Sugar and Slaves

            When addressing the slave trade as it pertains to the Atlantic World, it is important to note the historical normality it took throughout much of the Old World.  “Involuntary migration and international trafficking in people were vital corollaries of the growth and consolidation of forced labor across much of the Old World in the years 1500-1800” (Richardson, 568).  There were, however, obvious differences in way slavery was utilized in the Old World in comparison to the New.  The Old World form of slavery was far less a form of chattel slavery, and encompassed peoples of many different ethnic make-ups, including whites.  Forced servitude and the ensuing forced migration was often the result of war, as slaves would be utilized as crew for ships of war or on the battlefields of foreign lands. 

            The change that would take place in forced migration trends as a result of the rise of plantation economies in the New World was, in reality, a mere redirecting of the destination of slaves from the Old World.  The market that was created by said plantation economies was not necessarily directly tied to African slavery, at least not right away.  In the Spanish controlled Americas, Native Americans were the first recipients of Spanish forced labor, particularly in the mining of gold and silver.  Due to the devastating affect of European disease, and the political justifications of Catholic conversion on the Native workforce, Native Americans were no longer a morally or financially viable option for forced labor, (even in light of the Spanish use of Mita). 

            To the north, in the English controlled colonies, a similar conclusion was soon to be had.  Many of the first laborers were indentured servants.  African slaves quickly became more financially viable once their life expectancy in the Americas increased.  As indentured servants earned their freedom after an agreed upon timeframe, Africans remained a property owned for the mere cost of boarding.  Legislation would later recognize African slaves as less human then an indentured white servant, further cementing the acceptance of chattel slavery as the norm in the New World. 

            The rapid growth of the sugar plantation economies in the New World, are in direct relation to the expansion and focus of the transatlantic slave trade.  Though there are many variables affecting the focus on African slaves, there is no questioning the demand that sparked the heavy flow of forced laborers from Africa to support the demand from sugar cultivation.  The outcome was the first understood slave societies in which “were rooted in an extreme reliance on African labor… Where ever sugar went in the Americas, slavery and enslaved Africans followed” (Richardson, 571). 

            As noted by Richardson, it is “estimated that up to 80 percent of those entering the Atlantic slave trade would disembark in sugar-growing regions of the Americas” (Richardson, 580).  The demand for African slaves was in direct correlation to the demand for sugar.  Furthermore, as plantation owners were unsuccessful in producing self-sustaining slave populations, the market for replacement slaves remained vibrant until the 1800s.  Had it not been for the demise of the native populations, as well as the relatively low life expectancy of African slaves; the transatlantic slave trade would likely have been much smaller as replacement slaves made up a large portion of the demand for new slaves.