Nakeava Rucker February 7, 2014 The End of the Atlantic Slave Trade -Herbert S.

Klein

Herbert Klein believed that slave trade came to an end not because it was morally wrong but because it was a political movement. At the time sugar, coffee, and cotton was the elastic demand and without slaves the economy supply and demands would decrease. The number one question that is seemed to be difficult to answer is why end slave trade if it was as profitable as it is known to have been? In the eighteenth century the British attempted to abolish slave trade and forced rulers from different countries to stop exporting people. It was said that this campaign was extremely costly due to the fact slave trade was their number one income. The first people to step up after the British to try to abolish slave trade was the Protestant church and even though many didnt believe slave trade was morally wrong the protestants did, so, they believed that all men should be equal. Many believed that the blacks was not equal to them therefore, they should work for free as slaves. Another fact I thought was quite strange was that people did not believe that slave trade should be abolished because it was unfair/morally wrong but because they felt as if people should not have to work for free. Though the British wanted slavery abolished everywhere, there were some that refused to end slave trades such as, Portugal and Spain. They believed that without slaves they would not be able to profit and that it would physically hurt their economy. Many as well believed that slavery would last forever so they did as much as they could to keep exporting Africans into America. Shortly after, the abolitionist movement turned on slave trade in America. There were

numerous amounts of acts to end slave trade such as; a slave registration act, campaigns for total emancipation, and the creation of the apprenticeship system. Slave trade was extremely profitable that the British began searching vessels that may have had slaves or even equipment that was proved to have held slaves in its vessels. Again, the question is what ended the Atlantic slave trade if slaves were the major source of income? The Atlantic slave trade came to an end because of the steady rise of slave prices; there was naval blockade, a major decline of slaves and indentured/ immigrant trade slowly but surely took over the slave trade. From this reading I strongly believe that slave trade was not to intentionally brought upon to harm anyone but simply to help the economy as ignorant as it may sound now. Yes, it is morally wrong and no, they should not have taken people from their homeland just to create a better lifestyle for themselves but at the time that is all they knew, unfortunately. I as well believe that they came to the realization that what they were doing was morally wrong and that is why slave trade became illegal.