Group Presentation: The Atlantic Slave
Trade
Between
1607 and 1775, Slavery in the southern colonies grew resulting from the “necessity”
of profit. Blacks were removed from Africa and inhumanely treated in the
colonies, leading to American dependence on profitable plantation systems that
were reliant on slavery; thus, creating a new social system based on race.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is a form of
Triangular trade, which, as the names implies is trade in the form of a
triangle connecting three countries. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade connected
Africa, the New England colonies and Africa. Western Civilization labeled
Africa as the “Dark Continent” , because they knew little to nothing about the
people. Slavery had existed before the trade system, typically within Africa when
tribes fought members of the losing
tribe might become slaves. Unlike Slavery in the Americas, known for its amount
of sheer brutality and basis in inferiority , slaves in Africa had rights: they
could marry, and live within their master’s houses. Africa was founded on
powerful kingdoms: Ghana, Mali, and Songhuay, complex trade: with Arabs,
Europeans, and other African communities, and wealth from resources: gold,
salt, iron, copper and diamonds. Once
the Colonies of Georgia. The Slave trade ruined West Africa as entire villages
wound disappear, guns and alcohol were introduced, tribes turned on each other.
This is known as the Diaspora of the African people which marked the dispersal of
the African people from their homeland. the Carolinas and Virginia established success
on cash crops: tobacco, rice and indigo. Colonists had troubles adjusting to
their new environments, the population declined as they suffered from outbreaks
of Yellow Fever and Malaria; meaning that the southern colonies needed a new
labor force. The colonies had resources while the England needed resources but
had rum, and Africa had laborers. For example a skipper from England would leave for the New England colonies, he
would sail to the Gold Coast of Africa and barter their liquor for slaves. With
their newly equipped cargo these skippers traveled to the West Indies through the Middle Passage
would use either tight or loose packing
to “organize” slaves . The Middle Passage took three weeks, slaves would be fed
twice a day, and would have small breathing holes. Once they reached the West
Indies slaves would be auctioned off to the Sugar islands, then the rest of the
cargo would be taken to the colonies and join the cash crop business. The skipper
would pick up a load of cash crops and take them back to England, and the Trade
System would repeat. Two prominent figure in the abolition of the Trade System
in America were the Religious Society of Friends (also known as the Quakers)
and William Wilberforce. The Slave trade Act of 1794 did not allow American
ships to be used for slave trade, in 1807 Congress outlawed the importation of
slaves, while the Treaty of Paris in 1814 both France and England abolished
slave trade. In 1859 the last slave ship to American soil which illegally
smuggled slaves into Mobile, Alabama, Georgia.
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| Atlantic Slave Trade Route |
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