Slavery and Servitude: Causes and Effects of Trans-Atlantic Trade

SLAVERY AND SERVITUDE IN THE WESTERN WORLD: THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF TRANS-ATLANTIC TRADE
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Slavery refers to the condition of owning other human beings. It is often referred to as the ‘peculiar institution’; however, this practice is not peculiar to the West. Slavery has been a common practice in every society across the world except in Australia, where there is no documented evidence of humans owning others. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the kidnapping of people from Africa to work as enslaved people in American colonies. To aid in the westward expansion and survival of American colonies, hundreds of thousands of Africans were put under slavery and servitude. Slavery in America is recorded to have a significant starting point in 1619. This continued throughout the 17th century as European settlers used enslaved Africans as a cheap source of labor when compared to poor European servants. This paper will focus on the causes and effects of the transatlantic slave trade.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade started in the mid-sixteenth century and continued until the late 1860s. European slavers loaded African men, women, and children at dozen points on the African coast into Atlantic slave ships for shipment and later sale in America. This oceanic trade was brought about by the Portuguese and Spanish after establishing sugar plantations in the American colonies. European settlers cultivated huge tracts of land where they planted profitable crops. The farm work was labor-intensive, and thus African and Indian slave laborers plus a few European indentured laborers were required. The majority of slave laborers were blacks captured from the west and central Africa. Even though slave trade and servitude propelled the economic development in major regions of the Americas, it led to far-reaching consequences in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.[Knight, Franklin W. "The Atlantic Slave Trade." The Historian 63, no. 2 (2001): 470-470.]
Causes of Trans-Atlantic slave trade
The use of enslaved Africans was not a new concept since the Spanish and Portuguese had already enslaved Africans and put them into servitude as early as the 16th century. However, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was of a greater magnitude and scale, leading to the probe of the reasons behind it.
The growth of plantations in the west Indian colonies is one of the major reasons for the massive transportation of enslaved people across the Atlantic. After the Europeans conquered the Americas, they came across large tracts of fertile lands. Due to the tropical climate, this land was favorable for plantations. Unlike the small farms in Britain, the new plantations were, on average, 80-100 acres and proved to be very efficient for farming. Consequently, plantation farming became a popular economic and social institution. Since plantations were big businesses, they required a huge labor force that enslaved people could only provide. Plantation owners sought to purchase enslaved people in huge numbers leading to a demand crisis. As the demand for enslaved people increased in the Americas, slave traders had to increase supplies which meant more enslaving Africans. As plantations grew in number even to the nearby islands, so was the need for more slave labor. This fueled the transatlantic slave trade.[Angeles, Luis. "On the Causes of the African Slave Trade." Kyklos 66, no. 1 (2013): 1-26.]
In addition, the whole production process was very costly. The planting, maintaining harvest, and processing of most cash crops was labor-intensive and could be very expensive to the plantation owner. Since the premise of business was the maximization of profits, the European settlers sought cheap labor, which enslaved Africans could only provide. This became a major precursor of the oceanic trade that saw many African men and women put into servitude in new lands.
Enslaving indigenous people was problematic. The plantations required laborers in numbers, and the indigenous population was scarce and could not meet the demand of the plantation owners. This forced the European settlers to seek alternatives from faraway lands such as the African coast. The European and Indian slaves could not survive the harsh conditions on plantation farms, leading to high death rates. Therefore, Africans proved to be preferable to enslaved people as they had high immunity to European diseases such as smallpox that killed other races. Alternative sources of labor from the West Indies and Europe were sickly and feeble and could not undertake strenuous activities. Most of them would sink into depression and die. The resilience of Africans to endure strenuous tasks made their demand among enslavers rise and provided justification for the oceanic trade.[Angeles, Luis. "On the Causes of the African Slave Trade." ]
Africans are their enemies as they enabled the enslaving of their own. Despite the demand forces in the west, slavery could not be possible if blacks would not allow it. They had an option to resist the dehumanization of their own, but rather, most of them were active participators in this atrocity. Europeans could not independently enter West and Central Africa to capture enslaved people; they used the influence and power of African rulers and traders. Most enslaved people were captives of military and political conflict predominated in Africa. The rise of tribal wars and slave trading for profit in African nations is thus considered an indirect cause of the transatlantic slave trade.[Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. "The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa." American Economic Review 101, no. 7 (2011): 3221-52.]
A high supply of African labor drove the prices of enslaved Africans down. Due to the greed of most African leaders and slave traders, droves of enslaved people were transported from West and Central Africa. This increased the supply of enslaved Africans in the Auctions in American colonies. As the law of supply dictates, an increase in supply will fall in commodity prices. Since enslaved Africans were considered commodities, their intrinsic value deteriorated. Their high availability increased their preference for expensive and unpredictable labor from other areas. For that reason, the continuous fall in the price of enslaved Africans increased their affordability and demand amongst enslavers and promoted the transatlantic slave trade.[Green, Toby. The rise of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Western Africa, 1300–1589. Vol. 118. Cambridge University Press, 2011.]
Racial attitudes toward blacks also fueled the transatlantic trade. Entrenched racism among the Europeans made them think of non-whites as inferior to them. Blacks were considered to be less human and could benefit from the care of Europeans. The white supremacy ideologies and the belief that Africans were inferior to whites made it easier to justify slavery. The idea that most Africans were suited to work on plantations propelled the oceanic trade and their inhumane treatment in the West Indian colonies.[Inikori, Joseph E. The Struggle against the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade,”. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2003.]
Negative Effects/consequences
The effects of the slave trade were felt in the Americas and Africa, leading to a call for its abolishment. The devastating effects in Africa include increased violence and lawlessness. Economic incentives to the warlords and slave traders increased the hunt and capture of more enslaved people in the region. As a result, there was more strife and deaths in the region. There was an increase in tribal wars to capture more enslaved people for sale and increase compensation. During this period, the states of Asante and Dahomey grew stronger while other states became weak. Other states were destroyed as their populations were completely decimated and became absorbed by rivals. This affected other activities such as farming in West and Central Africa.[Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. "The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa." ]
Depopulation became a major concern in the region. A majority of the people taken to captivity were young men and women in their childbearing years. The elderly, disabled, and dependent groups were left out as they could not fetch high prices. As a result, the pop...