The history and legacy of the slave trade and its economic, social and Essay

The history and legacy of the slave trade and its economic, social and cultural impact on the Northwest region of England - Essay Example erscored that the pre-industrialization era encouraged the slave trade as slaves were used mainly in agriculture and other sectors requiring manual labor. The emergence of colonialists also played a significant role since colonies, particularly in Africa, were rich sources of human merchandise. In Europe, Britain rivaled Spain and Portugal in the slave trade. The discovery of the New World was central to this that is why the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were said to be the centuries of trade, as the nineteenth century was the century of production. The â€Å"triangular trade† was the culmination, placing the slave trade as a major engine behind the enormous rise in world trade. Eric Williams and Colin Palmer wrote about this in the book called, Capitalism and Slavery: In this triangular trade England – France and Colonial America – equally supplied the exports and the ships; Africa the human merchandise; the plantations the colonial raw materials. The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country. (p. 51-52) The Northwestern part of England, particularly the town of Liverpool, is a major slaving port, with its ships and merchants lording over the Atlantic trade. â€Å"The precise reasons for Liverpools dominance of the trade are still debated by historians. Some suggest that Liverpool merchants were being pushed out of the other Atlantic trades, such as sugar and tobacco. Others claim that the towns merchants were more enterprising. A significant factor was the ports position with ready access via a network of rivers and canals to the goods traded in Africa - textiles from Lancashire and Yorkshire, copper and brass from Staffordshire and Cheshire and guns from Birmingham.† (National Museum Liverpool) It is hence, not