Any society is shaped by historical forces. Thus, structural forms of contemporary states in Latin and America, as well as South of the US were determined by the slave plantation system. Geographical position, economical development and slave market were the most important factors, forming plantation society. "…plantation society as a particular class of society with distinguishing characteristics of social structure and political organization, and laws of motion governing social change" [1] The social structure of plantation society was called plantocracy. It was unique phenomena of that time and place, and its unique character, causes and consequences are the subject of analysis in this work. The core idea is to analyze the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the origins, roots and development of this phenomenon as well as the peculiarities and direct impact it provided on the local societies.
Analysis
From the very beginning it would be essential to define the term slave trading. It could be referred to as selling and buying people as a property, making them slaves. The most massive developed slave trade reached in the period starting at 15 ending with the 18th century, when the slaves were taken from Africa: "On the basis of published material, Curtin estimated that 9, 566, 100 slaves were imported into the Americas and other parts of the Atlantic basin from 1451 to 1870. Curtin intended his study as a 'point of departure that will be modified in time as new research produces new data, and harder data worthy of more sophisticated forms of calculation. It will have served its purpose if it challenges others to correct and complete its findings" [2] . That is why the typical imagery of slave is closely connected with the Afro American nation and the image of the black skin slave is spread widely. But it would be important to note that slave trading, as a social event, does not have direct connection to the racial identity of the slaves. With the development of the social morality slave trading transformed from privileges to the crime. It has lost its massive character, but it would be important to note that it had not disappeared at all.
Triangular trading was a typical element of the slave trading which started in the end of the XVI - and ended at beginning of the XIX century. It was typical triangular Trans-Atlantic exchange, which connected three parts of the world - Africa, America and Europe. The European vessels, the same time, routed between all three continents, so called the three tops of the "golden triangular":
European ships went by sea to the shores of Guinea Bay in order to by the salves as they were used as the cheapest labour force
After capturing or buying the slaves, they were transferred cross the Atlantic ocean to be sold in West India or Continental America (now the territory of the United States)
From America to Europe there were carried the goods, created with the help of slave labor forces. Among them it would be important to mention sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco and indigo
. Paul E. Lovejoy in his investigation [3] of the slavery phenomenon claimed that the increasing demands in working hands determined by the developing of the plantocracy and increasing of the "manufacturing" (i.e. plantation areas) powers, which required more slaves to serve there. Thus a number of Africans died from different disease, as no one cared to cure them, during the severe epidemics.
Short historical review shows that Indigenous people in Latin America did not become the slaves. In the meantime the period of Renaissance began in Europe. With the blessing of the Church era of great geographical discoveries started. First Europeans who visited Caribbean islands were Portuguese, though their presence in this region was not significant, their core interest was Brazil. At the end of 15th century Spanish came on the Islands. Columbus named this region "West India" (because the initial aim of his journey was to find the sea route to India). The Spanish conquerors (conquistadors) imposed slavery within the area. Warlike nature of the Caribbean tribes as well as European contagious diseases (pox and tuberculosis) became the reason of their disappearance. The Caribs were too proud to be slaves, so at the beginning of 17th century they died out. But the land still required working hands and this only rushed the development of the slave trading [4]
The fertile soil and hot climate made the Islands promising agricultural region, but lack of labour forces prevented the development of agriculture. In the middle of 17th century due to political changes in Great Britain the majority of slaves imported to this area were white, the Irish and the Scotch. Criminals from Europe were often sent to the Caribbean too, certainly and sold to slavery [5] . The climate of the Islands was mortal for most Europeans, and anyway, new owners of these places needed to renew agricultural labour forces constantly. The temporarily growing requirements in labour forces became the moving force for slave trading. The main source of slaves, which actually assisted trading development and created a phenomenon of the "Golden Triangular", was African seashore [6]
"The slave plantations of the New World brought together a few white people from Europe as owners, and large numbers of black people from Africa as farced labourers. The latter came from different parts of the west coast of Africa and were generally an odd mixture of people from different tribal and cultural backgrounds who, most often, did not speak the same language"
Within the next two centuries the new social system known as "plantocracy" was formed within the area, and its specific features forced the development of slave trading and determined the conditions on the slave market: "An alternative view looks at the supply side in pointing to the high value of women in Africa both as workers and as biological extenders of those kin groups that form the central institution in many African societies. The desires of planters in the Americas and those of the power elites in Africa therefore dovetailed in a preference for male slaves" [7] .
The colonies in West India became the gold mine for the European economics. As it was mentioned earlier Europeans exported tobacco, cotton and sugar. Before the period of British Colonization the majority of Indian gold was brought to the Europe, and the great times for sugar colonies has begun. Investigators devote huge attention to the demographics of the region.
There were three main demographical components in the Caribbean society - black slaves, white owners and creoles. People of mixed race mostly considered as black, but the movement to the creoles was obvious. The mixture of races and cultures created the phenomena of creolisation, the final result of which became modern demographical situation within the area.
Plantation as the institution of agricultural production had its specific features.
"Typically, a .plantation is a unit of agricultural production with a specific type of economic organization characterized by a large resident labor force of unskilled workers who are directed by a small supervisory staff. As well the plantation is a community, its social structure and the pattern of interpersonal relations within it reflecting to a large extent the authority structure governing the pattern of economic organization" [8]
Poor skills of workers on plantations were explained mainly with the high mortality level among slaves. Hard work, poor living conditions and tropical climate together increased the mortality level. The period of acclimatization lasted for three years in average, and up to 50% of slaves died within this period. That is why the demand on new slaves was constantly high. However, the huge profits from sugar and molasses allowed buying new slaves. In Robin Blackburn's study, "The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery: 1776-1848" the numbers of African slaves in the British Caribbean was estimated as 428,000 out of a population of 500,000. So, the white owners and oversees totally consisted on 15% of Caribbean population. It created the specific patterns of social structure.
Conclusion
Different factors led the development of slave trading 16-19 centuries; the domination of plantations and plantation companies is one of them. The society has been taught a lot of lessons during this period and could hardly forget about their common history. Still a number of Americans would support the idea of racism, as well classism, nationalism (and other discriminatory practices) reducing. We are living in multicultural countries, where ethnical and racial identity should be respected by the whole community and each of us has equal rights for the good job, personal security, right for choice and right for privacy and certainly equal treatment from the other members of community.
