Captives as Commodities: The Transatlantic Slave Trade

Part of Prentice Hall's Connection: Key Themes in World History series.

 

Written based on the author's annual course on slave trade, Captives as Commodities examines three key themes:  1) the African context surrounding the Atlantic slave trade,  2)  the history of the slave trade itself, and 3) the changing meaning of race and racism.  The author draws recent scholarship to provide students with an understanding of Atlantic slave trade.

Contents

 

Introduction

 

The Slave Trade and the Western World

Ways of Studying the Slave Trade

Overview of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Connections

The Old World Background to New World Slavery

The Maritime Revolution and European Trade with Africa

 

Chapter 1: Why did Europeans Buy African Slaves?

 

Origins: Economics or Racism

Early Labor Demand in the New World

Northern Europeans and the Expansion of the Slave Trade

The 18^th Century Peak of the Slave Trade

Slavery and Racism

 

Chapter 2:  Why Did Africans Sell Slaves?

 

Common Myths

General Interpretations

The Slave Trade, Wealth, and Power in Africa

The First Two Centuries of Trans-Atlantic Slave Exports from Africa

Expansion of the Trade

Effects of the Slave Trade on Africa

 

Chapter 3: How Did Enslaved People Cope?

 

The Henrietta Marie

Passages on Land

Passages at Sea

African Cultures in the New World

 

Chapter 4: How Did the Slave Trade End?

 

Profits and the Slave Trade

Ideology and Revolution

Antislavery in the United Kingdom

Revolution in St. Domingue

Final Slave Trade Abolition

What Explains British Antislavery?

 

Epilogue: Making Connections: Legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade

 

The Slave Trade in Modern Memory

Africa

Great Britain

The Americas — The West Indies & Cuba

Brazil

Racism in the Americas

Slavery in the Contemporary World

The Big Lessons