Essay Example on Slaves: Crucial to Economic Advancement of English Colonies

Paper Type:  Essay
Pages:  7
Wordcount:  1838 Words
Date:  2023-05-21

Slaves were essential in the economic advancement of the English colonies. The legalization of the slave trade led to the massive movement of slaves to work in the whites plantations in North America (Stephen, 2012). The slaves contributed positively towards the development of urban centers, the industrialization of the European countries, and the provision of cheap labor to the colonies' plantations. The slaves also brought suffering to the colonies, they brought diseases that uncontainable in Africa and transmitted to new territories (Nozais, 2003). Since the disease was new to the region, they affected many Europeans who had interacted with the slaves. As the farm owners acquired slaves, they developed a new sense of ownership and wealth (Petek, 2011). Those who had more slaves in their plantation showed the master affluence and riches. Black slaves had been particularly crucial as a labor source for the agricultural plantations which sustained the new World.

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The increase of slaves between the English colonies like Maryland and Virginia was driven by the need for labor in the Tobacco plantations. These increase triggered some resistance to some of the work they were forced to do. Before the slave trade period, about 20 % of the people in the colonies had been of African ancestry (Stephen, 2012). The practice and legalization of the slave trade in the southern areas of America perpetuated the initialization of the 1st legalization of slavery. At a period between the 16th and 17th centuries, the colonies started mass enslaving of Africans to work in their plantations (Stephen, 2012). These mass exodus of African both forceful or perhaps through cohesion methods created colonial towns like Virginia and Maryland a hub of African slaves who increased to constitute more than 60% of the occupants of those towns (Stephen, 2012). The blacks were either slaves or free men but employed in those plantations. These blacks developed human relationships, communication channels, and survival techniques which helped in producing various kinds of resistance to the harsh environment of theirs.

The plantation farming system had started in the old era on Mediterranean islands like Cyprus and Crete, which was an unordinary advanced type of agricultural set-up that could be found around that time which made sugar that was taken to the overseas industries in Europe. At that moment, European farming mostly focused fundamentally on subsistence farming which could only feed the population without any reserves (Claremont Institute, 2013). But from the inception of slaves, plantations were placed in North America and black colored slaves were made the sole labor providers for the farms. These activities were meant to increase supply to their home countries and improve the European economy.

Black slaves were enslaved for a long time that it exploited them economically making an impact on the history of the world. (Arendt, 2013). Most essentially, it created heavy cultural divisions among wealthy white and bad black colored communities, the effects of that are still haunting most American communities till today. Divisions were enhanced via the dedication to segregate white and black communities and discouraged intermarriage, and with the unwillingness to free the blacks from slavery. This aspect was in contrast with what the slaves were going through and that which had been delivered to Europe, where each slave and inter-marriage liberation were typical. One virtuous element which was perceived in those conditions was the inventiveness that was behind the steady development of the black towns by the Americas (Arendt, 2013). This aspect made use of an amalgamation of European traditions and African happenstances. Even though the enslavement lasted for many years, there were some positive aspects of both the oppressor and the oppressed. The world was an excellent fortification of the traditional lifestyle of various societies which enhanced the global society of contemporary times (Arendt, 2013).

The Slave Trade that took place along the Atlantic Ocean had various effects on Europe and was one of the historic controversies. Little documentation was done regarding how slaves brought extensive financial consequences in the colonies. Even though some historians have generally provided minimal focus on how the slave trade impacted European industrialization it is clear that during this period, the economic transformation occurred in Britain and other European countries. However, there are general exemptions to this narrative (Claremont Institute, 2013). During the 18th century, Britain evolved into the first state on the planet to become industrialized, in conditions of a unique financial move towards commerce, manufacturing companies, and technology. Therefore given that the British played a big role in the slave trade, I could not be a coincidence for the changes. It is linked to slavery.

The British economy was altered by the slave trade in various ways. The industrial revolution was signified by the British cotton mills that were supplied with cheap cotton from farms where slaves provided cheap labor (Claremont Institute, 2013). If these mills would have been bought elsewhere it could be more expensive hence the British would not have realized such rapid growth. There were other goods such as sugar that were cheaply produced courtesy of slavery that British consumers enjoyed (Rose Davis Is Sentenced to a Life of Slavery). These benefits gained from slavery gave the British large profit margins gave their government an upper hand in boosting their development more than anybody else.

On the other hand, the Americas and Africans were forced to depend on slavery hence their economies were vulnerable and became dependent on the colonies. Besides, the products manufactured from the factories were sold to these Africans and the Americas generating more income for the British. Therefore, most of the British businesses, factories, individuals, and ports flourished on the foundation of slavery and the slave trade (Rose Davis Is Sentenced to a Life of Slavery). However, it is important to note that the slave trade was not the only cause of industrialization in Britain, there were other factors such as advancement in technology, political stability, innovative culture that was conducive for enterprise, availability of materials such as coal locally among others. Therefore, based on the above factors, it is radical to say that had had there been no slave trade, Britain and other European nations would have industrialized during the 18th and 19th centuries. The only difference could be that with slavery, the trajectory was higher than otherwise.

Further, two scenarios can be put into consideration in regards to involvement in the slave trade and how it contributed to the development. The first one is that if the slave trade was the "magic bullet" that facilitated industrialization, then, since Portugal was the leading country in the trade, they could be the leading industrial power (Stephen, 2012). But in light of that argument, the reverse is was true; Portugal was not nether the most developed or nor among the top industrialized countries in Europe. Instead, it was at the bottom. Another scenario is staged during the period when the slave trade was abolished. If the development of the European nations during this time depended on the slave trade, then there could have been a decline in their economic development during the mid-nineteenth century when the trade was abolished (Stephen, 2012). The abolition brought a little impact on the economies that participated in it. Industrialization in Europe kept progressing even after this period spreading to more European nations and kept the technological advancement wave in constant progression.

There were more policies that result in the inevitability of the slave trade in British colonies (Kamoie, 2010). In this respect, it's essential to be aware that contrary to the trust of numerous researchers who slave trade in Northern British empires started in the 18th century, it'd started a century earlier. During this particular time, there's the enactment of the 13 Amendment that encompassed Associations of Civil wars by numerous states. In this period, more than four million African slaves were today living in America. Multiplication of the African version through production lead to a rise in the population of theirs which ultimately increased the chances of theirs for mistreatment, contact with negative living situations, and curtailing of contemporary human rights. As a result, the multiplication of Africans magnified the spread of slavery.

The British primarily enslaved Native Americans. The majority of aboriginal communities had practiced the slave trade before the arrival of Britain in North America. Thus, the natives were far more knowledgeable in the slave trade companies sometimes years before the arrival of the Europeans (Kamoie, 2010). Nevertheless, their slave trade businesses have been much more of getting a societal condition over cash making. The individual with the most amount of slaves was seen to be an important person (Kamoie, 2010). Consequently, it wasn't easy for the slave trade to not happen since folks needed status tags to affect major issues like leadership positions in the communities.

European slave industry continuation influenced various other states like the French and Spanish colonists to also take part in the slave trade corporation (Kamoie, 2010). Particularly the Spanish colonists created a great servant labor process in Latin America just where it had a vast majority of colonies. As a consequence of the slave trade acquires by some other countries, it wasn't feasible to manage it at such a place bearing the social, political, and economic impacts it had (Kamoie, 2010). For English colonies and the Spanish, the Indian slaves they held weren't majorly not utilized for labor in the growing lands rather for cash enterprise (Kamoie, 2010). They believed that the Indians would quickly join along with other communities and escape or maybe form new tribes.

There were powerful effects on the development of colonies like Virginia along with other new territorial colonies (Petek, 2011). While African slavery or even trade on man cargo brought misery to a wide range of Africans, it provided investors, traders as well as plantation owners' enormous profits. Among the consequences of African slavery in colonies like Virginia led to the formation as well as the legalization of slavery. It legally became easy for Tobacco farmers to legally have African slaves as the property of theirs. Additionally, the law stipulated that individuals born within parents who are actually in bondage will inherit their parent's title. Essentially, the brand new model of African slaves created in captivity had no flexibility but become slaves in the same plantation as well as owned by the farm owner for life.

Conclusion

While it was of utmost inhumane to the African slaves, the laws certainly made absolutely no room for their lively hood or maybe some future improvements. Based on the Virginia Slave Laws, the reported that "all kids born in this nation shall be held bond as well as free just according to the problem of the mother." Moreover, African slaves made it easy for the colonies to satisfy the possible demand of the Tobacco plant (Stephen, 2012). As a result of the point that the farm owners had a onetime buying of obtaining the slaves and teaching those into the right working printer cultured in the colonies methods as well as culture. The training was conducted to the African slaves to have the ability to choose as well as work in the Tobacco plantations. The profits made from the improveme...

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Essay Example on Slaves: Crucial to Economic Advancement of English Colonies. (2023, May 21). Retrieved from https://proessays.net/essays/essay-example-on-slaves-crucial-to-economic-advancement-of-english-colonies

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