Slavery- Not gender, biological.

The slave trade seems to affect gender roles in Latin America. This is at least what a cursory look would make one think. The story of slavery goes back to the continent of Africa, but slavery has permeated every society since Biblical times. It is a ridiculous notion that most modern day leftists try to portray Southerners as evil slave owners when so many people have done it before. These slaves were mostly captured by rival tribes trying to gain the upper hand in the region by trading their prisoners of war for superior weaponry. This was nothing more than business for both the Europeans and Africans. On the trip to America, the captured Africans were usually put through grueling conditions that could leave upwards of fifty percent of the slaves dead. The slaves would be brought to the New Word to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Once they were bought, these individuals were used for manual labor in the both the fields and in the house. Here comes the point where the typical pedestrian analyzing the situation would argue that gender roles were socialized on the Africans by the evil Spaniards.

The “gender roles” one would normally try to categorize are that of manual labor for men and house labor for women. Though this could be argued as forcing gender roles on the general slave public, it is more important to look at why this is so. It all comes down to one reason: biology. Though modern day feminists would try to inculcate people to believe that men and women are equal in every way, they would be wrong. There are specific biological differences. Men have larger muscles while women can bear more pain (this is useful during child birth). The men who were more muscular were put in the fields for intensive labor agriculture; Cotton in the American South while in South America it was cane sugar. The cane sugar would later be turned into rum (this would be the perfect place for a Pirates of the Caribbean reference).  The women were put in the house because they did not have the muscles to do the labor necessary for these crops. One might try to argue the Spanish were trying to force European gender roles onto the slaves, but instead it was more sinister than that. The Europeans were merely making a cold, realist interpretation of the situation to get the most productivity and efficacy of the system. With men working outside and women working inside, then organization could prevail. Men would get the raw materials that would be sent to Europe, enhancing the economic situation of the owners, while the women would take care of them. There was no “gender socialization” going on. Rather, the Europeans needed work to be done and used the appropriate people for it.