Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World | #TheBlackTable

Contrary to common historical narratives, Portugal's initial maritime explorations in the 15th century were not primarily aimed at finding a route to Asia. As a new, poor kingdom, Portugal was desperate for economic means to resist Spain and fixated on connecting with the immense gold wealth known to exist in West Africa, inspired by figures like Mansa Musa. This 'moonshot' led them down the West African coast.

In 1471, Portuguese explorers arrived at Elmina (modern Ghana), discovering widespread gold, which became a significant source of crown revenue for Portugal. This success sparked Spanish envy and directly influenced their decision to fund Columbus's Atlantic voyages.

Professor French insists on reframing 'plantations' as 'prison industrial labor camps' to accurately describe their brutal nature and economic function. These institutions, first developed in São Tomé and then in Brazil and the Caribbean, produced unprecedented wealth, far exceeding the gold and silver extracted by the Spanish conquistadors.

The exploitation of hundreds of thousands of Africans in places like Barbados (one-third the size of Los Angeles) generated more wealth than all the Spanish gold and silver combined. This model of labor organization—chattel slavery, militarized supervision, corporal punishment, specialization, and accountability—predated and influenced industrialization in Europe.

The immense profits from commodities like sugar, produced by enslaved African labor, were the foundation of European nations' wealth and global preeminence. This wealth not only funded empires but also fundamentally reshaped European societies and institutions.

Britain's wealth and preeminence began with sugar production in Barbados. The commercial availability of sugar and coffee in the mid-17th century led to the opening of coffee shops in England, where people discussed current affairs, leading to the birth of newspapers and fostering English democracy. This demonstrates how extracted African labor underpinned intellectual and social developments.

African resistance to enslavement was not isolated but a continuous, global phenomenon that began from the very first moments of the transatlantic slave trade and significantly impacted historical outcomes.

Early uprisings occurred in São Tomé in the early 1500s, where enslaved people from mainland Africa mutinied on ships, swam ashore, and established communities that thrived for nearly a century, almost overthrowing Portuguese rule. This resistance continued through maroons in the Americas and was decisive in events like the American Civil War, where African-American soldiers' participation was crucial for the Union victory.

Black people, through their labor and resilience, provided three fundamental 'gifts' that shaped the modern world: the creation of 'the West,' the emergence of 'modernity,' and the unique character of 'America.'

Before 1820, four times as many people were brought across the Atlantic from Africa than from Europe, performing the labor that made American colonies economically viable and the 'West' a functional entity. Modernity, with its economic and political ascendance of Europe and the Americas, arose from this foundation. The 'American genius' in speech, music, literature, and even movement is predominantly shaped by African-American input.