Transatlantic trade

Mercantilism

Colonial powers invariably seek to extract resources and wealth from their colonies, typically seeking to prevent their colonies from developing competing economic systems and stronger desires for outright independence. Often called mercantilism, colonial powers instituted a highly restrictive system of shipping and trading that required all goods harvested, mined, and/or produced in the colonies to be transported exclusively in ships hailing from the colonial power to designated ports in or under the dominion of that colonial power and for goods sent to the colonies to be transported in a similar fashion. For the British colonists in what is now the United States, the laws governing all trade were the Navigation Acts, first passed in 1651 and subsequently strengthened throughout the latter half of the 17th century.

While these and similar laws for the French and Spanish colonies were designed to prevent the respective colonies from developing their own industries and from trading with any and all interested parties, the reality was that these laws were inconsistently and unevenly enforced, particularly by the British until 1763. Colonial merchants responded to the inconsistent enforcement of mercantilist laws and to the potential for significant profits from evading these laws by smuggling goods into and out of the colonies; some of the wealthiest colonists, including John Hancock, were well-known smugglers.

*** Image 10/ European trade routes 1700 ***

While colonial trade with the relevant colonizing empire, the metropole, was often the most significant, many colonies traded with each other in at least limited fashion. The British New England colonies traded extensively with Britain’s Caribbean colonies, including Barbados and Jamaica, and trade with Britain’s East India Company assumed greater significance in the later colonial period; for most Americans, mentioning the British East India Company brings to mind the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, an event that will be featured in Chapter 4.

During the 18th century, British trade increasingly shifted from a focus on traditional European markets such as France, Netherlands and Spain, to its expanding colonial empire; North American living standards, particularly in the southern colonies, were higher than those of Britain’s other colonies, and often greater than average British living standards. Consequently, British manufacturers increasingly viewed the North American colonies as critical markets for British exports, while the British government and trading companies profited from exporting American agricultural production, including rice, sugar, and tobacco, to European countries.

The triangle trade

The most frequently discussed transatlantic trade routes involved Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Frequently referred to as the triangle trade, these routes involved European merchants trading goods, including rum, textiles, and later, early muskets and other guns, in exchange for enslaved Africans who were then transported on the infamous Middle Passage to the Americas. In the final leg of the traditional triangle trade, lumber, molasses, rum, and tobacco, among other goods, were sent to the European colonial capitals.

*** Image 012/ Triangle Trade Map ***

The Middle Passage

The horrors of the transatlantic slave trade began with the capture of different African peoples, primarily by local slave traders working with European ship captains to provide millions of unpaid, mistreated laborers for the fields and mines of the Americas. The minimum month-long journey across the Atlantic from the west coast of Africa then exposed these enslaved Africans to horrific suffering and violence, killing hundreds of thousands, potentially several million, during the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.

Accounts of the horrors of the Middle Passage come from ship captains and sailors, doctors, and in several instances, from formerly enslaved people themselves; the most famous account of the Middle Passage from an enslaved person is likely from Olaudah Equiano.

At last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see how they managed the vessel. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air; but now that the whole ship’s cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.

The following excerpt comes from Alexander Falconbridge, a British doctor who traveled on several slave ship journeys and later served as the royal governor of Sierra Leone, at one point a British colony for freed slaves, now a free country in West Africa; the British establishment of Sierra Leone as a colony for free slaves would later be followed by the American establishment of Liberia as a resettlement colony for former slaves in the 19th century.

…But at the same time, however, they are frequently stowed so close, as to admit of no other position than lying on their sides. Nor with the height between decks, unless directly under the grating, permit the indulgence of an erect posture; especially where there are platforms, which is generally the case. These platforms are a kind of shelf, about eight or nine feet in breadth, extending from the side of the ship toward the centre. They are placed nearly midway between the decks, at the distance of two or three feet from each deck…

The hardships and inconveniences suffered by the Negroes during the passage are scarcely to be enumerated or conceived. They are far more violently affected by seasickness than Europeans. It frequently terminates in death, especially among the women. But the exclusion of fresh air is among the most intolerable….

These two excerpts are valuable for students of AP US History for several reasons. First, students need to become familiar with primary source documents and be prepared to evaluate them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, including the personal insights that these participants and observers bring, as well as the potential for biased interpretations of historical events. Secondly, students may be tasked with comparing and contrasting primary source documents, particularly in the context of formulating comprehensive responses for short answer questions (SAQs) and especially the document-based question (DBQ). Finally, primary source documents serve as frequent stimuli for the multiple-choice questions (MCQs).