Slaves were considered cargo by the ship owners , to be transported to the Americas as quickly and cheaply as possible, there to be sold to labor in coffee, tobacco, cocoa, cotton and sugar plantations, gold and silver mines, rice fields, construction industry, cutting timber for ships, and as house servants.
What role did Africans play in the making of the Atlantic world?
Transatlantic slave trading gave birth to an Atlantic world of people, goods, and cultures that circulated, collided, and melded together to lay the foundations for much of our modern world.
What was the role of slavery in African colonies?
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries people were kidnapped from the continent of Africa, forced into slavery in the American colonies and exploited to work as indentured servants and labor in the production of crops such as tobacco and cotton .
How was Atlantic slavery different?
Another difference between transatlantic and modern slavery is related to profitability and disposability . In the transatlantic slave trade, the focus of slave traders was on Africa and the high cost of transporting these people meant that once they were enslaved they were often maintained and reproduced.
How did Sugar impact the Atlantic World?
Sugar drove the expansion of European empires in the Atlantic world . ... The decline of the slave population was the norm in the sugar-producing regions of the Americas. It was also a particularly lucrative crop. Sugar planters were among the wealthiest producers in the New World.
Why was the Atlantic World important?
The Atlantic World approach has become integral to the methodological and paradigmatic frameworks of scholars of slavery, colonialism and independence movements, migration, trade, capitalism, and other topics. ...
What are three effects of slavery in Africa?
The effect of slavery in Africa
Some states, such as Asante and Dahomey, grew powerful and wealthy as a result . Other states were completely destroyed and their populations decimated as they were absorbed by rivals. Millions of Africans were forcibly removed from their homes, and towns and villages were depopulated.
What were the main causes of slavery?
- The importance of the West Indian colonies.
- The shortage of labour.
- The failure to find alternative sources of labour.
- The legal position.
- Racial attitudes.
- Religious factors.
- Military factors.
Is slavery still legal in some countries?
In the 21st Century, almost every country has legally abolished chattel slavery , but the number of people currently enslaved around the world is far greater than the number of slaves during the historical Atlantic slave trade. ... It is estimated that around 90,000 people (over 2% of Mauritania’s population) are slaves.
Who first started slavery in Africa?
The transatlantic slave trade began during the 15th century when Portugal , and subsequently other European kingdoms, were finally able to expand overseas and reach Africa. The Portuguese first began to kidnap people from the west coast of Africa and to take those they enslaved back to Europe.
What was the difference between old and new slavery?
Modern slavery differs from historical slavery in several ways: There are more slaves than ever before , but they are a smaller proportion of the human race. No-one seriously defends slavery any more. Slavery is illegal everywhere and so requires corruption and crime to continue.
How did sugar feed slavery answers?
Slaves toiled in the fields and the boiling houses , supplying the huge amounts of labor that sugar required. ... Manufactured goods were traded to the West African coast for slaves, who were shipped to the sugar colonies (the infamous Middle Passage) and sugar, molasses and rum were shipped from the islands to England.
Where does America get sugar?
About half the United States’ sugar normally comes from beets . According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the beet harvest was down about 10% this year. The effects are now rippling through America’s food industry.
What country did sugar originate from?
The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century. Cyprus and Sicily became important centres for sugar production.
What were the three main periods of the Atlantic world?
An introductory unit on the Atlantic world from 1450 to 1750 could consist of three major topics: exchanges within the Atlantic world, development of colonial systems, and the consequences of colonization . (See below for a detailed outline of these three topics.)
What goods were brought to Europe as a result of the opening of the Atlantic?
The Europeans brought technologies, ideas, plants, and animals that were new to America and would transform peoples’ lives: guns, iron tools, and weapons ; Christianity and Roman law; sugarcane and wheat; horses and cattle.
