U.S History 1 Chapter 4
Reflection paper Homework
After reading chapter 4, I learned that the Slave trade was vital, but it was later described as a violation against humanity. Every European empire in the new world utilized slave labor and battled for control of this trade. The slave trade was a common business in which European merchants, African traders and American planters engaged in complex bargaining over human lives, with the expectation of securing a profit.
Between 1492 and 1820 7.7 million Africans were transported to the new world. More than half arrived in the 1700s and 1800s. The asiento is an agreement whereby Spain subcontracted to a foreign power the right to provide slaves to Spanish America. The First mass consumer goods in international trade were produced by slaves. Some of these goods were sugar, rice, coffee and tobacco. The rising demand of these goods led to more slave trade. Slavery in the northern colonies wasn’t as important, it became less of a threat to society as a whole.
The triangular trades crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean carrying British manufactured goods to Africa and the colonies and slaves to New World. The colonial goods that were being shipped were tobacco, indigo, sugar, and rice. The slave economies of the West Indies were the largest market for fish, grain, livestock and lumber which was exported from New England and the Middle Colonies. Eventually the injustices of slavery helped propelled the colonists to get true freedom. Atlantic commerce primarily consisted of slaves, crops produced by the slaves, and goods destined for slave