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Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Williams Thesis from Capitalism and Slavery
What is Eric Williams' Thesis? Describe what it argues as the purpose or cause of Black enslavement. Name 1 or two quotes that stick out to you as either important or interesting.
Eric William’s thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America’s would face absolute ruin". His thesis argues was that the purpose of black enslavement was not to dehumanize a particular race but instead supplement the dire need for a work force. Williams somehow managed to justify the reason for black and only black enslavement. He quotes "the negro slave trade begun about 1450 as a Portuguese monopoly, had, by the end of the seventeenth century become an international free for all." thus legitimizing or giving European slave traders an alibi to enslave the black race. Making the Atlantic slave trade seem merely circumstantial and exemplary. Williams further supports his argument by saying "the purchase of the slaves on the coast of West Africa and their maintenance in the west indies gave an enormous stimulus to metropolitan industries and agriculture." In other words slaves were just the boost the economy needed. Williams believes that the Trans Atlantic slave trade was an outcome of economic demand rather than racial exploitation.
Eric William's thesis is slaves are the ones that helps build up the economy. In his text he wrote "Negroes became the "life" of the Caribbean... The 'very being' of the plantations depended on the supply of Negroes... Without Negroes...,the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and America would face absolute ruin." he is saying that the slave is important to the Caribbean. The plantations depends on how much slaves there are. If there are more slaves then they can plant more crops. Without the slaves the food to support the kingdom would not be enough to be produced. If that happens then they can't export the food to America. he also say in his text " Negro slavery and the Negro slave trade fitted beautifully into the economic theory of the age. This theory, known as mercantilism, stated that the wealth of a nation depend upon its possession of bullion, the precious metals." William is saying that the wealth of the nation depended on the slaves. If the nation have more slaves than more products can be produced and exported and the nation can earn more money.
William's thesis is the King Louis XIV quote in the first sentence of the first paragraph which says "There is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the negroes". I believe this is the theses because it sets the tone for the entire piece. This quote tells the importance of a slave and argues that the purpose of black enslavement was for labor. This quote stood out because it imediately gave me an idea of what those of high class thought of slaves. Another quote that stood out to me was on page 140 in the third paragraph which said "for as a pair of scales is an invention to show us the weight of things, whereby we may discern the heavy fron the light..so is also the balance of trade an excellent and politique invention to show us the difference of weight in the commerce of one kingdom with another". This quote stood out because it helped me to better understand how the trade somewhat determined the status of each "kingdom". In conclusion, William's thesis tells the importance of slaves during this time and argues that the purpose for black enslavement was for labor.
Eric William's thesis is "without negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced and America would face absolute ruin." From his quote he argued that Negroes were greatly needed and and they were the primary source of what was produced and America would be ruined without them. Furthermore, being as though "Negroes became the life of the Carribean" they were very much depended upon especially economically.Higher demands for slaves and produce were accumulating for econmic empowerment.Eric seemed to argue that the more the slaves that were shipped to the British West Indies the more money accumulated for work to partake in producing needs of the sugar and reproduction plantations. Negroes in paticular were "black ivory" or an essential race that would much symbolize the hard-working in slavery which was partaken on the "free-trade" claim. "The British merchants claimed that free-trade would mean the purchase of a larger number of negroes , which would mean the larger quantity of British goods" meaning it would be much benefiticial to the British economy. Eric William's arguement was more so based on economic empowerment or higher demand rather than the nationality or race of the slaves.
Eric Williams thesis is that black enslavement was to build up the Kingdom of which they were captives of. He says "Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin." This supports his thesis marvelously because if slaves were the building blocks of a civilization, if even one section of their work stopped that civilization would be in huge trouble. In the says agriculture because if agriculture which is a huge percentile of a civilization stops, people would be hungry and their trade would stop and then the economy would be dead and thus that civilization would grow weak. "There is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the Negroes". From the above mention quote,really Eric Williams thesis or sub-thesis could also be that all these civilizations needed this free manual labor. Then the question comes to mind: If you need them that bad, why treat them so horrendously?
I wasn’t sure what Eric William’s thesis was. However, I think he repeats a specific point throughout the article, saying that slavery was economically motivated. Most Western industries wanted to benefit from the free labor that slavery provided. African slaves were used to help Westerners build their markets and make money. As slavers found profitable exports (like sugar cane), they acquired more slaves to make more profit. On page 139, Eric Williams says, “In its place was a solid economic fact, that Negro slavery was essential to the preservation of the sugar plantations. The considerations were purely economic.” In this article, you can start to see how Westerners began to dehumanize African slaves. They were so driven to make money off of the Africans, that they lost all human sympathy. On page 139, Eric Williams says, “The mortality in the Middle Passage was regarded merely as an unfortunate trading loss, except for the fact that Negroes were more costly than cattle.” The slavers weren’t even moved by the fact that what they were participating in was killing other people; they were so concerned with their money. I also noted how the slaves’ prices are compared to the cattle’s here. Comparing a human being to an animal is one of the most degrading things you can do to a person. On the same page, Eric Williams also says that the Spaniards and Portuguese once asked for 10,000 “tons” of slaves. They stipulated that “three Negroes should be considered the equivalent of one ton.” You can already see the effects of slavery starting to play on the minds of not just the Africans’ but also the slavers’.
Eric Williams thesis is that slave were viewed as property. This thesis argue that all slave are property, that who ever own them, the slave, can do what ever they want since the slave had no choice but to do what ever they say. Slave have no right and what ever happen to them, like death, it won't matter the slave were nothing. The quote "We pine and fret our selves to death to think we should undergo so much misery, and take so much pains to so little purpose"(pg.140)this quote talks about how slave pain and suffer didn't matter to anyone that this is how they are suppose to feel, and they undergo so much pain for so little purpose. Also, this quote show no one care about the slaves feeling and life.
Eric William's thesis is stated in the first paragraph, "there is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the Negroes". He says that Negroes became the 'life' of the Caribbean and that the 'very being' of the plantations depended on the supply of Negroes.In the 1600's there were already slaves in various countries but when the 'sugar economy' was introduced , the number of slaves increased.The Caribbean depended a lot on the sugar cane plantations. "Without Negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced and america would face absolute ruin".
Eric William’s thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". What he means is that slaves are very important. Without slaves basically America would go down. Slaves were the roots of America. The more the slaves the more crops there were the better America was in trade and goods. He also says "negroes became the life of the carribean" meaning they were very dependent on the slaves. The americans loved having free labor. They treated these slaves as animals. Even when we read "Before Othello" it was said that slaves were like animals who just did your labor work.. Eric even compares slaves to "cattle" There was no such thing as humanity towards a slave.
I think the purpose of this article was to describe how slavery was incorporated in capitalism and the trade of other goods. Slaves were essentially being used for growing the sugar crops and then were being sold for more of those same crops that could be manufactured and sold.Capitalism is the system in which private ownership of a crops production ensues some profit for said owners.
Eric Williams thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". This means that without the slaves the civilizations that owned them would collaspe. The slaves were the backbone for profitable coountries in the Americas. Slaves did all the heavy and manual labor for practically nothing. The sugar cane industry became increasingly popular and it drove the slave trade. The westerners used slaves to help build up profit, increase the amount of goods produced and free labor. Slaves weren't considered human beings but without them the westerners wouldn't be as wealthy as they were.
William's thesis is "without Negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and America would face absolute ruin." The thesis argues that the Europeans needed the black slaves to function properly. That if they didn't have the black slaves to do the labor, America would fall apart. A quote that stuck out to me was "In Jamaica the ratio of slaves to whites was one to three in 1658, nearly six to one in 1698. There were 1,400 slaves in the former year, 40,000 in the latter." I think this is important because it is showing how much the population of black slaves steadily increased over a short period of time. Prior to this quote, William states how on the island Barbados, slaves increased from 5,680 to 82,023 after the introduction of the sugar industry. The use of slaves was becoming very popular, quickly, as was the idea that the Europeans needed slaves to function.
Eric William's thesis is slaves were not view as humans, but as property. For example, "The mortality in the Middle Passage was regarded merely as an unfortunate trading loss, expect for the fact that Negroes were more costly than cattle(Capitalism and Slavery, pg 139)." I chose this example because it shows that "Negroes" were not considered more than an animal, but as a "trading loss". For instance, "The Hannibal, in 1694, with a cargo of 700 slaves, buried 320 on the voyage, a mortality of 43 per cent...the owner of the vessel...loss amounting to £6,560(Capitalism and Slavery, pg 139)." Another example,in Capitalism and Slavery, pg 140, "...note of exasperation in the account of his voyage by the captain of Hannibal:'No gold-finders can endure so much noisome slavery as they do who carry Negroes...we endure twice the misery; and yet by their mortality out voyages are ruin'd..." I chose both of these example because not only were "Negroes" mortality was viewed as nothing and just as property loss, but Hannibal's captain felt as thought he endure the most hardship being as he lost money. In conclusion, property is how slaves are seen in Eric William's thesis other than being human.
Eric Williams thesis was "without negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and that America would face absolute ruin." This quote sticks out to me because it is in other words saying that negroes make society function, and without them America couldn't survive. This quote is also telling the purpose of black enslavement which was to make profit off of them.
Williams thesis was, "without negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease top be produced and America would face absolute rain." The author, William, states that without slaves there wouldn't be any civilization in America. What I believe he means is that slavery were property that were able to work for nothing and do a lot of things such as growing tobacco and build America's economy and increase the population of slaves especially in Virginia. So basically slavery was economically motivated and yet they were 'wothless'. Slaves were being traded by deeply religious Europeans that traded them the same way they traded sugar. All this because of the power of tobacco and the Europeans idea that Africans were property with souls or freewill. So without slavery there wouldn't have much to civilization. Same with ancient slavery becauce if there wasn't ancient slavery there wouldn't be pyramids orb the great wall of china. Why couldn't we have been more thankful toward the ones that shaped our history?
Eric William's thesis is "without slaves the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America's would face absolute ruin". William's thesis argues,that the Americas depended on free labor because without slaves the Americas wouldn't have functioned as much as they did. William also argues that the Americas demanded for a large amount of slaves merely for the purpose of work and that the purpose of black enslavement was not to dehumanize a particular race. "Negroes became the life of the carribeans.. is one of the quotes that stuck out the most to me because the quote means that slavery was accepted by many in that time period. Another quote that stuck out is that " the slave trade was an encouragement to Britain woolen industry".This stuck out to me because maybe if the slave trade din't exist Britain's woolen industry wouldn't have been so successful or encouraged.
Eric William’s thesis is that slavery is economically motivated. He states that, "Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America’s would face absolute ruin". This means that without slavery, America would not exist as it is today. I think this is interesting because just like without world wars, there wouldn't be buildings and paintings today.
“Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". (Eric William) That is Eric William thesis. This thesis is very believable. I interpreted that William thesis is explaining that there would be less production of food without Negroes. America would have probably gone through more depressions. The Americans didn’t have the skills like Negroes. Americans didn’t work as hard as the Negroes applied. The Negroes were better at treating the soils. They were naturals. Negroes were better because of their culture. “The cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the negroes". That is a proven quote to what understood and received from, “Capitals and Slavery".
20 comments:
Eric William’s thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America’s would face absolute ruin". His thesis argues was that the purpose of black enslavement was not to dehumanize a particular race but instead supplement the dire need for a work force. Williams somehow managed to justify the reason for black and only black enslavement. He quotes "the negro slave trade begun about 1450 as a Portuguese monopoly, had, by the end of the seventeenth century become an international free for all." thus legitimizing or giving European slave traders an alibi to enslave the black race. Making the Atlantic slave trade seem merely circumstantial and exemplary. Williams further supports his argument by saying "the purchase of the slaves on the coast of West Africa and their maintenance in the west indies gave an enormous stimulus to metropolitan industries and agriculture." In other words slaves were just the boost the economy needed. Williams believes that the Trans Atlantic slave trade was an outcome of economic demand rather than racial exploitation.
Eric William's thesis is slaves are the ones that helps build up the economy. In his text he wrote "Negroes became the "life" of the Caribbean... The 'very being' of the plantations depended on the supply of Negroes... Without Negroes...,the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and America would face absolute ruin." he is saying that the slave is important to the Caribbean. The plantations depends on how much slaves there are. If there are more slaves then they can plant more crops. Without the slaves the food to support the kingdom would not be enough to be produced. If that happens then they can't export the food to America. he also say in his text " Negro slavery and the Negro slave trade fitted beautifully into the economic theory of the age. This theory, known as mercantilism, stated that the wealth of a nation depend upon its possession of bullion, the precious metals." William is saying that the wealth of the nation depended on the slaves. If the nation have more slaves than more products can be produced and exported and the nation can earn more money.
William's thesis is the King Louis XIV quote in the first sentence of the first paragraph which says "There is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the negroes". I believe this is the theses because it sets the tone for the entire piece. This quote tells the importance of a slave and argues that the purpose of black enslavement was for labor. This quote stood out because it imediately gave me an idea of what those of high class thought of slaves. Another quote that stood out to me was on page 140 in the third paragraph which said "for as a pair of scales is an invention to show us the weight of things, whereby we may discern the heavy fron the light..so is also the balance of trade an excellent and politique invention to show us the difference of weight in the commerce of one kingdom with another". This quote stood out because it helped me to better understand how the trade somewhat determined the status of each "kingdom". In conclusion, William's thesis tells the importance of slaves during this time and argues that the purpose for black enslavement was for labor.
Eric William's thesis is "without negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced and America would face absolute ruin." From his quote he argued that Negroes were greatly needed and and they were the primary source of what was produced and America would be ruined without them. Furthermore, being as though "Negroes became the life of the Carribean" they were very much depended upon especially economically.Higher demands for slaves and produce were accumulating for econmic empowerment.Eric seemed to argue that the more the slaves that were shipped to the British West Indies the more money accumulated for work to partake in producing needs of the sugar and reproduction plantations. Negroes in paticular were "black ivory" or an essential race that would much symbolize the hard-working in slavery which was partaken on the "free-trade" claim. "The British merchants claimed that free-trade would mean the purchase of a larger number of negroes , which would mean the larger quantity of British goods" meaning it would be much benefiticial to the British economy. Eric William's arguement was more so based on economic empowerment or higher demand rather than the nationality or race of the slaves.
Eric Williams thesis is that black enslavement was to build up the Kingdom of which they were captives of. He says "Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin." This supports his thesis marvelously because if slaves were the building blocks of a civilization, if even one section of their work stopped that civilization would be in huge trouble. In the says agriculture because if agriculture which is a huge percentile of a civilization stops, people would be hungry and their trade would stop and then the economy would be dead and thus that civilization would grow weak.
"There is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the Negroes". From the above mention quote,really Eric Williams thesis or sub-thesis could also be that all these civilizations needed this free manual labor. Then the question comes to mind: If you need them that bad, why treat them so horrendously?
I wasn’t sure what Eric William’s thesis was. However, I think he repeats a specific point throughout the article, saying that slavery was economically motivated. Most Western industries wanted to benefit from the free labor that slavery provided. African slaves were used to help Westerners build their markets and make money. As slavers found profitable exports (like sugar cane), they acquired more slaves to make more profit. On page 139, Eric Williams says, “In its place was a solid economic fact, that Negro slavery was essential to the preservation of the sugar plantations. The considerations were purely economic.”
In this article, you can start to see how Westerners began to dehumanize African slaves. They were so driven to make money off of the Africans, that they lost all human sympathy. On page 139, Eric Williams says, “The mortality in the Middle Passage was regarded merely as an unfortunate trading loss, except for the fact that Negroes were more costly than cattle.” The slavers weren’t even moved by the fact that what they were participating in was killing other people; they were so concerned with their money. I also noted how the slaves’ prices are compared to the cattle’s here. Comparing a human being to an animal is one of the most degrading things you can do to a person. On the same page, Eric Williams also says that the Spaniards and Portuguese once asked for 10,000 “tons” of slaves. They stipulated that “three Negroes should be considered the equivalent of one ton.” You can already see the effects of slavery starting to play on the minds of not just the Africans’ but also the slavers’.
Eric Williams thesis is that slave were viewed as property. This thesis argue that all slave are property, that who ever own them, the slave, can do what ever they want since the slave had no choice but to do what ever they say. Slave have no right and what ever happen to them, like death, it won't matter the slave were nothing. The quote "We pine and fret our selves to death to think we should undergo so much misery, and take so much pains to so little purpose"(pg.140)this quote talks about how slave pain and suffer didn't matter to anyone that this is how they are suppose to feel, and they undergo so much pain for so little purpose. Also, this quote show no one care about the slaves feeling and life.
Eric William's thesis is stated in the first paragraph, "there is nothing which contributes more to the development of the colonies and the cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the Negroes". He says that Negroes became the 'life' of the Caribbean and that the 'very being' of the plantations depended on the supply of Negroes.In the 1600's there were already slaves in various countries but when the 'sugar economy' was introduced , the number of slaves increased.The Caribbean depended a lot on the sugar cane plantations. "Without Negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced and america would face absolute ruin".
Eric William’s thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". What he means is that slaves are very important. Without slaves basically America would go down. Slaves were the roots of America. The more the slaves the more crops there were the better America was in trade and goods. He also says "negroes became the life of the carribean" meaning they were very dependent on the slaves. The americans loved having free labor. They treated these slaves as animals. Even when we read "Before Othello" it was said that slaves were like animals who just did your labor work.. Eric even compares slaves to "cattle" There was no such thing as humanity towards a slave.
I think the purpose of this article was to describe how slavery was incorporated in capitalism and the trade of other goods. Slaves were essentially being used for growing the sugar crops and then were being sold for more of those same crops that could be manufactured and sold.Capitalism is the system in which private ownership of a crops production ensues some profit for said owners.
Eric Williams thesis is "without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". This means that without the slaves the civilizations that owned them would collaspe. The slaves were the backbone for profitable coountries in the Americas. Slaves did all the heavy and manual labor for practically nothing. The sugar cane industry became increasingly popular and it drove the slave trade. The westerners used slaves to help build up profit, increase the amount of goods produced and free labor. Slaves weren't considered human beings but without them the westerners wouldn't be as wealthy as they were.
William's thesis is "without Negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and America would face absolute ruin." The thesis argues that the Europeans needed the black slaves to function properly. That if they didn't have the black slaves to do the labor, America would fall apart. A quote that stuck out to me was "In Jamaica the ratio of slaves to whites was one to three in 1658, nearly six to one in 1698. There were 1,400 slaves in the former year, 40,000 in the latter." I think this is important because it is showing how much the population of black slaves steadily increased over a short period of time. Prior to this quote, William states how on the island Barbados, slaves increased from 5,680 to 82,023 after the introduction of the sugar industry. The use of slaves was becoming very popular, quickly, as was the idea that the Europeans needed slaves to function.
Eric William's thesis is slaves were not view as humans, but as property. For example, "The mortality in the Middle Passage was regarded merely as an unfortunate trading loss, expect for the fact that Negroes were more costly than cattle(Capitalism and Slavery, pg 139)." I chose this example because it shows that "Negroes" were not considered more than an animal, but as a "trading loss". For instance, "The Hannibal, in 1694, with a cargo of 700 slaves, buried 320 on the voyage, a mortality of 43 per cent...the owner of the vessel...loss amounting to £6,560(Capitalism and Slavery, pg 139)." Another example,in Capitalism and Slavery, pg 140, "...note of exasperation in the account of his voyage by the captain of Hannibal:'No gold-finders can endure so much noisome slavery as they do who carry Negroes...we endure twice the misery; and yet by their mortality out voyages are ruin'd..." I chose both of these example because not only were "Negroes" mortality was viewed as nothing and just as property loss, but Hannibal's captain felt as thought he endure the most hardship being as he lost money. In conclusion, property is how slaves are seen in Eric William's thesis other than being human.
Eric Williams thesis was "without negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and that America would face absolute ruin." This quote sticks out to me because it is in other words saying that negroes make society function, and without them America couldn't survive. This quote is also telling the purpose of black enslavement which was to make profit off of them.
Williams thesis was, "without negroes, the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease top be produced and America would face absolute rain." The author, William, states that without slaves there wouldn't be any civilization in America. What I believe he means is that slavery were property that were able to work for nothing and do a lot of things such as growing tobacco and build America's economy and increase the population of slaves especially in Virginia. So basically slavery was economically motivated and yet they were 'wothless'. Slaves were being traded by deeply religious Europeans that traded them the same way they traded sugar. All this because of the power of tobacco and the Europeans idea that Africans were property with souls or freewill. So without slavery there wouldn't have much to civilization. Same with ancient slavery becauce if there wasn't ancient slavery there wouldn't be pyramids orb the great wall of china. Why couldn't we have been more thankful toward the ones that shaped our history?
Eric William's thesis is "without slaves the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America's would face absolute ruin". William's thesis argues,that the Americas depended on free labor because without slaves the Americas wouldn't have functioned as much as they did. William also argues that the Americas demanded for a large amount of slaves merely for the purpose of work and that the purpose of black enslavement was not to dehumanize a particular race. "Negroes became the life of the carribeans.. is one of the quotes that stuck out the most to me because the quote means that slavery was accepted by many in that time period. Another quote that stuck out is that " the slave trade was an encouragement to Britain woolen industry".This stuck out to me because maybe if the slave trade din't exist Britain's woolen industry wouldn't have been so successful or encouraged.
Eric William’s thesis is that slavery is economically motivated. He states that, "Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America’s would face absolute ruin". This means that without slavery, America would not exist as it is today. I think this is interesting because just like without world wars, there wouldn't be buildings and paintings today.
“Without Negroes the food needed for the support of the whole kingdom would cease to be produced, and the America would face absolute ruin". (Eric William) That is Eric William thesis. This thesis is very believable. I interpreted that William thesis is explaining that there would be less production of food without Negroes. America would have probably gone through more depressions.
The Americans didn’t have the skills like Negroes. Americans didn’t work as hard as the Negroes applied. The Negroes were better at treating the soils. They were naturals. Negroes were better because of their culture. “The cultivation of their soil than the laborious toil of the negroes". That is a proven quote to what understood and received from, “Capitals and Slavery".
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