The impact of the transatlantic slave trade on America, Britain and Africa

Gains for America and Britain

• America's economy greatly benefited from slavery.
• Cotton, grown using slave labor, was financially the most important crop before the American Civil War.
• Slavery supported the U.S. economy through the growth and export of cash crops like wheat, rice, sugar, and cotton.
• By the late 1850s, opinions shifted, especially in the Northern states, viewing the South as backward due to its mistreatment of slaves.
• Slavery was outlawed in the Northern states in 1834 but persisted in the South, contributing to the American Civil War (1861-1865).
• Until the end of the Civil War, the American economy profited from the unpaid labor of slaves.