Term Paper on Atlantic Slave Trade

 

In the late 16th century English colonists faced a shortage of white servants. But in the same century, the New World and colonists resorted to enslaved Africans. African slaves not only provided the labor force but also played a fundamental role in the establishment and development of the New World.

In the New World (the Americas), however, slavery come forth as a method of coerced labor which was designed to assist the production of staple crops. The raising of staple crops, like coffee, tobacco, sugar, rice, and, much later, cotton and the plantation economy made the importation of slaves from Africa specially valuable in the Southern colonies of North America.
“A stark racial component distinguished this modern Western slavery from the slavery that existed in many other times and places: the vast majority of slaves consisted of Africans and their descendants, whereas the vast majority of masters consisted of Europeans and their descendants”.

Although some Native American slaves existed in every colony, the number was limited. Indian men demurred at performing agricultural labor, which they regarded as women's work, and colonists thought that they were disdainful and made poor slaves. Even more important, the settlers found it more favorable to sell Native Americans captured in wars to planters in the Caribbean than to turn them into slaves on their own use, where they could escape very easily and that they also proved to be violently resistant and a constant threat. Therefore, the approach of slaying Indians or taking them away from white settlements proved unsuited with their extensive employment as slaves.

Far more important as a form of labor than Indian slavery was white slave holding servitude. Most of these indentured servants (not slaves) were poor Europeans who wished to escape austere conditions and take advantage of legendary opportunities in America. These white slaves traded 3-7 years of their labor in exchange for the overseas journey. These white slaves were initially English but later on Irish, Welsh, and German were also taken in as servants who consisted primarily of young males. In the colonies they were temporary slaves, mostly serving as agricultural workers, while few, especially in the North, were trained in skilled trades. In the 17th century, they performed most of heavy labor in the Southern colonies.

For different reasons, these white labors were able to improve their living conditions in England. And so the number of people willing to sell them selves into indentured servitude decreased suddenly toward the end of the 17th century. Since the colonies were growing at a very fast pace, this decline in indentured servitude created labor crisis in America and other colonies. At this landowners turned to African slaves to meet their labor requirements. This marked the beginning of African slave trade and racist culture in the New World where Africans were taken as inferior race compared to their white masters.

Works cited
Northrup, David, "The Atlantic Slave Trade", and Part 1: "Why were Africans Enslaved?" 2002