The Atlantic Slave Trade was an extensive system of chattel slavery that dealt exclusively in the trade of black Africans. Chattel slavery is markedly different from other forms of servitude as it involved the actual ownership, in law, of one human over another - as opposed to punitive slavery which used convicted criminals as a source of free labour. It is important to remember, when talking about the Atlantic Slave Trade, that slavery was not a new invention and that slaves were to be found throughout the ancient world, being an integral part of some of the most iconic cultures we know of to this day – Romans, Vikings and Babylonians were notorious slave owners and traders in their own times.
British involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade …show more content…
The work these men and women were enslaved to do involved long, labour intensive days on plantations for sugar cane, tobacco, cotton and rice in North America and the Caribbean.
In the early years of the Atlantic Slave trade, Biblical passages were used in an attempt to justify the ownership and trade of slaves both through portraying Africans as inferior (by relating them to the Canaanites) and by portraying slavery as an attempt to bring the Christian message to ‘heathen’ Africa. (BBC Religions Site) As is mentioned in Unit 14, there was little to no attempt to use Europeans as chattel slaves in the Caribbean and the Americas as they made up part of the perceived Christian community. Instead, they traced the origins of humanity’s many races back to the Book of Genesis and used a curse placed on a character called Canaan by Noah as justification for the enslavement of an entire race. Connections were also made between Africans and the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to further the belief that black Africans were inferior to white …show more content…
WHAT HAVE THE CONSEQUENCES BEEN?:
- Though not an official part of the Block 4 materials, the Open Learn article Riches & Misery: The Consequences Of The Atlantic Slave Trade by Dr William Hardy (2014) offers an complimentary insight into the consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
- The most obvious consequence for West Africa stems from the loss of the strongest men and women from the continent, as they would have been prime targets for slavers and would have fetched the highest prices.
- The loss of these men and women abroad meant losing a strong workforce for African infrastructure as well as moving desirable, dominant genetics out of the gene pool.
- The article by Dr Hardy also highlight that having slaves as their largest export could have caused stagnation in Africa’s developing economy as they failed to develop other sources of income due to slavery being so profitable.
British involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade …show more content…
The work these men and women were enslaved to do involved long, labour intensive days on plantations for sugar cane, tobacco, cotton and rice in North America and the Caribbean.
In the early years of the Atlantic Slave trade, Biblical passages were used in an attempt to justify the ownership and trade of slaves both through portraying Africans as inferior (by relating them to the Canaanites) and by portraying slavery as an attempt to bring the Christian message to ‘heathen’ Africa. (BBC Religions Site) As is mentioned in Unit 14, there was little to no attempt to use Europeans as chattel slaves in the Caribbean and the Americas as they made up part of the perceived Christian community. Instead, they traced the origins of humanity’s many races back to the Book of Genesis and used a curse placed on a character called Canaan by Noah as justification for the enslavement of an entire race. Connections were also made between Africans and the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to further the belief that black Africans were inferior to white …show more content…
WHAT HAVE THE CONSEQUENCES BEEN?:
- Though not an official part of the Block 4 materials, the Open Learn article Riches & Misery: The Consequences Of The Atlantic Slave Trade by Dr William Hardy (2014) offers an complimentary insight into the consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
- The most obvious consequence for West Africa stems from the loss of the strongest men and women from the continent, as they would have been prime targets for slavers and would have fetched the highest prices.
- The loss of these men and women abroad meant losing a strong workforce for African infrastructure as well as moving desirable, dominant genetics out of the gene pool.
- The article by Dr Hardy also highlight that having slaves as their largest export could have caused stagnation in Africa’s developing economy as they failed to develop other sources of income due to slavery being so profitable.