Atlantic Slave Trade Dbq Essay

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.

When the New World began to evolve, the new European settlers were hungry for power and wealth. The Europeans were desperate to prove that they too had the ability to flourish as a nation. Though settlers throughout the American colonies struggled to survive due to famine and disease, they quickly found a solution that would generate immense amounts of income and quickly turn America into a world threat. With the addition of slavery to the American workforce, profit increased and improved. Slavery brought the Europeans exactly what they wanted; power and money. During the period of 1607-1763, slavery grew dramatically due to Bacon’s Rebellion and the Atlantic Slave Trade, causing it to develop into an essential for Europeans settlers in

During the eighteenth century, The Atlantic Slave trade was a normalized business in Europe, Africa and America. These three nations combined to engage in the largest slave trade known to man, where they would negotiate the price of a human life. Subsequently, this trade resulted in millions of slaves to be ripped from their homes and traded into a life of oppression and servitude. One positive that came from these catastrophic events, is that it united the African tribes, who no longer labeled themselves as a particular group, but now a whole and passed down African customs. As barbaric as it is, this trading system was sadly vital to the economy.

There are different experiences of the slave trade that are reflected in these documents such as those of an enslaved person (Olaudah Equiano), a European slave trader (Thomas Phillips – an English merchant), an African monarch (King Jao) whose kingdom and personal authority suffered from the slave trade, and an African monarch (Osei Bonsu) who opposed the ending of the slave trade. Of all the commercial ties that linked the early modern world into global network of exchange, none had more profound or enduring human consequences than the Atlantic Slave Trade. And in all these documents, we can see how people reacted differently to this system based on how they encountered it and how it affected them.

The Atlantic slave trade was a type of trade that occurred from the 15th through the 19th centuries; however, it flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. During this time, Africans were taken from their homes in their native country of Africa and sent in organized trade to Europe and the America’s. These slaves were forced to work on plantations in extremely poor working environments and conditions. They were often physically tortured by their owner’s and were denied basic human rights. Ultimately, the terrible treatment of these slaves led to opposition from numerous groups and organizations.

1) Columbian Exchange- the Columbian Exchange term is, described as the massive worldwide trade of animals, plants, foods, and slaves. Christopher Columbus first voyage launched an era of extensive contact between the Old and New Worlds that resulted in the ecological revolution. The Columbian Exchange is important because, it affected every society on earth, by bringing devastating diseases that depopulated many cultures.

For my comparison book review, I chose to focus on the Atlantic Slave Trade Second Edition by Herbert S Klein and The Economic Consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade” by Barbara L. Solow. My focus of the trade is labor demands, effects on Africa, European organization of trade, and economy leading up to the end of the trade and after. Together, the two books demonstrate that the Atlantic Slave Trade was more than just the trading of Africans to different continents, but was a historical point that heavily impacted the world socially, economically and politically. While acknowledging the similarities of the two books in my essay, I will also address differences and points that may challenge each other. Before the institution of slavery was confined to only Africans, there were also indentured servants and other forms of caste workers that involved other races. Until the 15th century, the Mediterranean world use slaves as domestic servants, soldiers, mining and agriculture production. But according to Solow, when colonization moved to the Atlantic, plantation slavery became black and blacks became plantation slaves. Solow says that European colonization was associated with sugar; sugar was associated with slavery; and slavery was associated with blacks. (Solow, pg.5)

What were the social, political, and economic motives of Europeans in initiating slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade?

The Slave Trade in Colonial America The first blacks in the American Colonies were brought in, like many lower-class whites, as indentured servants. Most indentured servants had a contract to work without wages for a master for four to seven years, after which they became free. Blacks brought in as slaves, however, had no right to eventual freedom. The first black indentured servants arrived in Jamestown in the colony of Virginia in 1619.

The Europeans created the Atlantic Slave Trade in the Atlantic World and made a huge change in the world's history. The Atlantic Slave Trade started in the 1400s and almost all slaves would go to the Americas instead of Europe or Asia, although some slaves were still deported there from Africa. There was slavery in Africa before the Atlantic Slave trade. It didn't have a major effect on the slavery in africa. As the demand for slaves grew with the European expansion in the new world, rising prices made the slave trade very profitable.

In order to ascertain how significant beliefs and ideologies were in contributing to the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, and the eventual abolition of slavery in 1833, this assignment will consider moral, political,economic and religious factors which culminated into these two distinct reforms. It will explore the influence of Enlightenment; the impact of non-conformists; the role of individuals and resistance from slaves themselves. Additionally, it will look at the attitudes concerning the Atlantic slave trade and slavery from different perspectives. Justifications which were gleaned from the Bible, and from Antiquity, regarding the differences between white and black people meant that for much of the eighteenth century enslaving

Millions of lives were forever changed by the Atlantic Slave trade. Some were affected positively, in the case of slavers and wealthy slave owners. Others, the men, women, and children captured and sold into slavery were affected in an overwhelmingly negative way. Slavery was perceived and experienced in two distinctly different ways by Africans and Europeans.

One could argue that the only important factor of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is the creation of the political system in America; however, the geographic aspects, economic developments, and social status of people are the most important factors created from the introduction of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. These three factors are significant elements of the slave trade, while the political system simply derived from these factors. Without the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, the United States of America would not be shaped the way it is today. Politics are the foundation of a country; a nation is born when the political system is set.

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 Atlantic Slave Trade was about importing and exporting of commodities such as sugar, cotton and humans beings (slaves) which would be considered the most valuable product. A slave is defined as "a person being held in servitude as the chattel (property) of another; one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.” (Merriam-Webster) According to Paul Lovejoy “slavery was one form of exploitation. Its special characteristics included the idea that slaves were property; that they were outsiders who were alien by origin, or who had been denied their heritage through judicial or other sanctions;….” This “slavery” commerce became a position of wealth in the African countries among its leaders, and spread throughout Europe