Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade - Assignment Example

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Q1. Describe the role of the Portuguese in the development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? The Portuguese played a crucial role in the development of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Portugal was the first European nation to engage in slave trading, dating as far back as the mid to late 1400’s. During this time the Portuguese ships set sail on voyages down the West African Coast aimed at bypassing the Muslim North Africans, who had a firm monopoly on the trade of various Sub-Saharan commodities, such as spices and gold, which the Europeans wanted. These voyages helped the Portuguese make maritime discoveries and also furthered their expertise on shipbuilding, which made it easier for the European to navigate the Atlantic region. While the Portuguese started off by probing into gold and spice trade, over time another commodity made way into their cargo; African men, women and children. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, over 10 percent of the Portuguese population was African, due to the extensive slave trading engaged in during this time. The Portuguese started using these captives as enslaved labor on extensive sugar plantations on a scale large enough to overshadow any other atrocity being committed around the world. Q2. Describe how the development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade affected the development of the modern capitalist economic system. The development of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade had a direct impact on the development of the modern capitalist economic system. The capitalist economy flourished fervently primarily on the basis of plantation owners who used enslaved labor to grow their crops. By the mid 1600’s, the creation of ever growing sugar plantations along with many others, such as coffee, cocoa, rice, tobacco, indigo and cotton, led to an increased demand for African slaves. This increase in demand was followed by the displacement of an estimated seven million Africans between mid 1600’s and early 1800’s. The increased demand for labor gave opportunists and entrepreneurs a gateway to engage in innovative ways to gain as many Africans as possible. The Europeans started engaging in a barter system with the Africans, whereby African slaves were purchased in exchange of cloth, gold, silver, copper bracelets and even military goods. The human resource and all other commodities robbed off Africa by the European are precisely what drove the capitalist development and accumulation of wealth in Europe. Trade was at its peak and the commodity of prime demand was humans. Q3. Compare slavery and indenture in the New World. Explain why indenture dominated in some areas, slavery in others and why some areas saw a shift from one to the other. By definition, it is quite simple to differentiate between slavery and indenture. While slavery can be seen as a system whereby individuals can be bought and sold as property and forced to work under unimaginable conditions, indenture is viewed as a system of debt bondage whereby an individual is transported from one place to another and is made to work as a servant with no paid wages but allowance for food, accommodation, clothing and training. Slaves are subject to no contract. They are usually held against their will when being captured and are stripped of their basic rights. Whereas, indentured servants are made to enter an indenture contract specifying their prescribed years of service, after which they are to be set free. Initially, European colonists relied on indentured servants as a means of cheap labor over Africans. The life of these indentured servants was subject to great atrocities but it was not categorized as slavery. Many historians argue that those who survived the terms of their contract and received freedom in the end had a better life than those immigrants who came to the country as freemen. When the first African slaves began to arrive in the settlements, they were initially treated as indentured servants. However, the slave laws soon followed their arrival and any little glimpse of hope towards freedom they could have dreamed off, fizzled with the emergence of these laws. With the ever growing agricultural plantations coming in the picture, the demand for cheap labor was on a high rise and so were the costs of indentured servants. Furthermore, the freed servants started placing demands on lands much to the threat of landowners. At this point the colonists could feel a servant revolt in the making and to avoid such intrusion, a turn in interest was made towards African slaves, who were more profitable, accessible and convenient in more ways than one. Hereby, a shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had started. Q4. Describe ways in which slaves resisted their condition The slaves were dehumanized and treated appallingly. The slaves tried to resist their condition in a number of ways; both individually and collectively. They showed resistance on every level, from the time of capture and imprisonment, to the journey across the Atlantic ocean, to the plantations and till after some of them would manage to escape, they were persistent in their resistance. At the time of capture, many Africans would choose to jump off the ships and commit suicide instead of being enslaved and those who made way to the ships would attack from shores, raise mutinies and engage in insurrections. During the middle passageway, which was the journey from Africa to the Americas, close relationships formed among the slaves, frequently leading to revolts against the Europeans. On the plantations as well, many enslaved Africans would try to resist their condition by slowing down on the pace of their work and decreasing productivity by pretending to be ill, causing large fires or breaking machinery and tools. Some of the slaves also managed to escape from these plantations, further adding to reduced profitability, and would settle inland as free communities where they engaged in guerilla warfare to attack the plantations. The enslaved Africans also rebelled in more direct yet subtle ways by keeping their names, religions, traditions, culture and language intact and alive. Read More