 2009).
The number of slaves bought by the traders was more than this because the voyage had a high death rate. The number of fatalities during transportation was estimated to be between 1.2 to 2.4million people, and after shipment to the new world, some of them died from diseases, war, and hunger (Marques, 2016). In the Transatlantic trade, the role the women played had more impact than that of the men. If it were not for the women, the European nations would not be as developed, and the African families would have suffered immensely (Bravo, 2011). Out of the 15million slaves deported from Africa, a third of them were women; these enslaved women experienced triple burden compared to the men; this is because they performed more challenging tasks while facing exploitation and discrimination. Women were more economically productive than men since they carried out the most significant portion of the assigned jobs and also took care of their families at the same time. One of the major economic activities that boosted economic growth in Europe in this period was agriculture (Rawley & Behrendt, 2005).
By the mid of 17th-Century, agriculture farming was the main economic activity contributing to more than half of Europe’s Gross Domestic Product. The output meant that agriculture was given a high priority in terms of the number of African slaves who were brought to work in these farms. Farming was done by both enslaved men and women of African descent. In the West Indies, farmers were classified and assigned duties according to their ability, i.e., the first, second, and trash gang groups (Tibbles, 2005). A strong woman was considered a three-quarter hand while a pregnant or an older man was referred to as half hand. The first or the great gang was mainly comprised of the skilled people among the slaves, the second gang was composed of those with less skill but could perform handy jobs, and the trash gang was made up of children and the older people (Tibbles, 2005). Men were assumed to be the most competent between the genders; thus, classified in the first gang group where their primary duties were supervisory and disciplinary workforce. On the other hand, women were thought to be less skilled; thus, they were classified in the second gang, and their main task was the handy work of planting and harvesting. Historian differs in their arguments as to why women were grouped in the pool of semi-skilled labor even after years of service. Jacqueline Jones argues that the owners of the slaves excluded women from the competent group for pragmatic reasons. The extensive training required to become skilled was impractical to the women because nursing and childbearing would fault their capacity to provide uninterrupted services. Women were required to show stamina and strength while working in the fields or less they would have been disciplined and lowered to the trash gang. The women did the real manual labor in farming; thus, they were the most productive gender of the two, and their activities were the leading cause of the high productivity in the farms. Hence, they were the primary influence of economic development in European countries (Teso, 2019).
Economic Effects of Women Participation in the Slave Trade
Slave trade led to changes in social-economic settings in the community. The responsibilities of men who were enslaved were not changed, and women had to be the breadwinner of their families. Women also had the role of taking care of the children in the absence of their fathers. Slave owners did not respect the sanctity of marriages; they stole the women from African men as a tool to assert power over sons, fathers, husbands, and brothers (Osborn, 2011). The constant demoralization led to couples and family breakups, leaving the children with the women. In large plantations, wives and husbands did not live in the same house and, on many occasions, not even in the same neighborhood due to slave sales and the relocation of masters. Hence despite the men’s brave efforts of trying to visit and supporting their families, women were compelled to raise the children on their own due to perpetual threats of sale or that of their children (Vollendorf, 2009). The separation of families meant that the portion of money intended to support the family was no longer available; thus, the mother had to look for other means to feed the rest of the family. Women had to work twice as hard to make ends meet since they became the new and only breadwinners of the families. Additionally, women had to do basic chores at home; even after a long day at the plantations, they had to cook, clean, and bath the children. Most children in this era of slavery grew up without a father, and their mothers had to work for long hours in hostile environments to provide for their families (Fuentes, 2018).
The enslaved women also had the role of bearing children to their masters, which multiplied the labor force. While in Africa, childbirth was a social rite of passage of every woman that gained them more respect in society. Children were very crucial in the status of every female since those who could not bear children were humiliated and considered outcasts. While in slavery, the tone changed as women were deemed to be important mostly because they could have children for their masters, it was an economic advantage as this meant an increased labor force (Ambler & Achebe, 2018). The average age of women to bear children in this era was 19 years. The masters ensured a cycle that would get the women pregnant after every two years to increase human labor. The mothers were also glad to get pregnant again for their masters because it came with benefits such as more food, fewer working hours, less strain, and long periods of rest. Donovan, a historian, stated that women occasionally used sex as a way of attaining better living conditions by exploiting their masters (Vollendorf, 2009). Fertile women were important to the owners, and therefore the probability to be sold and take them away from their families and friends was very minimal. In large plantations, the mothers had to return to the fields after giving birth and let other people raise their children, but in smaller farms, the mothers had to do regular farming duties while still taking care of the child. When the children were old enough to receive instructions, they joined their mothers in the plantations and became part of the trash gang group. The women were economically important to their masters and the economy of Europe due to increased human labor without the extra cost of buying them from slave traders. Children were also crucial in the development of Europe because their young ages meant they could offer their services for many numbers of years before they became unproductive due to aging and other diseases. Thus, the mothers’ role of childbearing was essential to both the mothers and the European slave owners (Heuman & Burnard, 2010).
The enslaved women also played the role of a concubine and a domestic servant to the European masters. The women were obligated to cook for the master’s family when needed, to wash their clothes, to take care of their children, and also assist the woman of the house in providing sexual satisfaction to their husbands. The masters chose the most fertile African women to act as their concubines to satisfy their sexual needs and to acquire cheap labor in the form of children (Christopher, 2018). The role was essential because it enabled the enslaved women to get closer to their masters, which bought them sympathy from hard labor at the farms. The bond led to the exploitation of the masters, which eventually enabled them to acquire their freedom; this was an efficient strategy that the male gender could not use. The gendered treatment worked in favor of these women, especially when they gave birth to the master’s bastard sons; this is because they were able to bargain for a better life both for themselves and their children (Ambler & Achebe, 2018).
Conclusion
The role of the women across the three continents during the trade varied. In Africa, women were more enslaved than men as social, economic roles change. Women were exposed to rape and social injustices as they played double roles to meet their family’s needs. Women, just like men, were highly exposed during the transatlantic slave trade. The activities that the women carried out had more economic impact and value to the European and African societies compared to that of the male gender. Women were primary workers in the fields, contributing a substantial portion of the Gross domestic product in Europe. They were equally exposed to hard labor and exploitation compared to men.
The ability to bear children also contributed towards Europe’s capital because it meant less expenditure on buying slaves. Additionally, they were also tasked with the significant burden of maintaining their families, looking after the interest of their masters, and also working in the plantations. Men’s obligations were less because they had separated from their families; thus, their responsibilities were working in the farms and other areas that required their skills. Therefore, the men only worked to feed their mouths and were still given the most comfortable duties in the plantations. If it were not for the enslaved African women, Europe and America would not have attained their current level of economic development.
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