Sugar and the Transatlantic Slave Trade History Y8

• Rapid social change in Britain with the industrial revolution

  18th century
• Middle class

  • People below the nobility but above the workers, who had disposable income to spend on luxuries like sugar, tea and coffee
• Feast hosted to honour Pope innocent XI, guards were hired to protect the sugar sculpture that formed the centre piece of the banquet table

  1688
• The 6ft sugar sculpture was very elaborately planned and was used as a symbol of wealth and power
• By the end of the 18th century everyone from the upper classes to the poorest workers could buy tea and sugar
• Sweet, milky tea

  Staple in the diet of the working classes
• The milk and sugar increased the caloric content so helped fight starvation
• It was hot so warmed people up in the cold winter
• The boiled water also helped to fight water born diseases like cholera and dysentery
• As the Industrial Revolution (c.1750-1900) progressed the demand for sugar increased because there was a need for a cheap source of quick energy
• Sugar was Britain's most valuable import

  From the 1740s to 1820s
• Four-fifths of European sugar came from the British and French colonies
• Once Britain had created colonies in the New World they found the climate ideal for growing sugar crop
• This allowed the British Empire to develop a profitable trade in sugar across the Atlantic
• Price of sugar

  Dependent on how well refined it was
• In order to create the pure white sugar demanded by the growing working class, it needed to be separated from the dark molasses
• This dark, sticky molasses was also sold as a cheaper form of sugar to the working class during the industrial revolution
• Sugar was still very expensive

  At the end of the medieval period
• Sugar

  Considered a "fine spice" and was only available to the most wealthy people in society as it needed to be imported from warmer climates
• Slavery has existed for a very long time
• The ancient Egyptians used slaves to build the Pyramids
• The Romans used slaves and made them fight in the gladiator arenas
• After the fall of the Roman Empire, slavery became less common
• However, one place where it did exist was in Africa
• Enslaved Peoples

  People of different nationalities who became enslaved-the legal property of someone else, They were bought and sold and traded as goods
• Slavery is when people are treated as property
• Some people who were captured in battle were forced to become slaves
• Others were made slaves as punishments for their crimes
• Some people agreed to become slaves when there was a bad famine (a time of starvation)
• After 1440, white Europeans came to Africa and forced Africans to become slaves
• Slave labour produced sugar, cotton and tobacco
• Slavery became an international trade from which there was no escape
• The American Civil War in 1861 finally led to the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution which abolished slavery
• Indentured servants


  Work until debt is paid, the person they are indebted to are entitled to do anything until debt is paid
• Britain was involved in the Transatlantic Trade by exchanging guns, wine, cotton cloth, pots and pans for people
• Ships were refitted, filling completely with slaves for the Atlantic crossing which usually took around 6-8 weeks
• There were many diseases and the loss of life was high, with around 30% of people on the ships dying
• Most people couldn't survive the torture, malnutrition and lack of hygiene
• There was slavery in parts of West Africa before the arrival of the Europeans
• Literacy was widespread throughout Africa so it was easier to trade goods with places like Venice