The Atlantic System and its Consequences (1690-1740)

Introduction

The transatlantic slave trade was a global economic system of forced migration that shipped approximately 12 to 15 million Africans to the Caribbean, North America, and South America. The Atlantic trade in human cargo from Africa began during the 1450s, peaked during the 1780s, and then gradually declined until a rise during the 1850s, followed by an eventual termination of the practice after 1900. However, between 1600 and 1800 the transatlantic slave trade, at its height, impacted Africa culturally, demographically, socially, and politically. This paper discusses the Atlantic System and its consequences (1690-1740).

Discussion

The plantation economic system based on slave labor that developed in the Caribbean during the late sixteenth century and eventually spread to South and North America drove the demand for African labor occasioned by the transatlantic slave trade. Sugar was one of the early cash crops instrumental in the development of these plantation systems. (Barbara 35-50)

The techniques of sugar production and the use of slave gang labor on plantations were first developed in the Levant during the twelfth century. The use of slave labor for sugar production then spread to the Mediterranean when Italian states, like Genoa and Venice, began to promote sugar plantations on islands including Cyprus, Sicily, and Crete. The techniques of sugar production and slave gang labor eventually spread to southern Spain and Portugal, where they were co-opted by the Portuguese. Despite the proliferation of sugar plantations based upon slave gang labor, it was not until the end of the fifteenth century that West Africa became a primary market for slaves. (Barry 12-15)

The spread of sugar production coincided with Portuguese exploration of the coast of West Africa. The Portuguese developed sugar plantation systems based upon slave gang labor on islands like São Tomé and Príncipe, using African labor from adjacent sources, and eventually spreading into the Caribbean and South America. By the early sixteenth century, sugar production was developed on the island of Hispaniola. From there, it would spread to other islands in the Caribbean and eventually to Brazil. In Brazil, sugar production would take off by the late sixteenth century on a scale far superseding its Atlantic roots. (Thornton 55-58)

Centered around the production of cash crops like sugar, these plantation economic systems were highly labor-intensive, requiring a constant supply of cheap labor. Europeans initially tried Native Americans as labor sources. These proved unsuitable for various reasons, as did indentured European servants. African slaves, however, were found to be a much more practical and cost-effective solution to the labor demands of the plantation system. (Inikori 45-50)

Many of the slaves came from the Senegambia region, Upper Guinea Coast, Gold Coast, and the Bights of Benin and Biafra in western Africa. Slaves were also taken from the Angola and Mozambique regions in west central Africa. The regionalization of the source populations of Africans was felt in the New World as well. For example, large numbers of Yoruba slaves came out of the Bight of Benin during ...