Slave codes were soon approved – in Massachusetts in 1641 and Virginia in 1661 –and any minor liberties that might have existed for African American were taken away (Feature Indentured Servants In The U.S , n.p.). The early colonizers soon understood that they had lots of land to settle, but no one to actually do the work. This necessity for cheap labor created indentured servitude. Indentured servants were important to the colonial growth. But as demands for labor grew, so did the cost of paying indentured servants.
The high hopes of land filled with gold were soon dashed by the confrontation of hostile indigenous Indians and constant experiences of starvation by the settlers. As the colony appeared to be on the verge of collapse, it found its saviour in the labour extensive industry of tobacco cultivation. The fate of the Virginian economy now rested primarily on indentured servants from the British Isles and not African imported slaves. The harsh conditions and strict discipline endured by indentured labourers, and likewise the Indian community, resembled the brutal system that the black slaves would be subjected to at the turn of the century. It became clear that the new world was a profit-seeking enterprise, and there was no moral objection to the exploitation towards your fellow race.
African slaves were forced to move to colonial America. They did a lot of labor work when they came to America. Equiano, the first free slave to publish his own slave narrative, and many other Africans had to come to America. They were slaves of England, and weren’t wanted in England anymore so were shipped to America. William Penn wrote an appeal for immigrants to come to Pennsylvania.
LECTURE ONE: The Demographic Impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on African Societies The demographic effects of the slave trade are some of the most controversial and debated issues. Tens of millions of people were removed from Africa via the slave trade, and what effect this had on Africa is an important question. Walter Rodney argued that the export of so many people had been a demographic disaster and had left Africa permanently disadvantaged when compared to other parts of the world, and largely explains that continent's continued poverty. He presents numbers that show that Africa's population stagnated during this period, while that of Europe and Asia grew dramatically. According to Rodney all other areas of the economy were disrupted by the slave trade as the top merchants abandoned traditional industries to pursue slaving and the lower levels of the population were disrupted by the slaving itself.
Although the population of enslaved persons was large, the amount of slaves who died was large as well, due to mistreatment and diseases. In contrast to Brazil, The Caribbean had large productive lands that were transformed into sugarcane, cocoa, coffee, and cotton plantations. Sugarcane plantations were considered most dangerous because they had the highest slave and infant mortality rates. Because of these high mortality rates and large plantations, The Caribbean constantly spent money to replace enslaved workers. Instead of reproducing slaves within their own population, The Caribbean bought new recruits.
With the trading of the Columbian Exchange, diseases were increasing and affecting both the Americas and Europe. The Europeans brought multiple new diseases to the Native American population, smallpox being a major known disease. Wiping out two-thirds of the Native American population, they weren’t used to the infectious disease being brought with domesticated animals. With the impact of diseases not being as effective on Europe as it was for the Americas, Europe could withstand it. Also demographically, the start of sugar plantations and silver mines was another major effect on the Native Americans.
Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean, off the coast of the United States was discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus and his entourage, who claimed the small island for Spain. Unlike any other nation in the Western hemisphere that was involved in the slave trade, Puerto Rico initially began with the African freemen who came with the Spanish conquistadors. Originally populated by about sixty thousand Taino Indigenous people, benign diseases and attempted sucides soon decreased the population. As a result, African peoples were forced into slavery to help build fortifications, work the fields, and carryout slave owner’s domestic work thus entering Puerto Rico in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. However, the enslaved African peoples didn’t just contribute to the development of this new island; their traditions are what inspired the culture that Puerto Rico is built upon today.
The ships could yet return to England. The Negro slave trade became one of the most important business enterprises of the seventeenth century. The monopoly of the French slave trade was at the first assigned to the French West India Company in 1664, but yet they transferred in 1673, to the Senegal Company. The Monopoly of the Dutch Slave trade was given to the Dutch West India Company, incorporated in 1621. In the early as the 15 century, England passed from raising sheep and producing wool, an agricultural activity, to manufacturing cloth.
African Enslavement In the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, there was a large number of slaves being transferred to North America colonies. A large number of the original African slaves to North America came via Barbados. Barbados was the first “slave society,” which meant that it's economy was completely dependent on enslavement. About forty percent of the English residents of Barbados migrated to other colonies, and they brought their laws and slave holding practices with them. Both South Carolina and the Chesapeake were affected by these Barbadians ways of slave holding.
Slavery in the spanish colonies first started when settlers enslaved natives using then to work on local labor. When the portuguese had an increase in the demand of agricultural products they needed workers but many lives were being talke from native slave, they were not working hard, and diseases from the new world were killing them. this was when they noticed that Aficans were immune to the conditions and diseases. Being a slave in Africa was good for some but ever since the Portuguese came in to the slave trade, life for a slave became harsh. The main reason why the portuguese enslaved aficans was so they can have men to work on plantations.