Transatlantic Trade

Mercantilism

  • Government regulates economic activity to promote nations power

    • Exports > Imports

    • Roles of the colonies was to serve interests of the mother country by producing marketable raw materials and importing manufactured goods from home

  • Most valuable colonial products had to be transported in English ships and sold initially in English ports

    • Enabled English to reap the greatest benefits on European goods

Taking New Netherland

  • British government charted the Royal African Company + gave them a monopoly of the slave trade

  • England gained control of Dutch colonies in North America and Africa during the Anglo-Dutch War ~1664

  • Chesapeake colonies turned to transatlantic trade b/c of reliance on tobacco

    • Saw it as more cost effective since indentured servants could claim the protections of English common law

Indentured Servants vs. Slaves

Slavery

  • Based on the plantation, an agricultural enterprise that brought many workers under the control of one owner

    • Imbalance encouraged creation of a sharp boundary between slavery and freedom

  • Labor on slave plantations was more demanding than the household slavery common in Africa

    • Death rate was much higher

  • Slavery became associated with race in the New World, causing the divide between white and black people

  • Spread relatively slow in North America, beginning ~1619

Bacon’s Rebellion

  • Armed uprising led by planter Nathaniel Bacon against the rile of Governor William Berkeley ~1676

  • Followers attacked Native American tribes and burned the capital of Jamestown because they wanted:

    • Lower taxes

    • Removal of Natives

    • Overthrowing of the ruling elite

  • Contributed to the decline of indentured servitude and rise of chattel slavery in Virginia

    • It solidified an alliance among Whites of different classes

Transatlantic Trade

  • Over half of the estimated Africans transported to the New World arrived as part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

  • Every European empire in the New World utilized slave labor and battled for control of it

  • Triangular trading routes crossed the Atlantic, carrying:

    • British manufacture goods to Africa and the colonies

    • Colonial products to Europe

    • Slaves from Africa to the New World

The Middle Passage

  • Voyage across the Atlantic was a harrowing experience for slaves

  • Men, women, and children were crammed aboard vessels as tightly as possible to maximize profits

  • Diseases like smallpox spread rapidly

    • About 1/5 slaves died before in route

  • Less than 5% of slaves were destined for mainland North America

    • Most stayed in the West Indies b/c the high death rate on sugar plantations led to constant demand for new slave imports