Role of Slaves in the Development of British Empire in America in 1750

This report essay explores the role of slaves in the development of the British Empire in America in 1750. It discusses the disorganized and fragmented affair of the empire's development, the history of slavery, and the economic significance of the slave trade for the British colonial economy in the Americas. The essay concludes that the effective platforms for highlighting the emergence of the new world were being laid during the period.

Essay

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Main Body..................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

Introduction
Over three centuries, the British Empire was a global system of dependents placed
under the sovereignty of the British monarch and administered by the British government.
The given report document is a report essay that will explore role of salves in the America for
development of British Empire in year 1750. In addition to this, various related context of
British history were being taken into consideration (Pellizzari, 2020, pp.529).
Main Body
According to Bailey, (2018), Over the period of three centuries, the British Empire
was a worldwide system of dependencies, colonies, dependent territories, and other regions
that were put under the jurisdiction of the British monarch and governed by the British
government. Great Britain made its first tentative attempts to establish offshore settlements in
the 16th century. Almost all of these early cities were created on private industry and
magnates' initiative, rather than any effort by the English crown. Although the crown had
certain appointment and supervision rights, the colonies were primarily self-contained
companies. As a result, the empire's development was a disorganised, fragmented affair, with
the British government usually being the least enthusiastic partner in the enterprise (Bailey,
2018, pp. 10).
According to Basu and Miroshnik, (2020), Slavery was, in essence, a generally
accepted European institution long before the discovery of the New World. When an
opponent surrendered, pro-slavery proponents argued that enslaving prisoners of war was a
legitimate alternative to execution since it was considered as the victor's right to take their
adversary's life through death or incarceration. As a result, when Portuguese slave traffickers
began exploring the African coast, they began purchasing prisoners for shipping to the New
World colonies, where it was standard practise for fighting local tribes to enslave one
another. Slaves all around the world revolted over their oppressors and sought freedom via
violent uprisings and rebellions like the Stono Rebellion and the New York Slave Insurgency
of 1741. Less violent means of opposition included sabotage, espionage, and slower labour
rates on the estates. American slaves, unlike their Caribbean counterparts, were never able to
totally topple the slave system in the colonies, and they did not achieve freedom until after
the Civil War. The business of the area is dominated by mining, agriculture, forestry, and
fishing. Commercial plantation crops, that are key regional exports, and domestic crops,
which are mostly farmed on minority stake farms in the countryside, are the two types of

agriculture. Small farms raise cattle, pigs, and poultry, and the region's fishing economy is
booming (Basu and Miroshnik, 2020, pp. 35).
According to Bayly, (2020), Originally, In the Americas, European colonists utilised
both forced labour and native slaves. For a number of causes, Africans supplanted American
Indians as the most enslaved population in the Americas. In certain cases, such as on
numerous Caribbean islands, conflict and disease have completely wiped off the indigenous
population. In other cases, such as South Carolina, Virginia, and New England, the
requirement for alliances with Native American groups, along with the inexpensive
availability of enslaved Africans, contributed to a move away towards Native American
enslavement. Even as colonies struggled to produce raw materials for European consumption,
the resultant Continental slave trade was essentially determined by the demand for
inexpensive labour. Many American products were not cultivated in Europe, and it was
sometimes more profitable to import food and things from the New World than to produce
them on the European mainland. However, to construct and maintain economically viable
plantations, a large quantity of work was required. Western Africa became a major source of
enslaved peoples for Europeans, as well as a reliable source of valuable cash crops to fulfil
the need for free labour in the American colonies (Bayly, 2020, pp. 25).
According to Pincus, Bains and Reichardt, (2019), With Britain's colonial economy in
the Americas, the slave trade took on special significance, and it became an economic
necessity for the Caribbean colonies and the future United States' southern areas. Slavery was
outlawed in Britain's colonial possessions long before this was outlawed in the United States;
the slave trade was halted in 1807, and slavery was outlawed in 1833. Slave shipping to the
American colonies increased dramatically in the second half of the 17th century. Charles II
established the Royal African Company in 1660 to trade in slaves and African items. James
II, the king's brother, oversaw the firm before he came to the realm. The Royal African
Company had a monopoly on transporting slaves to the English colonies under both of these
rulers (Pincus, Bains and Reichardt, 2019, pp. 620). According to Daunton and Halpern,
(2020), firm purchased 125,000 captives on the African coast between 1672 and 1713, losing
20% of them to death over the Middle Passage, the trek from Africa to the Americas. Because
extensive tobacco, rice, and later cotton plantations generally demanded enormous labour
forces for production, African slaves were largely focused southward in the North American
colonies. In contrast to the high death rates of Caribbean sugar plantations, North American
slave populations tended to live longer. By the 19th century, some southern farms had learned
that natural growth was a viable alternative to importation for replacing their slave

population. Ships carrying manufactured goods sailed from Europe to African markets, where
they were swapped for Africans who had been bought or abducted. These Africans were sold
or exchanged in the Americas for raw resources after being carried over the Atlantic as
slaves. To finish the journey, the raw materials would be carried back to Europe (Daunton
and Halpern, 2020, pp. 10).
Therefore, gentlemanly capitalist theory of Cain and Hopkins, as well as studies
stressing how British conquests in Asia were supported by local resources, are criticised for
downplaying the importance of Great Britain's industrialization for its imperial expansion
between 1750 and 1850. The increase of British demand for Chinese tea was mostly
influenced by industrial prosperity and urbanisation. On the strength of industrial exports,
Britain paid enormous foreign payments throughout the 1793-1815 European wars, the key
era of imperial development (Klooster, 2018, pp. 32).
Conclusion
From the above analysis of report essay, it can be concluded that, there was a greater
role of salves in the America for shaping good wealth of British Empire. From several
discussion carried in the above essay, it can be said that, effective platforms for highlighting
new world emergence was being laid during the period.

References
Books and Journals
Bailey, R., 2018. “Those Valuable People, the Africans”: The Economic Impact of the Slave
(ry) Trade on Textile Industrialization in New England. In The Meaning of Slavery
in the North (pp. 3-31). Routledge.
Basu, D. and Miroshnik, V., 2020. British Empire and British Industrial Revolution.
In Imperialism and Capitalism, Volume I (pp. 33-54). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Bayly, C., 2020. The British and indigenous peoples, 1760—1860: power, perception and
identity (pp. 19-41). Routledge.
Daunton, M. and Halpern, R., 2020. Introduction: British identities, indigenous peoples, and
the empire. In Empire and others: British encounters with indigenous peoples,
1600–1850 (pp. 1-18). Routledge.
Klooster, W., 2018. 2. Civil War in the British Empire. In Revolutions in the Atlantic World,
New Edition (pp. 12-48). New York University Press.
Pellizzari, P., 2020. Supplying slavery: Jamaica, North America, and British intra-imperial
trade, 1752–1769. Slavery & Abolition, 41(3), pp.528-554.
Pincus, S., Bains, T. and Reichardt, A.Z., 2019. Thinking the empire whole. History
Australia, 16(4), pp.610-637.