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The arrival of explorers and traders from Portugal on the coast of Sub-Saharan Africa in the early 15th century was the turning point of African slavery. It marked a significant new development in the history of the African slave trade in terms of its intensive development, its slave sources, and the intended uses of the captured slaves. When the Europeans began shipping African slaves to Europe in mid 15th Century, they were mainly meant to serve as domestic servants (Eltis 43). Moreover, the Portuguese engaged in the slave trade on the African coast on a mass scale. They traded African slaves in exchange for gold which was then exported to Europe. During this period, Europe was experiencing a shortage of precious metals such as gold and diamonds, thus the Portuguese found it ideal to export gold to Europe as opposed to the slave trade (Klein 42). The expansion of Europe led to an increased imbalance of trade with Asia and therefore, gold from Sub-Saharan Africa helped Europe sustain that trade. However, with the discovery of sugar production at the end of the 15th Century to the Atlantic Islands and the opening up of the New World (Americas) in the European conquests, the Portuguese discovered new ways of utilizing slave labor in these sugar plantations (Klein 42). This paper discusses how African slaves were introduced into the European plantation systems as farm laborers around the period 1525 and 1700.
The Spread of European Slave Plantation Systems
In the 16th Century, wealthy European masters owned only a few slaves. Most African slaves were owned by aristocrats and institutions which were wealthy (Klein 43). Many of these people were also major landowners. However, they infrequently engaged their slaves in agriculture. However, the introduction of African slaves to the unpopulated Atlantic Islands defined the European plantations systems that spread to the New World conquered by the Europeans. The Atlantic Islands proved to be more ideal for sugar cane plantations which required intensive labor. Islands such as Madeira, Sao Tome, and the Canaries became the most important sugar-producing islands. By the end of the 15th Century, Madeira had become Europe’s largest sugar producer. By the 1530s, Madeira’s dominance in terms of leading sugar producers had been outpaced by competition from other islands. The Canary Islands had also become a major sugar production Island during this period. Both Madeira and Canary Islands first used Guanche natives as slaves along with moors imported from Spain. These slaves were quickly replaced by African slaves who became the dominant labor force on the sugar estates. Sao Tome was the final Atlantic Island to develop a major sugar plantation slave system. Before European penetration, this island like other Atlantic Islands had been inhabited. The Europeans had established some 60 mills on the island and some 2000 plantation slaves of African descent. This Island also had slave pens for African slaves in transit to Europe and the Americas. Eventually, the island’s important role as a transfer and American competition led to the decline of the Island’s sugar industry. In essence, the sugar-producing islands had formed sugar plantation regimes that were functional which turned out to be models of such institutions which were transported to the New World. African slaves imported directly from the African coast were deployed to work in the rural estates on these Islands. By the European slave holdings in the period then, slaves were held in extremely large lots, and urban and domestic slavery was held as minor occupations. The New World plantation systems were well-formed, with a smaller population of rich mill owners at the top of the echelon possessing most lands and slaves. They were followed by the intermediate category of European planters who possessed slaves and sugar fields but could not afford to own mills. Peasant European population that was poor hardly existed. Skilled administrative and mill operations were positions offered to whites only who were not in a position to own slaves. The lowest category was made up of the mass of black slaves who comprised up a majority of the labor force as well as the population in general (Klein 42).
In sum, the Portuguese had extensive experience with African slaves in their Atlantic Islands and had direct access to African labor markets. Once it decided to fully exploit its American colony, the attention towards the African labor force was occasioned by the availability of capital for importations. The experiences of the Europeans with American Indian workers were less successful. The American Indian workers were less adaptable to systemic agricultural labor and highly vulnerable to European diseases compared to Africans. As the American economy continued to expand, the American Indian population declined. Thus accessibility to African labor markets enabled the Europeans to introduce African slave plantation systems to fully exploit their American colony. Europeans from northern Europe who later followed Portugal and Spain (Iberians) to America had cheaper and more willing European laborers to exploit, especially in the crisis period of the 17th Century. Despite the availability of this labor, peasants and the urban poor could not afford to migrate to America. Their migration was subsidized through the selling of one’s labor to American employers in indentured contracts. This turned out to be the major form of colonization in the first half-century of northern European settlement in America. Indentured labor was primarily used by the English and French who were assisted by the pool of workers faced by low wages within the European economy. However, the end of the 17th Century European crisis, and in particular the rapid growth of the English economy in the last quarter of the century, resulted in a thriving labor market in Europe and an increase in indentured laborers. The high cost of indentured European laborers and inaccessibility to American Indian workers made it inevitable for the English and the French to turn to African slaves. This was especially after the two European nations had discovered that sugar was the best crop that could be profitably exported to the European market on a mass scale (Eltis 43). The growth and development of the English plantation system focused on African labor at the end of the transition. At around 1675, sugar exports from English Caribbean overtook the volume of the Brazilian sugar exports. By 1700 the English sugar plantations had absorbed over 177,000 slaves of African origin. Therefore, we can attribute the industrial development of Europe and the Americas (New World) more to the adoption of slave plantation systems by European conquering nations (Klein 43).
Works cited
Eltis, D. The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Klein, H. African Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford University Press, 1988.
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