African Slave Trade Affecting Africa's Children

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a part of African history that had made one of it's biggest impact on Africa's relation with the world and more importantly on the inner workings of the country itself due to its large-scale involvement of many of the people in the continent. Although the slave trade was so long ago the impact can still be seen in Africa's social workings within the people, its economy in the local and global market, and within the political landscape of the countries.

From the 17th century until the 19th century, almost twelve million Africans were brought to the New World against their will to perform back-breaking labour under terrible conditions. The rationalizations and defences given for slavery and the slave trade were absurd and self-serving. Slavery was a truly barbaric, and those who think that they can control what another group of people eat, where they sleep, whether they are to live or die, or even whether they are to be bought or sold, are acting on a totally inhumane level.

The abuse that was inflicted upon African American slaves can be considered cruel, dehumanizing, intimidating, and scarring. These slaves were considered more property than human and were brutally, sometimes excessively punished for varying reasons. Not only were the slaves well marked with varying scars across their bodies, but they were also mentally altered, or psychologically damaged, by this unusual system of punishment and life. The psychological effects of torture on these slaves, although completely different from the physical ones, were also very traumatizing.

For more than three and a half centuries, the forcible bondage of at least twelve million men, women, and children from their African homelands to the Americas forever changed the face and character of the western hemisphere. The slave trade was brutal and horrific, and the enslavement of Africans was cruel, exploitative, and dehumanizing. The trade represented one of the longest and most sustained assaults on the life, integrity, and dignity of human beings in world history.

The trade left a legacy of social, economic and political problems with Africa affecting the country in the most negative of ways. Although the short term consequences presented huge wealth and economic benefits to the wealthy, the long term consequences implemented huge misery for millions of people at that time. Overall the human cost was far greater than the economic benefit it produced and has ultimately left a negative impact on Africa.

The changes in African life during the slave trade era form an important element in the economic and technological development of Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade had a negative effect on both the economy and technology, it is important to understand that slavery was not a new concept to Africa. In fact, internal slavery existed in Africa for many years. Slaves included war captives, the kidnapped, adulterers, and other criminals and outcasts. However, the number of persons held in slavery in Africa, was very small, since no economic or social system had developed for exploiting them (Manning 97). The new system-Atlantic slave trade-became quite different from the early African slavery. The

Screams for relief, cries for comfort, and moans for death all revolved around the slave trade. The slave trade is an event that not only impacted Africa, but the whole world even still today. This essay will explain how cultures were ruined and families were torn apart. The slave trade has influenced history worldwide because it has impacted continents economically, socially, and politically.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a story about slavery and the many unkind effects it had on human nature. One of the things apparent in this story is the way the slaves were dehumanized. From the time they were born until their last breath every aspect of their life was painful and forced. Women forced to breed, children removed from their parents at birth, lack of food and dignity, and unnecessary killings are just a few of the examples that could be used for the ways they were dehumanized . Both mental and physical abuse were the slave owners’ way of controlling other humans and letting them know that they were not equal.

Slavery in America was a horrible time in history. Africans that were captured from warfare from West Africa and were being traded as slaves for goods (Vasconcellos). Slavery did not just stop at enslaving adults, but children were also enslaved. Children of slaves were born into slavery. Slave families were always on the constant threat of being separated (Williams, 2010). This meant that many enslaved children did not grow up with their parents around. In addition, parents were unable to protect their children. As stated in the article by “How Slavery Affected African American Families,” by Heather Andrea Williams, parents had a possibility of being sold away from children. This was something that parents were afraid of and children would soon become aware of (Williams, 2010). This influenced how African American families lived. This also had an influence in the upbringing of African American children. Louis Hughes mentions in his autobiography, Thirty Years a Slave, From Bondage to Freedom of the horrendous treatment of slaves (Hughes, 1897). In Hughes’s book, he seemed to be a passive victim to the cruel treatment from his owner. Stories like his leads to the idea of African American children being passive victims to the institution of slavery. By examining the way African American children played, as Steven Mintz explains in the

Physical pain was the key factor of submission, but when slave children were raised only knowing physical brutality, emotional pain tormented the soul even more.

Over 10 million died as direct consequences of the Atlantic slave trade alone. But no one knows the exact number: Many died in transport, others died from diseases or indirectly from the social trauma left behind in Africa.

Life was hard for them but they did what they could to keep themselves happy and hopeful for the future. Religion helped give them hope for the future, hope that god or some other religious figure, would come and save them from clutches of the white man. It also reinforced the idea that they were all brothers, under god and under the same circumstance. It was the glue that solidified the strong family bond that slaves had. The shoulder to cry on, the person to talk to, all of which were helpful for the lives of slaves. They were able to fill their lives with love and laughter which sounds somewhat far-fetched, but was actually true. Singing songs or teaching folktales about outsmarting the white man kept their spirits high with laughter and memories which are told within families for years. Being given the lifelong burden of solitude is unbearable without some sort of method to cope. Whether they did so peacefully or through disobedience, they had to develop ways to lessen the cruelty of the life they had. The largest factor that played to their coping, must have been the strong family bond. The sense that everyone was together and that no one was alone, leaves no one ostracized. Everyone could depend on each other as they were a family built upon the clutches that bound them to the

The horrors of the New World Atlantic Slave trade system cannot be expressed in figures along. The humanitarian and cultural losses are staggering. Throughout this period, more than a million and a half died

Slavery is a cowardly and contemptible practice that physically and mentally desensitizes its captive and captor alike. The savageness of slavery was not only in the physical beatings, but also in the way that slaves were held in absolute oppression. Slaves were denied food, clothing, sleep and proper shelter. They were separated from their family and friends, and it was not uncommon for slaves to be striped of their identity. Slave owners exploited women for pleasure and profit. However, ultimate control over slaves came in the form of denied education and knowledge.

The Atlantic slave trade existed from the 16th to the early 19th century and stimulated trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Over 12 million Africans were captured and sold into chattel slavery off the coast of West Africa, and more than 2 million of them died crossing the Atlantic. These outcomes of the slave trade are rarely disputed among historians; the effect of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa, however, is often a topic of debate. Some academics, such as Walter Rodney, insist that Africans were forced to take part in the slave trade, resulting in demographic disruption and underdevelopment in all sectors of Africa. Historian John Thornton acknowledges the negative consequences of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, yet contends that it was merely an expansion of the existing internal slave trade which African rulers engaged in willingly. A final case made by Hugh Thomas completely contradicts Rodney’s thesis, asserting that the slave trade was not solely responsible for decreasing Africa’s population, and furthermore, that it was primarily beneficial to Africa’s economy and politics. The true outcome of the slave trade in Africa lies not entirely in any one of these arguments, but rests rather in a combination of all three. Although the Atlantic slave trade was detrimental to the economic and social development of Africa, the trade benefited a small portion of Africans, who willingly aligned themselves with