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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