There are a series of events that led to the Atlantic slave trade. At first slaves were indentured servants in Portugal, “but as European powers acquired new territories in the Americas, slaves were needed as a source of labor” Sugar was the biggest need for slave labor and Portugal had plantations located in the Americas. Portugal decided to import slaves from Africa rather than having Native Americans be laborers, because Africans were more efficient.
It is believed that the main reason Atlantic slave trade started to develop is that sugar in the Caribbean was a cash crop that needed mass production, and the only way to do that was to have laborers. Sugar was grown on large plantations and required huge amounts of labor, making forced labor
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.
The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves
The cause of the african slave trade in the atlantic world happen way back in the year 1500 it would all start when they would use muslim prisoner to go in war they would sell them for cheap so they can go in for war and at first they thought it was a dumb idea because they thought they wouldn't of made any profit because they wouldn't of sold any slaves but it turned out to be one of the thing that made them profit.
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
North America had many events that led to slavery. When Pennsylvania opened this led to an immediate decline in the number of indentured servants who want to go to Virginia and Maryland by sailing. After many people started to leave the colonies turn toward dependence on slave labor. Believing in the people of the new world thinking that they could depend on African slaves for the dimensions of its labor force, a force of slavery started when the unremitting of demands begun. Eventually it led to trans antic trade in slaves because of the great spread of tobacco lands. Slaves juxtaposed with the indentured servants when it came to the advantages of
Europeans were introduced to slavery in Africa, where they had colonies that were directly involved with the slave trade. This made it inevitable for slavery to find its way over to the Americas. One of the major pull factors for slavery was the opportunity
The world wars had hit the Europeans so hard that they seriously and urgently needed a source of labor that would help in the rebuilding of their cities and mine their minerals such as coal, gold, and silver among others. They decide to turn to Africa for this labor and therefore, slave trade was born in the middle of the 15th century on the continent. The first batch of slaves was imported to Cuba.
In the 1500s to 1900s, Africans were taken from Africa and brought across the Atlantic Ocean where they were traded and sold for labor in the New World, which included the Caribbean Islands, and North and South America. Around the 1600s, the Europeans captured and bought slaves, which began the Atlantic Slave trade and the forced migration of about 24 million people from Africa.
Many historians have argued that the Atlantic slave trade was motivated either by race or economics. Personally, I find this to be true. With new European colonies being started around the world, there became a need for a labor force that could help economically and financially in the cheapest way possible. When the people figured out that they could go on voyages to Africa and come back with 200+ sets of hands for manual labor, they exploited this. Slaves would be bought and owned by citizens to help do everyday tasks and a tremendous amount of manual labor. However even though a great portion of slavery was for financial reasons, it soon became a thing due to racism as well. These Africans that were brought over were thought of as “not human” and used this as a reason to participate in the treacherous act that is slavery. Many elements that denominated from economics and racism were the causes for the Atlantic Slave trade.
Even before the first humans on Earth, there has always been a constant change in the landscape. From the first cultivated fields of the Neolithic period to the great structures of the first dynasty in China, the landscape has ever been evolving. Arguably one of the most dynamic changes were those of Europe from the 1500-1800s. During this time, cultural, social and economic beliefs were remoulded or evolved to help create the foundations of societies today. Out of the three areas the most influential were the economic changes which not only took place in Western Europe but throughout other continents as well. Most recognizable of these changes was the importance of slavery in the Atlantic World. Slavery in the Trans- Atlantic world
When Portugal set up settlements along the coast of Africa they wanted to eventually gain access to their precious metals and eventually did so using cheap labor from slaves. They then expanded slave trade to the Americas and Europe in order to gain profit. Also when the Portuguese had their settlements
Not only did Europeans make this slave trade happen but they also had help from many people in Africa such as chiefs, kings, and middle men. These people helped Europeans with capturing Africans to become slaves in exchange for goods such as : iron, clothes, gold, beads and other commodities. Middle men also demanded types of exchange for gathering Africans to be slave workers. Now this is where some African Americans become angary when they look back into history of slavery and say things such as " Africans helped with slavery". Yes that is true, but most of the time these European men attacked and also threatened African people if they did not help, and they also turned various African tribes, and people against each other which started
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 slave trade started by other African colonies capturing other Africans from other African colonies and Europeans trading guns and weapons to the kings of the African colonies there prisoners. Around one in every 10 voyages there would be major rebellion among the African slaves. It got to the point of them having many less slaves enter the market because the African slaves that rebelled and fought didn’t make it and got killed or thrown overboard. There is precise regions that the resistant’s came from. The most rebellion prone areas were Upper Guinea, Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and the Windward Coast, which had the slightest amount of participation in the slave trade. The ships the African slaves were sent on were the most unsanitary conditions, they captions of the ship would put as many African onto the ship as possible making them live in their own feces and dirt. Which so many of the slaves would die of diseases and other sicknesses. The African men would also commit suiside because they didn’t want to be slaves. This was a form of rebellion. This rebellion was natural. The African slaves were taken without their consent. Millions of slaves didn’t make it
The slave trade in North America originated because plantation owners in the South need large amounts of cheap labor and there was not enough European servants coming to the Americas.