Jack Smith

Dr. Cupido

HIST 1611

19/Nov/2018

Eltis, David and Engerman, L. Stanley. "The Importance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to
Industrializing Britain". The Journal of Economic History Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 2000).
Cambridge University Press. pp. 123-144.

The topic of slavery and its repercussions on history as a whole is a common debate

throughout the historical world. It has been romanticized through modern media in the forms of

gladiators and the construction of the great pyramids in Egypt. Many argue that without it, the

industrial revolution would have been held back for decades, and this is the point that David Eltis

and Stanley Engerman tackle in their article "The Importance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to

Industrializing Britain". In this article, they investigate the effects slavery had on the

industrialization of Britain, both from a strictly economic point of view as well as from an

overall view of the progress it allowed Europe to make. They examine the number of slaves

traded on markets at the time and compare it to that of other goods like textiles, sugar and iron.

Additionally, they look into the industries which used slavery the most heavily such as sugar and

cotton and determined their overall effect on their influence on the industrialization of the era. In

a less materialistic view, they also look at the effects slavery had on Britain’s development of

their free labor system which would become vital in the new age as it would allow employees

and employers to be seen as equals, legally speaking at least. In their closing sentence, they state

that they believe that slavery “certainly helped [the] Revolution along, but its role was no greater
than that of many other economic activities, and in [its] absence... it is hard to believe that the

Industrial Revolution would not have occurred anyway”1 .

One of the main arguments made in the article is that the slave trade was incredibly small

when compared to other goods and materials being shipped in and out of Britain at that time. For

instance, they talk about 1792 when 204 ships with a combined carrying capacity of about 38000

tons departed Britain for the purpose of the slave trade. At that time there were 14334 ships

registered in Britain who, when combined, had a total carrying capacity nearly 1.5 tons. This

means that slave ships were less than 1.5% of the total merchant fleet and less than 3% of the

total weight transported. This is an incredibly important snippet of information to get across, as

many people, myself included, have a view in their mind that the slave trade was a massive

industry that was dominating in European trade and making its tycoons richer than any other

man alive. This is most likely because there is so much more media about slaves and the slave

trade in popular culture than there is about the textile business of the late 1700s. In the article,

they touch on this misconception of the size of the trade stating that they believe more people

talk about it because of the “immorality” of it rather than its actual economic impact.

All things considered, this article demonstrates a well thought out and convincing

argument that while slavery may have sped up the industrial revolution, it was not as crucial a

cog in the working machine of Europe as other scholar’s and popular culture have led us to

believe. They tackle their argument delving deep into the economic, cultural and moral changes

caused by the slave trade in a well-constructed and logical manner. The rest of this essay will be

in the defense of this article as a valid and useful source of information on the topic both of

1
David Eltis and Stanley Engerman, "The Importance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to
Industrializing Britain", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar., 2000),
Cambridge University Press, 141.
slavery and industrialization. First, I will look into the authors of the article and determine their

authority on the matters they are discussing. Secondly, I will look at how they manage to

separate themselves from the emotional aspect of the slave trade that most authors latch onto for

the sake of a memorable narrative. After this, I will look at the authors’ use of an information

table and how it furthers the readers understanding of the overall text. Finally, I will look at the

overall use of language and writing style used in the article and determine how it pulls the whole

article together into a nice concise package.

Dr. David Eltis has held prestigious posts across the Academic world, these include six

years as a history professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, a recurring research associate for

the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard and as a visiting professor in the department of African

American Studies also at Harvard. In 2002 he won the Frederick Douglass Prize for a book

published on the subject of slavery or abolition and in 2011 the RR Hawkins award, American

Publishers Association, for the most outstanding scholarly work in all disciplines of the arts and

sciences2. He has published 7 books on the topic of slavery and been featured in several

academic journals discussing the subject. As far as the topic of slavery goes it looks as though it

would be difficult to find someone more qualified to weigh in on the subject.

His co-author, Dr. Stanley Engerman, brings to bear the other point that the article is

making with his vast knowledge in economics. Engerman held a position at Harvard from 2009-

2012 in the economics department and is currently a professor of history and economics at the

University of Rochester. He has worked alongside Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Fogel

with whom he studied the economic effects of Slavery in the Atlantic. Additionally, he has held a

position as both president of the Social Sciences History Association and the Economic History

2
David Eltis, CV, http://www.history.ubc.ca/sites/default/files/cv/eltis_david_cv.pdf
Association. He has over 100 published articles, most of which are on the topic of slavery, as

well as being either author or editor for 16 published books3. Obviously, both men are at the top

of their field in research and both hold immense authority in the field of slavery as well as

economics.

Despite this immense volume of knowledge that these two academic giants hold between

them, they maintain an overall tone of dispassion, professionalism and lack of bias towards

slavery in their writing. This is especially impressive when considering that slavery is generally

one of the few topics everyone widely agrees was terrible and is usually looking to voice that

opinion as often and as loudly as possible. Rather than radicalizing the idea of slavery, they focus

solely on its effects in the economy of Europe, eventually peeking into the effects it had on the

mentality of Europe’s working class and the creation of unions and the development of wage

labor. Through mostly distancing themselves from the moral and humanitarian issues of slavery,

the two men manage to create a strong concise argument on the effects on industrialization

without it being distracted by the human factor which usually appears whenever slavery is

mentioned. This allows for a more direct and easier to understand economic narrative which in

turns just makes the article more concise, easy to read and overall better.

Additionally, the article only uses one table to interrupt the text and it does so in a way

that does not feel like it's there simply to fill space or break up the text. The one table that can be

found on page 134 and it highlights some of the higher paying exports, both luxurious and

practical trade goods. These range from coal to iron to woolen textiles. Principally, in the context

of the article, this holds two important points which aid in a reader’s comprehension of the

overall point that the authors are making. Firstly, it shows that the slave trade is not as significant

3
Encyclopedia.com, Stanley, Engerman
to the economy as many other basic resources like paper or sheep’s wool. Secondly, it

demonstrates the low value of the goods produced by slavery as a reader can easily see that

sugar, the main thing slaves were used for harvesting in Europe, is one of the lowest valued trade

goods at the time. On top of these two obvious characteristics of the table that can be seen at first

glance, it also comes with a very detailed description which further aids in the understanding of

the minute economic impact slavery was having on Europe as a whole.

Finally, the overall writing and flow of the article is well put together and gives a very

firm sense that substantial care, thought and editing went into it before its final publication. It

opens by presenting three arguments about the possible effects of slavery on industrialization and

gives a concise summary of each. Following that, it flows seamlessly into an overall description

of the economy and the effects that slavery was having on it before transitioning smoothly into

pointing out how these all helped industrialization occur, but it was not instrumental to it’s

happening. They also avoid plugging long, complex, academic words into the article when a

simple phrase or word would suffice, instead, allowing their ideas to carry the intelligence of the

article forward. I don’t know how the history field is for this, but in the music academic world,

this is a constant issue and something that I am always happy to see not occurring. Overall, the

general quality of writing allows the article to flow easily and be comprehensible without

requiring too much extra thought. They state their points clearly and transition between them

smartly and seamlessly, further adding to the overall feeling of prestige that the article demands.

In conclusion, Eltis and Engerman’s "The Importance of Slavery and the Slave Trade to

Industrializing Britain" is a convincing academic article. It could earn this title from the names

attached to it alone, both of which being hugely influential researchers and writers in the fields of

economics and the Atlantic Slave Trade. Additionally, they manage to keep themselves distant
from the humanity of slavery and focus only on the economic impact which aids them getting

their points across without any risk of distraction. Furthermore, they use a minimal number of

tables or graphs and the one that they do use is well integrated into the argument and furthers the

readers understanding of the economic environment they are describing. Finally, it’s simply very

well written and allows a reader to go through it quickly and concisely thanks to the mastery of

language that both authors demonstrate.