African Slave Trade Research Paper

African slaves were shipped to the West Indies and America as part of the Triangular Trade. Many slaves died on the voyage due to the ghastly conditions that accompanied the Middle Passage and others committed suicide. Portugal held a near monopoly on the export of African slaves for a period of about 200 years from the early 14-1600s. The peak years of the slave trade were during the 16th and 17th century, but Africans were forced across the Atlantic for an astonishing timeframe of around 400 years.

The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves

Meanwhile in the Americas, European empires were growing, and they realized that they needed a more efficient work force. They had tried using Native Americans, but they usually died from European diseases. Europeans couldn’t work because of the diseases that the tropical climate gave them. It seemed like Africans would be the perfect solution to their problems. They were used to the tropical climate and immune to its diseases, had experience in agriculture, and there was already a market for them. This introduced the slave trade to North America, and in 1619 the first New World slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Most of the earlier slaves to journey the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were from Windward Coast and Senegambia (Present-day Mauritania), but later expanded all along the coast of Africa. The Atlantic Slave Trade was also given the name “Middle Passage”, since it was the middle leg in the Triangular trade.

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade often known as the triangular trade was described as the largest long-distance movement of people in all of history. The movement of Africa slaves to the Americas lastly for approximately four centuries and can be viewed as one of the first ideas of globalization . The ship would move from the Americas to Western Europe with raw materials, then to Africa with manufactured goods. Lastly, from Africa the Americas with African slaves. Thus the movement of over 12.5 million slaves from Africa and 10.7 million slaves arriving in the Americas. The slave trade changed to the demographics of the world forever. Many historians ask why did the European countries choose African for their source of slave labor

”European ships brought manufactured goods to Africa, trading them for people. They carried Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas where they were sold into slavery (The Atlantic Slave Trade).” Europeans fueled trade by selling African slaves in exchange for sugar, coffee, and tobacco, impacting economies in both, Europe and the Americas. Further, another triangular network between the English colonies, West Indies, and Africa, led to the trade of numerous commodities including slaves, rum, sugar and molasses. From an economic standpoint, the increased demand for African slaves became integral to trade between the three nations fueling the growth of various trade networks.

Europeans explorers would sail to the coastline of Africa and forcibly remove thousand and millions of Africans from their homes, and ship them to plantations in the New World. During the next two centuries, the slave trade grew tremendously. The development of the triangle trade developed and it connected Europe, Africa and America. Trade goods, such as cloth, gin and guns were traded for slaves. They estimate about 275,000 African slaves were exported during the 16th century. But, there was an economic problem that came with slaves; the importation of cheap manufactured goods from Europe would outsell the local cottages and industries that the people had created, and forcing them into poverty. Today we have learned that slaves go against everything that America stands for, freedom. Even though we should appreciate the lives lost and families that were destroyed, the slave history is a huge part of how America

The Atlantic slave trade (1441 A.D.) refers to the transportation of black Africans from their homelands to the New World (James 1). It is estimated that all together approximately 12 million Africans were transported by force from Africa to the Americas (James 1-4). Even though many people pointed out the immorality and the cruelty of slavery, very few could afford to renounce it as a social institution. Slavery was an inseparable part of 17th-18th century world economy (James 1-4). The Atlantic slave trade was very important for the 18th century world economy because it was one of the three elements of a so-called triangle of trade. There was a three-way exchange between America, Europe, and Africa. European traders would ship textiles, muskets, and manufactured merchandize to Africa and exchange it for slaves. Then they would take slaves to the Americas and exchange them for cotton and tobacco. Finally, they would sail home to Europe where they would exchange American goods for more arms, and manufactured goods (James 1-4). On each side of the triangular trade, ships made huge profits. Plus, they provided the necessary merchandise to conquer and develop both the African continent and the Americas (James in Class Presentation). Thus, the Atlantic slave trade was vitally important to the 18th century economy.

This paper will cover how the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was used to advance countries by trampling on others to gain the economic edge. The New world need to use this because of population growth, limits of sugar production to supply the new world with enough capital to thrive, and the long-standing practice of slavery already in Africa, slavery was introduced to America causing the African population to remain stagnant, economic and social relations were changed and traditional values were flipped. Throughout this paper, I will bring out the truths of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This was a terrible part of human history which involved five major countries that ran the slave trade. The atrocity of slave trade cost the lives of 30 million

While African slave trading was not uncommon in Africa, when Americas was established the Europeans knew they needed cheap labor to work there plantations and mines. Europeans was always interested in trades in the African nations, so in the fifteenth and sixteenth century the Europeans traders started to get involved in the slave trade. Portugal was the first European country to start the transatlantic slave trade. People were kidnapped and enslaved an taken from West Africa and taken to Europe and America to be trade or sold for raw materials and goods.Slaves were packed on a ship on a long journey to America,an there journey was not an easy one. While upon the ship the slaves lived in dreadful conditions some slaves became sick and

African slave trade or Atlantic slave trade was the result of advancement of maritime innovation and the ambitious imperialism that swept among the powerful countries of Europe. With new set of maritime skills and innovation, firstly Portuguese’s traders crossed harsh seas along the coast of western Africa. What began as the quest for the exchange of goods between European and African merchant, swiftly changed into the massive potential of cheap labor and unlimited resources to exploit with the founding of new European colonies in Caribbean, Central and south America respectively. These colonies used slaves as the laborer in the coffee, coco, tobacco and sugar production, often in harsh conditions and longer working period, which not possible by white settlers’ due drastic change of climate and tropical diseases.

The Atlantic slave trade was in a time prod of expansion to the new world by the English and spanish. When the English got to the new world they needed a labor force to do there work on plantations. The native americans would not work for a long term labor force because they knew the land. The african slaves would be a good labor force but expensive to get a good slave would cost anywhere from 100$ to 300$ to buy. The English people were smart they would keep the slaves alive for at least two years to get there money back plus some and then when the slave died the slave owner could buy a new one. Slaver ships would go to africa and get villages of slaves to bring to the new world for labor work.

Throughout history there have been many gruesome crimes committed. The records and information that have been written about African slavery are one of the top atrocious crimes in history. By 1820, four slaves had crossed the Atlantic for every European. Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. Only, 10.7 million survived disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America. However before the Europeans had arrived to Africa there was already a slave trade in process. The Islamic slave trade accounts for nearly 9 million captured African slaves in the seventh century. A tragedy of such magnitudes has no equivalence in any other part of the world. The slave trade had far-reaching consequences on every group involved with it. Nowhere is this seen most than on the African continent, where developing nations were critically impacted in every level of society. The slave trade had a negative cultural impact on families, larger social groups and established nations which ultimately changed the dynamics of the African

The steps involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade were greatly based on the Triangular Trade. The Triangular Trade is a three-part journey on ship starting in Europe, moving south to Africa, then moving west to the Americas, and then moving northeast back to Europe. The first part of the journey, European ships brought manufactured goods to Africa. The second part, also know as the “Middle Passage,” is where they capture Africans and stored them below decks and sailed to the Americas to be dropped of and put up for auction. I just want to mention the horrible conditions the Africans had to deal with, through out the journey. Many of them didn't make it to the Americas because of deceases and the conditions they were in. After they dropped of the

During the sixteenth century, European merchants began to realize trading Africans for plantation labor to the Americas was the most profitable measure. The Middle Passage is the journey in which slaves were transported to The Americas from West Africa, and sold for profit. The slaves were kidnapped or purchased from their motherland, forced to march to the coast to be sold. The captives were purchased by European merchants, branded and transported to the new world (The Americas). When they arrived to the new world, the slaves were retained on the auction block, resold, and branded again to either domestic slave traders or personal owners. The profit of the slave trade is the cause for the upsurge of wealth in The Americas. The Transatlantic slave trade lasted 350 years, and there were approximately 43,600 journeys. 12.5 million Africans were stolen and forced on European and American slave vessels. Out of the 12.5 million African captives, there were roughly 10.7 million survivors. Out of all the surviving captives, around 305,326 Africans disembarked in the U.S.A. Although, many slave rebellions transpired on the ships, the intimidation, abuse (sexual, physical, and mental), violence and excruciating inhuman environments that slaves suffered during the middle passage was a technique to disenfranchise, disparage, a make the slaves less than human for the white traders to empower themselves and gain profit.