Stephan,
This is an excellent response, and well written. I remember that we 
discussed this in one of my history classes, and it never hurts to hear it 
again.

Anita


>From: "Stephan A. Schwartz" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Islamic Slavery (was Re: Slavery and immoral stance, etc.)
>Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:54:21 -0400
>
>Let me suggest that the association of slavery with Southern American  
>history (including Virginia) stems from the unique disposition and  
>cultural affect of the American colonial and post independence  periods, 
>which made possible a coherent industrial agricultural  system built around 
>cotton and tobacco. One which required large  numbers of workers, in the 
>absence of the machinery which would  ultimately displace this approach to 
>agri-business.  That these  workers were African, as opposed to indentured 
>Irish, say, I would  propose is a product of both historical synchronicity: 
>the rise of  exploration and the place of slavery at the time, in the 
>Africa the  explorers discovered, and the evolutionary development that 
>produced  a resistance to Malaria in Africans, particularly west Africans 
>--  and which also was the source of this same population's problems with  
>sickle cell trait -- about 2 million Americans have sickle cell  trait. 
>About 1 in 12 African Americans has sickle cell trait.
>
>-- Stephan
>
>On 14 Jun 2007, at 16:29, Anita Wills wrote:
>
>>It is interesting that you now lay the association of Islam with  slavery 
>>in my lap. I did not make that association, which is why I  posed the 
>>question. We are supposed to be discussing Virginia  history in general 
>>and American history in particular. I was simply  attempting to bring the 
>>discussion back to Virginia History. BTW I  was not posing the question to 
>>anyway in particular, so please do  not take offense.
>>
>>However, thank you for at least attempting to answer the question.
>>
>>Anita
>>
>>
>>>From: David Kiracofe <[log in to unmask]>
>>>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia  history      
>>>         <[log in to unmask]>
>>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>>Subject: Re: Islamic Slavery (was Re: Slavery and immoral stance,  etc.)
>>>Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:21:55 -0400
>>>
>>>I'm a bit put off with your association of Islam, which is a cultural
>>>and religious system, with the institution of slavery as practiced in
>>>its various locales.   Yes, Islamic law validated the holding of  slaves,
>>>but so did Christianity and numerous other faiths.  But surely the
>>>association of the buying and selling of people should be with the
>>>people who did the buying and selling and not their presumed belief
>>>systems.  Neither the African Muslim seller (and not all sellers  were in
>>>fact Muslims) nor the European Christian buyers were behaviing in  ways
>>>that one would call specifically religious, rather they were  engaged in
>>>a very secular economic activity.
>>>
>>>To get to your question though (I wouldn't want to be accused of  evading
>>>it), Europeans began associating Africans with exploitable labor well
>>>before Columbus.   The Portuguese who acquired the first African  slaves
>>>(around 1440) did so from Muslim merchants in West Africa.  The
>>>degradation of people who were so different from themselves validated
>>>Europeans' sense of occupying a higher place in the hierarchy of  nature.
>>>   Europeans were quick to exploit Native workers in the Americas as
>>>well.  When desease and other problems with Native workers created
>>>shortages, the contacts with those West African merchants were  already
>>>in place and ready to fill the need.   Muslim merchants didn't create
>>>this worldview, their role was simply to make it concrete for  Europeans.
>>>
>>>To jump ahead to Virginia, we can see that the English came to the  new
>>>world with pre-existing social notions about the nature of the  universe
>>>-- in which some were of higher order than others -- and economic  ideas
>>>about the exploitation of the labor of lower orders, including both
>>>Native Americans and Africans as well as other Europeans.   If Native
>>>American people resisted coerced labor, those who were prepared to be
>>>dominant were ready to turn to other "lower" people.   In Virginia  that
>>>meant principally the lower orders of English society and so there  was
>>>the massive migration of lower class servants.
>>>
>>>One result of bringing over people from the English-speaking world  was
>>>that the society of early Virginia was very fluid: one could serve  one's
>>>time and then acquire freedom, and possibly land and status, and  so move
>>>up from the lower ranks.  As the colonial society matured, however,
>>>there was a desire to make a more fixed, less fluid, society (more  like
>>>that of England where rank was very clearly delineated) and so  there was
>>>a need to settle on a labor system where labor was unable to achieve
>>>freedom and its material and social benefits.  Therefore we see the
>>>movement toward slavery and particularly African slavery.   It wasn't
>>>all about race and yet race was so central to the practice of it  as to
>>>make the distinction all but irrelevant.
>>>
>>>I know this is a very truncated history of the beginnings of  slavery in
>>>Virginia, leaving out the perhaps anomalous experience of the first
>>>Africans brought to Jamestown, and further skipping past the
>>>developments in Virginia law pertaining to labor and race, but I will
>>>leave it there and if anyone wants to add, subtract or even just
>>>quibble, well, that's what we're all here for.
>>>
>>>David Kiracofe
>>>
>>>
>>>David Kiracofe
>>>History
>>>Tidewater Community College
>>>Chesapeake Campus
>>>1428 Cedar Road
>>>Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
>>>757-822-5136
>>> >>> Anita Wills <[log in to unmask]> 06/14/07 12:53 PM >>>
>>>My question is what did Islam have to do with Europeans enslaving
>>>Indians?
>>>No one seems to want to answer that.
>>
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