LIFE IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICA 1807 1861
SLAVERY IN AMERICA COTTON SLAVE TRADE AND THE SOUTHERN RESPONSE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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wanted slaves to help build their estates in Europe.
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wanted large numbers of workers for their plantations in the Americas.
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wanted to sell slaves to other African kingdoms.
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wanted slaves to help them explore new lands.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Ivory, gold and other trade resources attracted Europeans to West Africa. As demand for cheap labour to work on plantations in the Americas grew, people enslaved in West Africa became the most valuable ‘commodity’ for European traders. Slavery existed in Africa before Europeans arrived.
Detailed explanation-2: -Plantation owners in both North and South America wanted a cheap workforce. Some colonists, including Spanish priest Bartolomé de Las Casas, suggested using enslaved Africans as workers. Africans had already developed immunity to European diseases.
Detailed explanation-3: -The discovery of the Americas and the increased demand for the labor-intensive production of sugar led to an increased European demand for slaves, and Africa provided the perfect solution.
Detailed explanation-4: -Most European colonial economies in the Americas from the 16th through the 19th century were dependent on enslaved African labor for their survival. According to European colonial officials, the abundant land they had “discovered” in the Americas was useless without sufficient labor to exploit it.