Final answer:
The origins of race-based black African slavery in the New World originated with European colonization and the demand for labor-intensive crops, leading to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Step-by-step explanation:
The inception of race-based black African slavery in the New World can be traced back to the growing need for labor-intensive crops such as sugar and coffee in European colonies. As the demand for labor increased, Europeans turned to African laborers, initiating what became the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. By 1500, a significant population of Black enslaved people was present in European cities like Lisbon and Seville, hinting at an established trade in African slaves. The influence of the Catholic Church, which discouraged the enslavement of Christians, led European slavers to expand their operations in Africa. This system of slavery was marked by racial dehumanization and institutionalized through generations, differing fundamentally from previous forms of labor. It contributed significantly to the capitalist expansion of the modern Western world.
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade was marked by brutality and commodification of human beings, with the Middle Passage epitomizing the horrors slaves faced. Africans were kidnapped, processed as cargo, and suffered high mortality rates even before reaching the New World. Slavery in the New World differed fundamentally from other forms of labor as it institutionalized a racially based system that dehumanized and viewed Africans as property, leading to generations of slaves born into bondage and the creation of slave codes that maintained this oppressive structure.
Enslaved Africans and their descendants resisted and sought to build new communities and cultures amidst the dehumanizing conditions. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade critically shaped the modern Western world through its contribution to capitalist expansion via the commodities produced by the labor of enslaved people.