Textbook v. Wikipedia (The Atlantic slave trade) Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that differs from other encyclopedias in a significant way: along with reading the articles in Wikipedia, anyone can add or edit articles however they like. On the other hand, Textbooks provide organized units of work with a balanced, chronological presentation of information. In this assignment by using the topic: The Atlantic slave trade to compare coverage in the textbook with coverage in Wikipedia included accuracy and convenient of searching. First of all, the Wikipedia and the textbooks showed the different effects of the slave trade. According to the textbook,” The effects of the slave trade varies from area to area.” It had tragic effects on the lives of the slaves and their families. There was also an economic price as the importation of cheap manufactured goods from Europe undermined local cottage industries and forced countless families into poverty. The slave trade also led to the depopulation of some areas and deprived many Africa communities of their youngest and strongest men and women. Moreover, the political effects of the slave trade were also devastating. They need to maintain a constant supply of slave led to increased warfare and violence as Africa chiefs and their followers, armed with guns acquired from the trade in slaves, increased their raids and wars on neighboring”(Spielvogeles). On the other hand, according to the Wikipedia, “the Atlantic slave trade only effect of Africa and Europe is economy, In the 19th century, European abolitionists, most prominently Dr. David Livingstone, took the opposite view, arguing that the fragile local economy and societies were being severely harmed by the trade. Historian Walter Rodney estimates that by c.1770, the King of Dahomey was earning an estimated £250,000 per year by selling captive African soldiers and enslaved people to the European slave-traders. Also in Europe, West Indian writer Eric Williams asserts the contribution of Africans on the basis of profits from the slave trade and slavery, and the employment of those profits to finance England's industrialization process. He argues that the enslavement of Africans was an essential element to the Industrial Revolution, and that British wealth is, in part, a result of slavery. However, he says that by the time of its abolition it had lost its profitability and it was in Britain's economic interest to ban it.”(The Atlantic slave trade) In the textbook, author mention all the effects that caused by the Atlantic slave trade, but the information provided by the Wikipedia is lack of accuracy.
Second, although Wikipedia is lack of accuracy, it is convenient for search. According to Wikipedia, “there are many different contents are related to the topic