slave trade

• what was the transatlantic slave trade?

  when enslaved people were used in large numbers in the Tudor and Stuart periods
• why did enslaved people have such a low life expectancy?


  because they faced poor diets, tough punishments and no proper medical attention
• how much profit did traders make and what did they achieve from this?

  800%

  an initial investment for a ship, crew and goods to trade for enslaved people on the African coast
• why was a high slave population needed?

  it meant that it made plantations highly profitable
• what did Britain set up?

  huge colonies and developed huge farms called plantations where crops like sugar and cotton were grown
• what happened in 1619?

  when enslaved Africans were introduced to British plantation because they were cheaper
• what were indentured servants?

  people who paid for their voyage to America by being under contract to a plantation owner for a set period of years. At the end they were free to work for wages
• how did the slave trade develop?

  people built plantations but then needed people to work on it cheaply.

  the monarchy funded the expeditions to go and get the slaves
• what were the impacts of the slave trade?


  made Britain one of the richest and most powerful nations in the world (£60 million)

  The Government agreed to pay £20 million to former slave trade owners for their "loss of land"

  Many buildings were paid for with the profits from slave trading
• why did plantations replace piracy?

  monarchs stopped giving privateers permission to steal as there was no need to. The British Navy put anti-piracy measures into place. People the built plantations since there was no income from piracy