Delete parentheticals and replace with endnotes
Paragraph on morality: The institution of slavery created a materialistic value system in which the pursuit of material wealth is and always should be the foremost goal, regardless of moral consequence. This idea of the individual chasing profit no matter the costs is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, where self-gains are held above all else. To illustrate that the common belief was that slavery was just another industry and not an immoral act of forced enslavement of human beings, historian Eric Williams found that the majority of the English population approved of slavery in the late 18th century solely due to the fact that its economic advantages outweighed any small moral qualms. Rather …show more content…
This sudden growth was due to a positive feedback cycle that was created between a necessity for guns and an abundance of slaves. The reason why guns were so important to the slave trade and therefore benefitted enormously was because guns were the primary good exchanged to African slave traders for African slaves. Guns, a modern technology at the time, were so highly sought after by African slave traders that guns and gunpowder could be traded for more slaves than any other good. Whatley of Stanford quantifies that it would only cost around 3.5 to 4.5 pounds sterling worth of gunpowder to purchase a slave, while on the other hand, it would take nearly 40 pounds sterling to buy a slave using any other good. Therefore, it made economic sense to just use guns to purchase slaves, as the profit margin would be greatly higher than alternatives. However, unknown to the British traders who gave guns to African traders, these transactions would create a positive feedback loop between slaves and guns which would allow for the gun industry to rapidly grow. When a British slave merchant gives a gun to an African slave trader, this African trader now has a brand new military technology that is more effective than any military weapon they had before. With these new weapons, African slave traders, who were mostly kings and leaders of their respective kingdoms, would …show more content…
This moral issue was seen most evidently through the growth and misuse of the insurance industry. In the 18th century, insurance corporations, such as Lloyds of London, provided insurance plans for slave traders if the traders lost any of their slaves along the long, treacherous journey from Africa to the New World. However, this system of insurance resulted in a great number of frauds occurring, which sadly, would take the form of the deliberate deaths of slaves to cash in for insurance claims. One of the most glaring historical examples regards the slave ship Zong. In this case study, the captain of the trading vessel had thrown 132 slaves overboard and then immediately brought an action for insurance to the court after the insurance organization refused to reimburse the captain. The Chief Justice at the time, William Murray of Mansfield, sided with the captain and cited their deaths as lying under the insurance provision of “perils of
Paragraph on morality: The institution of slavery created a materialistic value system in which the pursuit of material wealth is and always should be the foremost goal, regardless of moral consequence. This idea of the individual chasing profit no matter the costs is a fundamental tenet of capitalism, where self-gains are held above all else. To illustrate that the common belief was that slavery was just another industry and not an immoral act of forced enslavement of human beings, historian Eric Williams found that the majority of the English population approved of slavery in the late 18th century solely due to the fact that its economic advantages outweighed any small moral qualms. Rather …show more content…
This sudden growth was due to a positive feedback cycle that was created between a necessity for guns and an abundance of slaves. The reason why guns were so important to the slave trade and therefore benefitted enormously was because guns were the primary good exchanged to African slave traders for African slaves. Guns, a modern technology at the time, were so highly sought after by African slave traders that guns and gunpowder could be traded for more slaves than any other good. Whatley of Stanford quantifies that it would only cost around 3.5 to 4.5 pounds sterling worth of gunpowder to purchase a slave, while on the other hand, it would take nearly 40 pounds sterling to buy a slave using any other good. Therefore, it made economic sense to just use guns to purchase slaves, as the profit margin would be greatly higher than alternatives. However, unknown to the British traders who gave guns to African traders, these transactions would create a positive feedback loop between slaves and guns which would allow for the gun industry to rapidly grow. When a British slave merchant gives a gun to an African slave trader, this African trader now has a brand new military technology that is more effective than any military weapon they had before. With these new weapons, African slave traders, who were mostly kings and leaders of their respective kingdoms, would …show more content…
This moral issue was seen most evidently through the growth and misuse of the insurance industry. In the 18th century, insurance corporations, such as Lloyds of London, provided insurance plans for slave traders if the traders lost any of their slaves along the long, treacherous journey from Africa to the New World. However, this system of insurance resulted in a great number of frauds occurring, which sadly, would take the form of the deliberate deaths of slaves to cash in for insurance claims. One of the most glaring historical examples regards the slave ship Zong. In this case study, the captain of the trading vessel had thrown 132 slaves overboard and then immediately brought an action for insurance to the court after the insurance organization refused to reimburse the captain. The Chief Justice at the time, William Murray of Mansfield, sided with the captain and cited their deaths as lying under the insurance provision of “perils of