ABSTRACT
A CLOSE EXAMINATION OF the notion of slave trade reveals several layers of complexity in its relationship to the ideas of transfer, violence, and slavery. In its etymological sense, the French word for slave trade, traite, refers to “extraction,” while the economic meaning of the term is “commerce.” Both meanings, however, refer to the same idea: transfer. In turn, the idea of transfer refers to three modes, two of them simple: the market; and violence as a physical force (vis in Latin) applied to extract or pull something from one point to another. The third is a complex mode: market violence, entailing material and/or symbolic violence, commerce through a form of violence. This latter mode can precede, accompany, or follow the market operation, or all three. To various degrees, this last dialectic is basic to every form of ancient and modern trade of human beings and especially to the trade of women.
