History and Legacy of the Slave Trade - Essay Example

The history and legacy of the slave trade and its economic, social and cultural impact on the Northwest region of England Slavery is almost as old asman himself. The earliest known evidences of slavery as an institution had been documented by the Code of Hammurabi in Mesopotamia and excavated in the old walled city of Jericho. This form of forced and unfree labor has been largely equated to war in the old times where conquered people became the property of the victor. In other instances, parents themselves sold their children off in order to survive extreme poverty. In the more recent times, slavery has been largely identified with the African slave trade. It should be underscored that the pre-industrialization era encouraged the slave trade as slaves were used mainly in agriculture and other sectors requiring manual labor. The emergence of colonialists also played a significant role since colonies, particularly in Africa, were rich sources of human merchandise. In Europe, Britain rivaled Spain and Portugal in the slave trade. The discovery of the New World was central to this that is why the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were said to be the centuries of trade, as the nineteenth century was the century of production. The “triangular trade” was the culmination, placing the slave trade as a major engine behind the enormous rise in world trade. Eric Williams and Colin Palmer wrote about this in the book called, Capitalism and Slavery: In this triangular trade England – France and Colonial America – equally supplied the exports and the ships; Africa the human merchandise; the plantations the colonial raw materials. The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country. (p. 51-52) The Northwestern part of England, particularly the town of Liverpool, is a major slaving port, with its ships and merchants lording over the Atlantic trade. “The precise reasons for Liverpools dominance of the trade are still debated by historians. Some suggest that Liverpool merchants were being pushed out of the other Atlantic trades, such as sugar and tobacco. Others claim that the towns merchants were more enterprising. A significant factor was the ports position with ready access via a network of rivers and canals to the goods traded in Africa - textiles from Lancashire and Yorkshire, copper and brass from Staffordshire and Cheshire and guns from Birmingham.” (National Museum Liverpool) It is hence, not surprising that slavery left a lasting imprint on the city and the Northwestern part of England as a result – economically, socially and culturally. Economic Impact The impact of slavery is perhaps mostly felt on the economic front. The flourishing trade was responsible for the economic development that catapulted the Northwest as one of England’s economic centers. Merchant families were enriched while employment and economic opportunities for people spread from Liverpool to the surrounding towns and areas such as Lancaster, Plymouth and Whitehaven. Anthony Tibbles provided us an account: Local merchants gained by supplying trade goods on commission to slave ships or by handling the sugar and other slave-produced goods imported in vessels returning from the Americas. Manufacturers in Warrington, St. Helens and Manchester prospered through supplying the copper goods, glassware and cotton textiles that were exchanged for slaves at the African coasts. (p. 72) Even after the slave trade was abolished (amid the violent opposition of merchants), the coffers of the Northwest England was so enriched that fears of contemporaries regarding economic decline was proved to be unfounded. Slavery cemented Northwest England’s role in the Atlantic trade. For instance, the region established itself as major supplier English-produced goods to Spanish and Portuguese traders as it also increased its connections to newly industrializing cities such as Lancashire. The Northwest’s role in the “Industrial Revolution” was significant because of its ability to import large scale raw cotton and palm oil. Success in colonial trade was the driving engine behind the improvement of port facilities. Wealth translated into a new found confidence to build elegant buildings such as the Customs House on St George Quay’s. Although in the succeeding years the Northwest’s economic importance would be diminished, its old glory is still evident in its handsome townhouses and Georgian architecture. Cultural Impact The introduction of black people to the mainstream English society is not just the only upshot of the slave trade. Being a premier port and a centre of international commerce, foreigners continually flocked to the region. As a result, diversity was encouraged and cultural tolerance became easier. People in the Northwest become used to encountering a certain amount of difference in their society either because they are immigrants, themselves, coming from elsewhere or they had come across strangers with differing appearance, values, religion or behavior. Diane Liga Robinson Dunn explained that because of immigration and trade, and the phenomenal growth driven by the slave trade, the Northwestern part of England was in constant motion – motion of people, products and ideas. “Even the architecture of the city, from the dockyards to the railroads, served as a continual reminder of the new capacity to distribute with great rapidity an ever-increasing quantity of bodies and goods, and to redistribute the very spaces of the city itself; to imperialize the city, and to urbanize the countryside.” (2006, p. 161-162) Social Impact The slave trade financed the Industrial Revolution and, therefore, we can generally say that it was also responsible for the ensuing chronicle of social movements in the Northwestern territory of England. However, the most potent influence of the slave trade, socially, was on its effect on the British consumption behavior. To cite an example, the English consumer became addicted to smoking tobacco since the eighteenth century. Also, the taste for sugar was cultivated along with other exotic goods produced by slaves in the colonies. Small and medium sized shops also abound selling tropical staples for discriminating consumers. According to McCalman et al., “behind these apparently innocent aspects of domestic consumption, was the exercise of imperial power and commercial dominion” (2001, p. 61) set amidst the backdrop of emergent prosperity and physical grandeur. The extent of the impact of the Atlantic slave trade in the Northwestern part of England and perhaps the entire Britain is still being debated by scholars. It was given that slavery served as a fulcrum for the British success story, but it also continuously hounds the Northwest’s history. No amount of prosperity could overshadow the human suffering experienced by millions of Africans sent to the New World as properties and as semi-human beings. References Liverpool and the slave trade. (n. d.). National Museums Liverpool. Retrieved February 19, 2007, from http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/slavery/liverpool.asp McCalman, I., Mee, J., Russel, G., Tuite, C., Fullagar, K. and Hardy, P.. (2001). An Oxford Companion to the Romantic Age: British Culture 1776-1832. Oxford University Press Robinson-Dunn, D. (2006). The Harem, Slavery and British Imperial Culture. Manchester University Press Tibbles, A. (2005). Transatlantic Slavery: Against Human Dignity 2nd ed. Liverpool University Press Williams, E. and Palmer, C. (1994). Capitalism and Slavery. UNC Press Read More