One of the most consequential measures that shaped the relations between Africa and the Atlantic World was the development of the Atlantic System from the sixteenth to nineteenth century. The Atlantic System, or often referred as the Atlantic Slave Trade emerged when the need of labor sources, for large plantations in the Western Hemisphere, heightened. While the transportation of slaves began in small proportions with the enslavement of around twelve African slaves, it soon advanced into a wide range of international shipments with approximately five hundred slaves. Different regions of the world, such as Europe, Africa, and America inevitably received enormous advantages and disadvantages towards the social, demographical, and political factors.
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.
With the new sources of labor presented in the Atlantic Slave Trade, America was another region that gained many developments in its economy, and society. Slavery played an integral part in ...
... middle of paper ...
...o be male, and how other female slaves were seen as a weakling, and a nuisance.
There is no doubt that the Atlantic Slave Trade made an enduring mark on the regions of Europe, America, and Africa. The Atlantic System began with the need of available labor sources for large plantations. The transport of slaves through the Middle Passage soon advanced into wider proportions, and the Triangular Trade was established. While Europe and America gained economic, and industrial advantages from the slave route, it is Africa that suffered the most impact culturally, economically, and emotionally.
Works Cited
- Jerry H. Bentley. Traditions Encounters & A Brief Global History. 2014. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York. “Document 2”: Charlestown, 1769. 420-421.
- Olaudah Equiano. Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. 2005. University of Georgia Press.
... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
In the “Interpretive Essay”, Kenneth Banks discuses the consequences of the Atlantic slave trade. The negative effects on the Africans due to the Atlantic slave trade range from the influence on Africans societies and warfare, inhumane and atrocious living and working conditions, decrease of their population, and the long-term impact of bigotry. During the Atlantic save trade’s peak, the movement to abolish slavery started because it went against certain religious beliefs, several thinkers saw it as inefficient, and was unethical.
The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of, if not the largest scale movements of human beings from one part of the world to another by sea and could have been considered a mobile killing machine because of the horrible conditions. The numbers were so large that the slaves who came by slave trade were the most Old-World immigrants in the world. Even though there were only races of people enslaved during the Atlantic Slave Trade, African Americans were the most numerous. Records show 34,941 voyages during the time of the slave trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th centuries. The way that the Atlantic Slave Trade came about was cruel but not unthinkable. The capture and enslavement of African Americans was inevitable, the only question was when. A lot more slaves were taken to the South America than to the North America because the South “needed” them more. The South Atlantic economic system was based on producing crops, making goods and other things to sell. The enslaved people didn’t just skip into the ship with smiles on their faces. The Spanish colonists asked the King of Spain for permission to bring slaves to The New World to provide for them. Spanish Colonists were currently forcing Native Americans to do their labor for them but they were dying in large numbers because of diseases and lack of care from the colonists. The King of Spain gave approval to the colonists to import Africans and from then on Africans were transported there for use and labor and other needs of the Spanish colonists. During this time many African American slaves were transported. An estimated twelve to fifteen million African Americans were shipped throughout the world includ...
One of the most significant catalysts of the system was the growth of the Atlantic slave trade. The success sugar plantations of the West Indies and the colonial expansions in South America would not have been possible without African slave labor. Although African slaves were expensive, approximately equivalent to 6.5 thousand USD in today’s currency , compared to natives or indentured servants from Europe, they were seen as a better investment. The mercantilist policies of European states such as England and the Netherl...
The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a service that transported around twelve and a half million men, women, and children to be bought and sold as slaves by countries mostly in the New World, like the United States of America. (The Transatlantic Slave Trade) The Portuguese were the first to bring African slaves over to the new world, but it quickly caught on over the years. Around 80% of the slaves that came across the Atlantic ended up in Brazil or the Caribbean Islands while only 7% wound up in the United States.(Ross) With the climate being completely different in South America, Europeans found it extremely hard to work and were not used to the living conditions so they contracted diseases. Unlike Europeans, the African slaves were capable of handling the climate and were used to working hard. (How Many Slaves Came to America? Fact vs. Fiction.) The reason the Transatlantic Slave Trade worked for many years was because it had a triangular trade form where Africa would send slaves over to America who would send the products of the slave labor over to Europe who would send ammunition and weapons back to Africa. There have been over 30,000 documented trips from Africa to the Americas. The trip from Africa to America lasted about three months by ships. This was called the middle passage, where a large amount of slaves died from malnutrition
African slaves were brought to the America’s by the millions in the 17th and 18th century. The Spanish and British established lucrative slave trades within Africa and populated their new territories with captured and then enslaved Africans. The British brought the slaves to their new colonies in North America to work on the large plantations and the Spanish and Portuguese brought the slaves to South America. Slavery within North and South America had many commonalities yet at the same time differences between the two institutions.
“In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.
Slaves and slave trade has been an important part of history for a very long time. In the years of the British thirteen colonies in North America, slaves and slave trade was a very important part of its development. It even carried on to almost 200 years of the United States history. The slave trade of the thirteen colonies was an important part of the colonies as well as Europe and Africa. In order to supply the thirteen colonies efficiently through trade, Europe developed the method of triangular trade. It is referred to as triangular trade because it consists of trade with Africa, the thirteen colonies, and England. These three areas are commonly called the trades “three legs.”
The Tran-Atlantic slave exchange established the framework for present day entrepreneurship, creating riches for business endeavors in American and Europe society. The exchange added to the industrialization of a numerous continents’ surrounding the Atlantic area. Several of the areas where located in northwestern Europe, also the western part of Europe, the North, and South, and the Caribbean Islands. According to assign readings and observing other resources providing, the slave trade revealed deceptive inequity toward the people in America and European. There was other culture considered besides black that was residing within the domains of these state and continents. If an individual was not considering white, it is believed that the
West Africa was greatly impacted by the Atlantic Slave Trade. Though there were countless negative effects, some short-term positive effects did occur. First off, the slave trade directly correlated with the number of wars in Africa. As demand for slaves increased, so did the quantity of wars to capture them. African kingdoms would wage war and go on raids in order to supply prisoners of war to sell. This was a start of a domino effect, in which kingdoms and tribes would capture slaves, trade them for guns to become more powerful, and then use said power to enslave even more people. A vicious cycle was created in Africa as a result of the slave trade. In spite of these negative effects, it is arguable that it was slightly beneficial for a
The Atlantic slave trade was the largest and longest ongoing international voyage in human history. Taking place as early as the 1440’s, the slave trade gives valuable account for the trade in slaves from various parts of the world. The author gives a regulation from West Africa to as far as the Arabic region along southern parts of the Mediterranean Sea into a lesser degree talks about the Arabic slave trade in East Africa, this period profound economic, social, political, cultural, religious, and military change. I strongly agree with how the authors attempted to explain the circumstances under which the African enslavement occurred in Africa through the dismay Middle Passage and sale of the slaves in America. A brief introduction to the Slave trade was in the 1502, the first African slaves were taken to Hispaniola. In 1888, Brazil became the last nation in the western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery. For the nearly 400 years in between, slavery played a major role in linking the histories of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Johannes Postma begins with an overview and a detail explanation of the 5 most important aspects of the Atlantic Slave Trade. First was the capture of slaves and the Middle Passage, the identities of the enslaved and their lives after captured, the economics of the slave trade, the struggle to end slavery, and the legacy of t...
The transatlantic slave trade occurred throughout the entire continent of Africa and was divided into two eras, the first and the second Atlantic systems. The first Atlantic system was the slave trade of Africans to Portuguese and Spanish territories. The second Atlantic system which made up most of the transatlantic slave trade is the one I will focus on. This second Atlantic system, was characterized by the shipment of Africans from countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ...
The Triangular Trade was the fundamental foundation of many economic and social developments of this nation. However, this historical turning point in America’s history did not develop overnight. In Africa, the practice of enslavement had been occurring internally for centuries, but as the Triangular Trade developed between the Old World and New World, the slave labor system transformed and began to become an integral part of many nation’s economic systems. As the demand for agricultural products, such as tobacco and sugar, increased, the Atlantic Slave Trade also expanded as the need for laborers proliferated. Thus, the Triangular Trade was the building blocks of the United States, economically affected the world, and ultimately impacted racial
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, slavery connected the world. Slaves were present on almost every continent and were traded frequently across the Atlantic Ocean. Various countries influenced their allies, persuading others to join the chaotic process of selling human lives. Slaves were taken from their native homeland in Africa, sold to plantation owners in the West Indies, and then shipped to their final destination: the United States of America. This was not just a bad habit or business tactic; slavery became a cruel lifestyle. Thousands of lives were altered, leaving a considerable impact on the physical, emotional, and social aspects of society. Many causes attributed to American