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Portuguese Jews played a role in starting, financing, and profiting from the Transatlantic slave trade. Colonialism and slavery centered around families from Zealand and Amsterdam, operating through private companies like the Dutch East India Company. Sephardi Jews, descendants of Portuguese immigrants in Antwerp, migrated to Zealand and later Amsterdam and Suriname. They introduced "living ebony" (slaves), competing with local traders.
Slave trade had been a hallmark of European Jewry, predating Northern Europeans in Africa. Jews founded the West Indian Company (WIC), introducing black slave ownership in Dutch provinces. By the late 16th century, they established a slave market in Liverpool. In 1596, a ship arrived in Middelburg with West African slaves, but the mayor initially shut down the market, declaring humans could not be property. The WIC continued the trade, disregarding Dutch laws.
By 1650, a criminal elite profited from slavery, including white political dissidents and Irishmen. Sephardi Jews set up a distribution center in the Dutch Antilles. By 1760, they controlled about 9% of the slave trade. Meanwhile, slavers in the Mediterranean, including the "pirate rabbi" Samuel Palaci, enslaved Europeans, who faced harsh conditions.