Slavery and Freedom

Slavery and Freedom

The Atlantic World defines how Africa, Europe, North America, and South America interacted and influenced each other for two centuries. North America was rich in furs, wood, and fish and had fertile soil that coup produce crops such as: tobacco, grain, indigo, and rice. A vast trade system was created and the goal of many of the colonist was to export more than was imported. Mercantilism was designed to create a profit for the colonists by selling more goods than they purchased from other countries that they traded with. Navigation Laws were created to make sure all goods that were going to be sold throughout the world arrived in England first before sold elsewhere to try and minimize competition from other countries that were involved in the trade system.

While the colonist were beginning to cultivate new crops and establish a strong economy, the hunger for sugar was increasing. Sugar was a very important crop to all people and it delivered large profits to those who sold it. Sugar laid the basis for the economy of the West Indies. Unfortunately, it required extensive labor and the growers of sugar needed people to do the work for them. Africans were carried to the Caribbean Islands to work as slaves against their will. This began the slave trade system in which would take root in English North America.

When the need for labor became an issue, Indians were a first resort. The Indians weren’t very effective because they didn’t last too long due to their lack of immunity from the diseases brought to them by the English. They were also very resilient and resisted to be put to work by the English. African slaves at the time costed too much money, but England still had a lot of displaced white farmers in need of employment. They were called indentured servants, who for seven years, under a contract, worked under rough living conditions in exchange for a few barrels of corn, a suit of clothes, and a small parcel of land after their served...