Page 98 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Explore the Trans-Atlantic 3.1

Slave Trade on MyHistoryLab
3.2

in WhaT Ways Was briTish
norTh aMeriCa involved in 3.3
The Trans-aTlanTiC slave
Trade?
3.4
For some three centuries, the trans-Atlantic
slave trade brought a total of more than
10 million Africans to the shores of the Americas 3.5
where they provided an unpaid, bond-servant
labor force primarily in agriculture, especially slave auCTions Handbills such as these alerted buyers when and where
in the southern Thirteen Colonies. However, they could purchase chattel slaves, who were sold, traded, and auctioned as
slavery was not contained to the southern commodities just like livestock, corn, tobacco, and the like.
colonies (and later states), as Africans found
themselves enslaved up and down the Eastern
Seaboard. Americans bought slaves and further
participated in the slave trade as sailors, captains,
shipbuilders, traders, and financiers. Slavery
influenced the economy, politics, and society that
provided the foundations for the United States.

OrigiNS OF AFriCANS iN NOrTH NATiONS PArTiCiPATiNg iN THE SLAvE TrAdE,
AmEriCA, 1700–1800 1700–1800
region Nation*
Angola britain
bight of benin Portugal
bight of biafra France
Gold coast the Netherlands
senegambia Denmark
sierra Leone british colonies/North America

sOuRce: PReNtice HALL AMeRicAN HistORY AtLAs, 1998, page 13 *in order of most to fewest number of slaves traded

K e y Q u e S T i O n S Use Myhistorylab Explorer to answer these questions:

Comparison Which analysis How did the Consequence What
colonies, later states, imported ratio of male to female slaves were the major economic
the most slaves? differ across the Thirteen activities for different regions of
Map the differences among the Colonies? mainland British America and
regions of North America. Hypothesize the explanations for the early United States?
this distribution. consider the connections
between slavery and regional
economic production.

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