Search Our Essay Database

Essay Instructions: NB: I have email the essay as an attachment which should be used to answer the below question.


ON CURTIN, THE PLANATION COMPLEX

In his essay "The Tropical Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade" Philip Curtin deploys the phrase "plantation complex" as a signal to the reader that he is going to provide a different historical understanding of plantations and slavery from the standard "triangular trade" image that all of us have learned. He seems to argue that it was of greater global significance and less North American centered than we have been taught.

What features of this "complex" does he emphasize in order to convince his readers that a proper historical understanding of slavery and plantations has to be more complex in time and space than the conventional story that we have been taught?

Essay Instructions: Short Paper: Mercantilism and Slavery on the Plantations

Analyze one of the following sources: JSTOR:http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/
Curtis P. Nettels, ???British Mercantilism and the Economic Development of the Thirteen Colonies,??? The Journal of Economic History 12 (Spring, 1952): 105-114.

Ronald L Lewis, ???Slavery on Chesapeake Iron Plantations Before the American Revolution,??? The Journal of Negro history 59 (July, 1974): 242-254.

Develop a two page paper analyzing your chosen article using the specific guidelines in the Source Analysis Guidelines and Rubric in the Assignment Guidelines folder and then answer one of the following questions: :

Nettels article: What were some of the methods employed by the English to ensure that mercantilist policies were protected?

Lewis article: What does this article tell you about the nature of slavery in the Chesapeake region?

Essay Instructions: Here is my abstract and outline:


Slavery in The Caribbean

This paper will focus on slavery in the Caribbean and its effect on race, culture and labor. Slavery began in the 16th century and was promoted because of the need for labor on the sugar plantations. Slave trading was directly related to the plantations. Unfortunately, the sugar plantations resulted in a slave society. The entire plantation system was terribly degrading. The slaves were treated terribly and suffered throughout their lives. Slave turnover was very high because of the very poor treatment they received. They were denied medicines and food. While being forced into slavery, they neglected themselves. As a result, many slaves died. This then resulted in plantation owners trying to secure even greater numbers of slaves to work on their plantations. Nonetheless, these people had pride and ultimately resisted white supremacy. They developed a resistance movement that was ultimately successful. There were many types of resistance that the slaves would use. Some forms of resistance were rather effective, whereas others were not. Additionally, the resistance movement certainly cost many lives. Emancipation finally came about in the 19th century. Throughout this entire ordeal, an entirely new social class developed, the ?free colored? people. These people were legally freed however they were invariably excluded based on their racial ancestry. Many of these people continued to be persecuted, just like slaves.

Slavery obviously had a significant effect on culture. Slavery continues to have an effect many decades after abolition. Many cultural trends have been influenced in one way or another by slavery in the Caribbean. Race was also affected. The new social class was a result of a race that developed between slaves and Europeans. This 3rd social class has had a significant effect on many aspects of culture. Labor was also affected by slavery in many different ways.

Here is my outline:

Slavery in the Caribbean-outline

I. Origins of slavery
A. Promotion of slave trade
B. Treatment of slaves

II. Slave trading and sugar plantations
A. Emergence of a slave society
B. Slave turnover ratio
1. Degrading plantation system

III. Treatment of slaves
A. Horrors of slavery
B. Hardships of slavery
1. Social structure
2. Disease
3. Malnutrition

IV. Resistance movements
A. Reaction to authoritative rule
B. Forms of resistance
1. Refusal to eat
2. Refusal to take medicines
C. Strikes
D. Theft

V. Emancipation
A. 19th century
B. Slavery abolished in 1886

VI. New social class
A. 3rd social class
B. Legal freedoms
C. Rejection by white society

VII The effect of slavery on culture

VIII The effect of slavery on race

IX The effect of slavery on labor

Here are a few references/sources

Slavery in the Caribbean-Bibliography


Michele Reid-Vazquez, The Year of the Lash, The University of Georgia Press, 2011

Verene A. Shepard, Hilary McD. Beckles, editors, Caribbean Slavery in the Atlantic world: a student reader

Published primary
Nicole N. Aljoe, Creole Testimonies: Slave Narratives from the British West Indies, 1709-1838

Empire Online-
http://www.library.pitt.edu/articles/database info/empire.html

The Caribbean Islands-The Sugar Revolutions and Slavery
www.mongebay.com/history/caribbean

Essay Instructions: What ways can we see the origins of the later southern plantation society in the settlement and early history of Jamestown (circa 1607-1650)?
* Rich people living as nobility
* Size of plantations
* Cash crop
* Slaves