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 life—including the period of “seasoning,” diet, health, nutrition, Sunday markets, marriage, child rearing, religion, and life expectancy—are 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.