The Impact on Britain

• Slave ports


  • Bristol
  • Liverpool
  • London
• Slave ports - Bristol


  • A major centre for ships sailing to West Africa and returning from the Caribbean
  • The city had many "sugar houses" where sugar was refined
  • Many houses were built for the city's wealthiest slave traders
• Slave ports - Liverpool


  • Many streets are named after prominent slave owners
  • Ships traded between Britain, West Africa and the Caribbean, or North America
  • The Blue Coat hospital was funded by Bryan Blundell, a man who made his money from the slave trade
• Slave ports - London


  • Ships from the RAC sailed to West Africa
  • Wealth from the trade of enslaved Africans helped finance the Royal Family's state apartments in Windsor Castle
  • Thomas Guy, founder of Guy's hospital, owned shares in the South Sea Company, which he sold before the bubble burst and became very rich
• Impact on working lives


  • The empire brought more work to Britain
  • demand for metal goods like tools used on plantations increased
  • British workers were indirectly involved in enslavement
  • guns, produced in Birmingham, and chains, produced in Wolverhampton and the Black Country, fueled the violence of the empire and enslavement
• • British exports to the Americas included clothing, spirits, textiles, silks and fish
  • these exports, along with cargo from overseas, provided a boom for dock labourers and goods transporters
• Employment opportunities from the empire


  • Banking, insurance and trading companies sprang up
  • Business organisation needed clerks, accountants, administrators and lawyers
  • The colonies needed professionals like clergymen, doctors and lawyers
  • Increased demand for ships creared jobs as seamen, officers and shipbuilders
  • The demand for timber, sail, cloth, and other shipbuilding materials increased
• Impact on politics

  • Following the Glorious Revolution, two poltical parties grew
  • The Tory Party
  • modern day Conservatives
  • represented the landowning party
  • The Whig Party
  • modern day Liberal Democrats
  • represented the growing class of wealthy merchants
• Coffee houses


  • Coffee houses were where people socialised, did business, and exchanged ideas
  • many political subjects were discussed there
  • the London Stock Exchange began in a coffee house
• • The coffee craze led to addiction on a mass scale across classes
  • Some said that coffee made men lazy
  • Many coffee houses became places of extreme alcohol drinking
• The printing press


  • Helped spread political ideas by printing pamphlets, broadsheets, magazines and newspapers
  • Papers would be read by hundreds of people in coffee houses
  • Each party had its own paper
• Impact on consumerism


  • The Asian trade led to:
  • Asian stles became fashionable
  • Asian commodities like tea, furniature and porcelain became popular
  • As products like tobacco, tea and sugar became popular, prices decreased and profits increased
• Impact on ideas

  • The slave trade led to the dehumanisation of African people
  • Africans were depicted as stateless, and therefore inferior
  • Racist idealogy meant that Black people in England had unclear legal status, and that they were seen as inferior, less intelligent, or childish
  • Science backed these racist ideas after 1735, when Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus divided humanity into four "races"
  • Europeans were "active, acute and adventurous", wheras Africans were "crafty, lazy and careless"
• Plantocracy racism


  • Claimed there were natural differences between Africans and Europeans
• Why did plantocracy racism take hold?


  • The drive for wealth and profit overpowered other considerations
  • Those involved wanted to justify enslavement
  • Too many people were benefitting from the slave trade
  • Planters wanted to prevent united rebellion by indentured and enslaved people
• What were the three main slave ports?

  Bristol, London, Liverpool
• What was Bristol?


  A major centre for ships sailing to West Africa and returning from the Caribbean
• What did Bristol have?


  Many sugar houses, where sugar was refined
• Who did many of Bristol's houses belong to?

  The city's wealthiest slave traders
• What ships often docked in London?

  RAC ships sailing to West Africa
• What did the slave trade help finance in London?

  The Royal Family's state apartments in Windsor Castle
• What connection did Thomas Guy have to trade?

  He owned and sold shares in the South Sea Company before the bubble burst and became rich
• What are many streets in Liverpool named after?

  Prominent slave traders
• Where did ships in Liverpool trade between?

  Britain, West Africa, North America
• Who was Bryan Blundell?

  The founder of the Blue Coat Hospital who made his money from the slave trade
• What did demand in Britain grow for?

  Rum, sugar, tobacco
• What did the colonies' need for goods increase?

  Exports to Africa, North America, and the Caribbean
• How much profit were slave ship owners making?

  Around 20-50%
• How much was the EIC paying out to its shareholders?

  50%
• What did Britain become dependent on around the 1700s?

  Trade and colonial expansion
• What began ousting state monopolies?

  Private business
• What kind of work did the Empire provide?

  Administrators, planters, shipbuilders, clerks, sugar refiners
• What is an example of British workers being involved in enslavement?

  Guns from Birmingham and chains from Wolverhampton and the Black Country fueled the violence of the Empire
• What was Britain exporting to the Americas?

  Clothing, spirits, textiles, fish
• What were coffee houses?


  Places where people socialised, did business, and exhchanged ideas
• How many licensed cofee houses were there in London in 1754?

  551
• What did the London Stock Exchange begin as?

  A coffee house
• What were the two main political parties following the Glorious Revolution?

  The Tories and the Whigs
• What helped to spread political ideas?

  The printing press
• What did the coffee craze lead to?

  Addiction on a mass scale