Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas

Colonies of Sugar

Sugar Plantations

Sugar plantations and tobacco farms required a large supply of workers to make them profitable for their owners.

Around 1500, European colonists in the Americas who needed cheap labor began using enslaved Africans on plantation farms.

Slavery already existed before slavery in the Americas

Between 650-1600 CE, 17 million Africans were transported to the Muslim lands of North Africa and Southwest Asia.

Between 1500-1600, 300,000 Africans were transported to the Americas. By 1870, 9.5 million.

One-Pager Activity

Read the excerpt handout and create a one-pager response on one of the following topics:

1. Politics

2. Economy

3. Society

Colonies of Sugar

Why was sugar in high demand in Europe?

Who pioneered sugar production?

Why did sugar planters turn to Africa and Atlantic slave trade? Why was there a need to “refresh” the slave population?

Define Mulatto.

How are North America and South America social make-up the same and different? What accounts for these differences?

Slavery in North and South America? Differences?