Appendix 4: Atlantic Slave Trade

Typical Journey of an African Slave

1. Capture
2. Journey from Interior to Coast
3. Storage on the Coast
4. Middle Passage (crossing the Atlantic)
5. Arrival in the Americas

Characteristics of a Plantation Complex (Economy of Scale)

1. Relied on forced labor
2. Population was not self-sustaining
3. Large scale production
4. Almost feudal authority system
5. Export one main crop, import most other items
6. Answered to a distant authority- colonial power

Further Reading: Curtin, Philip D.. The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.