How Did Sugar Affect The Growth Of Sugar

Producing sugar was a difficult and extensive process that required constant hard work. In order to meet the labor needs, African slaves were transported and sold to work on plantations. Slave imports to the British West Indies grew from being a maximum of 18,700 in the mid 1600’s to reaching numbers as high as 77,100 by 1700 (Importation and Population Statistics for the British West Indies in the 18th Century). The drastic increase in slave imports conveyed the rapid growth of sugar demand and production in a short amount of

The idea of utilizing slave labor in plantation agriculture came forth in the continent of Europe. European merchants began the early slave trade by transporting slaves to work on different plantations located in the Portuguese island colonies. Significant amounts of profits were made especially from the sugar plantation lands on the island of Sao Tome, with the demanding and rigorous work schedules of slaves. When the Triangular Trade emerged, with the demand for work sources in the western hemisphere, European merchants were able to increase their profit even more by selling slaves for double the amount with posted advertisements (Bentley, 1769). Europe most certainly gained an economic advantage with the event of the Atlantic Slave Trade, as well as a lead in their progress in industrialization.

As the market for sugar began to increase, so did the number of Africans transported across the Atlantic to North America. This means of transportation is noted in history as the African Slave Trade. According to scholars, 76 percent of the 11 million Africans that unwillingly partook in the African Slave Trade arrived in North America between 1701-1810 (Out of Many, 83). The sugar boom that took place in the middle of the 17th century may have had a great impact on those numbers. The different forms of slavery in the North American colonies greatly depended on the economy of that colony and the type of commodity that it was capable of producing.

In the 1500’s through the 1700’s there were extravagant amounts of ships exporting the continent of Africa. Ships carrying cargo so precious and vital that it shaped the world forever. Millions and millions of slaves from all over the continent of Africa were being shipped over to Brazil and Cuba. There are many similarities and differences in slavery terms between Brazil and Cuba, primarily focusing on agricultural production. Sugar production was very important during this time, both Brazil and Cuba proposed in this production.

The profitability of slavery ultimately rested on the enormous demand for cotton outside the South. This made slaves the most valuable commodity at the time and most of the profits from slave labor and sales went into purchasing more land and slaves. At the heart of Anglo-American trade lay the highly profitable commerce in cash crops, from tobacco in the Chesapeake colonies to rice and indigo in South Carolina, wheat from the middle colonies to cotton in the South; an extensive textile industry in the North, Insurance companies that insured slaves as property, to many wall street firms that got their start as middle men in the cotton trade, I think it would be logical to conclude that the foundation of American economy lay in the back breaking toil and sweat of Slave labor.

Overview How did the Atlantic System affect Europe, Africa, and the Americas? (The Earth and Its Peoples, 500) The movement of goods, people, and wealth in the late 17th and 18th centuries permanently changed societies across the continents of Europe, Africa, and North and South America, thereby increasing the reach of globalization in the modern age. Most influential to this movement was what is sometimes referred to as “The Atlantic Circuit”, a triangle of trade between Western Europe, western Africa, and the West Indies. Out of this circuit came the rapid growth of the Atlantic slave trade, which not only established multiple industries of agriculture, but significantly changed the economies of all countries involved. The agriculture industries, in combination with further colonization transformed the land of the Americas, and the impacted diets across the world.

(pg.83) The traders expected to generate “a profit of 58 percent” from selling slaves so this gave the motivation to take risks. (pg.40) They understood that sugar, cotton, cacao, and tobacco production relied on the slave trade so they had many incentives to engage in slave trade. Furthermore, “death rate among slaves exceeded the birth rate, creating a continuous, but relatively stable, demand for new laborers” (pg.343) The slaves had high mortality rates so farmers would often have to replace them. In addition, the heavy labor that the slaves were forced to do as... ... middle of paper ... ...se crops. For example, sugar became a very popular commodity in Europe and it created “sugar economies that survived by devouring African slave labor.” (pg.)

The rising of the market economy occurred between the end of the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It was a time of uprising for Americans of the United States. There were changes in the vast improvement in transportation, the growth of factories, and there were important developments of new technology that increased agricultural production. Americans advanced into new areas and produced an agricultural surplus that went to market farming. In the nineteenth century, manufacturing was the most important factor because it brought about industrialization.

The growth of the plantations required labor, hence African slaves were bought from Africa, to provide labor. As the Europeans set up colonies in America, they brought the plantation ideas with them, which led to the need for labor hence they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work in their mines and fields. The Native Americans were prone to diseases hence most of them died as a result of diseases and overworking. Apart from the ones who died, a number rebelled and formed alliances forcing the Europeans to look for other sources of labor. They settled on acquiring African slaves due to a number of reasons; The African slaves were more stronger and immune to a number of diseases in Europe and America, the Africans had no friends and family in America hence it was not easy for them to form alliances or to escape, they provided a permanent and a cheap source of labor, and most of them had worked on farms before in their native lands.

The seventeenth-century is where the large scale of African slave labor British Caribbean can be found1. It is also at this time the British began to flourish economically as a result to the slave trade. The slave trade helped Britain establish capitalism within its society, with the development of merchants and planters. With Sugar being the most lucrative import brought into Britain, it created a change in the social lives of the people of Britain . As a result, the demand for sugar escalated and, backed by slave labor, Britain was able to generate substantial returns of capital2.