Impact Of Slave Trade On West Africa

This is proof that this terrible act was very typical within slaveholding societies. Now, just because this relationship seems usual in the south, it does not mean everyone condoned it. The wives of many slave owners proved they were not okay with a white male and a black female relationship by the way they acted with “anger and resentment” towards other slaves (McLaurin, 26). Wives chose to ignore this behavior simply because if they didn’t, not only would their lives be in danger, but so would their children’s.

African American women were look upon to keep the reproduction of the slave population. The

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 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.

Africa had been the target of colonialism and slavery for many years. The colonies that European’s developed during fifteenth and sixteenth century were the main reason that started slave trade in Africa.

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

The transatlantic slave trade began in the 15th century, after the Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa. This had a long term effect on Africa because even though it started out benefiting the upper class in Africa, the long term effect was devastating. When Europeans started to enter Africa, they enjoyed “the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest”(Doc 4). Africa’s relations with Europe depended on common interests, which Europe did not share. Europe’s contact with Africa, involving economic exchanges and political relationships, was not mutually beneficial.

“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

On the other hand, slavery in Colonial America in 18th century grew for three reasons: 1) high European demands for tobacco, sugar and rice laborer, 2) difficulty enslaving natives because they are pretty familiar with the land and managed to escape becoming a slave and 3) lack of indentured servants because most of the plantation owners were indentured servants before. Slaves were captured in native Africa, “unjustly dragged, by the cruel hand of power from their dearest friends or families” (ZINN, 57) and they were shipped to colonies and sold into slavery. They were considered as “Owned” and as property for life with no rights. Masters could not change the status of slaves often born into slavery. Based on the Petition on the Great number of Negroes (ZINN, 57) the life of slavery deprived of every social privilege is far worse than Non-Existence. Childbearing woman, however, are more valuable to their master.

As it was common for large amounts of African slaves to live on one plantation, families began to become prevalent among slave communities. Slave owners actually encouraged marraige because it generally meant better moral among the slaves and thus less opposition, as well as, because slave marraiges meant children which would become the slave owner’s next generation of laborers. Therefore, slave families grew quickly and became a key aspect of slave culture. Instead of relying on friends on the plantation, slaves had their families to go back to. Black mothers found great joy and happiness in their newborns, even though childbirth deaths were common, but

The African Slave Trade has affected a very large part of the world. This phenomenon has been described in many different ways, such as slave trade, forced migration and genocide. When people today think of slavery, many envision the form in which it existed in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-1865): one racially identifiable group owning and exploiting another. However, in other parts of the world, slavery has taken many different forms. In Africa, many societies recognized slaves merely as property, but others saw them as dependents whom, eventually might be integrated into the families of slave owners. Still other societies allowed slaves to attain positions of military or administrative power. Most often, both

Not only were polygynous unions causing a decrease in fertility, but raids of interior Africa led to the kidnapping and transportation of millions of reproductive aged males and females to the coast. These reproductive aged men and women were then shipped off to the new world. The populations of the interior towns and the coastal towns cannot rebound from this. Essentially, the slave trade caused Africa to skip a generation. The older Africans did not have high enough fertility rates to help fill the gap in the population, and the younger population was not old enough to reproduce steadily. Manning in 1981 and Lamie in 2007 conclude that the African population would have been much larger today had it not been for two consequences of the slave trade. These two consequences were the raiding and decrease of interior African populations, and the polygynous unions formed in the western coastal regions of

The slave trade was ignited by the mass need for the production of crops. This article refers to the women of the slave trade, particularly in the nineteenth-century Louisiana sugar production industry, and their reproductive abilities under the stress of a job on a large plantation. The stress of the hard labor put upon slave women lead to a decreased number of conceptions at certain times of the year due to malnutrition and the demanding workload. On a larger scale, slave childbirths were shaped by the American slave trade. I chose this article because I wanted to focus on the impact that the slave trade had on the slaves themselves. Not only were these individuals taken from their home countries and forced to work long hours in fields,

This means that these wives and the husband controlled how the available food was portioned out to each wife and her children. For the slave wives, this could have a direct impact on the probability that their children would survive. During the eighteenth century, there were periods in which food became scarce and famines occurred in West Africa. This affected all of the people in those societies from the slave traders to the slaves. With famine, starvation and death are a direct result. Death because of famine would only add to the population loss that was occurring because of the slave trade. Finally, the third issue that affected the fertility rates of female slaves was stress. For these female slaves, they were forcibly removed from their home, brought to a new place, and then, sold to a wealthy man to become one of his numerous wives. The result of all of these events caused stress for the female slaves. This stress would have a negative effect on the fertility rates, which means that not as many babies would be born as Fage estimated. All three of the issues address would have had a negative effect on the female slaves’ fertility and reproduction. It is because of this that Manning’s and Lamie’s argument about the impact of polygamy on the balancing the population loss is more convincing than Fage’s. Furthermore, it is because of these impacts on fertility rates that increased polygamy would not have had a major impact on compensating population loss.