Compare and Contrast Essay: African Kings and Black Slaves vs. Atlantic Africa and The Spanish Carribbean

The Transatlantic Slave Trade began in the 15th century. The Spanish took the first African captives to the Americas from Europe as early as 1503, and by 1518 the first captives were shipped directly from Africa to America. The story of slavery is told in many forms still to this day. However, authors such as Herman L. Bennett and David Wheat take a deeper dive into the history of slavery and its change over time. I’ll be taking a look at Herman Bennett’s book, African Kings and Black Slaves as well as David Wheat’s, Atlantic Africa and The Spanish Carribbean to draw conclusions from each body of work, in addition to the similarities and differences between one another.

Starting with Herman L. Bennett’s African Kings and Black Slaves, this monologue focuses on an overlooked aspect in the history of slavery in the Early Modern Atlantic. Bennett makes a series of important claims pertaining to the study of Africa and African-European relations in the 15th century. Bennett believes that the more recent and discussed periods of slavery seem to neglect the time in which African soverignty was present as were it’s implications on the slave trade. In the beginning, Bennett refers back to early 15th century, the encounter of Portugal with the peoples of Guinea. The story of Dom Henrique, popularly known as Henry the Navigator, returning from one of his trips down the Atlantic coastline he had brought back a small number of captives. There was a part in the chronicle that disturbed me quite a bit, “Zurara was quick to add that the prince was not unduly focused on the wealth accruing from a future trade in slaves. “Thy joy,” observed the chronicler, “was solely from that one holy purpose of thine to seek salvation for the lost souls of the heathen.” Enslavement afforded the captives salvation and “true freedom.””. (Bennett) I was disturbed to find out through the story of Dom Henrique, the sheer lack of respect and commodification he had for these to be enslaved people. His idea of  “rewarding” these captives with “true freedom” was converting them to catholicism and turning them into slaves. Bennett uses papal bulls, the writings of travelers like Ca’ da Mosto, to investigate the role of slavery in relation to the constitution of the soverign. Bennett uses these papal bulls to show that the land of Guinea was not being taken over by the Portuguese, instead the pope acted as a broker between Europeans and local lords. Europeans would acknowledge the power of these lords through their ability to sell captives. Adelantos (entrepenuers) were allowed to purchase or trade these captives to take back to their homes. Mainly throughout this monologue Bennett is trying to articulate that African American people had sovereignty over their respective lands in the 15th century and that there is politics in history.

Moving to David Wheat’s Atlantic Africa and The Spanish Carribbean, Wheat focuses his energy on slavery and the geography of empire in the late 16th and early 17th century in the Caribbean. One of Wheat’s major points he talks about early on is Upper Guinean and Angolan forced migrants “performed the basic functions of colonization” and constituted “the backbone of the Spanish Caribbean’s labor force”. (Wheat, Pg. 4) I believe that David Wheat’s argument here is that African people from the likes of Guinea and Angola, deserved to be credited for their contribution and influence towards the expansion and development of the Spanish Caribbean world. Wheat explains that in 17th century, in the port cities of the Spanish Caribbean, West Africans have begun to outnumber those of the Spanish settlers. Wheat makes it clear that the Spanish knew what they were doing in collecting more slaves, but they did it anyway, “Despite occasionally voicing discomfort that black slaves outnumbered  Iberian residents, colonial Spanish Caribbean authorities’ general reports to the crown and the Council of the Indies frequently mentioned the need for additional slaves, repeatedly identifying them as the only available labor force.”. This anecdote from the first chapter highlights that the Spanish Caribbean wanted to exploit as many Africans as possible, and speaks volumes about the way enslaved people were treated like commodities instead of actual human beings. Crossing over from that point, Wheat also maintained that Upper Guinean captives were essential in forming the distinctive African culture residing in the Cape Verde islands. Something I took away from this monologue is the amount of intertwining between cultures, in respect to the Spanish Caribbean and the people of Guinea. I was also taken aback when I read about the rise of women of color who became powerful merchants and were sought after to handle complicated trade arrangements. I found it interesting that some women had a prominent role in the decision making within the Caribbean. Although it was from marrying Iberian men and becoming landowners, nonetheless they contributed to the colonization of the Caribbean. I believe that David Wheat’s analysis of the Caribbean relied heavily on the combination of Spanish people working with African peoples in order to achieve colonialization.

I believe that there are some similarities between Herman L. Bennett’s, African Kings and Black Slaves and David Wheat’s, Atlantic Africa and The Spanish Caribbean. There is a underlying theme from both texts that illustrates the sovereignty of African American people in the early centuries of the Transatlantic slave trade. Also I picked up on both authors being tremendously concise on the effect that African American culture had on it’s peers and surrounding areas.