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What was the new economic role of slavery in America?

What was the new economic role of slavery in America?

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What was the new economic role of slavery in America?
But Sepulveda's arguments, and the needs of the colonial economy for slave labour, in the long run won the war. Silver and gold from America (180 tons of gold and 17,000 tons of silver reached Europe from America by 1640) had jump-started the European economy and had allowed European merchants to begin to dominate the traditional trading routes from the Far East to Africa. (Blaut, 1993, p 189-190) A new source of labour was necessary to maintain this flow of wealth. And such a new source of "heathen" slave labour was already being developed along the west African coast, first by the Portuguese, and then the Dutch, English and French. There were clear economic advantages to these new slaves. Unlike the Native Americans they were immune to most European diseases and therefore lasted longer. Thousands of miles from home they were less likely to escape. Finally, they were clearly marked as different, by skin colour and physical features, making it almost impossible for them to hide. I will not dwell on the atrocities of the slave trade. Probably 15 million people were kidnapped from Africa, the largest human migration in history. More than a third did not survive the conditions of the trip across the Atlantic, the notorious "middle passage." The human suffering was incalculable and shocked even the most hardened observers. What is less well known is the importance of this trade to Europe. "The slave trade...was the basis of British--as well as French and American--mercantile prosperity and the source of industrial expansion...It was the huge profits from the slave and sugar trades which produced much of the capital for Britain's industrial revolution; the ships of Liverpool paid for the factories of Manchester. The technological achievements which were to give the West political and economic dominance over so wide an area of the world were made possible by the miseries of the middle passage." (Segal, 1967, p 45-46) As the influx of American gold and silver gave Europe the boost it needed to dominate world trade, the trans Atlantic slave frade anGuhe slave-based
Transcribed Image Text:But Sepulveda's arguments, and the needs of the colonial economy for slave labour, in the long run won the war. Silver and gold from America (180 tons of gold and 17,000 tons of silver reached Europe from America by 1640) had jump-started the European economy and had allowed European merchants to begin to dominate the traditional trading routes from the Far East to Africa. (Blaut, 1993, p 189-190) A new source of labour was necessary to maintain this flow of wealth. And such a new source of "heathen" slave labour was already being developed along the west African coast, first by the Portuguese, and then the Dutch, English and French. There were clear economic advantages to these new slaves. Unlike the Native Americans they were immune to most European diseases and therefore lasted longer. Thousands of miles from home they were less likely to escape. Finally, they were clearly marked as different, by skin colour and physical features, making it almost impossible for them to hide. I will not dwell on the atrocities of the slave trade. Probably 15 million people were kidnapped from Africa, the largest human migration in history. More than a third did not survive the conditions of the trip across the Atlantic, the notorious "middle passage." The human suffering was incalculable and shocked even the most hardened observers. What is less well known is the importance of this trade to Europe. "The slave trade...was the basis of British--as well as French and American--mercantile prosperity and the source of industrial expansion...It was the huge profits from the slave and sugar trades which produced much of the capital for Britain's industrial revolution; the ships of Liverpool paid for the factories of Manchester. The technological achievements which were to give the West political and economic dominance over so wide an area of the world were made possible by the miseries of the middle passage." (Segal, 1967, p 45-46) As the influx of American gold and silver gave Europe the boost it needed to dominate world trade, the trans Atlantic slave frade anGuhe slave-based
"The slave trade...was the basis of British--as well as French and American--mercantile prosperity and the source of industrial expansion...It was the huge profits from the slave and sugar trades which produced much of the capital for Britain's industrial revolution; the ships of Liverpool paid for the factories of Manchester. The technological achievements which were to give the West political and economic dominance over so wide an area of the world were made possible by the miseries of the middle passage." (Segal, 1967, p 45-46) As the influx of American gold and silver gave Europe the boost it needed to dominate world trade, the trans Atlantic slave trade and the slave-based plantation economies of America became the cornerstone of the developing European economy. But the atrocities of the slave trade ran headfirst into Christian sensibilities. Such slavery also sat uneasily with Christian doctrine about the essential unity of humankind.
Transcribed Image Text:"The slave trade...was the basis of British--as well as French and American--mercantile prosperity and the source of industrial expansion...It was the huge profits from the slave and sugar trades which produced much of the capital for Britain's industrial revolution; the ships of Liverpool paid for the factories of Manchester. The technological achievements which were to give the West political and economic dominance over so wide an area of the world were made possible by the miseries of the middle passage." (Segal, 1967, p 45-46) As the influx of American gold and silver gave Europe the boost it needed to dominate world trade, the trans Atlantic slave trade and the slave-based plantation economies of America became the cornerstone of the developing European economy. But the atrocities of the slave trade ran headfirst into Christian sensibilities. Such slavery also sat uneasily with Christian doctrine about the essential unity of humankind.
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