Asar's Agony
The Agony of Asar: A Thesis on Slavery by the Former Slave, by Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein, is the first dissertation written by a former African slave. It is a unique thesis about slavery, due to the fact, that it is a pro-slavery document authored by a former slave at the height of the Atlantic slave trade. This brings about a significant question concerning Capitein’s thesis, which is, can we make sense of Capitein’s defense of slavery and slave trading by considering it in historical context? I believe we can make sense of Capitein’s defense of slavery and slave trade through exploring different elements within the context of that time-period. Parker notes in his introduction, “In order to understand Capitein, we need to understand what slavery meant in the world that he inhabited”. To understand the world he was within, we must understand how he came to that world in the first place. Asar, later named Capitein, was bought by a Dutch ship-captain named Arnold Steenhart and was sent from his homeland in Ghana to Holland in 1728. The Atlantic slave trade was at its peak at this point. There were chains of slave trading posts set up along the West African coast where slaves were brought to be sold. These slaves would come from several regions of Africa, even parts of the interior. Davidson adds to this by stating, “From one century to the next, the bulk of the slaves were evidently drawn from a belt of territory that reached inland from the coast…” All these slaves were needed at a time when the West was becoming extremely powerful and productive yet it resulted in little yield. Basil explains this by stating, “…produced little commercial wealth of any kind.” The problem arose when the amount of work far outweighed the amount of workers. This is when Africa became a new source of labor. This also gave rise to another problem in Europeon and African relations. Basil discusses one aspect of this problem which is economic, “Africa and Europe faced each other in a new relationship; one of rivalry, now, for sovereignty along the [African] coast itself.” This end of slavery in Europe was in place when Capitein arrived in Holland but sadly it was not the end of slavery all together as Basil notes, “Not for seventy or eighty years after the British act of abolishment would the last slavers creep from the West African harbours…”.