Johannes Postma was the author of the book called “The Atlantic Slave Trade” and was born in Zwagerbosch, Netherlands in 1935. He received his PhD from Michigan State. He is now a professor at Minnesota State University and has written “The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade”. As well as co- editing of “Riches from Atlantic Commerce: Dutch Transatlantic trade and Shipping.”
The Atlantic slave trade was the largest and longest ongoing international voyage in human history. Taking place as early as the 1440’s, the slave trade gives valuable account for the trade in slaves from various parts of the world. The author gives a regulation from West Africa to as far as the Arabic region along southern parts of the Mediterranean Sea into a
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They added significance to my already present historical knowledge because it described everything in detail from the way that the institution of slavery has been a common feature of many societies from ancient times to the present to the book “Way of Death” by Joseph Miller. He tired to capture the agony and dangers that slaves had to go through on the marches in Angola; he wrote: Exposure to the dry- season chill in the high elevations and to the damp nights in open path side camps, utter lack of clothing and shelter…Contributed to the appearance of respiratory ailments…[Slaves] grew weaker and more susceptible to parasites and other diseases that swept in epidemic form through the coffles. The slave trade must have been a veritable incubator for typhus, typhoid, and other fevers…The…lethal consequences of malnutrition, disease, and other hardships along the path were death that rose at an increasing tempo…perhaps to catastrophic levels in the range of 400- 600 per 1,000 per annum by the time slaves reached the coast. It was a worldwide phenomenon, knows by different names and marked by varying degrees of explanation.
As historian Orlando Patterson said, “There is nothing peculiar about the institutions of slavery. It has existed from before the dawn of human history right down to the twentieth century, in the most primitive of human societies and in the most civilization. There is no region on earth that has at no point
The document “Buying Slaves in 1693” portrays how the process of purchasing and transporting the slaves from the African coastline to the the English ship Hannibal. The document is a section in Captain Thomas Phillips journal dating May 21, 1693. This small section of text shows historically how you would go about purchasing slaves, and it also describes the compounds the slaves were held in. The description lays out a step by step process and side comments on what the captain has learn throughout his career. This text also demonstrates how two different cultures and societies interacted together through a form of trade.
In conclusion, Olaudah Equiano’s experiences of as a slave in the New World and knowledge of slavery in Africa proved that the institution varied depending on the people. In fact, the origins, development and facilitation of slave trade was of great economic benefit to the parties involved but inhumane acts such as slave trade led to their decline and finally their
The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker is a great fiction novel that describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, seamen, and captains on their journey through the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage marked the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves provided a great economy for the European countries due to the fact that these African slaves provided free labor while cultivating sugar cane in the Caribbean and America. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). This tells us that African enslavement to the Americas causes a complete
Although all this documents stress voices from the Slave Trade, each document sheds a unique light on the much-debated question about who should be held responsible for the tragedy of the Atlantic slave trade. For example, Document 15.1 sheds light on the role of both European and African merchants in the trafficking of slaves as well as the human suffering of the slave trade. However Document 15.2 reveals the cooperation between local African rulers and European and African traders in the slave trade. Moreover, Documents 15.3 focus on how disruptive European traders could be to established African governments, even those that actively opposed the slave trade. And finally, Document 15.4 shows how some African leaders were attached to the slave trade and promoted it even when European were moving to end it. Nonetheless, all the documents do shed a clear and a full light on what should be held responsible for the
In the Atlantic slave trade, African slaves were treated like animals or even objects. White people took advantage and mistreated them. A few examples of this
“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the
The Slave Trade in Colonial America The first blacks in the American Colonies were brought in, like many lower-class whites, as indentured servants. Most indentured servants had a contract to work without wages for a master for four to seven years, after which they became free. Blacks brought in as slaves, however, had no right to eventual freedom. The first black indentured servants arrived in Jamestown in the colony of Virginia in 1619.
The history of the Atlantic slave trade is long and sordid, from the working and transportation conditions to the structure of the trade itself. Historians and scholars from all backgrounds have worked to understand the impact of slavery and why it went on for so long. Two scholars, John Thornton and Mariana Candido, have extensively studied both the impact and organization of the Atlantic slave trade, but disagree on a few main conclusions. Upon thorough review of both sides, however, John Thornton’s ideas regarding the Atlantic trade are more convincing than Candido’s, and by looking deeper into each side it is clear why.
This enormous increase in slave trade came from the chartered companies (given trade monopolies in exchange for fees), as well as from new maritime knowledge gained by repeated travels across what became known as the “The Middle Passage”, a stretch of water between the gold and slave coasts, the region of Angola, and Brazil and the West Indies.
All through the African Slave Trade there have been numerous huge occasions that happened amid 1450-1850. Three of which I will be expounding on in this theme. The center section was the first key occasion in which Africans were sent to the New World. The slave treatment and resistance of African men and ladies who were viewed as not as much as human was the second key occasion. The Fugitive Slave Law which permitted recover of slaves was the third key occasion. An expected 12 million Africans were transported over the Atlantic toward the Western Hemisphere from 1450 to 1850. Of this number, around five percent were conveyed to British North America and, later, to the United States, the greater part of them landing somewhere around 1680 and 1810. A little number of Africans went first to the British West Indies and afterward to North America.
The Shipwreck Shines Light on Historic Shift in Slave Trade showed a historic shift of the Portuguese slave trade in December 1794. It reveal according to the National Geographic, “More than 400 men, women, and children lay shackled in the ship’s hold, their fates bound to the merciless law of supply and demand.” The Portuguese slave traders of Africa had their vessel ready to partake of a trying journey. The 7000-mile journey from Mozambique was on a high turbulence of waters crossing the Atlantic to Brazil. This was a high risk and based on a financial gain.
The African Slave Trade (pg 27): Portuguese traders likewise ousted Arab merchants as the prime purveyors of African slaves. Some Africans were held in bondage as security for debts; others were sold into servitude by their kin in exchange for food in times of
Britain served as a pioneer in passing the abolition of the slave trade Act in 1807, followed by various European countries, America and Brazil. However, the sporadic slave trade did not terminate until the late-19th century, even the beginning of the early-20th century. “Over time, the combination of indigenous, European, and African cultures gave birth to new societies in the New World. In turn, the profits of trade and the impact of cultural exchange greatly influenced European society”7.
Several slaves preferred to jump from the boats and die in deep sea than being brought to countries like America and being traded like animals by slave owners. Approximately 12 million slaves were transported to the Americas between the 17th and 19th century in the so called “Trans-Atlantic slave trade”. Portugal was one of the first countries to transport Africans to America to work as slaves in sugar plantations in Cape Verde. This essay will focus on the processes that originated the Atlantic slave trades, how slavery emerged in the United states, and in the post-slavery life of African Americans.
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