Unit 1: Africa and America

Chapter 2

Secondary Sources and Critical Reading:

Historians, the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Development of Africa

European empires in America depended to a considerable extent on the institution of slavery. African slaves provided the labour to support the great enterprises of the colonies, including the production of sugar in Brazil and the Caribbean, and rice and indigo in South Carolina.  While many historians often focus on slavery in the Americas, others have begun to ask, what did the slave trade mean for the development of Africa? In this chapter, we will examine the work of two historians who have considered the impact of the trade. As you will see, the second of these historians, John Thornton, responds to the provocative and influential arguments put forward by the first author, Walter Rodney.

Last week, we worked with the primary sources, the raw materials of historians. This week, we will work with secondary sources.  A secondary source is a document, often in the form of an article or book, in which a scholar has a investigated primary evidence and other secondary accounts to produce a description and analysis of an event or period. Usually, the scholar was neither a participant in nor a witness to the event or period, or at least the scholar attempts to write from the standpoint of someone not directly involved in the event or period. Sometimes the document is not based on a direct examination of the primary evidence, but is an attempt to summarize and make sense of the arguments of scholars who have worked worked with the primary evidence.

In these secondary sources, we see how historians use their raw materials to construct arguments. This means working on slightly different critical reading skills. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge once wrote"Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding." In other words, before we can even begin to evaluate a historical argument, we must first understand it.

You need to read actively, and not just let the information wash over you. Highlighting or underlining parts of the reading does not necessarily mean you are reading actively. You can easily become overwhelmed by information; you must find ways to take control of the material.

We retain new information better when we can put the pieces of new information into a bigger picture.

• What is your purpose in reading? You have already been told. You want to see what arguments historians make about the impact of the slave trade on the development of Africa. You should be watching for these particular arguments.
• What is the purpose of the historian? Focus on one article at a time. Try to quickly get a sense of each historian's overall argument. Unlike a mystery novel, you want to spoil the ending. Look at the title, the first few and last few paragraphs. Are there clues in there as to the overall argument the historian wants to present? Sometimes the historian will even help by telling you how the argument that is being made relates to the arguments made by other scholars. If you have a general sense of the argument of each historian before you begin to read the article more closely, you will be better positioned to understand the more detailed discussions inside.
• Why is the historian talking about this? Once you have a sense of the overall purpose, use it to help understand the rest of the article. You have an idea of the overall argument; now you want to explore the arguments that the historian brings to bear in support of the overall argument. What are the main subjects the historian chooses to talk about? How do these subjects relate to the overall argument? If you are having trouble identifying the supporting arguments, try to identify the topic sentences in each of the paragraphs. Always ask yourself, why is the historian talking about this particular subject?

How do I read a historian critically?

• You already are. You are conscious that you are reading a particular argument which is supported by particular secondary arguments, which are in themselves supported by particular specific examples.
• Now just maintain a skeptical attitude towards all of the arguments you read. Are the arguments clear? Do they make sense and are they consistent with one another? Do the examples used illustrate and support the arguments? Could the same examples support quite different arguments? Are there unstated assumptions about, for example, how the world works, how humans behave in particular situations, or how particular groups of people behave in a particular situation, and, if so, are those assumptions reasonable and justifiable?
• By reading other historians and scholars. This chapter is designed to show you that historians can disagree about pretty important issues. By seeing how different historians handle and interpret material, we can become more critical of their arguments, and identify the key questions. Imagine how differently you would answer the question about the impact of the slave trade on Africa if you had read only Rodney, or only Thornton.

We also retain new information better if we do something with it. Here is something to do while doing this week's readings. Before reading the two secondary sources, read the article from Africa Recovery about the debate over compensation and the slave trade.  Use these two secondary sources to prepare yourself to discuss the compensation issue. To help you prepare, follow this guide:

• What is Rodney's main argument? Try to write it, in your own words, in a sentence.
• Identify and list the general arguments Rodney presents to support his overall argument.
• Identify and list one of the specific examples he gives to support each of the general arguments.
• What is Thornton's main argument? Try to write it, in your own words, in a sentence.
• Identify and list the general arguments that Thornton develops to support his overall argument.
• Identify and list one of the specific examples he gives to support each of the general arguments.
• Identify and list the main points of agreement and disagreement between Rodney and Thornton. What are the main issues over which they disagree? What further questions could we ask?
• Finally, identify the ways that the arguments made by Rodney and Thornton could be used to build the case for or against compensation. What implications do they have for the compensation issue?

Documents

1. Jullyette Ukabiala, "Slave trade 'a crime against humanity' Historic declaration at anti-racism conference, but Africans urge more", Africa Recovery, Vol.15 #3, October 2001, page 5, http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol15no3/153racis.htm (5 June 2002).

2. Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Washington: Howard University Press, 1974), 95-113.

3. John Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 43-71.