Black People In A White People's Country Summary

Gary Nash’s “Black people in a white people’s country” is an article that provides us with insight into the overall development of the international slave trade and slavery of West Africa beginning in the late fifteenth century and continuing. The economic influences, impact of the stages of transport on the slave ships especially that of the “middle passage”, and the impact on white or the Europeans society as African slavery became not only more prominent but also more institutionalized in the Americas. The economic influences that forced the hand of slavery were over goods. The goods that were in high demand were sugar and tobacco. It has been argued that if it wasn’t for the high demand of these products especially more than anything else sugar the slave trade might not have been as astronomical as it was. With the demand for these products came the demand for more laborers which in turn lead to the expansion of the slave trade . What was once before done based on a reciprocal relationship meaning the Europeans traded goods like iron and textiles and in exchange the African kings traded men who they considered no longer to have citizenship or rights due to either a crime, war or other heinous act drastically changed . The demand for labor increased
When the early American settlers were faced with the problem of finding an able and cheaper labor force, especially for those in the southern colonies (they had the highest need due to labor intensive crops) they turned to the international slave trade to fill that need. The European settlers didn’t posses or know how rich and vast the knowledge of the Africans were and so therefore thought since these are an ignorant people it’ll be easy to but them in bondage. They viewed anyone who did not have their religion, culture or ways of being as uncivilized, savage and