How Did The Transatlantic Slave Trade Affect Society

Social Upheaval and Low Self Worth was another one of the major impacts of the European commercial activities on West Africa. As a result of the slave trade through raids and trade, there is no doubt concerning the social ills that plagued Western Africa. Many Africans were betrayed by their own political leaders

The demise of the African slave trade began in 1807 when Britain forbade the capturing and selling of African slaves. The result had both positive and negative consequences for Africa. It was positive in that attention turned to the lucrative resources that Africa possessed and Europe began more actively trading with that country. This however led to negative results in that greed for the resources led to countries such as Britain establishing more and more control in Africa and, as they had done in other countries, establishing their dominion and way of life in certain government outposts in the country. Britain, amongst other European countries, exploited the vulnerability and weaknesses of Africa's internal and external situation, and started colonizing parts of the African region. They imposed Christianity on the natives and pressurized them to accept Western norms and mores.

One of the most horrendous acts to have occurred throughout history is the Atlantic Slave Trade, starting in the early 17th century and not ending until the late 19th century. One of the reasons that this forced migration ha such a lasting impact is due to the fact that the new world, where these slaves were being sent to, had never before been colonized by the Europeans. This meant that only the native populations cultures were in place in both North America and South America, along with the Caribbean islands. As the Western European peoples colonized the territories, alongside the slaves that worked the plantations there, a new culture never before seen began to emerge. It was during this time that the diaspora of these African people created new prosperity and a blending of the two cultures of the old world and Africa to produce a new lifestyle in the Americas unlike anything henceforth seen in history.

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 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 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 trans-Atlantic slave trade set in motion a series of events that ultimately crippled a continent, and forever change how those of African descent became viewed around the world. The effects of the slave trade were both immediate and far reaching. In this essay I will discuss a few of the immediate effects of the slave trade as well as some of it farther reaching consequences.

Millions of lives were forever changed by the Atlantic Slave trade. Some were affected positively, in the case of slavers and wealthy slave owners. Others, the men, women, and children captured and sold into slavery were affected in an overwhelmingly negative way. Slavery was perceived and experienced in two distinctly different ways by Africans and Europeans.

First, African slavery was very different than normal slavery, like in America before it was abolished. In Africa, slaves had very different opportunities compared to the slaves of another culture. Slaves in Africa could (depending on the location) be integrated into the slave owner’s family, or even obtain positions of military or administrative importance. Also, in early African culture, slaves were used as a way to determine land ownership. Before colonial officials imposed European law, African tribes distributed land based on the amount of laborers available to the family, thus beginning regular raids on other tribes to obtain slaves and by extension: land.

This paper is about the African and European slave trade, and Its importance on how it helped form our country. I will be discussing the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, known as the “Middle Passage”. Also I will talk about how the slaves were captured and where they went after being captured. The slave trade is important to our history and will forever be a part of America. First I am going to talk about the beginning and the start of the slave trade.

The slave trade not only led to the violent transportation overseas of millions of Africans but also to the deaths of many millions more. The slave trade changed the way we look at African and what we should expect from them and where they stand in society. Many African were kidnapped in mainly the area of now Senegal to Agnolia. Some of the enslaved Africans were were also transported across the Atlantic. Most Africans would die on the boat ride across the Atlantic because they lived in tight quarters and trying to get enough food to eat.

Slavery is a terrible part of the human race that has occurred for millennia, each time it has left a stain on that nation’s reputation. Furthermore, North America and Europe during the early 15th century towards the 18th century was involved in one of the most despicable acts of all time, in human history. During these 300 years, the African population witnessed the near destruction and collapse of Africa. This event would be known as “The Transatlantic Slave Trade”. The transatlantic slave trade was responsible for the forced migration of in-between 12-15 million people from African to the Western Hemisphere. The Transatlantic Slave Trade not only was responsible for the violent transportation overseas of millions of Africans, but was also

The purpose of the Atlantic slave trade was hugely economic in nature. Many European and Spanish nations were enthusiastic about expansion into other parts of the world and they needed someone to work the land. It was easy to enslave a people when they were viewed as unequal or less than human. “Europeans had represented themselves as civilized and Africans uncivilized-imagery effectively used to justify colonial expansion and the slave trade” (Collins 213). The slave trade affected a great part of the world and commerce, greed, and hate was the energy behind it. The beneficiaries were slave traders, slave masters, and even governments. “Between 1500 and the end of the slave trade in the 19th century, as many as 12 million Africans may have been taken away as slaves”(Stearns 288). The slave trade would negatively affect the lives of the people of the continent of Africa and the continent itself for centuries to follow. From an economic standpoint, Stearn says, “it devastated some regions of West Africa, which lost population rapidly and found it difficult in the absence of sufficient young workers to maintain traditional economic levels” (288). Among those who were affected was a young boy named Olaudah Equiano. The principal forces against Olaudah Equiano were the ship, the sea, and the white slave trader.

In the transatlantic slave trade many different slaves were forced to be in the trade. Some of