Oppression, shackles, and trade
by andrea arce
Social effects of slave trade
Several individual societies in Africa experienced severe losses because of slave trade. West African societies like for example Senegal and Angola were especially vulnerable to raiding because of their proximity to the most active slave ports. The slave trade deprived 16 million african Americans . Although individual societies decreased in population the total African population increased during the early modern era, partly because American food crops enriched diets. African sex ratios were distorted since approximately two thirds of all exported slaves were male. Slaves preferred young men between fourteen and fourth five years of age. By the late eighteenth century, for example women made up more than two thirds of the adult population of Angola. This sexual imbalance encouraged Angola to practice polygamy and forced women to take on duties such as working in the fields, that formerly had men.
Africa and Atlantic slave trade
Political effects of slave trade
The slave trade brought moil to African societies. During early modern times African people fought many wars for reasons that had little to nothing to do with slave trade, but it encouraged them to participate also in conflicts that might never have occurred in the absence of trade. Violence escalated after the late seventeenth century, when African people exchanged slaves for European firearms.
How did slaves resist? Forms of resist?
Some forms of resistance were mildly but costly to slave manner, slaves often worked slowly for their masters but diligently in their gardens. They also sabotaged plantation equipment or work routines. A more serious form of resistance was involved running away from the plantation community. Another example are slave revolts. Since slaves outnumbered others in most plantation societies, and could organize and overwhelm against their masters. Revolts never ended slavery but struck fear to plantation owners and supervisors.
How did the plantation system work in the new world (what cash crops we're produced)
Tobacco, rice, cotton, sugar cane and indigo were valuable plants and grown as cash crops. Cash crops (as opposed to subsistence crops) were specialized crops that were grown by planters to be sold for profits and not used for personal use on the plantations.