Compare the motives for Transatlantic export slavery and the modern system of human trafficking. Also, compare the impact on the lives of individuals who are victimized by each system.
For hundreds of years, much of the world relied on slave labor to grow, build, and refine many essential materials. Commonly, slaves were captured in Africa and sent to the Caribbean, North America, or South America. There, slaves were forced into grueling manual labor and given little supplies to live on while being physically and verbally abused constantly by their white masters. By forcing slaves into these terrible conditions, white masters were able to easily produce valuable goods and sell them, sharing none of the profits with the hardworking slave laborers. Humans all around the world relied on the goods produced by slaves and, around the world, whites made large economic gains off the backs of forced slave labor. However, slavery
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One major reason that whites owned slaves was to show their power and wealth to their peers. While still using their slaves for economic reasons, white planters enjoyed amassing a large number of slaves to show off their power. In fact, it was common to see a white family “walking in the streets followed by a line of enslaved men, women, and children as a way to assert prestige and high social status.” (Araujo, 34). Owning a lot of slaves was seen as an accurate portrayal of one's social standing and prestige in the community. However, in the modern system of human trafficking, slaves are not used as a way to assert power. Since human trafficking “is a crime under federal and international law” those who use forced labor are not keen on letting others know about their illegal affairs. As time has progressed and countries have realized the atrocity that slavery is, human trafficking has been outlawed, henceforth taking away the previously mentioned motive of owning
New Orleans had a high slave population, which played a role in their economic development and growth, which is understandable since New Orleans had the largest slave markets. Slavery was an economically efficient system of production. Owners need the most efficient works in order to develop their economic growth. According to the Historical Census Browser, in 1830 Louisiana had a slave population of 109,588 out of the total 215,529 population of state. As stated before the prestige of owning a slave was considered a valuable item, in regard to race the purchase was a desire for buyers and way to illustrate their dominance.
The use of slaves has always been present in the world since the beginning of civilization, although the use and treatment of those slaves has differed widely through time and geographic location. Different geographies call for different types of work ranging from labor-intensive sugar cultivation and production in the tropics to household help in less agriculturally intensive areas. In addition to time and space, the mindsets and beliefs of the people in those areas affect how the slaves will be treated and how “human” those slaves will be perceived to be. In the Early Modern Era, the two main locations where slaves were used most extensively were the European dominated Americas and the Muslim Empires. The American slavery system and the
During the slave trade it was inhumane and violence, million of African people and children were taken away from their home to work in the new world. The slave trade took away many productive workers from Africa which they are skilled in farming and other establishment. The captain of the ship would try to enlarge their profit by trying to fit as many slaves as possible in the new world. Sometime slaves are captured and placed into dungeon with other captives. People would protests to be released but the two kings was corrupted and demanding
As the agriculture production was in great demand in America, white men used indentured servant to cheaply produce the products they needed. However, during this time, slaves started to become more common than indentured servants because, “As Africans, they could not claim the protections of English common law. Slaves’ terms of service never expired…” (Foner, p. 80). This made white men desire to have slaves who they could control and treat however they pleased for however long they wanted.
Specifically, southern white women used this period to elevate their social status so that they could climb the social tower to gain power and compare to men. Southern women wanted to get out of the ideal that women should only be housewives, so they used slaves to relieve themselves of house chores, which brought them away from just being housewives. This elevated them socially because instead of being ridden with housework, they were give leisure time and time to focus on their husbands and wives. Slaves were thought to benefit because slave owners would take care of the slaves and that they would be better off being a slave than running around Africa. Slave owners would give slaves food, shelter, and clothing, take care of their children, and teach them christianity (Jones, 102).
The Virginia colony intended to reproduce into an English society when they settled. With tobacco becoming a huge crop in Virginia, they invested heavily in servants to help with the plantations, “Our principal wealth…. consisteth in servants.” (Takaki 53). Whites
In an effort to discourage allyship, captains encouraged sailors to use force to control slaves which later bred the invention of race. All the while captains reaped the enormous benefits of the capitalist system that was the slave trade. While it’s history may be still be a bit of a mystery, Marcus Rediker shows us the massive social and economic aftermath of the slave
In the Americas, the main exports were silver and cash crops, both of which required work that was terribly tedious and exhausting. This led to the overwhelming predominance of slavery in the Americas, since the Europeans were not willing to carry out the hard work themselves. When the Europeans found they lacked a workforce, the sought slaves elsewhere. While the people who were called slaves changed, the institution never did. The same mistreatment, torture, and horrible conditions were evident in American slavery until it was abolished centuries later.
Thesis Statement When people think of human trafficking, many people think of just sex trafficking, but human trafficking also includes labor trafficking, which means being forced to
It is an obvious truth that in order to have a functioning society, there must be workers. In modern, first world countries, labors are paid well and are reasonably treated. However, some third world nations use an economic model harkening back to older times—slavery and serfdom. Between 1450 and 1750, European countries in the Caribbean and in the Old World utilized two forms of cheap labor—slavery and serfdom—to line their coffers and feed their populace. In the Caribbean, slavery was preferred; but in Russia, serfdom ruled.
The detailed descriptions included in primary sources, along with the descriptive and emotional illustrations included in graphic history are crucial elements in studying and understanding the process and history of the transatlantic slave trade. Rafe Blaufarb and Liz Clarke tie both of these together to help readers truly understand this historic tragedy in the book, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle Against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Although different than the standard book that may be used, that simply spews information out in an uncreative and somewhat boring way, this book is a tool that can be chosen in classrooms to teach different aspects of the slave trade. Working together, the primary sources and graphic history
The end of the fifteenth century is attributed as the time period in which Christopher Colombus “discovered” the Americas. Although he was allegedly the first European to have reached these unknown lands at the time, many sought to reach the new world, for a variety of reasons. Most of those people could be divided in two: the settlers and the conquerors. In North America, there were more of the former, people looking for a new home where they could rebuild their families and lives. In Meso-America, however, the goal was to exploit the lands in order to produce and extract new goods which they could trade.
The greatest slave trade stage was enslaved people transportation from West and central Africa to the New World- America. The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the largest forced movement and prior from the 16th through the 19th centuries. The salve trade between Western and Central Africa and the America reached its peak in the middle of 18th century when over 80.000 Africans annually crossed the Atlantic to spend all their rest of lives in chains. “For three centuries the white man seized and enslaved millions of Africans and transported them, with every circumstance of ferocious cruelty, across the seas.” (Morel.1903) Approximately from the 10 to 12 million Africans from the central and western parts of continent were sold by others Africans
Slavery in Africa and in Latin America was distinct, despite being connected through the Atlantic slave trade. While traditional African slavery was practiced largely by communities to help produce food or for prestige, slave labor in Latin America was practiced on a much larger scale, for it was central to the colonies’
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade impacted and changed the world by misplacing and separating thousands of individuals from their families and homes. Thousands of people lost their lives when they were abducted and forced into slavery. Many did not survive the ship rides to the Americas. Many were murdered and tortured. Some were thrown of boats and died from diseases caught on the ship.