Slave Report
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African Slavery in the Americas
Whose America is it?
Cameron Thomen
IB MYP Honors American History th 4 Hour
Professor Buck th December 8
, 2014
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Word Count:
Economic Motivations:
With the introduction of new crops, countries need more people to work and harvest them. In Brazil, “From the 1580s, the importation of Africans to Brazil increased dramatically. After the initial expansion of the sugar industry, blacks soon constituted over twothirds of the population of the northeast.” ”The sugar industry grew quickly in
Jamaica in 1672 there were 70 plantations producing 772 tonnes[tons] of sugar per annum growing in the 1770s to over 680 plantations.” “At that time Cuba was evolving from a slowly growing colony into the world's leading sugar producer, a development that required the importation of steadily increasing numbers of African slaves. As a result, by 1840 there were in the island approximately 430,000 slaves, approximately 60 percent of the population was black or mulatto.” Overall, Brazil, Cuba, and Jamaica had the same economic motivations for slavery. With new crops to sell that had different care techniques, they need more people to tend to them.
Capturing, Buying, and Selling:
“Many Africans who were enslaved were kidnapped [from Africa], though some were sold into slavery as a debt.” Upon arrival to the colonies, they “were prepared for sale like animals. They were washed and shaved: sometimes their skins were oiled to make them appear healthy and increase their sale price. Depending on where they had arrived, the enslaved Africans were sold through agents by public auction or by a
‘scramble', in which buyers simply grabbed whomever they wanted. Sales often
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involved measuring, grading and intrusive physical examination.” Upon arriving to their plantations, they were “branded and issued with a new name.” Then were “separated and stripped of their identity. In a deliberate
African Slavery in the Americas
Whose America is it?
Cameron Thomen
IB MYP Honors American History th 4 Hour
Professor Buck th December 8
, 2014
Thomen 1
Word Count:
Economic Motivations:
With the introduction of new crops, countries need more people to work and harvest them. In Brazil, “From the 1580s, the importation of Africans to Brazil increased dramatically. After the initial expansion of the sugar industry, blacks soon constituted over twothirds of the population of the northeast.” ”The sugar industry grew quickly in
Jamaica in 1672 there were 70 plantations producing 772 tonnes[tons] of sugar per annum growing in the 1770s to over 680 plantations.” “At that time Cuba was evolving from a slowly growing colony into the world's leading sugar producer, a development that required the importation of steadily increasing numbers of African slaves. As a result, by 1840 there were in the island approximately 430,000 slaves, approximately 60 percent of the population was black or mulatto.” Overall, Brazil, Cuba, and Jamaica had the same economic motivations for slavery. With new crops to sell that had different care techniques, they need more people to tend to them.
Capturing, Buying, and Selling:
“Many Africans who were enslaved were kidnapped [from Africa], though some were sold into slavery as a debt.” Upon arrival to the colonies, they “were prepared for sale like animals. They were washed and shaved: sometimes their skins were oiled to make them appear healthy and increase their sale price. Depending on where they had arrived, the enslaved Africans were sold through agents by public auction or by a
‘scramble', in which buyers simply grabbed whomever they wanted. Sales often
Thomen 1
involved measuring, grading and intrusive physical examination.” Upon arriving to their plantations, they were “branded and issued with a new name.” Then were “separated and stripped of their identity. In a deliberate