Slave Trade

The International Roots of the Trade

The slave trade began as a complex relationship between international powers, hungry for political domination and eager for economic gain. During the early 16th century, Portuguese traders operated the Atlantic trade on a relatively small scale specifically designed to supply domestic servants to Portugal and Spain. In contrast, other European nations had large workforces and therefore had little need for foreign labor. However, the Age of Exploration dramatically changed the intentions and the scope of Atlantic trade. The Spanish and the Portuguese—along with the Dutch, English, and French—developed colonies in the Caribbean, Mexico, and North and South America. American Indians were the primary source of labor in these newly formed colonies, and as their numbers began to decline, traders turned to the Atlantic slave trade to satisfy the growing need for free labor.

A crucial turning point in the institutionalization of slavery in the New World began in the 1600s, when the cultivation of rice, tobacco, and indigo in British North America added to the increasing [Page 1956]trade for slave labor. European nations continued to jockey for dominance in the trade, and En gland and France competed with the Dutch to control the trade. England eventually gained control of the Atlantic trade and succeeded in driving the Dutch out of the trade by 1674. By 1713, England had gained the exclusive right to provide enslaved people to all of Spain's American colonies. English ships continued to dominate the trade and transported about 20,000 enslaved people per year from Africa to the Americas. During the peak of the slave trade in the 1790s, English ships transported up to 50,000 enslaved people per year.

The trade relationship was a three-part system or circuit of exchange between Europe, Africa, and the Americas that involved African traders willing to sell captives in exchange for English goods. The first leg of the triangular route was from a European port to the west African coast. The ships on this route carried goods for trade, such as cloth, guns, and ammunition. The cargo would then be sold or bartered for African captives. The second leg of the trip, known as the Middle Passage, ended in the New World, where the enslaved people were sold to Caribbean or North American owners. The ships returned to England on the final leg of the trip.

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