yr13_ia_2007_hibbert_b

=Summary of Evidence (500-600 words)= In 1686 the first signs of what was to be called the ‘Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade’ had begun to show. The British Empire had expanded in North America, Africa and the West Indies. Ports were set up across the colonies trading goods like sugar, tobacco and coffee. These goods were not sold by private companies or sold to other nations. The goods were sold under the principles of ‘mercantilism’. This meant that the goods were sold and bought by British ships in British colonies only; the organisation of this was handled by the Royal African Company based in London. The goods like sugar, tobacco and coffee would be used to buy slaves in Africa. These slaves were then taken across the Atlantic to the Americas on a trip that would take 6 to 8 weeks. This gruelling trip was known as the ‘middle passage’. The slaves were transported in the worst of conditions. They would be chained together and the ‘owners’ would cram as many people in as they possibly could. Many slaves did not make it through the entire journey. The ‘below-deck’ section of the ship would become a stinky cesspool of dead black slaves and human urine and excrement. Once the trip was done they would then be sold off to plantation owners who would use them for labour and the money from this would be used to buy goods. This process was repeated over and over. In 1686 alone the colonies shipped goods worth over 1 million pounds to London. By 1688 Britain’s mass trade network would come under threat by foreign competitors. These were mainly France, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. After seeing what Britain had been able to accomplish they would seek colonies in Africa and the Americas. After the Royal African Companies monopoly had been rescinded in 1698, Britain had become the largest carrier and exporter of slaves in the world. Private merchant houses provided the capital for such business activity. Jamaica was Britain’s largest exporter of slaves whilst being the wealthiest colony in the empire. By 1775 Great Britain owned the most land in the Americas compared to the land under the control of their main European rivals the Netherlands and France. By 1797 the America’s would receive 57% of all British exports and would supply 32% of all imports. Also in 1775 the American War of Independence broke out. This lasted eight years and saw Britain lose 13 of its mainland colonies which in turn would subsequently put an end to the ‘Triangular Trade’. But the blow to Britain’s imperial strength did not last for long. After a series of long wars from 1793 to 1815 with the French, Britain gained many new colonies which consisted of Trinidad, Tobago and Mauritius. In 1807 we saw the first major developments towards an abolition of the slave trade. Great Britain abolished the slave trade within the empire and the importation of slaves, to the newly founded United States, was prohibited by act of Congress. In 1834 Great Britain abolished all institution of the slave trade in the empire and after a 4 year civil war in the United States, in 1865 Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery in the USA.