The Voyages And The Sugar Industry On The Island Of Barbados

In a unique approach author David Galenson examines the transition of servants to slaves during the 17th and 18th century of British America. He successfully covers the importance of slavery and the reason for its high demand. Galenson takes into consideration the demographic conditions and its differences throughout the West Indies,

The story that surrounds the transatlantic slave trade is notoriously known, by both young and old, across the nation. This story has not only survived, but thrived as “truth” through generations for several centuries; Although, it is much closer to a mystical tale than reality. In Reversing Sail, Michael Gomez lays the myths affiliated with African Diaspora to rest. Gomez shows the path of the amalgamation of the African people along with their resources into Europe. A path that leads to the New World, that would potentially become the Americas, would ultimately result in more than just the exploitation of Africans as slaves. Compacted into an eight-chapter undergrad textbook, Gomez uses Reversing Sail to unground the history, complexity, and instrumentality of the African Diaspora. He does such in a

The population of slaves rose from 20,000 to 92,000, meaning the percentage of the total population jumped from 46.5% to 84.2% of the entire population. The slaves very quickly outnumbered their masters. This is due to a number of factors, including the price of land, the price of slaves versus the price of indentured servants, wealth distribution, and a variety of other reasons. This includes the massive migration of whites, not to Barbados, but instead away from the island. This loss of potential labor was likely one of the main factors for the great increase in the slave population, especially when in comparison to the populations of both Chesapeake populations. From 1645 to the 1700s, approximately 30,000 whites departed the colony, and it is extremely important to note that most of these whites did not own any land . The price of land on Barbados increased from 1.20 per acre in 1638 to 5.50 per acre in 1680 . Since the price of land shot up, only wealthy whites could afford to own any land, so their plantations began to expand and dominate. Barbados also took several years to discover its “cash crop”, as they attempted to grow tobacco and caused the market to plummet. They then went from tobacco to cotton, finally settling on sugar through trial and error. Eventually plantations found their wealth in sugar, but by that point the island was dominated only by those who could afford

The perspectives of African slave merchants, the female slaves, and the plantation workers in the Americans which are missing in this collection might add other dimensions to our understanding of this commerce in people. Knowing the perspective of the African slave merchants who were present during the slave trade in Africa would have

An estimated seventeen million men, women, and children were enslaved and transported from Africa to the West Indies by Europeans between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Before these individuals became slaves, there were indentured servants. Between the colonial era and Revolutionary War many changes in the practice of labor were made. Expansion of slavery throughout America brought about different conditions of slave life and Paternalism. Slavery in America was very different before and after the year 1790; these changes greatly affected the conditions in which these individuals lived and are worth analyzing.

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 Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the

The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country. As the volume of trade increased, the triangular trade was supplemented, but never supplanted, by a direct trade between home country and the West Indies, exchanging home manufactures directly for colonial produce.

Slaves were a main reason for the increase in sugar crops. The trading of slaves was already increasing at the time and therefore made obtaining them even easier. Document 10 show the correlation between slave population and sugar produced. It demonstrates how an increase in slaves produced an increase in sugar. Slaves provided a simple and easy way to maintain the sugar crops. Document 11 lists items that English merchants used to purchase slaves. The list includes ordinary things such as powder, toys, and brass pans that could be bought in markets.

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 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

The Caribbean region in the late eighteenth century was exploited in many ways: plantations altering any financial potential and cruel oppressors exploiting natives and slaves to keep the “Old World” linked to the “New World.” Full of pirates, slave rebellions, and involved in multiple wars including the Nine Years’ War and the Seven Years’ War. They were home to many plays for profit, the easiest of which was smuggling. The causes and responses to smuggling were all around the same, all that matters was whom the smugglers were working for, and whose funds were being subverted by said smuggling.

Superficially, The History of Mary Prince documents slavery in the West Indies, adding richly to historical memory of the time period through its firsthand account. At the time of its publication, the genre of the slave narrative was just appearing. The History of Mary Prince, along with other formative texts, shape an important bank of evidence and allow current historians to remember and study slavery in the West Indies with a shred of credibility. Without these texts, the unimaginable pain endured by those brought into the Atlantic slave

By the early 18th century, with the peace treaty in place, Jamaica began to build vast amounts of sugar plantations. Sugar became the main export to England. Second, and not far behind, was slave trade. Jamaica’s location in the heart of the Caribbean Sea made it an ideal port for harboring slaves until they were needed to sell. This enabled Jamaica to be one of the British crown’s most lucrative assets (Encyclopedia Americana, 2001, P 673).

1) Beckles, M.H., & Shepherd, V. (2000) Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic World. Jamaica, Ian Rhandle Publishers Limited.