Impact of Slavery and Mercantilism in Colonial America

1. AP Chapter 4 Slavery and the Empire

2. The African Slave Trade • 10-12 million slaves were brought to the Americas with 67% coming between 1701-1810 • Men outnumbered the women 2 to 1 and most were field workers

5. The Middle Passage • Middle Passage- name given to the middle part of the trading triangle from England to Africa to America and back to England • Conditions on the ship were brutal

6. Middle Passage

7. Triangular Trade

9. Effects on Africa • Those taken captive were the strongest members of their tribe which weakened Africa • African kingdoms fought each other for slaves • West African economy grew weaker • Demoralized Africans and led Europeans to conquer the continent in the 1800s

11. Slavery in North America • First slaves arrived in Virginia around 1619 • As the need for slavery rose so did the slave population • English law had no precedent for allowing slavery but as slavery grew laws were created

12. Expansion of tobacco production relied on the size of the slave labor force • Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina (Upper South) needed slaves for the tobacco fields • S. Carolina was a slave state from the beginning • Slavery was accepted in the North as an American institution

14. Northern states were not considered slave states but slavery was an important form of labor • Slavery made up the majority of the workforce on the plantations in the South • Slave Codes- laws primarily in the South that defended slavery and denied basic civil rights to them

15. Most slaves were not converted to Christianity until the Great Awakening that swept the South in the 1760s • Music and dance formed the foundation of African American culture before a common language

16. Politics of Mercantilism • Mercantilism- economic system were the govt. intervenes in the economy for the purpose of increasing national wealth • Mercantilists policies controlled the trading networks and was successfully used by the British

18. Govt. regulated wages, encouraged agriculture and manufacturing, and erected trade barriers. • England tried to control as much as they could to maximize profits • Mercantilist era led to intense and violent competition among Europeans for colonies

19. Queen Anne’s War and King George’s War- war between England and France over succession of the Spanish and Austrian thrones respectively • Some of the wars were fought in N. America and included N. American tribes • Wars were a sign of things to come

20. British Colonial Regulations • Navigation Acts- created a legal and institutional structure for Britain's colonial system • Acts said the colonies were providers of raw materials and markets for manufactured goods • Banned trading of merchants from other nations in the colonies and all goods must be shipped on British vessels

22. Colonial Economy • Despite the harsh mercantilist regulations the economy benefited planters, merchants and whites • Southern slave owners made huge profits • Enumerated Goods- items produced in the colonies that could be shipped to specific locations with Parliaments approval

23. Conclusion • Slavery was used to provide a reliable supply of labor for the British colonies • Slavery had a negative social and economic impact on Africa • Mercantilist policies controlled the economy of early colonial America