1. Excerpt from World History: A New Perspective
"The crucial problem with sugar production was that it was highly labour-intensive in both growing and processing. Because of the huge weight and bulk of the raw cane it was very costly to transport, especially by land, and therefore each estate had to have its own factory. There the cane had to be crushed to extract the juices, which were boiled to concentrate them, in a series of backbreaking and intensive operations lasting many hours. However, once it had been processed and concentrated, the sugar had a very high value for its bulk and could be traded over long distances by ship at a considerable profit."
This quote from the book World History: A New Perspective describes the origins of plantations as we most commonly know the term today. As the book details, plantation-like farms were required to make some kind of profit from sugar at that time. This led to people being worked long, grueling hours, with them often being seen as less of a person. Although these started in the Muslim world, eventually Europe and the Americas caught on to use this horrible practice of early 'slave-like' conditions. As far as the economics go, this practice gained riches for the Islamic World, having one of the most valuable goods being produced on a massive scale. Money-->Slavery
Source: World History: A New Perspective by Clive Ponting.
2. Excerpt from: The Abolition Project
"The principal methods of enslaving Africans were warfare, raiding and kidnapping, though people were enslaved through judicial processes, debt and, in regions with unstable rainfall levels, drought famine. The degree of violence involved in enslaving people varied between regions and through time. Warfare was a common source of slaves in Senegambia, the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast (Bight of Benin) and Angola. Raiding and kidnapping seemed to have predominated in the Bight of Biafra, from where Equiano was exported."
3. Excerpt from: How Slavery Helped build the World's Economy
"African peoples were captured and transported to the Americas to work. Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th through the 19th century were dependent on enslaved African labor for their survival. According to European colonial officials, the abundant land they had "discovered" in the Americas was useless without sufficient labor to exploit it. Slavery systems of labor exploitation were preferred, but neither European nor Native American sources proved adequate to the task...More than half of the enslaved African captives in the Americas were employed on sugar plantations. Sugar developed into the leading slave-produced commodity in the Americas."
"The principal methods of enslaving Africans were warfare, raiding and kidnapping, though people were enslaved through judicial processes, debt and, in regions with unstable rainfall levels, drought famine. The degree of violence involved in enslaving people varied between regions and through time. Warfare was a common source of slaves in Senegambia, the Gold Coast, the Slave Coast (Bight of Benin) and Angola. Raiding and kidnapping seemed to have predominated in the Bight of Biafra, from where Equiano was exported."
This excerpt portrays the extent of European greed leading to the harsh and brutal conditions that were brought upon the native Africans. This was partially due to the fact that having workers who literally cannot leave, while at the same time producing objects that gained much wealth. This not only boosted the world's economy, but at the same time was a sort of twisted way of connecting different parts of the world though globalization.
Source: http://abolition.e2bn.org/
Source: http://abolition.e2bn.org/
3. Excerpt from: How Slavery Helped build the World's Economy
"African peoples were captured and transported to the Americas to work. Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th through the 19th century were dependent on enslaved African labor for their survival. According to European colonial officials, the abundant land they had "discovered" in the Americas was useless without sufficient labor to exploit it. Slavery systems of labor exploitation were preferred, but neither European nor Native American sources proved adequate to the task...More than half of the enslaved African captives in the Americas were employed on sugar plantations. Sugar developed into the leading slave-produced commodity in the Americas."
This is yet another example of the process that took place, where money took part in creating slave plantations and even an entire slave industry. As industry boomed, the number of slaves in the Americas grew as well. Brazil's economy grew alongside America's, with one of the first large-scale production of rum, using a new technology of converting the juice from sugar cane into sugar, molasses, and eventually rum. This not only added another continent to the African slave trade, but gave a plethora of economic benefits and trading partners to the country of Brazil.
4. Excerpt from: Was slavery the engine of American Economic Growth?
"It is inconceivable that European colonists could have settled and developed North and South America and the Caribbean without slave labor. Moreover, slave labor did produce the major consumer goods that were the basis of world trade during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: coffee, cotton, rum, sugar, and tobacco."
This article brings up a very interesting and thought-provoking question: Could The United States of America have survived and prospered (as much as it did) without slavery? Many historians say the answer is unfortunately no. The sad truth is much of of cultural and influence would not be around without the slave labor to keep us alive in the 1700's.
Source: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/resources/was-slavery-engine-american-economic-growth
Source: https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/slavery-and-anti-slavery/resources/was-slavery-engine-american-economic-growth
5. Excerpt from: Did slavery make economic sense?
"There was also a big industry in slave finance, procurement and transport. And by the end of the 17th century, there were about 70,000 slaves transported each year. And some financiers became fabulously wealthy. Christopher Codrington made a lot of money from the sugar trade, and made large bequests to All Souls College, Oxford. Individual businesses might have done well out of the slave trade. But the effect of slavery on wider economic development is also important. "
This article helps historians and scholars alike by putting us in their shoes to figure out if slavery made sense from an economic standpoint. Although slaves exist, it is not nearly in the numbers and massive practice. Plantations existed solely for the purpose of making money. This business had a lot of risks, leading to brutality and violence towards the workers, yet still gained huge profits. In this way slavery actually helped the world economy.
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/09/economic-history-2
Source: http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/09/economic-history-2
6. A major text on the economics of slavery is: Robert William Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. These scholars argued that:
10. Another Visual Source of Modern Slavery
- Slavery was not a system irrationally kept in existence by owners who failed to perceive or were indifferent to their best economic interests. The purchase of a slave was generally a highly profitable investment which yielded rates of return that compared favorably with the most outstanding investment opportunities in manufacturing.
- The slave system was not economically moribund on the eve of the Civil War. Therkoe is no evidence that economic forces alone would have soon brought slavery to an end without the necessity of a war or other form of political intervention. Quite the contrary; as the Civil War approached, slavery as an economic system was never stronger and the trend was toward even further entrenchment.
- Slave owners were not becoming pessimistic about the future of their system during the decade that preceded the Civil War. The rise of the secessionist movement coincided with a wave of optimism. On the eve of the Civil War, slaveholders anticipated an era of unprecedented prosperity.
It is very uncomfortable to read articles that depict slavery as such. To call slaves " a highly profitable investment" treats it much as slaveholders once did, as a business. Obviously, from a moral standpoint, slavery was unforgivable and hideous stain on American history but, from an economic standpoint, would have been sensible to literally own someone. I don't know maybe those scholars were from the south or something.
7. Excerpt from: Sugar
"Thus, “sugar production and consumption increased, as did the amount of land devoted to its production, and the number of sugar mills and refineries, distilleries producing rum, and slaves employed in the whole process. Most important, the profits generated by the sugar trade increased dramatically.""
This summed up statement used to display how and why the profits increased for sugar could also be used for a reason of increased slavery during that time. With the use of words like "farm" and "refinery", it sounds as if they were working for a factory, but let's be honest, they were plantations. Well, I guess some people either only think like an economists or still not sure of how "farms" back then worked.
Source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/239/sugar
Source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/239/sugar
8. Excerpt from: The Creation of an Atlantic Economy
African slaves were brought across the Atlantic within a decade of
Columbus’s voyages. First in small numbers and later in astounding ones,
regular supplies of slaves were provided by traders who had bought them in
Africa, where most originated as war captives from conflicts between
Africans. Even under appalling conditions, though, African slaves fared
better than Amerindian slaves had. The African slave populations had come
from often tropical environments, similar in many ways to the Caribbean;
they were accustomed to heat and humidity. If they survived infancy and
childhood, they already had, unlike adult Amerindians, developed resistance
to the most deadly Old World (Afro-European) epidemics, including
smallpox, and many tropical diseases.
I guess thats one benefit that slaves had over the Native Americans, they didn't die as fast. Due to it's relative closeness to Asia and Europe, people brought from Africa for slavery were accustomed to "old-world" diseases and typically lived a very difficult life of hard work. Another depressing thing in this article that's very interesting is that the first slaves were brought only a decade after Europeans (besides the vikings ) discovered the Americas.
9. Visual Source of Modern Slavery
Modern slavery is a little different than that of it's cotton-picking ancestor. First of all, it is very unknown to the public the extent of people in the world who are technically slaves. This is usually the case in countries with huge factories who employ many people who do not make much money, like China, India, and Myanmar.
10. Another Visual Source of Modern Slavery
Another visual source of modern-day's slavery shows a bigger picture of the economy and it's extent. India has about 13.9 million slaves. People don't see this on the news or listen to this on the radio because it's not as obvious. Companies scam people out of a fair paycheck and people blindly take it. The people of China who only have government restricted television, but also internet go on living in poverty, not sure of how good Americans and other prospering nation's citizens live.
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