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Once Europeans found a way to profit from American landscapes through agriculture and mining, labor was needed to make this dream into a reality. When indigenous and European work was not satisfactory, explorers and settlers turned to African forced migration and exploitation. Between 1540 and 1870, approximately 11 million Africans were forced to migrate to the Atlantic and were used for their labor. Integral to the economic success of the Atlantic and eventually the production of cotton in Southern United States. The mortality rate for crossing the Atlantic ocean alone was 12 to 15 percent, and 40 percent of slaves were transported to the Brazil, 37 percent to the West indies, 16 percent to Spanish America, and only 6 percent to what would become the United States (Egerton et al, 187). In her post, Diana Tran mentions that the large number of slaves in Brazil and the Caribbean was due to the lucrative success of sugar production, that Europeans were dependent on their labor and forced migration: “It was true, Europeans were making money without much of their own effort. Their fortune was cultivated with someone else’s labor and someone else’s land.” To me, this argument was insightful and eye opening because Tran successfully points out the backbone of American and Eurocentric success: the blood, sweat, and tears of the horribly treated.
According to Sidney Mintz, sugar was a miracle to Europeans, rich and poor. The sweetener was immensely satisfying and improved food conditions throughout all of Europe: “…it was symbolically powerful, for its use could be endowed with many subsidiary meanings” (Mintz, 186). Sugar was symbolically significant to Europeans, and as a result, the labor of exploitation of Africans was justified through White eyes. Economically, sugar was extremely profitable due to its social popularity in Europe, and in order to keep up with its mass desire, Europeans turned to the cruel and unusual treatment of African slaves, forcing them to migrate to Brazil, the Atlantic, and what is now the United States to economically benefit European society. To me, this is extremely disturbing but also not surprising. Systemic racism against people of color originates from the idea that Africans and other non-white peoples are inferior due to their original lack of Christianity, and their importance to the economic benefitting of Eurocentric society. Slavery is an unfortunate, yet integral part of the backbone of western success and domination. Without the forced migration of 11 million Africans, Europe and the United States would not be where they are today.