Comparing Forced / Coercive Labor Systems During The Early

Modern Period: (1450-1750)

AP World History
Mr. Blankenship

Slavery

Slavery as an institution had existed for thousands of

years before the early Modern Period and throughout
different regions of the world what the AP guys will
probably want to know is: 1) African slavery to the
Western Hemisphere and 2) Slavery in North Africa and
the Middle East in the Gunpowder Empires.

Russian Serfdom

Before the Mongol period in Russian

history Russian peasants had been
largely free farmers with a legal
position superior to that of the
medieval Western counterparts.

After the expulsion of the Mongols in

the 16th century Russian peasants
fell into debt and had to accept
servile status to the noble
landowners when they could not
repay.

The Russian government encouraged

the process of Serfdom it gave the
government a way to satisfy the
nobility and regulate peasants when
the government itself lacked the
bureaucratic means to extend direct
controls over the common people.

Slavery to North Africa / The Middle East and the

Swahili Coast

Estimates vary but historians debate that between 8th

century and the 19th century somewhere around 10
million people were taken as slaves and sold in ports
along the eastern coastline of Africa (Swahili Coast), or
North along the North Africa coast. They were sold to
Mediterranean, Indian, Muslim, Jewish and Persian
merchants.
Most of the slaves were female and destined to work as
either household slaves, concubines in the harems of
Islamic rulers or the males as soldiers to fight in the
Gunpowder Empire armies or as eunuchs.

In Russian serfdom: Serfs could be

bought and sold, gambled away, and
punished by their masters.

They could not marry or move away

without their masters permission.

In 1649 an Act passed by the

government fixed the hereditary
status of the serfs so that people
born to that station could not legally
escape it.

African Slavery to the Western Hemisphere

Direct acquisition of African slaves from Sub-Saharan

Africa were brought in by Portugal after the 1440s as
they explored the West African coast.

Before 1500 between 500 and 1000 slaves were brought

into Iberia and sold in port cities where they were used
as porters in the docks or as household servants many
were able to buy their freedom and filter into Portuguese
and Spanish society.

Encomienda /Mita

The Encomienda system

was used primarily for
agricultural work. Natives
in an area were placed
under the authority of an
encomendero or Spanish
boss who could extract
labor and tribute
according to the needs of
the area. This system only
lasted during the 16th
century because so many
natives died.

The Inca had made

extensive use of the mita
system a sort of labor tax
to support elites and the
elderly. Generally, an
adult make had to spend
1/7 of his time working for
the Inca a few months at
a time.

When his obligation to the

state was complete, he
would return home until
his service time came up
again.

In the 16th century (the 1500s) around million

African slaves were brought to the Western Hemisphere
mainly to work in urban settings: metal workers, dock
workers, gold and silver mines and small agricultural
settings.
In the 17th and 18th centuries (the 1600 and 1700s)
sugar would become one of the most important exports of
the Spanish empire and in these two centuries 8.5 million
African were brought to the Western Hemisphere the
vast majority went to sugar producing areas such as
Brazil and the Caribbean.
1/2 million slaves also made it to British North America
where they worked in tobacco fields in Virginia and later
in the late 1700s and into the 1800s cotton fields of the
southern U.S.

The vast majority of these slaves were chattel meaning

property and their status was passed on to their
descendants.

The way that Europeans acquired slaves was that they

tapped into existing slave markets and coastal African
peoples using the newly acquired guns from Europeans
raided the interior to provide the large amount of
slaves needed for the newly created economic systems of
the Atlantic world.

Historians debate the number of Africans that died in the

capturing process and along the Middle Passage because
of disease the numbers are around 3 to 5 million.

Once in the Western hemisphere and most likely on

sugar plantations slaves faced horrific conditions
sugar production was grueling and disease was rampant
in the Caribbean and Brazil because of water
contamination and malaria.

Most serfs were illiterate and quite

poor they paid high taxes or
obligations in kind and they owed
extensive labor service to the
landlords or the government most
often in agriculture but sometimes in
mining and manufacturing.

This system was a very unusual case

in which a people essentially
enslaved many of its own members
in contrast to most slave systems that
focused on outsiders.

The serfs in this coerced labor

system were used to produce grain
surpluses sold to Western merchants
for the growing cities of western
Europe in return manufactured
goods including the luxury
furnishings and clothing essential to
the aristocratic lifestyle were
brought it this relationship made
Russia and parts of Eastern Europe
subordinate to the West.

The Spanish adopted this

system, particular for their
silver mines in Bolivia and
surrounding areas.

Other projects were:

Church building, building
roads, new Spanish cities
or in agricultural projects.

Native Americans were

paid for their work but
the pay was very low and
there were abuses of the
system by the local
officials.

One of the problems was

that so many natives died,
that the Spanish kept
having to increase the time
spent in the mines that it
became impractical.

In order to avoid this

labor system many
Natives left their villages
they went to work for
Spanish landowners or
sought employment in
cities.