AP Euro - 1.9 - The Slave Trade

Causes of the African Slave Trade

The establishment of a plantation economy and the colonies of the New World due to a warm climate which allowed for a production of crops for export

What was the plantation economy ordered around?

Cash crops: a plantation would focus on growing only one or two crops solely to export them for profit

• Sugarcane and coffee were among the major crops

• These crops yielded a great profit for the planation economy

What were some problems the Europeans faced? What was their solution?

• The natives knew the geography of the land better than the Europeans and were able to escape

• The natives also fell to European diseases

As a result, they turned to Africa for enslaved people since:

• they had an immunity to the diseases since they had been in contact with Europeans for millennia

• they did not know the land

Middle Passage

The path across the Atlantic that the enslaved people took

• Depending on the weather, it could take between two and six weeks to cross

• The conditions were inhuman

• The captain saw the enslaved people as goods; the more goods he could fit in the cargo hold, the more profit they could make on the other side of the Atlantic

• Some ships were so full that each person below had to lay on their side

• Since people were so close together, diseases spread quickly and killed many of them along the way

• Africans were malnourished