Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-31-2012, 12:26 AM
 
57 posts, read 306,549 times
Reputation: 58

Advertisements

Did the Germans ever own African slaves?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-31-2012, 08:11 AM
 
Location: Sierra Vista, AZ
17,531 posts, read 24,591,218 times
Reputation: 9975
I don't know about formal slavery but I am sure conditions in some of the african colonies, like working in the diamond mines of German Southwest Africa (Namibia) were pretty close
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-31-2012, 10:26 AM
 
14,780 posts, read 43,465,675 times
Reputation: 14621
This is a letter from Frank Weston, the English Bishop and missionary to German East Africa that describes the general state of affairs in the German colony in 1918. In particular he is pleading that the British not give up their promise to fully annex the German colonies as an outcome of WW1.

The Black Slaves of Prussia, by Frank Weston (1918)

Essentially, no, the Germans did not practice formal slavery, in that the Germans themselves did not own slaves. They also forbade the taking/creation of any new slaves under their rule, but did allow existing slaves (owned by the Africans) to continue to exist as slaves and considred their children slaves as well as was the East African custom. What they did insist on was a system wherein a slave could buy their freedom for a set price. In practice, this basically led to a system of virtual slavery that even the Germans participated in.

If you were a German planter or officer, etc. and desired a laborer or woman, you would go to the local tribal chief and purchase some of his slaves. You would hold onto their certificate of freedom and force them to work or accompany you until they were no longer useful and then they were given their certificate and allowed to go on their way.

So, the German government officially did not support slavery (they even issued decrees stating it), but they turned a blind eye to the practice of virtual slavery that was common. You basically ended up with a tiered system:

Germans
African Leaders and Africans who worked with Germans.
Regular Africans
Freed Slaves paying off debt in a form of unofficial indentured servitude that were owned by Germans.
Slaves owned by African leaders that were often sold to the Germans or rented out as labor.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-31-2012, 10:41 AM
 
Location: North Carolina
10,194 posts, read 17,729,493 times
Reputation: 13903
The Anabaptist Swiss/Germans such as the Mennonites and Amish did not practise slavery, it went against their beliefs. They and the Quakers are the reason PA had such a long history of being anti-slavery.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-02-2012, 05:34 AM
 
5 posts, read 58,772 times
Reputation: 18
All powerful Europeans during many centuries had black slaves at their service. It was a suntuary sign and those blacks were above European commoners.

In Catalonia, I know that a minor aristocrat owned a black that he used to scare his subjects and make them pay taxes during the XIVth Century.

In Catalonia, and elsewhere in Western Europe during the XIVth and XVth, the most popular slaves were Russian girls bought at the age of puberty to Ottoman traders.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-02-2012, 04:53 PM
 
2,234 posts, read 5,462,390 times
Reputation: 2081
allAfrica.com: Namibia: Germany's Lindner Apologises
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-05-2012, 01:57 AM
 
Location: Berwick, Penna.
16,214 posts, read 11,239,042 times
Reputation: 20827
Both sides in the Civil War had pockets of resistance and/or pacifism where suppport for the war effort was limited or niil.

In the north, one was in rural Pennsylvania, spawning ground of General George McClellan. Many of the early settlers (C. 1840) were German immgrants who'd suffered heavily during the Napoleanic Wars. If you're intersted, google the term "Fishing Creek Confederacy".

And in paralell, many areas in West-Central North Carolina also were settled by German Calvinists who were uncomfortable with slavery. One of the most prominent was known as "Wachovia" and later gave its name to what was (for a long time, but no longer) a very successful bank.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-05-2012, 02:38 PM
 
Location: Cali
3,951 posts, read 7,160,792 times
Reputation: 2293
Germans immigrants and German Americans were pretty much anti-slavery from what I've read in books.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-06-2012, 09:23 AM
 
Location: "Daytonnati"
4,244 posts, read 7,135,159 times
Reputation: 3014
There might have been slaveholding in the South by some of the German immigrants who were not necessarily religously opposed. Good question, btw.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-07-2012, 02:50 AM
 
Location: Peterborough, England
472 posts, read 921,806 times
Reputation: 416
Iirc the Great Elector acquired some trading posts in West Africa in the 17C. There were almost certainly slaves there.

His grandson King Frederick William I sold the posts to England.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > History
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top