Dehumanization and Racial Capitalism in Slavery

Walter Johnson brings up interesting points about the dehumanization of the enslaved. Can one really call it “dehumanization” if the white owners depended upon them for work and reproduction? In history classes, we have termed the treatment of the enslaved Africans as not human, although the Africans were able to learn, manipulate, and fear the uncertainty of their owners. Any and every human has such qualities. What would happen if we changed our focus and definition of dehumanization, centering the perspective from the enslaved? Through the actions of the slaves, they could establish their humanity. They sang songs while they worked, they manipulated the slave market, and they could still have their own families (though it was not easy). Thinking about slavery and its history, we can see the relationship it has with the understanding and ideas of justice as well as capitalism’s history in America.

If slavery were not something people were participating in, capitalism would not have been as successful. The slaves picked the cotton in the fields that were then exported out of America and into Great Britain. Even though the British claimed to have rid themselves of slaves, was this really the case considering they were importing goods like cotton that slaves were producing? In this case, slavery was still a major component of their country. Slaves were bound to ideas of labor and capitalism, for they could produce so much. Women especially helped reproduce capitalism, in a way, because they could give birth to many children. These children were born into the society already as slaves, which made the owners feel secure financially. The cycle could keep going where they knew that if they sold a slave child, that mother could birth more children, and the owner could keep making a profit. It was the enslaved Africans who were the capital; this was racial capitalism.

The problem with slavery’s history is the fact that we mostly read about the slave owners and their plantations and businesses. We are always learning more about their lives and not the slaves’ lives. Enslaved Africans have not been the main subject matter: we do not read many narratives from the slaves’ perspectives that describe their experiences, ideas, or questions that were going through their heads at the time. Their rights were nonexistent, so narratives of slaves are more difficult to find anyway. They were not the focus back then, it was all about the money being made and the thriving businesses. So how are we supposed to know what their point of view looked like? What would happen if we centered African slaves’ lives instead of the lives of their white owners? The enslaved were not necessarily dehumanized; it was the white people who were being immoral and using their supremacy to expand racial capitalism. There is no way for capitalism to have been established if humans, Africans especially, were not a part of the process, therefore, we should rethink the word “dehumanization” or at least understand that African slaves were humans who contributed greatly to America’s capitalism even if they were not given the choice.

WC: 517

Kendall Gasner

Johnson, Walter. “To Remake the World: Slavery, Racial Capitalism, and Justice.” Boston Review. September 06, 2017. Accessed October 08, 2017. http://bostonreview.net/race/walter-johnson-slavery-human-rights-racial-capitalism.