Atlantic Faiths

I believe that the Atlantic World worked towards less religious freedom. There are several examples of this goal. Sultana Afroz’s article speaks of the intolerance of the Muslim faith and also argues against a greater role for religious freedom in Atlantic World.  Islam was not on the radar for most of the Christian population in Jamaica.  Afroz’s argument that a significant proportion of African Christians were actually Muslims seems logical, and the reactions of the Christian population in the islands do show that Islam was not a tolerated religious faith in the Christian dominated portions of the 18th century Atlantic World. [1] The Port Jews mentioned in Klooster’s article experienced both acceptance and discrimination throughout their history in the Atlantic World. [2] Pre-1630, Sephardim Jews in port cities were not able to practice their faith freely. It was not until after the recognition of the Sephardim’s contributions to the Dutch colonies that they were awarded special privileges. The practices of Ferdinand and Isabela also show a significant amount of religious intolerance. The forced conversions of certain faiths allowed them to obtain permission to move to the New World. These individuals, conversos, eventually began to be persecuted as well. Also, forced baptism upon arrival in the Atlantic world also show that many were also converted by force and not a desire to practice the Christian faith. Thronton does argue that many African were exposed to some form of Christianity before leaving Africa. This experience allowed for the development of a New World religion that was a combination of African and Christian religions. Established Christian communities existed throughout European settlements in Africa. When individuals arrived in the Atlantic communities, they were told how to best blend their own traditions with those of being a good Christian. [3] While the clergy did try and stop several practices of African tradition, those same traditions can be seen as components of Voodoo today. 



[1] Sultana Afroz, "The Jihad of 1831-1832: The Misunderstood Baptist Rebellion in Jamaica,"  Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2001) 21, no 2: http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=03f99dbe-1e3a-49ca-9f8b-66d03ee1eeec%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=10 (accessed June 19, 2012).

[2] Wim Klooster, "Communities of port Jews and their contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World," Jewish History (2006) 20: http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content/?k=doi:("10.1007/s10835-005-9001-0")&MUD=MP (accessed June 19, 2012).

[3] John K. Thornton, "On the Trail of Voodoo: African Christianity in Africa and the Americas," The Americas (Jan., 1988) 44, no 3, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1006906 (accessed June 19, 2012).

Atlantic People: Harry Washington

Ira Berlin wrote that Atlantic creoles were defined by their experiences in the Atlantic world. By those experiences, Creoles became part of the three worlds of America, Europe and Africa. Harry Washington came from West Africa to Virginia and was sold to George Washington. Harry spent many years on several properties belonging to the Washington family. At one point, he was a house slave at Mount Vernon during the beginning years of the American Revolution. Harry was a witness to the talks of freedom and equal rights of men. Once the British promised freedom to any slaves who would join their side, Harry and hundreds of other slaves and indentured servants fled to the British ships to enlist. After several years of fighting, these men and women who promised their loyalty to the British were faced with the prospect of being returned to their owners. Several British men tried to get the black men and women to Europe. One man was successful in getting a group of slaves to Nova Scotia where they were promised land and other concessions. But those who made the voyage found terrible land conditions and were still being subjected to the white man's racism. Harry Washington was one of the many who made the trip to Canada. Thomas Peters took the black settlers grievances to the British government. The Sierra Leone Company offered land grants under certain conditions to new settlers arriving from Nova Scotia. Those promises would never come to fruition, much like the situation in Nova Scotia. Due to the failure to follow through on these promises, several people among the black settlers, including Harry Washington, refused to pay the quit rent which would lead to the appointment of a young and inexperienced governor. Men like Harry Washington spent the better part of twenty years fighting the injustices and treatment that began their lives as slaves. These same individuals were trained and educated in the American Revolution. They elected their own judge and justices of the peace and began to pass laws to help manage the day to day affairs of the Sierra Leone colony. These actions would be mirror images of those of the colonists that lived among these black settlers. Unfortunately, the outcome would not be the same. The men of Sierra Leone would be accused of being armed and dangerous and a threat to the Sierra Leone Company and the colony itself. Additional troops would be brought to the colony in order to suppress the discontented settlers. Several men were killed. Some were banished to other parts of the country. And others were banished across the Sierra Leone River, Harry Washington included. Washington and others who settled in that colony are considered to be part of the Sierra Leone Creole people.

Karen Racine and Beatriz G. Mamigonian (eds.), Human Tradition in the Atlantic World, 1500-1850.     http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/Open.aspx?id=292261&src=2.
    Accessed 18 June 2012.

Definitions of the Atlantic

J.H. Elliott believes that the history of the new world needs to be connected to the old. New settlements took ideas from the old and improved upon them or took them as they were. Individuals also used the "frontier conditions" to stimulate new inventions and technology in order to survive their new environment. Elliott also argued that with the acquisition of new lands required that the empire to plant settlers in those lands.
    Alison Games is a critic of thoughts on the Atlantic world. She believes that the history of the Atlantic world is one of the elite, or the very prosperous group of people. She believes that the world needs to move away from a history of national traditions, or the too nationalistic viewpoint. The history world needs to realize that the Atlantic world is only a piece of the world history pie and that historians need a more comparative methodology to study those pieces.
    Peter Coclanis interacted with other circuits around the world. Those interactions would be what would lead to the successful colonization of the new world. The African salve trade was not just profitable in the Americas but the interaction between that trade and the textile trade of Asia would lead to success for bother part of the world. Coclanis also believes that the financial circuit was not the only area of interaction. Those other exchanges would be biological, technological, scientific and philosophical-religious.
    I would agree more with the Coclanis argument. The idea that every aspect of the world interacted and was dependent on the other is much like how our world works now. Biological circuits are evident with the intermarriage of various cultures to produce new ones. The introductions of various animals and plants in Europe and vice versa is also evident. Probably the biggest area of interaction would be the philosophical-religious circuit. The establish of religious forts in the areas of Mexico and the American southwest lead to further settlement and establishment of permanent governments like the viceroyalty of New Spain that was established in Mexico.
   

Atlantic Communities

There are several reasons that Atlantic communities continued to grow during the 18th century. One of the main reasons could be the economic prosperity that many benefited from during that time. Brazil discovered several precious items in its Minas Gerais, including diamonds and gold. In order to mine those items quickly,  slave traders brought African slaves to Brazil and sold them to the mine owners. This would allow cheap labor to quickly mine and would mean a larger profit for the mine owners. In the Caribbean, sugar plantations were the main source of income for plantation owners. A large plantation in the Caribbean would have required around 150 slaves in addition to bondsmen that were brought over from Europe. Life on the plantation was harsh in general and working the plantations for sugar and other items like rum was very dangerous work. The life expectancy of a slave working the sugar plantations was about 7-8 years. This was good news for the slave traders who would constantly being slaves to the islands to be auctioned. Establishing trading posts along the Atlantic coasts of Africa and the Americas contributed for the growth in communities as well. Law and Mann pointed out that the creation of efficient commercial networks, however, fostered continuing demographic, social, and cultural exchanges that shaped not only the history of the community itself, but also that of the regions of the world connected by it (Law and Mann, 307). Many traders would marry local girls and begin having children. Those children would sometimes return to Europe for schooling but would return home to manage the family business. Those same traders would travel between their posts and the destinations of their cargo and would establish roots there as well. Slave labor and economic goods were extremely prosperous for all involved. Demand drove the supply on both ends of the spectrum. Demand for products, like sugar, in Europe increased the need for production which required more labor to meet those needs.

Atlantic Economies

By the 1300s, sugar plantations were established in the coastal areas along the Mediterranean. Due to the size of those plantations, the amount of sugar produced was small and could not meet the demand. The Spanish and Portuguese then began building on the islands off the western coast of Africa. These plantations would begin to feel the need for a labor force so the Europeans would begin using African slaves for labor. The established practice of servitude throughout the societies surrounding the Mediterranean and other cultures was a very important element in those societies. Because of the rising demand for sugar in Europe, sugar production became immensely profitable. With the increase in prices and profits, sugar production began to expand and eventually became the most profitable investment for several European states, including the Portuguese, who eventually moved their sugar plantations from Brazil to the Caribbean.
    With an increase in production, plantation owners called for a larger labor force. With the demise of the indigenous population from disease and other conditions, the lack of a labor force in the Caribbean became an area of frustration. Migrant workers from Europe often did not materialize because the rewards were not enough to overcome the amount of work and the working conditions of the plantations. Many traders began to turn to Africa to solve that problem. Europeans showed a preference for enslaved Africans. Africans were already acclimated to the hot and humid conditions of the islands and were more capable of surviving the harshness of it. Also, Africans were immune to some of the European diseases that led to the demise of the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and other areas claimed by Europeans.
    Eventually, improvements in naval and health practices allowed for overall conditions in the transatlantic slave trade. After surviving the “Middle Passage,” slaves would be facing a life of hard work and short life expectancy. The slave trade “also reflected the capacity of American sugar plantations, mineral-extraction operations and other users of slave labor to consume the lives of Africans” (Richardson, 591-592). So the improvements and overall capacity of the slave traders would continue to supply the continually growing number of slaves in order to replace those previously lost during the seas voyage or during their life on the sugar plantations. Lastly, plantation owners benefited from the use of cheap labor supplied through various sources in Africa. Cheap labor and the increasing demand for sugar meant higher profits for all of the investors  in the business of slaves and sugar. As we have come to realize, the greed of those investors continued to drive the trade of African men, women and children for several centuries.