What was the significance of sugar, rice, coffee, and tobacco in the eighteenth century?

What was the significance of sugar, rice, coffee, and tobacco in the eighteenth century?

Chapter 4: Slavery, Freedom and the Struggle for Empire

Slavery and Empire

How did African slavery differ regionally in eighteenth-century North America?

Atlantic Slave Trade: The systematic importation of African slaves from their native continent across the Atlantic

Ocean to the New World, largely fueled by rising demand for sugar, rice, coffee and tobacco

oLater condemned by people as a crime against humanity

o18th century—regularized business between European merchants, American planters, and African traders

oVital part of world commerce

o1st mass consumer goods produced by slaves

Sugar, rice, coffee, tobacco

Rising demand increased growth of slave trade

Atlantic Trade

Caribbean remained commercial focus of the British Empire

oBritain: manufactured goods to Africa and New World

oNew World: colonial products to Europe

oAfrica: slaves to New World

Merchants in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were active in slave trade

oShipped slaves from Africa to the Caribbean or southern colonies

Slave market of the West Indies were largest for fish, grain, livestock, and lumber exported from New

England and colonies

In Britain, slave trade and profits stimulated

oRise of ports like Liverpool and Bristol

oGrowth of banking

oShipbuilding

oInsurance

oFinance early industrial revolution

Free colonists and Europeans—freedom meant power and right to enslave others

As slavery became more entrenched so too did the idea of Quaker abolitionist John Woolman—“the idea of slavery

being connected with the black color, and liberty with the white”

Africa and the Slave Trade

Benin (African society) opted out of slave trade

Most African rulers took part

oPlayed Europeans against one another

oCollected taxes from foreign merchants

oKept capture and sale of slaves under their control

oSlave trade was a source of wealth and gave rise to African Kingdoms

Loss of population weakened society and economy

The Middle Passage

Middle Passage: The hellish and often deadly middle leg of the transatlantic “Triangular Trade” in which European

ships carried manufactured goods to Africa, then transported enslaved Africans to the Americas and the Caribbean,

and finally conveyed American agricultural products back to Europe; from the late 16th to the early 19th centuries,

some 12 million Africans were transported via the Middle Passage, unknown millions more dying en route

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What was the role of the Dutch in the sugar revolution?

According to Wim Klooster, the Dutch 'supplied all that the planters needed to start the sugar revolution', including 'slaves … credit … imported horses' and 'technical know-how'. In short, the pursuit of profit led the Dutch into an entangled history with Africa and the other European powers in the Caribbean.

How was the cultivation of sugar different from that of tobacco?

In contrast to sugar plantations, which required large slaveholdings that often led to a black population majority, tobacco plantations could operate profitably with smaller numbers of slaves.

Why is the Middle Passage important?

The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade.

What area was the major producer of revenue for the British Crown in the 18th century quizlet?

In the 18th century The Caribbean remained the commercial focus of the British Empire and the major producer of revenue of the crown.