David Eltis Slavery

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David Eltis’s “Europeans and the Rise and Fall of African Slavery in the Americas : An Interpretation” is an article that focus on how the eligibility for enslavement came to be strictly racial over time and the economical influence on the Atlantic African slave trade in the Americas and in Europe from the middle of the fifteenth century to late sixteenth century. The article explores how the perspective of an outsider or insider went from religion and geographical location to only skin colour and race. Eltis argues that the high demand for cheaper but efficient labour was what brought about the eligibility of Africans as slaves in the Americas and Europe. Though other historians have already examined the origins of African enslavement, it would be unjust to suggest that this article is a subsidiary spin off. Eltis and other historians believe that the origin of slavery was economical but its abolishment was not and he digs through history in his article to find out what changed in the eighteenth century. …show more content…
He starts from how the insider and outsider status began to change over time and how one group became more eligible for enslavement than the other. He also explains the religious factors in slavery and why slave ownership took longer to be legally stopped in the Americas. He then analyzes the economical cost of the transatlantic slave trade and if it could have had an alternative and the changes in history that led to its abolishment and if it favoured anyone except the
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