Joseph Weber
HST498
Barnes
Over the two-year period (1400-1600) there was a change between Africans and the European lifestyle between the two continents. The medieval slave trade on the Italian Peninsula became a center point due to accessed ports and opportunity for African Americans to use their labor skills and other helpful amenities towards Europeans. It was kidnap and later trades that stirred the desire of the English. Rodney uses a great image of the “exotic” other, which drove the African in mid 15th century. In other words, he gives great input on labor, sugar, and the domestic sense of how Africans where being used. Elbl tags on to this matter with the upper class of the African during the late 15th to early 16th century. Fracchia and Guasco was my favorite reading because of what the writers are moving towards when it comes to the Africans taking part in European traditions and life styles. The African image is changed throughout this time period and the best way to describe this period is through the eyes of the common civilian.
Europe’s image of Africans did change through the eyes of many. Not only was the Iberian Peninsula the center point for slaves but also the search for gold in the Gambia River.[1] Atlantic Europe was using the ports to have the Africans be transported to their lands which was later resolved when northern part of Europe decided to have explorers go out for themselves. Bringing slaves who can translate and men with trade good supplies. As Rodney mentioned in his article, the merchants and missionaries standpoint on the few profession interests in Africa during the mid 15th century was ignored once overseas affairs took noticed.[2] It wasn’t until the notion of taking matters into their own countries hands as religion played a huge factor between the trade in Mediterranean Europe and the Iberian Peninsula countries. The common African became such leisure to the people of Europe to the point of not acknowledging the command by Queen Elizabeth of kicking all African Americans out. Life was just plain easy and the work was getting done better than before with the Arabs.[3]
In Elbl article it is very certain that the Africans will not be pushed around very easily. She does a really good job letting the reader know about how it was a struggle for both sides. The Portuguese are perceived as invaders, therefore due to their higher in technology there was very little hope for Africans.[4] Warfare and piracy was the key to making the Africans corporate. The struggle for both the sides were in a result in lack of communication and comprehension.[5] Without communication there is going to be issues and mis-cues when visiting. Not knowing who will do what or what equipment they may bring from pass visits. Thanks to Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes who led the piece establishment further south towards Gambia there was trade involvement rather than force.[6] Trading arrangements were not so different from all of Europe because trade was a big key to gain sugar, and other helpful benefits towards the common European.
Personally, between the readings of Fracchia and Guasco there were different expectations, but share the same trademark in slaves. Looking into art is almost as close as becoming part of the moment. The image Africans display late in the 16th century is “invisibility” which falls under European society. As Guasco mentioned, destroying villages succeeded the “Villano war” military effort in the 1577-1578 period.[7] Isn’t this exactly what the English did during the early to present time as Spanish prevailed the effort? The dominant Iberian Peninsula had the right location and leadership to furthermore their expectations. Early modern Englishmen believed that slavery was in doubt a horrible fate in which Spain’s Atlantic world had been brought up to be.[8] The main aspect that needs to be asserted here is that trade brought the Iberian and Atlantic Peninsulas together. In the eyes of the civilians, there was a sense of wrong but who is there to tell them otherwise? Fracchia and Guasco use their articles to gain the sense of importance Africans play on Europeans lives.
The common man is only influenced on those around them. Africans played a key roll on their existence of life and how to bestow their destiny. Rodney had great knowledge on the slave trade and how it factored opportunities towards explorers. Elbl brought the sense of how the struggles were going to play out not only amongst the Africans but all of Europe. Lastly, Fracchia and Guasco use both the Iberian and Atlantic Peninsula together to share similarities and guidance of what each person/group was going through. This all comes to importance because the workforce and leisure the European people have received from Africans are phenomenal. If it wasn’t for this time period then who knows what the common man would be like today? These articles were great sources to read into to gain input and what it was really like through the eyes of a common civilian during that time period.
[1] Walter Rodney, Africa in Europe and the Americans: Chapter 9 (Cambridge: Cambridge University and Press, 2008), 577.
[2] Rodney 579.
[3] Rodney 582.
[4] Ivana Elbl, Cross-Cultural Trade and Diplomacy: Portuguese Relations with West Africa, 1441-1521. (Hawaii: University of Hawai’I Press, 1992), 166.
[5] Elbl 169.
[6] Elbl 170.
[7] Michael Guasco, ‘Free from the tyrannous Spanyard’? Englishmen and Africans in Spain’s Atlantic World (North Carolina: Davidson College department of history, 2008), 7.
[8] Guasco 5.
On a purely academic level this was a very well put together paper, with organized ideas and great support given to each topic you chose to include. On a personal level, I found it immensely enjoyable to read. Too often a writer in the academic fields will concentrate solely on the information they want to convey, and they will leave out any sense of personal involvement or enthusiasm for the work they are covering. This aspect of your writing, I believe, will help you in a phenomenal way once we move on to putting out research papers together. I am looking forward to finsing out what subject you have decided to cover and how you will inject that essence of personality and excitement into the angle you take toward you argument or thesis. One thing I would recommend is when we move on to later projects, and especially the final assignment, that you take a more general and scholarly approach to the discussion of the authors you have gleaned your information from. We are all familiar with the works you covered in this section, but when you move on to a more specific and individual topic you will need to present your sources in a less familiar and intimate way. First names should be included when referencing them directly in the body of your work, and a sense of academic reverence is always a plus when referring to other scholars. I would use the next 2 papers as an opportunity to practice this approach, even to the point of treating the shared works we will all be covering as if we were unaware of them at all and you were presenting them to us for the very first time. A good mix between familiarity of voice and prefessionalism of format can be a hard thing to achieve when one or the other doesnt come naturally in the flow of your writing, but I think the rewards you reap from this will be tremendous. Looking forward to seeing where you go with these next assignments we have coming up....
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ReplyDeleteOn a purely academic level this was a very well put together paper, with organized ideas and great support given to each topic you chose to include. On a personal level, I found it immensely enjoyable to read. Too often a writer in the academic fields will concentrate solely on the information they want to convey, and they will leave out any sense of personal involvement or enthusiasm for the work they are covering. This aspect of your writing, I believe, will help you in a phenomenal way once we move on to putting out research papers together. I am looking forward to finsing out what subject you have decided to cover and how you will inject that essence of personality and excitement into the angle you take toward you argument or thesis. One thing I would recommend is when we move on to later projects, and especially the final assignment, that you take a more general and scholarly approach to the discussion of the authors you have gleaned your information from. We are all familiar with the works you covered in this section, but when you move on to a more specific and individual topic you will need to present your sources in a less familiar and intimate way. First names should be included when referencing them directly in the body of your work, and a sense of academic reverence is always a plus when referring to other scholars. I would use the next 2 papers as an opportunity to practice this approach, even to the point of treating the shared works we will all be covering as if we were unaware of them at all and you were presenting them to us for the very first time. A good mix between familiarity of voice and prefessionalism of format can be a hard thing to achieve when one or the other doesnt come naturally in the flow of your writing, but I think the rewards you reap from this will be tremendous. Looking forward to seeing where you go with these next assignments we have coming up....
I felt somewhat rushed while I was reading your essay. I don’t think your transitions between each sentence were strong enough. You had excellent aspects to tell your reader about, but your sentences were, maybe, cut too crisp. I also think that you could have written more of a background to your thesis; it felt that the information you had told your reader in the first paragraph, should have waited until a different part in your essay.
ReplyDeleteYou suggested that the Portuguese were able to force Africans to trade with them on their own terms, but I think the readings suggested that Africans were not really being coerced by the Portuguese or any Europeans at this point in a significant way. Your paper could legitimately make this claim, but I think, because of the readings for this course, it would be necessary that you give some evidence if you are going to make claims that are contrary to the primary view of the presented readings.
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