Ap World History Sugar Trade Dbq

The sugar trade was driven by its easy accessibility of slaves, land, and the sugar itself. Due to these characteristics the sugar trade flourished greatly through much of the world. Slaves were a main reason for the increase in sugar crops. The trading of slaves was already increasing at the time and therefore made obtaining them even easier. Document 10 show the correlation between slave population and sugar produced. It demonstrates how an increase in slaves produced an increase in sugar. Slaves provided a simple and easy way to maintain the sugar crops. Document 11 lists items that English merchants used to purchase slaves. The list includes ordinary things such as powder, toys, and brass pans that could be bought in markets. Merchants could buy these slaves with cheap objects and not have to give them anything from their own possession. An additional document, such as a letter from a slave on how he was paid to work would verify the fact that these objects were used. Furthermore, slaves were well handled by their owners and performed the tasks demanded. Document 8 shows two pictures, one of a boiling-house and one of a field, with slaves working while the masters dictate them. This document, however, could be biased in favor of the masters and not show how miserable or angry the slaves were with their owners. Slaves were obviously a great factor in the sugar trade considering the price of them rose as the sugar trade progressed. Document 9, which shows the price of West African and British Caribbean slaves in the years 1748 and 1768, proves this statement. This all proves that slaves were an important factor and allowed sugar crops to be easily and cheaply made. Land to grow the sugar crops was also easily accessible during the time of the sugar trade. Document 1 shows a map of the Caribbean and indicates who owned each piece of land at the time. Before the sugar trade, Europeans hadn’t utilized this land. This made it easy to acquire and use once sugar