The Great Exchange and the Atlantic World

1
The Great Exchange and the Atlantic World

• 1450-1750

2
What are the pieces of the new Atlantic economy?
How can it be addressed as symbiotic?

• Slavery is only one part of the Atlantic economy.
  
• The slave ship the Hannibal did not turn a
  profit, but was an important piece of the big
  picture of the Atlantic trade network.
• The Atlantic System was comprised of many things
  that relate to the mercantilist and capitalist
  systems and the changes that developed between
  government and individual private investors.
• There is a relationship between African and
  European merchants and elites in forming a
  working economic relationship.
• Finally, the development of the plantation system
  and the choice of growing a single cash crop on
  the plantation gave rise to the Atlantic slave
  trade and allowed European traders to participate
  in the global market place more effectively and
  profitably.

3
How did the Saharan slave trade differ from the
Atlantic slave trade?

• While the number of enslaved Africans in the
  Saharan trade was smaller than in Atlantic trade,
  it was still substantial.
• Indigenous Muslim states controlled both sides of
  the Saharan trade, although most of the slaves
  were non-Muslim African captives.
• Slaves served different purposes in Muslim
  societies than in the Americas most were
  servants others performed state and military
  functions.
• The Atlantic slave trade was heavily male, the
  Saharan slave trade heavily female.

4
What is the Great Circuit?

• The flow of goods and people between Europe,
  Africa, and the Americas had many variations.
• Some trading patterns were three-sided, or
  triangular. Others were two-sided.
• For example, New England shipped foodstuffs and
  livestock to the West Indies in return for rum
  and molasses.
• Overall, goods flowed from Europe to Africa,
  where they were exchanged for many different
  items, as well as slaves.
• Slaves were carried to the Americas, where they
  were sold or exchanged.
• Some details of the dreaded Middle Passage should
  be provided by the students.
• The primary products carried from the Americas to
  Europe were sugar, coffee, cacao, rum, molasses,
  and tobacco.
• Besides this larger pattern, the Atlantic Circuit
  had many smaller variations. Students should
  acknowledge that, while large numbers of Africans
  were victims of these patterns, many African
  merchants and rulers were able to profit from
  participating in the Atlantic trade.

5
Discuss the interactions between Europeans and
Africans in the Atlantic slave trade.

• Europeans were initially interested in trade, not
  in colonizing and controlling Africa.
• It was African kings and merchants who controlled
  the trade, not Europeans. Africans did not barter
  people for cheap goods, as is often described.
• They demanded high-quality goods that they could
  not produce, or at least could not produce in
  large quantities. African gold, ivory, and timber
  remained important features of European trade.
• African governments controlled both the price and
  the quantity of slaves and could unilaterally
  suspend the trade when they wished.
• The trade differed widely from region to region
  within Africa, depending on both the African and
  European nations that were involved.

6
What are the various theories as to why African
slave labor was so widely used in the Americas?
Which theory is most commonly accepted at
present?

• There are several theories.
• A once-popular theory held that Africans were
  more resistant to disease, as well as better
  suited to heavy work in tropical climates.
• Another held that use of Africans was motivated
  primarily by prejudice.
• Eric Williams has refuted that particular theory
  with his famous quote that Slavery was not born
  of racism rather, racism was the consequence of
  slavery.
• Another assertion was that slaves were cheap.
• They were not, but since white Europeans
  indentures were relatively brief, the high cost
  of slaves could be minimized over a longer period
  of time.
• Rising sugar prices also meant that sugar growers
  could afford more expensive African slaves.

7
How do the European mercantile and capitalist
systems compare?

• Mercantilism comprised the policies of European
  states to promote overseas trade and defend
  national interests.
• Capitalism grew as an internal European system,
  involving the management of large financial
  resources through banks, stock exchanges, and
  trading companies.
• Mercantilist policies that supported capitalism
  included chartered companies, tariffs, and trade
  laws.
• The largest capitalist overseas investments were
  in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.
• To defend their West Indian plantation colonies
  from other countries European states used
  military actions as well as protective laws.

8
What was the life of a slave like on a West
Indian sugar plantation in the eighteenth
century?

• The slaves planted and weeded sugar cane as well
  as harvested, milled, and refined the sugar.
• There was a gender imbalance of slave populations
  and sexual divisions of labor on the plantation.
• Low reproductive rates and high numbers of new
  slave imports were an integral part of slaves
  family and social lives.
• Home lifeincluding the period of seasoning,
  diet, health, nutrition, Sunday markets,
  marriage, child rearing, religion, and life
  expectancyare variables yet become cultural
  norms for the slaves.

9
Who were the free people in West Indian society
in the eighteenth century and how were they
socially divided?

• Three groups of free people
• the wealthy whites (grands blancs)
• the poorer whites (petits blancs)
• and free blacks.
• Aside from noting the more obvious distinctions
  between the wealthy white plantocracy, race was a
  distinction in the divisions.
• Legal restrictions on free blacks, such as the
  controls on landownership and participation in
  the militia and government, were important
  distinctions as well.
• The occupations of the different groups of free
  people, the separation by class, the
  possibilities for social advancement, and their
  various routes to freedom for blacks were a
  factor in these social divisions.