The Atlantic Slave Trade
For my research paper, I chose the topic of the Atlantic Slave Trade, how it affected American plantations, and what work was like before slavery in places like factories. This is an important part of the shaping of how America is seen today. The United States is one of the most advanced nations of the modern world, and one of the reasons it is that way is because of slave transporting and labor. The Atlantic Slave Trade, the first leg of the triangular trade occurring from the opening of the 15th century to the beginning of the 19th century, was the beginning of an expansionist age revolving around slavery, which was very different compared to the customs of American factories and plantations before slavery, which
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Stage 1 was when slave ships from Britain left ports like London, Liverpool and Bristol for West Africa carrying goods such as cloth, guns, ironware and drink that had been made in Britain. (The Abolition Project) Stage 2 occurred when African dealers kidnapped people from villages up to hundreds of miles inland. One of these people was Quobna Ottabah Cugoano who described how the slavers attacked with pistols and threatened to kill those who did not obey. They marched the captives to the coast where they would be traded for goods. The prisoners would be forced to march long distances, as Major Galan describes, with their hands tied behind their backs and their necks connected by wooden yokes. (The Abolition Project) Stage 3, the last stage, was when the money made from the sale of enslaved Africans, goods such as sugar, coffee and tobacco were bought and carried back to Britain for sale. The ships were loaded with produce from the plantations for the voyage home. (The Abolition …show more content…
In the South, it seemed like the complete opposite. They wanted and depended greatly upon slavery in many ways. Their very economic success came from slavery. In the years following the American Revolution, slavery, which had never been so prevalent or economically important in the North as in the South, became the South's "peculiar institution." Between 1774 and 1804, all the northern states took the side attempting to abolish slavery. In some states freedom was immediate, but more often, for example in New York and New Jersey, it was gradual. Slaves who were born after passage of the state's emancipation act were released when they reached a specific age. But despite widespread questioning of its morality and an explosion of private manumissions in the Upper South during the revolutionary era, bondage actually expanded in the southern states. The spread of cotton production following the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 abruptly increased the demand for slave labor and made possible the rise of a vast new slave empire as southerners moved west. At the outbreak of the Revolution, the United States contained about half a million slaves, North and South. However, on the eve of the Civil War, the country held almost 4 million slaves, confined entirely to the South.
The document “Buying Slaves in 1693” portrays how the process of purchasing and transporting the slaves from the African coastline to the the English ship Hannibal. The document is a section in Captain Thomas Phillips journal dating May 21, 1693. This small section of text shows historically how you would go about purchasing slaves, and it also describes the compounds the slaves were held in. The description lays out a step by step process and side comments on what the captain has learn throughout his career. This text also demonstrates how two different cultures and societies interacted together through a form of trade.
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.
While the time period from 1775 to 1830 may seem like an era of freeing slaves and ending slavery, the institution of slavery expanded. The North may have been abolishing slavery, but slavery continued to grow rapidly in the south (Doc C). Having slaves was just economically efficient for
In 1800 the population of the United States included 893,602 slaves, of which only 36,505 were in the northern states. Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey provided for the emancipation of their slaves before 1804, most of them by gradual measures. The 3,953,760 slaves at the census of 1860 were in the southern states. Eminent statesmen from the earliest period of the national existence, such as Thomas Jefferson and George Washington regarded slavery
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
In this section I try to show how the African Slave System, after gaining a foothold went on to become the most important part of the economy of the new Nation:
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 Southern army was lacking in size. Therefore, they needed more men to build their forces up. Besides farming and field work, slaves were also used to fulfill this need. They filled any position that their masters required them to fill. Initially, they only had their uncontrollable slaves serve in the military. They kept their
Not only was the south’s economy tied to the peculiar institution so were the economies of the
The title of the document is The Manner in which the Slaves are procured, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.
As United States citizens take a jump back into reasonably recent history, it is guaranteed that one will find elements of slavery in the southern states. Slavery, something many people frown on in this day an age, looked a little different back some 150 years ago. This was a major part of the southern colonies’ government and wasn’t the sure cause of the American Civil War. Moreover, slavery is how their entire economy ran, with black people working on mega plantations, picking cotton, making clothing, and even watching children of young ages. The aspect of slavery wasn’t something that southerners looked upon with a disapproving eye; it was something that people needed to survive and make money off of. Slavery made their world go around,
Slavery in the United States of America started in British North America during the early colonial days of European settlement on the continent. By 1800, a few northern states had abolished (gotten rid of) slavery. Abolitionism continued to spread throughout the North in the decades that followed. At the same time, southern states saw a rapid expansion of the cotton industry by using slaves as unpaid labor on cotton plantations. By 1860, there were 15 slave states in the South. 400,000 families in these states had slaves in their households. Southern states were threatening to leave the United States in order to protect their growing cotton industry and retain the ability to have slaves.
The triangle slave trade was a horrific event in world history, but is it really worthwhile to force the United States to pay reparations? Forcing the United States to pay for their actions in the slave trade is not worth the money or the time. Paying reparations does not mean that America is apologizing for their participation, and not only is the money not ensured to go where it is needed the most, but reparations would ruin the American economy.
Around the 20 million people who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery, half didn't make it to the African coast, most of those people dying along the way. The captives were about to embark on the infamous Middle passage. Then the first leg of the voyage carried a cargo that often included iron, cloth, brandy, firearms, and gunpowder. They landed on the Africa’s slave coast and the cargo and stuff was traded for Africans. Africans who had made the Middle Passage to the plantations of the New World did not return to their land to tell what happened to those people who suddenly disappeared. Sometimes the Africans were told by white men that they were to work on the field, But they didn’t believe it because it took barely any time
All through the African Slave Trade there have been numerous huge occasions that happened amid 1450-1850. Three of which I will be expounding on in this theme. The center section was the first key occasion in which Africans were sent to the New World. The slave treatment and resistance of African men and ladies who were viewed as not as much as human was the second key occasion. The Fugitive Slave Law which permitted recover of slaves was the third key occasion. An expected 12 million Africans were transported over the Atlantic toward the Western Hemisphere from 1450 to 1850. Of this number, around five percent were conveyed to British North America and, later, to the United States, the greater part of them landing somewhere around 1680 and 1810. A little number of Africans went first to the British West Indies and afterward to North America.