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.
By the 1850s iron manufacturing was doing especially well, and by 1860 it was the nation's leading industry. Cotton production was another major industry. Investors profited significantly at the expense of workers. Industry depended greatly on immigrant laborers. Approximately four million Irish, German, and British immigrants moved to the United States between 1820 and 1860.
SLAVERY AS A CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR There is no doubt that the civil war was the most brutal battle fought on American soil between the years of 1861 to 1865. The Union and Confederate states had many differences between them, which resulted in the Civil war including from the issue of the South and State Rights, to the issue of national unity and westward expansion. Although one of the most controversial causes of the civil war was the issue of slavery. It was the reason that many historians believe as to why the civil war broke out in the first place. The South were all for slavery: * Slaves would work on the cotton and tobacco plantations in the south, working the land.
The impact of the slave trade in the 15th century, had devastating effects on Africa as a whole. The centuries of slave capturing and exporting drained Africa of millions of its strongest and most capable youth between the ages of 15 and 25. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of Africans who were taken away from the continent during the period between the 15th century and the 19th century. The European slave merchants did keep records on the sale and transport of slaves but it is difficult for any objective person to accept these records as being valid and accurate. Many slaves were transported illegally after the trade in human cargo was deemed illegal in England and America during the middle 19th century.
The industrialization of England required a vast abundance of resources; England quickly colonized many areas of Africa and South Asia. The colonies were used to supply England with resources not found in the homeland, and “also provided captive markets for the abundance of new goods provided by the industrial revolution” (Gernhard). One important resource for England was cotton. Cotton was a major import from India, “between 1796 and 1830 cotton production tripled” (Herbman). As a result of the growth of cotton, the textile industry took off.
Runaway slaves were very common, slaves killing slave masters; and slavery as an established legitimate institution was cracking at its base. White people realized that most black people and mulattoes would prefer to return to their African motherland than to live in servitude. Thus in 1821 the American Colonization Society bought a large piece of land (43,000 sq. miles, almost half the entire new country) in the west coast of Africa "Cape Mesurado". The site then was called Grain Coast by the Portuguese because of its valuable crop called "Pepper."
Some of the major problems included: No compensation They had no money They were still considered inferior Laws were passed to ensure they didn’t have access to lands They receive low wages. It’s important to note that although emancipation was the end result of the slave trade and slavery in the British Caribbean, only children less than six years old were to be freed immediately everyone else could be made to serve apprenticeship if assemblies thought it necessary. Apprentices would have to work 40 and half hours a week without pay for their former enslavers, but beyond that they could demand a wage or hire themselves to another planter. (Claypole & Robottom, 2009) As freedom for slaves became inevitable, the pro-slavery lobby switched tactics to request compensation for the human ‘property’ that was to be taken from Plantation owners. Daniel O’Connell an abolitionist of slavery had opposed to compensation for the planters.
Over three- hundred fifty years ago black Americans were enslaved. The first African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in1619. Slavery continued throughout the American colonies and African Americans slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation. By the mid ninth-teen century, America’s westward expansion, along with a growing abolition movement in the North, would provoke a great debate over slavery that would tear the nation apart in the bloody American civil war. Even though, the Union victory freed the nation’s four million slaves, the legacy of slavery continued to influence American history, ongoing to the years of Reconstruction to the civil rights movement that emerged in the 1960’s, a century after the emancipation.
The main features of the industrial revolution was the massive economic boom. Britain began to produce more cotton and other materials than ever before. Towns grew rapidly because of new jobs on offer and wealth of the country rapidly grew. Charles dickens shows us in hard times you were either with lots of possessions or without any. He shows that the difference between rich and poor grew dramatically.
Slavery built the U.S.’s economy. As we’ve learned through the readings and all the films and documentaries watched in this class, two of the largest exports out of the U.S. (the South, to be more specific) were cotton and tobacco, which were picked by the slaves. As the demands for cotton and tobacco increased, so did the number of slaves, which unfortunately led to (White Americans) believing to be superior and led to hate and discriminating against a group of people based on their skin color. This led the Civil Rights Movement in 1964, which changed history in America, with some important events that I’ve learned from taking this class. Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion, (also known as the Southampton Insurrection), which was a slave rebellion that took place in Southampton county in Virginia in August 1831.