Upon the discovery of new lands all over the world, the European countries sought after ways to capitalize on the colonies and the indigenous people living in the newly conquered lands. The earliest Atlantic slave trades are dated to the 15th century, when the first major European world powers the Portuguese and Spanish empires who forcibly transported slaves from Africa to America for cheaper and easier controllable labors1. The slave trade culminated during the 18th Century with millions of Africans being shipped when the rest of the European naval powers such as Britain and France invested in the slave trade.
This report will not only probe around the superficial things about the slave trade, such as which reasons there were for the European countries to set up a slave trade that connects four different continents or
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The native Indians were considered as too fragile for the plantation work, as on the other hand the Africans were preferred as the labor of choice because of several reasons. The enslaved Africans could not only endure longer at the plantations, but was easier controllable because they had nowhere to flee in the continent that they newly been placed in and the slaves also were more immune to European diseases4.
The British economist Malachy Postlet hwayt emphasized with the importance of the slave trade in 1746. Writing about his view on the slaves and the impact the slave trade had on the British economy, which also was summoned by many other at that time; "If we have no Negroes, we can have no sugar, tobacco, rum etc. Consequently the public revenue, arising from the importation of plantation produce, will be wiped out. And hundreds of thousands of Britons making goods for the triangular trade will lose their jobs and go a begging"5.
The
For over 2,000 years, slavery has been conducted in various parts of the world. From year 1500 to year 1900, Europeans stole individuals from West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast Africa and shipped them to the different parts of the Atlantic. This process dehumanized them of their identity. Europeans stole husbands, wives, merchants, blacksmiths, farmers, and even children. They removed them from their homelands and gave them new names: slaves. European slaveholders never thought to take ownership of their actions by killing humans with brutality and degradation. Slave trade was considered popular in England and soon after more countries began the process of taking slaves to newly claimed territories. These countries include
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.
The Atlantic Slave Trade was a part of African history that had made one of it's biggest impact on Africa's relation with the world and more importantly on the inner workings of the country itself due to its large-scale involvement of many of the people in the continent. Although the slave trade was so long ago the impact can still be seen in Africa's social workings within the people, its economy in the local and global market, and within the political landscape of the countries.
Although all this documents stress voices from the Slave Trade, each document sheds a unique light on the much-debated question about who should be held responsible for the tragedy of the Atlantic slave trade. For example, Document 15.1 sheds light on the role of both European and African merchants in the trafficking of slaves as well as the human suffering of the slave trade. However Document 15.2 reveals the cooperation between local African rulers and European and African traders in the slave trade. Moreover, Documents 15.3 focus on how disruptive European traders could be to established African governments, even those that actively opposed the slave trade. And finally, Document 15.4 shows how some African leaders were attached to the slave trade and promoted it even when European were moving to end it. Nonetheless, all the documents do shed a clear and a full light on what should be held responsible for the
The slave trade originated in a shortage of labor in the New World. The first slaves used were Native American people, but they were not numerous enough and were being decimated by European cruelty and diseases. It was also impossible to convince enough Europeans to migrate to the colonies, despite attempts to distribute free land. Massive amounts of labor were needed for mining, but especially for the plantations, in the labor-intensive growing, harvesting and processing of sugar, cotton and other tropical crops which could not be grown profitably in Europe. Growing
The first Africans brought in more or less as an experiment. Africans tended to share the same resistance to diseases that Europeans did, they were familiar with the types of farming and crops, and they tolerated the hot conditions well. Originally, it was a matter of a ship going to western Africa and attempting to capture or trade for enough slaves to fill their holds. As the trade increased, it was impossible for the Europeans to capture enough slaves on their own. They began to work with African agents, that tribal leaders captured prisoners from other tribes to sell to the Europeans. This became a big and efficient business, carrying millions to the west. These goods from Europe were carried to Africa and traded for slaves. When England decided to abolish slavery, this cut into the trade but did not end it. Other, European nations were still deriving profits, and had no interest in stopping. Changing technology, damaged ecosystems, increase of 'home grown' slaves all cut down on the demand
The history of the Atlantic slave trade is long and sordid, from the working and transportation conditions to the structure of the trade itself. Historians and scholars from all backgrounds have worked to understand the impact of slavery and why it went on for so long. Two scholars, John Thornton and Mariana Candido, have extensively studied both the impact and organization of the Atlantic slave trade, but disagree on a few main conclusions. Upon thorough review of both sides, however, John Thornton’s ideas regarding the Atlantic trade are more convincing than Candido’s, and by looking deeper into each side it is clear why.
The transatlantic slave trade first began in 1502, with records of the first slaves in the New World, lasting nearly four centuries. It connected the economies of three continents. The route began in West Europe, where it continued to Africa, trading manufactured goods such as rum, textiles, weapons, and gunpowder for slaves. From Africa, the ship went along the Atlantic to America, distributing slaves, and bringing agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, rice, and sugar back to Europe. The entire route typically lasted eighteen months. The slave trade ended in 1867, seventeen years after Britain began arresting slave ships.
Eventually, a vast number of Natives Americans died of foreign diseases brought to the New World by the Europeans, simply because they lacked the immunity. The Native Americans proved hard to control and this played a critical role in how slavery became racialized in the years to come. Another form of laborers used were indentured servants. These people, usually young men, came into the New World to work and were promised to be given land when they finished their term of service. This process worked for some time, but starting becoming unpopular when wealthy landowners became egotistical. They did not expect the indentured servants to live long enough to finish their time of servitude and as a result did not want to given them a part of their land. Thus, the Europeans had to find a way to obtain free and immensely forced labor.
European merchants had already been keen on African countries and kingdoms, for example, Ghana and Mali, because of their complex exchanging systems. Brokers then needed to exchange individuals. They took oppressed individuals from western Africa to Europe and the Americas. At first this was on truly a little scale yet the Slave Trade developed amid the seventeenth and eighteenth hundreds of years, as European nations vanquished a significant number of the Caribbean islands and quite a bit of North and South America. Europeans who settled in the Americas were baited by the thought of owning their own particular land and were hesitant to work for others. Convicts from Britain were sent to take a shot at the ranches yet there were never enough thus, to fulfill the enormous interest for work, grower bought
talks about how it was how slave trading and slave labor different from African and
Atlantic slave trade from the fifteenth century and partially illegally through the nineteenth century, has always been a very ambiguous and controversial topic in North America and all around the world, and even in the modern world continues to perplex the minds of every individual. In schools and educations all around the world focus nearly too much on the brutality and evil treatment of the “black slaves”, and forget to mention the traveling of the slaves. The slave ships not only globally the general economy of the world but also played a role on spreading a sort of worldwide communism, at the ships’ most basic functions transporting the slaves, spreading cultures and foods, and finally and arguably the most important the slave ship prepared the slaves for their inevitable life on the plantations. The conditions on board of the slave ship show great proof
The slave trade was at the center if the complex global trading system. It was also the cause if an occasion for rivalries and tensions of three continents. The europeans had fought for the share of the
During the alantic world afercans slave trade took hold and soon slaves were in Europe and the Armericas.
This project will be based on the slave trade focusing more specifically on the treatment of black slaves from the 17th to the 19th century and the process in which both, slaves and slave masters encountered. I will also discuss how the role of the slave trade impacted on society at the time and how this has impacted on today 's society.