Atlantic Slave Trade

(noun)

The enterprise through which African slaves were brought to work on plantations in the Caribbean Islands, Latin America, and the southern United States primarily.

Related Terms

Examples of Atlantic Slave Trade in the following topics:

  • The Rise of the African Slave Trade

    • Driven by the desire for raw materials, new trading outlets, and cheap labor, Europeans initiated an extensive slave trade out of West Africa.
    • The major European slave trade began with Portugal’s exploration of the west coast of Africa in search of a trade route to the East.
    • The Atlantic slave trade peaked in the late 18th century, when the largest number of slaves was captured on raiding expeditions into the interior of West Africa.
    • Other researchers claim the Atlantic slave trade was not as detrimental to various African economies as some historians purport, and that African nations at the time were well-positioned to compete with pre-industrial Europe.
    • Examine how economic desires gave birth to and perpetuated the Atlantic slave trade

  • The Triangular Trade

    • The Atlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean, predominantly from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
    • It is estimated that more than half of the slave trade took place during the 18th century, with the British as the biggest transporters of slaves across the Atlantic.
    • The resulting Atlantic slave trade was primarily shaped by the desire for cheap labor as the colonies attempted to produce raw goods for European consumption.
    • These Africans were transported across the Atlantic as slaves and were then sold or traded in the Americas for raw materials.
    • Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade.

  • Slavery

    • The number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history, remaining as high as 12 million to 27 million.
    • Human trafficking, or the illegal trade of humans, is primarily used for forcing women and children into sex industries.
    • In the United States, the most notorious instance of slavery is the Atlantic slave trade, through which African slaves were brought to work on plantations in the Caribbean Islands, Latin America, and the southern United States primarily.
    • Although the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended shortly after the American Revolution, slavery remained a central economic institution in the southern states of the United States, from where slavery expanded with the westward movement of population.
    • By 1860, 500,000 American slaves had grown to 4 million.

  • Slave Labor

    • Each systems was characterized by the amount of work time required by the slave and also the amount of freedom given to the slave.
    • This was particularly the case for slaves with knowledge about rice cultivation on rice plantations.
    • Research suggests that the task system was an offshoot of the division of labor that was already in place in the African tribal systems before the Atlantic slave trade brought the slaves over to the American colonies.
    • Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia.
    • Slaves were forced to work on plantations often under brutal conditions.

  • Chesapeake Slavery

    • The economy of the Chesapeake region revolved around tobacco and relied heavily on slave labor.
    • As the demand for Chesapeake cash crops continued to grow, planters began to increasingly invest in the Atlantic slave trade.
    • Virginia passed a law in 1680 prohibiting free Africans and slaves from bearing arms, banning Africans from congregating in large numbers, and establishing harsh punishments for slaves who assaulted Christians or attempted escape.
    • In this 1670 painting by an unknown artist, slaves work in tobacco-drying sheds.
    • Discuss how planters in the Chesapeake region increasingly invested in the Atlantic slave trade to support their rural tobacco-based economy

  • England and the High Seas

    • Throughout the 17th century, the British established numerous successful American colonies and dominated the Atlantic slave trade, which eventually led to creating the most powerful European empire.
    • In 1562, the English Crown encouraged the privateers John Hawkins and Francis Drake to engage in slave-raiding attacks against Spanish and Portuguese ships off the coast of West Africa with the aim of breaking into the Atlantic trade system.
    • Until the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, Britain was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic.
    • For the slave traders, the trade was extremely profitable, and became a major economic mainstay.
    • Until the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, Britain was responsible for the transportation of 3.5 million African slaves to the Americas, a third of all slaves transported across the Atlantic.

  • Treatment of Slaves in the United States

    • For instance, there were slaves who employed white workers, slave doctors who treated upper-class white patients, and slaves who rented out their labor. 
    • In 1850, a publication provided guidance to slave owners on how to produce the "ideal slave":
    • Following the prohibition placed on the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the early nineteenth century, some slave owners attempted to improve the living conditions of their existing slaves in order to deter them from running away.
    • In the mid-nineteenth century, slaving states passed laws making education of slaves illegal.
    • In Missouri, some slaveholders educated their slaves or permitted the slaves to educate themselves.

  • The Middle Passage

    • Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods, which were traded for purchased or kidnapped Africans.
    • These Africans were transported across the Atlantic as slaves and were then sold or traded for raw materials.
    • While the treatment of slaves on the Middle Passage varied by ship and voyage, it was often horrific because captive Africans were considered less than human: they were cargo or goods, to be transported as cheaply and quickly as possible for trade.
    • Commercial goods from Europe were shipped to Africa for sale and traded for enslaved Africans.
    • African slaves were thereafter traded for raw materials, which were returned to Europe to complete the Triangular Trade.

  • Slavery and Empire

    • Slave labor and the African slave trade formed the backbone of the American colonial economy.
    • Slavery and the African slave trade quickly became a building block of the colonial economy and an integral part of expanding and developing the British commercial empire in the Atlantic world.
    • The vast majority of slaves shipped across the Atlantic were sent to the Caribbean sugar colonies, Brazil, or Spanish America.
    • In 1660, Charles II created the Royal African Company to trade in slaves and African goods.
    • Slaves everywhere resisted their exploitation and attempted to gain freedom through armed uprisings and rebellions, such as the Stono Rebellion and the New York Slave Insurrection of 1741.

  • Slavery in the North

    • The northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, including Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, had legally permitted slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries.
    • However, during the decades leading up to the American Civil War, almost all slaves in the North had been emancipated through a series of state legislature statutes, creating the northern "free states" in opposition to southern "slave states."
    • Few slave ships arrived in New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, which instead became trade centers for manufactured goods.
    • The concept of "free states" developed in contrast to these "slave states" by the early 19th century.
    • Explain why the colonial North characteristically had smaller slave populations than the South