ABSTRACT

European slave trading began in the Fifteenth Century. Whole new societies were created as a result of slavery. Throughout slavery's reign there was always tremendous resistance from the slaves, with notable rebellions in Haiti, Jamaica and Guyana. There were anti-slavery movements in Britain and North America organized by both Africans and Europeans, funded and supported by philanthropists and Evangelicals. Arriving on top of the destructiveness dealt to the individual through the system of slavery, the imposition of indenture ship effectively created great hardship for the newly-freed for another hundred years. The psychological situation of the average newly-freed slave would nevertheless have been a traumatized space. Slavery invaded the mind. The trauma left behind is of such magnitude that thinking about it is still defended against in order to maintain psychic integration. Slavery meant that for women a higher priority was given to working than to motherhood, right up until the Abolition of the Slave Trade.