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To What Extent Did The Slave Trade Have A Positive Impact On Those Involved In It?

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To What Extent Did The Slave Trade Have A Positive Impact On Those Involved In It?
The Atlantic Slave Trade had a both positive and negative impact on those involved in it to an extent. Britain’s economy benefited greatly from the slave trade as many industries flourished. This was an immense opportunity for those who were unemployed as it provided thousands of jobs. People were employed in industries like the building and repair of slave ships, selling the goods produced by slaves such as sugar and cotton, and banking. This resulted in the slave trade becoming the financial base of development of Britain. However, not everyone benefited from this trade as it had an enormous negative impact on Africa’s society and economy. The 37 years of slave capturing and exporting resulted in wars between tribes and drained Africa’s population of 12 million of its strongest youth. This resulted in Africa’s economic development in being hindered. For Africans the physical experience of slavery was painful, traumatic and long-lasting.

Britain benefited from the slave trade in many ways including the economy, as slavery became part of the financial base of development in Britain. Many economic factors contributed to slavery including the demands of plantation farming, servant slaves and the growth of the slave trade as its own industry. Plantation farming emerged as a way to earn a profitable crop and dominated the southern colonies. In plantations African slaves worked in hundreds from dawn until dusk producing goods that supplied Britain. These goods consisted of sugar, cotton, tobacco and rum. All these crops were very labour intensive requiring hundreds of workers to preserve them. The British became the largest and most efficient carriers of slaves to the new world. Therefore huge profits were made by the labour of unpaid slaves. Liverpool and Bristol were the main trading ports in Britain, Liverpool alone made £300,000 per year from the slave trade. Scotland was also heavily involved in the slave trade, Scots went out to colonies and generated great

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