Question

How did African slaves contribute to the development of the Americas?

Answer 1

Hint: Slave trade was an activity that was vigorously carried out by the colonial masters from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The blacks, who were deported from Africa, were the main community who were sold and bought as slaves. They were forced to do labour for the countries they were deported to.

Complete answer: Slave trade first started in Europe. The Africans, who were involved, soon proved to be competent workers. They became the labour force of choice in the West as well and a large number of them began to be deported to the Americas. About 5.5 million Africans were deported to the Americas as slave labourers between 1492 and 1776.
These enslaved Africans were employed as field workers. An overwhelming number of them worked in the sugar plantations. Sugar production of the Americas became very high. In the United States, it was tobacco production that consumed the most number of African labourers. Apart from sugar and tobacco, the labourers were also involved in rice and indigo plantations.
After the cotton gin was invented in 1793, slave produced cotton gave a new shift to the American economy.

Note: After the slave trade was abolished in 1808, they continued contributing enormously to the economy of the Americas. It could be either through domestic labour (in the form of waiter, seamstress, butler, etc.) or through casual labour in urban areas.