The reading from chapter six of \u201cThe Atlantic World\u201d focuses on the evolution of slavery in the slave trade and in the Americas. Hard labor on sugar and tobacco plantations was initially performed by indentured servants, but this was humiliating and tough work that Europeans did not want to do, and labor transitioned from servants to natives, to enslaved Africans. On the slave ships, enslaved persons faced many obstacles that affected their mortality rate. Some of these obstacles were sleeping on wooden floor while chained up and no air, unsanitary conditions such as constant closeness to other people along with fecal matter and vomit, dehydration, and severe beatings and harsh treatment from the captains and crew of their ships. At the same time, the captors did attempt to keep their cargo alive, mandating enslaved persons to clean the floors. In some cases musicians were brought on voyages to encourage the enslaved persons to dance. The seventeenth century saw the implementation of regulations on the slave trade. Some Europeans simply restricted punishments inflicted on slaves, others gave enslaved persons a few rights and a degree of humanness, while some determined which parent a child would inherit its freedom or bondage from.
\nThe Chapter on Power from the Mintz reading discusses the power associated with sugar in the Americas. Power relating to sugar took the form of economic power, as sugar was highly demanded, but also a source of political power over other nations, and social power in that Europeans dominated the social structure built on the labors of enslaved persons. The importance of sugar changed over time for the Europeans. At first, it was a prized delicacy consumed only by the elite. This changed as sugar was mass produced, demand increased, and it became part of the average person’s diet.
\nClassmate Tyler Mendoza<\/a> relates these readings with the Saltwater Frontier. This relation is that native Americans and Africans are often understood to be bystanders as the Europeans are primarily the drive in history. We know that the natives were very engaged, very advanced, more so than the Europeans in many ways. In Africa, the slave trade was dependent on other Africans selling enslaved persons in exchange for various items at different times.<\/p>\n