Results Of Slave Trade In America To The Continent's Population Tally

By Kristen Baird


In the late eighteenth century, the Trans-Atlantic trade was booming, and the number of slaves kept growing to double the initial figures. Most of these slaves sold to America were of African descent who were to work in the plantations in the whole continent. The slave trade in America had many effects and would later shape the population compositions and distribution of the American continent years later.

Conquering of USA by European colonists and an agricultural revolution trade resulted to demand labor creating desire to look for working force who would work on the plantations. The desire to get slaves from elsewhere was also as a consequence of the high number of locals who had died from diseases and also working in inhumane conditions. The European economy needed goods to support the industries and help its people.

America also had affordable arable land at the time to support agricultural practices, and it resulted to investors looking for slaves to work on their farms. The environmental conditions were good for crop production, unlike Europe that hard extreme weather for agricultural output.

The slaves were transported through ships through the Atlantic Ocean in the process many died along the way while others reached America safely to start working on their stations. Long after slave trade was abolished many of these slaves began living free lives, and they settled in present day United States of America.

There was population stagnation because, despite the big numbers of slaves imported into the plantations, the death rate was high than the birth rate among the Africans and hence they could not sustain their populations. Therefore, there was continued importation from Africa to boost the labor demands. By early nineteenth century, US population was fifteen percent blacks who were descendants of the slavery population.

The forced laborers in the USA were inflicted a lot of pain and diseases such as blindness, bowed legs, convulsions because they did not have a proper diet. The slaves used to have long working hours on the tobacco, cotton, and sugar farms. Because of long times they took on the farms they did not have time to take care of their off-springs and therefore experienced significant infant mortality compared to that of their masters.

The acquisition of slaves from West Africa was mainly by Africans who were the ones who were selling their colleagues who were prisoners or captives to the Europeans. The slaves were sometimes war prisoners from neighboring communities and criminals they were sold so as to remove such people from the society and prevent such atrocities from occurring again. In the long run, the slave trade became a reason for war unlike a consequence of war because many communities were tapping to the growing opportunity. They could be brought to the coastline where the European buyers would buy them. The Europeans feared getting into the African territory because of diseases and hostility from African communities.

In conclusion, slavery in America has since been abolished, and the descendants of the men who worked on the labor farms are free people. They have been intermarriages between the descendants of the slaves and the descendants of slave owners as the new generation front for a free world.




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