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Cupido Article Review
Cupido Article Review
Cupido Article Review
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
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
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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
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
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
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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
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