...presence in the early American colonies. What isn’t shown is how the slave trade affected countries besides the U.S. Barbados, a small island in the Caribbean, experienced a slave trade that was brutal to both the African slaves involved and the natives of Barbados. British colonizers came to Barbados in the 1620’s and began one of the largest African diasporas in history. The 1600’s slave trade is an event that while not widely discussed, was essential to the US economy both today and in the past. The slave trade of the 1600’s created a booming economy for wealthy white plantation owners,...
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...similar racial ideologies, used slave labor to construct their economies, and experienced resistance. Aside from these similarities the regions of Brazil, the West Indies, and the Southern Colonies exhibited differences, specifically in the way they justified the use of slaves, how they organized slave labor, and in what ways slaves resisted. To begin, nations present in the West Indies, Brazil, and the Southern Colonies each had specific racial ideologies. In each region the use of African slaves stemmed directly from a need for labor. Likewise, each region varies in its justification of its use of slaves. The Portuguese justified their use of slaves in Brazil as a direct result of the necessity of labor. On the other hand, the French in Haiti felt racially superior to Africans using that as their justification. The French were so absorbed with one’s racial background they tracked heritage...
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...The Atlantic slave trade started on the Gold Coast, present day Ghana, about twelve million Africans were transported to the America’s. African slaves became the main focus of trade between Africa and Europe. American colonization demanded labor, but since the Native American’s could not work with European’s because theytheir populations were thinning out, they focused on the enslaved African people. African slave trade helped the wealth and growth of America but at the cost of humanity. African American Mosaic by John H. Bracey Jr. tells the stories of the slave trade in West Africa, on the middle passage and in America. It suggests that West Africa were willing to capture other Africans for weapons and wealth. The story of Olaudah Equiano was about how he was kidnapped by other Africans and taken through the woods to the beach where a slave ship was waiting for him. “Was carried on board I was immediately handled, and tossed up, to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me (Bracey, 16).” This is probably how every African felt when they were forced onto that slave ship to sail to an unknown land. Equiano also talked about how dirty and digusting the slaves ships were. “I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life (Bracey, 16).” Also according to Alexander Falconbridge, “The deck, that...
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...THE SLAVE TRADE Portugal and Spain were the first to take advantage of the Age of Exploration. The two countries began their colonial activities in the fifteenth century and became great colonial powers. Later, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch, followed by the French and then the British joined in the colonization activities. The Portuguese sailed around Africa as part of their exploration activities, and their main objective was to find a route to the Spice Islands. The Spice Islands are a group of islands in eastern Indonesia. Although the initial objective of the Portuguese sailing around Africa was to find a route to the Spice Islands, they later realized that they could make some gains or profits from Africa itself. Due to this new idea, the Portuguese constructed forts on both the western and eastern coasts of Africa. One of the economic interests of the Portuguese after they had settled on the coasts of Africa was to dominate and control the trade in gold, which was an important natural resource in Africa. Later in the seventeenth century, the Dutch took control of a number of the Portuguese forts as well as much of the Portuguese trade across the Indian Ocean. The Origins of the Slave Trade Slavery was being practised in the world long before the colonisation of Africa by Europe. You would recall that in our study of the First Civilisations, we came across slaves. Before the Europeans came to Africa in the fifteenth century, most of the slaves that existed were prisoners...
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...The Triangular Trade was the fundamental foundation of the development of the United States. However, this historical milestone did not develop overnight, it actually took centuries to excel past the African slave trade. Additionally, America, Europe, and Africa would not be the same without the three hundreds years of trading internationally. Thus, the Triangular Trade was the building blocks of our nation, economically affected the world, and ultimately impacted racial issues we are having in today’s society. The Triangular Trade process was distinctive yet straightforward, specifically the exchange of goods and slaves. The Triangular Trade was a three-sided international exchange of goods involving Europe to Africa, Africa to the Americas, and the Americas to Europe. The first leg was European ships sailing to Africa carrying iron commodity, textiles, rum, guns, ammunition, and manufactured goods in exchange for spices, gold, and most importantly slaves. The second leg involved ships sailing to the Americas voyaging through the route primarily known as the Middle Passage carrying the slave’s required to work on plantations in exchange for goods. A slave explains the ghastly conditions of the middle passage first-hand as, “This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a...
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...European powers in the search of wealth, land, and clothing. Over time they developed an economy based on cash crops such as tobacco, indigo, rice and cotton. The southern colonies were an ideal place for agriculture. The climate was warm and damp, which made it easy to grow plants. Virginia’s and Maryland’s main crop was tobacco, Georgia grew cotton, rice, and indigo, and South Carolina’s main crop was rice, indigo, sugarcane and cotton as well. The people who harvested these plantations were African American slaves and people of the poverty. We still use most of these products that were grown centuries ago. In fact, they play a large part of our life providing everyday uses. The southern colonies is the beginning of plantations to produce products that are still around centuries later. The land was rich of...
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...the relationship between slaves and slave-masters and how slavery operated in South Carolina. The demand for slaves in the lowcountry was significantly higher than the demand for slaves in the Chesapeake area. There were also harsher conditions and larger plantations found in South Carolina. The masters pushed the slaves very hard to increase rice and indigo production. To make sure the masters held the power in the slave/slave-master relationship the masters became deeply involved in slave relations and settled slave disputes themselves to show dominance and importance. The slaves created small communities of their own on plantations and formed their own family/village life. The creation of slave families both threatened and helped slave-masters....
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...In the book, Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia, authors Joao Jose Reis and Arthur Brakel discuss the Bahia slave rebellion in Brazil. In Bahia, slaves are the backbone of the economy. According to Reis and Brakel, “slaves made up the great bulk of the laboring class and were political, social, and economic subordinates of the planters”. After Brazil became an independent nation, Bahia faces an economic downturn that leads to declines in employment, as well as inflation. Due to these instabilities, there are small revolts that occurred from both the public and slaves. It was from these issues, that the 1835 rebellion will evolve. The rebels plan for the rebellion to take place on a Muslim holiday, known as Our Lady...
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...The plantations from West Indies formed the largest market for American fish, oat, corn, flour, lumber peas, beans, and horses. New Englanders did not drag behind as they distilled molasses produced by slaves in the French and Dutch West Indies into rum. Most Africans were captured and sold to America to work as slaves. The trans-Saharan trade provided enslaved African labor work on sugar plantations in the Mediterranean (Pattison p.1). These slaves were very competent in their work, and this led to Brazil dominating in the production of sugarcane in 16th and 17th centuries. This led to the establishment of the earliest large-scale manufacturing industries to enhance conversion of sugarcane juice into sugar, molasses, rum as well as alcoholic beverages for the triangular trade. Slavery led to the success of many economic activities in the United States. For instance, the cotton plantation was part of the regional economy of the American South. In 1830, cotton was the most produced crop in the United States. U.S was competing for economic...
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...influenced by a variety of different culture groups. Africans and their descendants have affected Latin American in many diverse ways and still affect many cultural practices today. One of the major events the Africans were apart of in Latin America was the slave trade. In this project, African’s affects to Latin America through the slave trade will be described, particularly focusing on the region of Colombia and contributions made on the Panama Canal. The history of African descendants in Latin American countries is very complex and controversial. The amount of African people in Latin America is surprisingly very high which resulted in the transatlantic slave trade in these countries. However, not all of these Africans were slaves, and the ones that were experienced a widely diverse set of conditions depending on a variety of factors. Spaniards felt that Indian slaves were inefficient and preferred to buy African slaves whenever possible. These African slaves were much more hard working and reliable than the previous Indian workers. Africans were also favored because of their ability to survive better under harsher conditions compared to the Indians. African labor was essential in all of Colombia. The Latino people used this newly found labor provided by these African slaves in every form and place they possibly could. Beginning in the 16th century, the slave trade took place across Latin American countries and has influenced African descendants drastically. On the other end...
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...gradual but dramatic change the way people viewed slaves. Many factors aided the deterioration of treatment towards slaves from a people to property mindset. Whether it was the beginning of the African Slave Trade, the economic driven cash crops, British laws passed to control slaves or the development of British Low Country each factor belittled the human aspect of a slave. To understand how one gets labeled as “cattle” we must understand where it came from. We first look at the beginning treatment of slaves to gather a comparison on how it differed from Atlantic Chattel Slavery. Slaves in the early east Africa were generally war captives of conquering dynasties. Islamic religion helped to maintain the humanity of these war captives. They were accepted as a member of the family (nation) but the lowest ranking one. Islamic members who owned slaves had obligations to educate and convert them to Islam. They also made it illegal to sell children from their parent which in turn was a cultural device to bring outside people into the society. After two generations of slavery these families were accepted into the society. Slaves during this time would also live to the same standards as their owners. This means a slave owned by a wealthy person would have a better lifestyle (clothes, food, etc.) than a poorer one. Slavery was still not a positive experience but when we compare to the lifestyle of Caribbean/America slaves one can see a huge difference. A major step towards...
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...slavery and a slave owner) had no African Americans. To take advantage of the slaves’ oppression, England established Emancipation for Blacks to fight. Blacks joined with the hopes of being free upon England winning the war. Unfortunately for them, the colonist who had later incorporated Blacks into their fighting force won. After the war, the northern states abolished slavery, but the south did not. Slavery was the center of their economy. During the time that the United States of America was being born into a nation. One of the founding fathers Thomas Jefferson (another advocate for slavery and slave owner) was at the Aid of Napoleon. The Atlantic slave trade was becoming unpopular in the West, Haiti was in a state of rebellion, and America due to international pressure voted to opt out of the slave trade. Though they voted to discontinue the Atlantic slave trade during the Constitutional convention, it lingered on for twenty years. The vote wouldn’t be put into effect until after Napoleons’ failure, and Louisiana was sold to the English colonist by the French who returned to France. After 1808, no more Africans were bought to the United States. Cotton was on the rise and the domestic slave trade had begun. The South did everything to hold on to slavery. They even manipulated the system by counting slaves as people in the census though at the time blacks were not considered people. This allowed thee South to have greater representation in government. Lives of slaves were ruined...
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...After years of war and conflict, African Americans were finally free of slavery; but even 150 years later, African Americans are still not treated equally. I’m sure we can all agree that African Americans deserve some sort of repayment for all the past injustices that were committed against them. This brings me to my first point. There is indeed a need for reparations. Throughout the 1500s, European slave traders abducted native Africans and shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean in terrible conditions. According to the Transatlantic Slave trade database 12.5 million slaves were shipped from Africa to North America, the West Indies, or South America. Out of the 12.5 million Africans, only 10.7 million survived the horrible voyage. Upon arrival, they were separated from their family and sold to different slave-owners. At each of their plantations, they worked from dusk till dawn, with no payment except enough food to keep them breathing. These people were entitled to compensation, but received nothing of the likes. Slaves were also a major part of the United States economy, so this is another reason that they deserve compensation. According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, slave-grown cotton provided for over half of all US export earnings. And by 1840, the South grew 60% of the world’s cotton and 70% of all cotton consumed by the British textile industry, which is the largest textile industry in the world. Clearly these African Americans definitely deserve monetary...
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...its historical struggle with slave trade and colonisation; and its resultant internecine warfare and exploitation of resources. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE SLAVE TRADE Slavery is one of the most emotive issues in history. According to Black (2015), slavery is similar to war: in one light, enforced servitude, like large-scale, violent conflict, is easy to define. But, what the slave trade means for the history of East Africa or the Mediterranean lands is different from what it means for the Atlantic world. By the middle of the eighteenth...
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...in both positive and negative ways. The need for African slaves for Europeans came from a demand for a labor force to work the land in the Caribbean Islands. European colonization in Africa reaches back to Ghana in the late fourteenth century. From the fifteenth century and beyond, Ghana was a major slave exporter for the Europeans to the Caribbean and Europe. In Ghana, relationships were formed with political powers to produce and maintain European slave trading posts on its coast. The African response to European colonization varied. Middle and low class Africans suffered greatly as they supplied the slave force. In contrast, Africans who held power or were wealthy profited as they provided the slaves for trade. In both the past and Achebe’s novel, European colonization in Africa was both highly demanded and discouraged. Prior to colonizing for slave trade, Ghana was known as the “Gold Coast” to the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and English. (Richard, “The Gold Coast Slave Trade”) Only gold and resources were traded between Ghana and Europe. Similar to Sierra Leone, Europeans made their way to Ghana in the fifteenth century, building fortified trading posts along the “Gold Coast”. This area was militant protected which often caused conflicts with inhabitants. Europeans formed relationships with those in political power, which allowed them to colonize parts of Ghana, and also have a consistent source to supply them with slaves. European colonization of Ghana, ripped the country...
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