There had been slaves in the Americas before Columbus’s first voyage, and the invading Spanish and Portuguese conquerors stepped happily into the positions of the elites whom they defeated,[1] turning most of the indigenes into the equivalent of slaves. However, the lack of resistance of the indigenous population to European diseases resulted in a massive die-off, which Conquistador overexploitation hurried along. Since it was unthinkable for the Iberians to engage in menial labor, finding a new labor supply was imperative. A lively trade already existed along the African coast, and slaves were a small – soon to become a commanding – part of this trade.[2] African slaves and unfree whites – convicts, debtors and the like – were utilized as replacement labor. At first, smaller numbers of African slaves, and very few unfree whites, were involuntarily sent to the New World as compared to the numbers of immigrant free whites. These proportions began to change during the 1581 to 1640 period, during which both Africans and unfree whites were forcibly immigrated in much greater numbers. The reason for this surge in demand for labor was sugar, which, from a modest start, had become an extremely valuable export by 1625.[3]
Sugar rose exponentially during the 1625 - 1750 timeframe,[4] but was an extremely labor intensive crop. Between overwork, lack of proper “maintenance”, and lack of resistance to New World diseases, the average lifespan of a healthy young adult slave on first beginning work on a sugar plantation averaged eight years. Since adult slaves were available below “production cost” in Africa - as a byproduct of civil war - it was economically cheaper for planters in the New World to buy fresh African slaves every few years, than it was for them to raise slave children to maturity at age fourteen. Thus, during the 1641 to 1700 period, more than twice as many Africans, and half as many unfree whites, were recruited into the Americas than were free white immigrants. Unfree whites proved to be undesirable workers, and therefore, during the 1701 to 1800 period, their absolute and relative numbers dropped even as the numbers of African slaves forcibly immigrated almost tripled. [5] In the post 1800 period, abolition put an end to the transatlantic slave trade; the planters were forced to make greater investments in their existing chattel slaves, and a sustainable labor supply gradually began to form.[6]
[1] John H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World : Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 (New Haven: Yale University Press; 2006), 89, http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Elliott_Empires3.pdf (accessed 6/1/2012).
[2] Philip D, Curtin, The rise and fall of the plantation complex: essays in Atlantic history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1998), 113, http://hdl.handle.net.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/2027/heb.03231.0001.001 (accessed 6/1/2012).
[3] Elliot, 89.
[4] David Richardson, “Involuntary Migration in the Early Modern World," The Cambridge World History of Slavery, online edition, vol. 3, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2011), 574, http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/Richardson_Involuntary%20Migration%20in%20the%20Early%20Modern%20World.pdf (accessed 6/1/2012).
[5] Richardson, 574.
[6] Curtin, 114.
You provided a very good summary of slavery and "involuntary migration" in the history of the New World. It is true that many Europeans served as indentured servants and even slaves, but as mentioned by Richardson - by 1700 the practice was essentially abandoned. European indentured servants did not make efficient laborers on the sugar plantations as they rarely continued to work on the plantations once their term of servitude was completed as you mentioned. Richardson stated, “If state intervention helped to check trafficking in people of European descent from the late seventeenth century onwards, the opposite tended to occur where Africans were concerned. But for most of the early modern period, trafficking in enslaved Africans, often after wars or raids, was politically and ideologically a widely accepted form of international commerce” (Richardson, 578). I believe this is very important while discussing slavery and the advent of sugar plantations in the New World. In the Old World, African slavery was an acceptable form of labor and it seemed natural to extend the practice to the New World where the demand for labor was high. Even though Richardson draws parallels to the Old World and New World concerning slavery, he does state that the Atlantic slave trade was distinct for its scale, high mortality, and racial bias.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your investigation into the explosion of the slave trade during this period. One thing that was missing from my analysis was the influx of non-free white slaves into the region. While my paper focused more squarely on simply the explosion itself, your analysis incorporates not only the influx of non-free white slaves, but how it fluctuated as the need for mature, work ready slaves increased and the economic advantage of relying on the steady influx of African slaves won out as the primary source. Additionally, the great disparity this created in the population between free slave owners and the slaves themselves is a very interesting development. It brings things into perspective when you consider important historical events in the West such as the Haitian Revolution at the turn of the 18th century. It is a wonder that this revolution was not more common in the region considering similar population disparities occurring throughout the region.
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