Africans were forcibly brought to British owned colonies in the Caribbean and sold as slaves to work on plantations. Those engaged in the trade were driven by the huge financial gain to be made, both in the Caribbean and at home in Britain.
Why were slaves needed in the West Indies?
To keep profits high, plantation owners wanted a cheap labour force, and quickly, to cultivate and process the sugar. They dicided that African slaves were the answer. As a result the Atlantic slave trade developed. … These three islands were the largest disembarkation points for slaves in the West Indies.
Why were African slaves brought to the West Indies in the seventeenth century?
African slaves became increasingly sought after to work in the unpleasant conditions of heat and humidity. European planters thought Africans would be more suited to the conditions than their own countrymen, as the climate resembled that the climate of their homeland in West Africa.
Why were more slaves sent to the deep South and West Indies?
With the forced Indian removal by the US making new lands available in the Deep South, there was much higher demand there for workers to cultivate the labor-intensive sugar cane and cotton crops. The extensive development of cotton plantations created the highest demand for labor in the Deep South.
How did African slavery affect the Caribbean?
The negative impact of the slave trade on the development of the Caribbean islands. The slave trade had long lasting negative effects on the islands of the Caribbean. The native peoples, the Arawaks, were wiped out by European diseases and became replaced with West Africans.
When was slavery abolished in the West Indies?
The emancipation of the British West Indies refers to the abolition of slavery in Britain’s colonies in the West Indies during the 1830s. The British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which emancipated all slaves in the British West Indies.
Where did most slaves in Jamaica come from?
Jamaican enslaved peoples came from West/Central Africa and South-East Africa. Many of their customs survived based on memory and myths.
When did slavery begin in the West Indies?
Between 1662 and 1807 Britain shipped 3.1 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Africans were forcibly brought to British owned colonies in the Caribbean and sold as slaves to work on plantations.
What are the West Indies called today?
Nowadays, the term West Indies is often interchangeable with the term Caribbean, although the latter may also include some North and South American mainland countries which have Caribbean coastlines.
What were slaves traded for in the West Indies?
In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved African persons were traded in the Caribbean for molasses, which was made into rum in the American colonies and traded back to Africa for more slaves. The practice of slavery continued in many countries (illegally) into the 21st century.
How was slavery different in Africa than America?
Although African slavery was not a benign institution, slaves in Africa were used in a wider variety of ways than in the New World: they were employed as agricultural workers, soldiers, servants, and officials.
Where did most of the slaves from Africa go?
Myth One: The majority of African captives came to what became the United States. Truth: Only a little more than 300,000 captives, or 4-6 percent, came to the United States. The majority of enslaved Africans went to Brazil, followed by the Caribbean.
Where did the slaves in St Kitts come from?
Cardinal Richelieu formed the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe in 1626, and 40 slaves were purchased from Senegal. By 1635, the number of slaves on St. Kitts had grown to 500–600, and by 1665 the French West India Company replaced the Compagnie.
What were the effects of slavery in Africa?
The effect of slavery in Africa
Some states, such as Asante and Dahomey, grew powerful and wealthy as a result. Other states were completely destroyed and their populations decimated as they were absorbed by rivals. Millions of Africans were forcibly removed from their homes, and towns and villages were depopulated.
Was there slavery in Jamaica?
The sugar industry was labour-intensive and the British brought hundreds of thousands of enslaved Africans to Jamaica. By 1832, the median-size plantation in Jamaica had about 150 slaves, and nearly one of every four bondsmen lived on units that had at least 250 slaves.
When did the first African slaves arrive in the Caribbean?
Christopher Columbus likely transported the first Africans to the Americas in the late 1490s on his expeditions to the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.