Document 1 - Impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade on the New World Whatever the effect of slavery on Africa, there can be no doubt that enslaved Africans played a crucial part in the economic development on the New World, above all by making up for shortages of labor. The arrival of Europeans in the Americans had brought diseases that decimated local populations, which reduced the potential for securing labor from that source; and often too few Europeans chose to migrate to the Americas to meet the demand for labor. This was particularly true in Brazil and the Caribbean, where people of African origin became by far the largest section of the population; it was also the case in parts of North America, although here white people outnumbered black people.

Enslaved Africans were especially important as a labor supply for the “plantation” agriculture that developed in the New World, first in Brazil, and later in the Caribbean and the southern parts of North America. The plantation system had begun in medieval times on Mediterranean islands such as Crete and Cyprus- and it was an unusually sophisticated form of agriculture operation for its day, producing sugar for the international market at a time when most of European agriculture concentrated on the basics of local subsistence. But from its inception( beginning), it used slaves; and when plantations were set up in the Americas, enslaved Africans became the backbone of the workforce

Question : (1.) What is the central idea of the passage? Explain (2.) According to Hardy, what was one reason enslaved Africans were forcibly brought to the Americas? Explain (3.) How does the use of the word “decimated” in line 3 of the passage contribute to the readers’ understanding of shortages of labor? Explain (4.) What details from the second paragraph support the claim that the Atlantic Slave Trade has an impact in the New World? (5.)What does the author conclude about the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade in the last 2 lines of the passage where he states, “ But form its inception, its used slaves; and when plantations were set up in the Americas, enslaved Africans became the backbone of the workforce...” *