British Slave Trade Dbq

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

The slave trade in the North American colonies began to grow in the 1600s. The African slave trade sourced their slaves from many different West African villages and countries. The business of slavery was a growing and profitable field, not only for the slavers, but also for the slaveholders. With the decrease of indentured servants, settlers in the English colonies looked for a new source of labor to satisfy their growing labor demands. The next source was Africa. “By the 1690s slaves outnumbered indentured servants four to one” (45). Europeans largely disregarded the ethical dilemma posed by slavery due to the European view of Africans and their culture as uncivilized, foreign, and heathen (44). The largest forced migration in history (44)

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 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.

Opponents of slavery focused first on ending the slave trade rather than abolishing slavery because focusing mainly on the slaver trade was easier than ending slavery itself. Ending the slave trade was also more likely to succeed rather than just eliminating slavery. The abolitionists were convinced that, if trade was terminated, slavery would ultimately disintegrate. Therefore, if slave trade was stopped, that would make the abolitionists pleased since there would be no new slaves transported into different countries and colonies. Furthermore, slaveowners would also be pleased because the price they could sell their owned slaves would be driven up by the decrease of supply.

The slave trade put fear in the Southern States because they could carry on with the trade for another two decades. But the Northern States had to wait to protect the Union. The Southern States agreed to the Compromise because they thought it would die down. In order to Appease the South they passed the ‘Fugitive State Law’. The Fugitive State Law ordered the Northern States to deport any runaway slaves. Because of the taxes on importing the slaves they were considered as commodities.

Great Britain abolished its slave trade in 1807, sending the Royal Navy to blockade the coast of Africa and intercept slavers in an effort to shut down the commerce altogether. In 1833, it did away with slavery itself in all its empire. And yet when war over slavery broke out in the United States in 1861, the British government remained neutral, even though it was led by Lord Palmerston — who, according to Christopher Dickey in “Our Man in Charleston,” believed himself to be “the leader of Christendom in its opposition to the slave trade.” This meant that Liverpool shipyards could sell heavily fortified “merchant” vessels to the Confederates (easily converted into war ships) and London investors could buy cotton bonds, which helped finance

The absence of humanitarian influenced the treatment of slaves during the slave trade between 1450 and 1750 AD because the slaves were not very nicely treated. They were treated badly without care and as if they were not actual people but animals. The slaves would always just do all the labor work and if they did something wrong they would pay for it by getting whipped and hit. It might not seem fair but this is how things were back in the days. The poor people would be taken away from their families and no longer have the love they needed but instead got taken advantage of and put to work.

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

The slave trade was very important to the British economy. Without the slave trade, the triangular trade would not have taken place. This is because there would have been no reason to trade slaves from Africa for goods in the West Indies and the USA. Because there were so many slaves being traded, there was plenty of sugar being exported from the sugar plantations to Britain (3,750 tons in 1951 to 9,525 tons in 1669) due to the increase in labour. This trade of sugar had a big impact on the British economy. Because of the large quantities of sugar being produced by African slaves, sugar was able to become a staple food in Britain. “The poorest English farm labourer’s wife took sugar in her tea” which suggests that even the poorest of

I am writing to you to inform you of the great success and benefit that slavery has to our great and rich nation. Britain has been a great beneficiary of the transatlantic slave trades lucrative process and labour. As you probably are already aware, the triangular trade, as we noble gent call it, started in the mid-fifteenth century due to when the Portuguese gained interest in Africa for reasons other than its legendary supply of gold, to a more profitable and attainable commodity; slaves. Now before I begin to regale you with the tantalising tales of the transatlantic slave trade, I shall inform you of how it has successfully been working for the past months.

The slave trade experienced a massive change of trend with the change in the technology and the prospect of higher profit from cotton and other crops in the new sates along the gulf coast. As the wave of migrants and landowners increased in southern states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, so did the demand of slaves. Although it was illegal to involve in the Atlantic slave trade after 1808, nevertheless slave traders and masters found a profitable substitute through interstate slave trade. As the value of slaves increase, so did the antislavery sentiments in Atlantic seaboard sates.

Once the Americas had been colonized by the Europeans, the will of the Europeans to do laborious work significantly decreased, and the native Americans could no longer be forced to work due to their being converted to Christianity.There was still a very high demand for precious metals and other goods, and no workers willing to supply consumers with these goods. So, in order to produce goods for consumers, African people were brought to America against their will to do this laborious work as slaves. The circumstances that the African people faced were horrifying. The absence of humanitarian concerns made it so that the African people were treated more like animals than actual people.

The scale of the Atlantic slave trade is reflected in the wealth of business correspondences that have survived since its abolition in 1807 . These correspondences offer historians an indispensable insight into the organisational features of the trade. Intrinsic aspects of organisation such as risk management, role of the captain, and African agency can all be found within surviving business records of merchants operating out of Liverpool in the latter half of the 18th Century. Liverpool at the time, as Morgan states, had risen into a prominent position within the British slave trade . From the date of Earle’s letter of instruction to the date of abolition, for legal accuracy, Liverpool’s merchants embarked on 4,326 voyages (see figure 1), forcibly transporting 1.183 million enslaved Africans (see figure 2), approximately 64.6 % of the total British embarked slaves . Three primary business examples include Thomas Leyland’s letter of instruction to Caesar Lawson in 1803, William Earle’s letter of instruction (1751), and Robert Bostock’s letter to James Cleveland (1789) respectively.

In the British Parliament, antislavery voices grew stronger until eventually a bill to abolish the slave trade passed both houses in 1807. The British, being the major carriers of slaves and having abolished the trade themselves, energetically set about discouraging other states from continuing. The abolition of the slave trade was a blow from which the slave system in the Caribbean could not recover.