Alexander Falconbridge 's Account Of The Slave Trade

Slavery had been practiced in Europe and the Caribbean. This being said, it did not exist in the English mainland colonies because there was no shortage of labor. In the 1670s and 1680s the Chesapeake economy depended on tobacco which required a large labor supply. At the same time, fewer and fewer men and women were willing to become indentured servants for a variety of reasons. The tobacco planters found the answer to this shortage in the slave trade. In the years between 1492 and 1770 more Africans than Europeans came to the Americas. Most were imported as slaves to Brazil and the Caribbean and only about 260,000 came to the region that would later become the United States. The slave trade was part of the Atlantic economic system, which is often referred to as the triangular trade. Triangular Trade was a system in which slaves, crops, and manufactured goods were traded between Africa, the Caribbean, and the American colonies. The future of Europe, Africa, South America and, North America were now bound together in the triangular trade and Atlantic economic system that would affect millions of lives over the centuries.The traffic in enslaved people served as an essential part of the triangular trade system. Europeans purchased slaves from Africa and then sold them in their colonies in America. The slave trade also had political and economic consequences for the people of West Africa. For example it created the powerful kingdoms of Dahomey, as it changed traditional economics. Goods now were imported to the coast instead of the Mediterranean. It also affected the population of West Africa unevenly. The slave trade left a shortage of men able to work in areas such as the Gold Coast. This resulted in new opportunities for women and encouraged polygamy. Despite the slave trade economic

The author also explores the profitability of slavery as an institution, as while the tendency of slave owners to keep their capital invested in slaves rather than industry resulted in a lack of economic diversification in the South, it also resulted in great profits during times of high demand for agricultural products. Phillips states that more research is required in this area.

The African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Anna C. Bailey takes a rather interesting approach into the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Bailey took a personal journey, and was determined to break the silence. Of course with that being said it would prove to be a difficult quest since so many of these people are shamed about slavery, and the discussion of slavery is a taboo topic in its own ways. It was time to break the silence. Through out the book she explores diverse groups, of distinct people who all share the prevalent history of slavery. Her central theme in unveiling the past is through oral stories. Bailey makes it known in the first chapter that most texts written about the slave trade primarily focus on the Europeans perspective, which is what sets her book apart. Bailey herself residing in Jamaica takes an intimate standpoint to slavery, herself being of African slave descent, and knowing very limited details about her extensive family history. “What is clear from my family history is that more is known about the relatively recent past than is known about the period when my family members were undoubtedly slaves) . Through the obstacles and difficulties Bailey was able to succeed, and gave those affected a voice. Her approach will be examined, and the strengths and weaknesses in her approach will be brought to light.

Everyone has their own understanding of what slavery is, but there are misconceptions about the history of “slavery”. Not many people understand how the slave trade initially began. Originally Africa had “slaves” but they were servants or serfs, sometimes these people could be part of the master’s family. They could own land, rise to positions of power, and even purchase their freedom. This changed when white captains came to Africa and offered weapons, rum, and manufactured goods for people. African kings and merchants gave away the criminals, debtors, and prisoner from rival tribes. The demand for cheap labor was increasing, this resulted in the forced migration of over ten million slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade occurred from 1500 to 1880 CE. This large-scale event changed the economy and histories of many places. The Atlantic Slave Trade held a great amount of significance in the development of America. Africans shaped America by building a solid foundation for the country.

In the United States, slavery had an overwhelming impact on their political, social, and economical. Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the first African slaves were brought into the United States. Reasons were because the tobacco, sugar, rice, and coffee fields were expanding which led to increasing the demand for labor. The Atlantic slave trade was an inhuman systematic importation of slaves between the African traders, American planters, and the European merchants bargaining over human lives which led to the Middle Passage. 1675-1775, the slaves were the backbone of monoculture labor and so it was put into law to keep the Africans as slaves. “So prevalent was this Italian-operated slave trade that the word “slave” was derived from the word “Slav,” name for people from Slavic countries” (Williams 3). In both seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation.

The economic problem relating to the increasing dependency on slavery is also related to the increasing demand of slave trade as a way to make profit (document 9). Slave trade is unreliable because of the fluctuating demands of slavery. English slave imports to American between 1600 and 1780 would gradually increase in the West Indies and Southern Mainland, but not at a constant rate (document 9). On the other hand, slave imports in the Mid-Atlantic and New England varied around 1,000 to 2,000 slaves from 1701 to 1780, which would drastically impact the profits of slave traders (document 9).

Slavery was a driving force of the sugar trade because the profits from selling slaves had driven sellers to sell more. Also, the The increase of sold slaves produced more sugar, thus expanding the sugar trade. Documents 9 and 11 deal with the market of slaves, while Document 10 compares slave population to sugar production. According to David Richardson, after purchasing slaves off the West African coast, selling them to British Caribbean would give sellers very high profit. In fact, in 1748, a seller’s profit would be about £18 per slave sold. In 1768, however, both purchase price and selling price of a slave had increased; yet remarkably a seller’s profit reached £25 per slave sold (Doc. 9). Sellers such as grocers and tailors and other commoners were able to take part in this trade by buying a share of a venture (Doc. 9). Craftsmen involved in the trade did not use money to trade slaves. African slaves were traded with material goods such as bullets, tobacco-pipes, brass pans, and copper bars (Doc. 11). The economic growth from the slave trade had produced both money and slaves, which increased sugar production. The massive amounts of slaves working had produced tons of sugar from a plantation. Although working in deplorable conditions, the “free” labor from the slaves had produced extremely high yields (Doc. 8). For

The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the forced intercontinental migration of West Africans across the Middle Passage during the 17th to 19th centuries. Between twelve and fifteen million slaves were exchanged between Africa, Europe and the Americas, together with raw materials and manufactured goods.

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

The sailor that was read about, Joseph Banfield, has a rather interesting and terrifying experience. At first, however, everything is going fine. Then, he was left behind at one of the trading spots by the larger vessel that he traveled on with the rest of his crew. Once he was reaquainted with his boat and crew, the journey could be continued, and it was. Bad weather soon caused turmoil during his next journey to Africa, and it disturbed the routine of the boat, for they could not get to the enslaved men in the lower decks to feed them. So, several slaves died, whereas the rest of the slaves were sold for a low price. The weather caused them to lose sight of their paths, but they soon saw land ahead and disembarked there. Once there, they were approached by natives of the land and were thought to be a threat. Once it was communicated that they were no harm to the indigenous people, they were welcomed into the civilization that was established there. They were offered food and clothing, both of which they were lacking for the past several days due to the horrible weather. News had gotten around that this sailor, Joseph Banfield, was stuck here. Then, a fellow slave trader, and the wife of the Governor of Fort James, came here to free him and put a slave in his place. The man who was taking care of Banfield refused a slave in his place, but his refusal was quickly taken back when the trader threatened to destroy his town if a slave was not

The changes in African life during the slave trade era form an important element in the economic and technological development of Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade had a negative effect on both the economy and technology, it is important to understand that slavery was not a new concept to Africa. In fact, internal slavery existed in Africa for many years. Slaves included war captives, the kidnapped, adulterers, and other criminals and outcasts. However, the number of persons held in slavery in Africa, was very small, since no economic or social system had developed for exploiting them (Manning 97). The new system-Atlantic slave trade-became quite different from the early African slavery. The

The slavery since 19th century takes a lead in the whole nation economy through producing food consumption and diversification to access market of North and Europe. Comparing to the South, Northern cities of America are progressively industrialized and can export commodes conveniently. Owing to the demand, the requirement of labor productivity pushed Negros to the America and turned them into the systematic agriculture labors. In this system, a simple concept global production chain and international commercial among Africa, America and Caribbean area took place in the function. Departing from the North coast, Americans export tobacco and cotton to Europe, and later leaving for Africa to import African labors for the South America. During the voyage, the ship has been passing by the Caribbean area for sugar, and then returned back

In the 1600’s, Slavery played a significant role in European history. The negative aspects that made up the dark times in history are, mainly centered on the brutalizing effects of the enslaved people, which can be best explained by the destroyed family bonds, history of the enslaved people erased, and unjust treatment of the slaves.

Labor exploitation was the key for the effectiveness of european expansion in the new world and define slavery as a principal component for global capitalism until it was not longer profitable. The atlantic slave trade influence europe economic growth and market development to rapidly spread through the atlantic trade. It was a intense dependence on the triangular trade that made merchants made big profits at the expense of the exploited labour abroad. Merchants were involved in all three sides of the triangle trade that allowed the transportation of slaves from Europe to Africa where goods were traded for slaves and then those slaves were brought to the Americas for the cultivation food crops and other raw materials; these later were brought back to Europe, Africa and the Americas to be sold. Resistance and revolts against the trade of slave was stronger in African areas where european demographic power was lower but “It was not until 1780s that increasing european along the west of africa coast finally drove up the price of slaves” and the overproduction of sugar in the caribbean and other raw materials lead the fall in the selling price of these products (shillington p181) european nations began to question whether the trade was still profitable or not. Britain was the first to completely abolished slavery in 1834 when manufactures found european labor in factories more efficient and less expensive than plantations. It was follow for the french colonies 1848, Cuba in

The slave trade was the largest contributor to the British economy during the 18th century. Tomas Butler stated “The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country's industrial development. Many people and institutions in every part of the country were complicit in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” In the early Americas, Britain supplied a vast majority of the slaves to the new world to be sold to the highest bidder. During the slave trade British ships made over ten thousand voyages and enslaved approximately 3.4 billion Africans. Some of these ships would make a profit of twenty to fifty percent. Back in England the king and the ship owners were not the only people benefiting from the slave trade. Everyone from the factory owners to the factory workers were benefited as an effect of the slave trade. The upper-class citizens were definitely making the big dollars. These people included the owners of the slave ships, the factory owners, who were able to produce and sell the products that the Africans and Americans needed and wanted, bankers who made money from the interest they earned on loans from people who borrowed money for the long voyage, and