HIST 405 Week 1 Discussion The Cost of Expansion

Sample Answer

Slavery was more than a labor system; it influenced every aspect of colonial thought and culture .In America, after colonization initiated to become more stable and their citizens started tobacco farming, after starting that farming few months later they believed that the tobacco leaves were hard to maintain and same time they noted farmers needs to be participated more for more profit in farming, which led them to investing on indentured servants. African slavery provided white in the colonies with a shared racial bond and Identity (Dahlberg, Sandra L).

Slavery had been accepted European practice long before the exploration of New World. When the Portuguese Slave traders began to buy slaves for export to the new World colonies. The European demand for New World cash crops, especially sugar, tobacco, rice, and cotton, led to a demand for labor to cultivate these crops. The Africans were well suited to tropical climates, they also brought special skills and knowledge for crops such as rice, which the British found useful.

Slavery and the African slave trade quickly became a building block of the colonial economy and an integral part of expanding and developing in the British commerce empire in the Atlantic world. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods which were traded for purchased or kidnapped Africans. These Africans were transported across the Atlantic as slaves and were then sold or traded for raw materials (Wickremasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker).

Virginia was the first British colony to legally establish slavery in 1661.The vast majority of slaves shipped across the Atlantic were sent to the Caribbean sugar colonies, Brazil or Spanish America. In the Caribbean, tropical diseases took a large toll on the population. Africans had limited natural immunity to yellow fever and malaria, however, malnutrition, poor housing, inadequate clothing allowances, and overwork contributed to huge mortality rate which further increased the demand for the importation of African replenish the labor supply (Wickramasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker).

The African slaves labor played important role for the financial life for British North America. American slaves never successfully overthrew the system of slavery in the colonies and would not gain freedom until legislative decree made after the United States Civil War.

Slaves are sold by African kings and can be gathered from people who were captured from war or were imprisoned. unliked indentured servants, slaves had fewer / no rights. Indentured servants had more rights than slaves and were still free by law. Indentured servants differ because they can be granted freedom after a specified period of time, the servants services, can be exchange for food, lodging, clothing, transportation, and other amenities during the indentured years. Once obligation has been completed, the servant can once again have the chance for a more liberal life. (Dahlberg, Sandra L).

Some servants will even receive a monetary incentive known as “freedom dues” upon completion of their service. They are now regarded as free members of the society. They are entitled with the right to own real state or Properties. Slaves are not given freedom even after many years of hard work. Therefore, slaves for as long as they live as such, they were literally become the property of their master and have no rights.

References

• Dahlberg, Sandra L. “‘Doe Not Forget Me’ Richard Frethorne, Indentured Servitude, and the English Poor Law of 1601.” Early American Literature, University of North Carolina Press, 1 Jan. 2012, www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-286718515/doe-not-forget-me-richard-frethorne-indenturedLinks to an external site..
• Wickramasinghe, Nira, and Alicia Schrikker. “The Ambivalence of Freedom Slaves in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries The Journal of Asian Studies.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 20 June 2019, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-asian-studies/article/ambivalence-of-freedom-slaves-in-jaffna-sri-lanka-in-the-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-centuries/0DA019FA2028635360498C72E37FDE21.