Question 3 - Motives behind the slave trade.

After reading the text, I feel that economics played a larger role in the slave trade but racism definitely contributed to the prominence it developed.  Painter says that the African population in America grew from 1% to 11% (28,00) in 80 years due to the growth of the plantation economy.  Slaves were a way to decrease cost and thereby increase profit since the labor was unpaid, with the exception of the food and housing of the slaves.  The sugar and tobacco production increase substantially in the American and led to the desire to obtain more slaves to help maintain this growth pace of these industries.  2/3 of the Africans shipped across the Atlantic were men.  The younger Africans eventually came into high demand.  The African captors wanted to keep the women.  However, this may have benefitted the economy as well since males are stronger genetically and can therefore be more work-efficient.  The shift towards the younger African could have allowed the slave owners to keep him/her for a longer period of time when he/she is at the strongest and healthiest point in his/her life.

However, I think there was some racism involved in this matter, both among the European population as well as the African population.  Africans had slaves among their kingdoms well before Europeans began to invade and colonize the land.  It was the Imbangala who were given guns by the Portuguese to capture Africans to be sold into slavery.  On this level, that racism played a strong role in the slave trade since it was on a national level.

As we've read in a few articles such as West's, Europeans thought they were the "pearl of the world."  I think this mentality, along with some aspects of human nature, played a role in developing racism from this population.  In another course I have taken, the professor talked about the theory that humans have an innate desire to classify and view themselves as higher than another classification, whether it's animals, another person's social class, or gender.  This ideal presented by some religions and Europe's grandiose mentality as a whole, Europeans were able to rationalize the slave trade as acceptable.  With a lack of communication and a difference of appearance, slave traders could disconnect their sympathy and association with the African population.