Atlantic Slave Trade Research Paper

The creation of the Atlantic world also called the Atlantic circuit made it possible to trade large amounts of pretty much anything you could think of from one continent to another. This vast trade system opened the possibility to trade slaves, foods ex sugar, manufactured goods, and tobacco. I chose those things to talk about based on common denominator. That being Slave trade. Because of the slave trade I believe these other things were made possible. Now according to the Atlantic system the only thing being shipped away from Africa was Slaves and gold. Now what I noticed is that the areas the slaves are being taken to also export large amounts of Sugar, manufactured goods, and tobacco. Slaves being exported to South America have an insane export of sugar. Slaves were used heavily during the time when sugar cane was ready to be harvested, working 18 hour days. Corresponding to the map is that the amount of sugar being exported is directly correlated to the amount of slaves being imported. Slaves were also sent the southern half of North America. North America in that location was exporting a majority of tobacco. Slaves were used quite often in the south against the norths beliefs to benefit the souths economy. What I found shocking is there is only one thing that is imported into South Africa, manufactured goods. According to the trade routes The European capitol dominated the Atlantic trade system. Most importantly they dominate the plantation products. Therefor the gold being sent out of Africa is to pay for the plantation products being sent Africa. The Atlantic circle was created to promote trade among countries and allowed the trade of slaves to other countries that directly relate to the trade of products to other countries. Like the trade of slaves the trade of sugar increases. With further investigation a majority of all trades are related to the amount of slaves being sold. (F) The slave trade throughout Europe, America, and Africa were all made possible by the Atlantic Circuit. …show more content…
Although slave trade was nothing new and was going on for quite some time before. Things change though, and in this case it was the way the slaves were treated along with their status. Through the old system slaves were considered temporary labor and it wasn’t based on their race. As Europe used indigenous people from the West Indies. A major misunderstanding is that all slaves were worked hard and uncared for. They used to be servants to their owners and treated fairly. Surprisingly most of them happened to be women who were sold as wives or concubines. Now for the new Atlantic slave trade that is most recognized, slaves were no longer temporary labor but seen as permanent property. With the slave trade between the Americas, Africans were seen as inferior beings and were treated strictly as property and not seen as a human being. Along with that the African slaves in America worked intense physical labor that could easily last longer than 18 hours of the day. For this reason unlike the old system this new one mainly is looking for healthy 15-30 year old males. Getting those type of slaves helped maximize production of goods which of course corresponded to more profits. For this reason is why they obtained as much slaves as possible and worked them as hard as they physically could. The amount of slaves being put into the Americas directly affected the economy of Europe as well. With more slaves in the slave market around 7.5 million from 1650-1800. More sugar was produced and exported to Europe, where in return plantation products were imported into America from Europe. The French owned around 20% of slave trade and profited off that when good shipments were completed. Due to the slave trade America and Europe prospered greatly due to heavy profits on goods. While the given Europe and America, Africa …show more content…
The driving factor behind the slave trade in America was to maximize profits and obtain wealth. While Europe used their slaves as more of servants and to help with their economy. Money controls all of them even Africa, as they fought their own people to sell off prisoners of