Atlantic Slave Trade Research Paper

Slaves were bought and sold in many places, mostly for laboring farm land. In the Atlantic world during the 1500's and 1600’s there were many causes and effects to African slave trade. Many Europeans needed slaves to labor on their lands.

Africans were brought to the Americas through the Transatlantic Slave Trade to make up for the labor shortage created after the Native Americans died (doc 1). Most slaves became workers on plantations which allowed the New World to produce raw materials which would later be traded with Europe (doc 1). However, the increase of raw materials, such as sugarcane, resulted in the New World becoming a part of an international trade (doc 2). This allowed them to gain access to raw materials, such as Indigo rice tobacco coffee cocoa and cotton (doc 2). So even though slaves were forcibly brought to the Americas, the increase in slave labor resulted in an overall increase of trade between Europe and the

The Atlantic Slave trade began to pick up speed with the development of colonies by the Spanish and then the English, which were used to expand the mercantilist countries empires and power. African slaves began to be seen as a necessity once the Native American population plummeted and Spanish Creoles refused to do the hard work to supply their home country with the needed raw materials. Europeans were unwilling to provide the heavy menial labor required to successfully build a colony, making it “necessary to acquire negro slaves” (Document 1). Creoles and other European settlers forced slaves to “work too hard” and gave “them too little to eat” which weakened slaves and caused many to die off (Document 1).

The transatlantic slave trade began in the 15th century, after the Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa. This had a long term effect on Africa because even though it started out benefiting the upper class in Africa, the long term effect was devastating. When Europeans started to enter Africa, they enjoyed “the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest”(Doc 4). Africa’s relations with Europe depended on common interests, which Europe did not share. Europe’s contact with Africa, involving economic exchanges and political relationships, was not mutually beneficial.

Because the European plantation owners could not obtain workers among the Native Americans, they then turned to the African slaves instead (Nunn, Qian). This initiated the transatlantic slave trade (Nunn, Qian). From the sixteenth to nineteenth century, more than twelve million African slaves were forcefully shipped to the Americas (Nunn, Qian). This is the biggest involuntary movement of people in the human history (Nunn, Qian). These imported slaves were forced to work on plantations all to to produce tobacco, cotton, coffee, sugar, and other

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 two majors drivers that led to the transatlantic slave trade was the European desire for the agricultural products of the Americas and the need for laborers to work the land in the Americas. All participants, besides for the slaves, benefited from the trading.

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a process that happened between the Europeans, Africans, and the New World. The Atlantic trade lasted for about 400 years affected people physically, mentally, and socially. About five to twenty-five million slaves landed in America being sold and placed on plantations that lasted until about the end of 19th century. This slave trade was a huge benefit for the Europeans that helped their economy grow, increase trade routes, and gain as much power as they could. The Atlantic Slave Trade is one of the most detrimental marks in history due to the amount of hatred and inhumane treatment of the African people. The role of slavery did make a significant impact on this society since this type of market was bringing an abundance of money for European countries. This slave trade was beneficial for the European economy to skyrocket, expand their territory and commerce in America and Africa.

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)

The Transatlantic Slave Trade often known as the triangular trade was described as the largest long-distance movement of people in all of history. The movement of Africa slaves to the Americas lastly for approximately four centuries and can be viewed as one of the first ideas of globalization . The ship would move from the Americas to Western Europe with raw materials, then to Africa with manufactured goods. Lastly, from Africa the Americas with African slaves. Thus the movement of over 12.5 million slaves from Africa and 10.7 million slaves arriving in the Americas. The slave trade changed to the demographics of the world forever. Many historians ask why did the European countries choose African for their source of slave labor

Europeans explorers would sail to the coastline of Africa and forcibly remove thousand and millions of Africans from their homes, and ship them to plantations in the New World. During the next two centuries, the slave trade grew tremendously. The development of the triangle trade developed and it connected Europe, Africa and America. Trade goods, such as cloth, gin and guns were traded for slaves. They estimate about 275,000 African slaves were exported during the 16th century. But, there was an economic problem that came with slaves; the importation of cheap manufactured goods from Europe would outsell the local cottages and industries that the people had created, and forcing them into poverty. Today we have learned that slaves go against everything that America stands for, freedom. Even though we should appreciate the lives lost and families that were destroyed, the slave history is a huge part of how America

The Portuguese needed workers for their large sugar plantations and the European needed workers for their cotton and sugar plantations as well. So, how did they get the work done? More enslaved people. The demand for their goods was high and in order to make money, they needed the work to be done, preferably for free. So they imported people from Africa to do the work since they had killed off most of the Native Americans. The ones that survived the voyage, that usually lasted 2 to 3 months, were sold at auctions to the highest bidder. Then were taken to a plantation or farm where they would most likely spend the rest of their lives. Families were disrupted and suffered the loss of many loved ones. In order for the slave trade to be successful two things were needed. European elites, the people who transported and sold them, and African elites, the people who actually supplied the European people with the people they needed. Without one of these, the slave trade would not have been as big as it

One cause of the African slave trade was that they were the most suited for slavery in the Caribbean. The Africans were not the first ones to be forced into slavery, though they were eventually seen as the best candidates. The Native Americans were the first ones the Europeans turned into slaves. The Native Americans, however, had no immunity against the European diseases such as yellow fever and malaria, and almost 90% of them died within a few years. They then turned to indentured servants. The rich Europeans and the plantation owners offered the poor passage to the Caribbean in exchange for seven years labor. At the end of the seven years, they were to be given land. The climate of Europe is much less tropical than the Caribbean, and none of them were used to the tropical climate. Most of them died of tropical diseases or overwork before the seven years were up. The Africans were deemed perfect. Not only did they have immunity to European diseases and were used to the warm climate, they did not know the land, and couldn’t run away easily. Their skin color gave them away if they tried

Later on, as one African kingdom received guns in exchange for their prisoners other kingdoms began to do the exact same. For the rulers of the kingdom it was far better to give away the prisoners of war in exchange for guns instead of having to take care of them and feed them. For Europeans, they received exactly what they needed in order to grow a mass amount of sugar for very little cost. Africa became the solution to labor shortages because Europeans could maximize profits and minimize