Native Americans and Slave Trade in America: The Story of Us” by Kevin Baker

The African slave trade is a very historical and impactful aspect that has helped not only shape Africa itself, but has assisted in the development of many western countries around the globe. Taking a further look within the African slave trade itself, there are three focal slave trade that has helped with the construction of Africa throughout history, the Atlantic, trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean slave trade. However, the Atlantic slave trade “was the biggest deportation in history” (UNESCO). The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the New World that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean. This particular slave trade left a monumental impact on numerous African lives and societies during it duration. The Europeans arrival on the vast continent created a drastic change in the lifestyle for many Africans as the slave trade began to cultivate. The continent experienced high accumulation of the exploitation of their resources such as agriculture, and technology for the development of western countries. This left many African societies without any means of resources resulting in a more violent economic struggle within Africa itself. The credited violence aided in the imparity of social, political, and economic stability for numerous African slaves creating cycle. They found themselves being in captive from cradle to grave.

The Atlantic Slave trade was a trade of African people from Western Africa to the Americas. During this time, the “European settled on the islands like Saint-Louis, Goree, Central May, or in the ports that were built along the coast, so it was the defensive possibilities of the island that made Goree a slave center, and its position along the way to the New World from Africa” (Street). “When the Europe and the Indian populations in the Americas and the West Indies died out, the New World looked at Africa since it was their last hope” (Street). The Portuguese would arrive and they would start to come to the people and work something out as in giving them alcohol, wine, spices, guns, etc. and the Africans didn’t think anything of it, so they started collaborating with the Portuguese. The Portuguese left out a few things and didn’t tell the Africans that they were going to start to build a slavery. The Political conditions that happened in the New World was they would help one’s ability to help capture and then sell them off to criminals or strangers. “The Economic stand point in West Africa that made the Atlantic Slave trade possible was that large amount of land that was not being used, it had very cheap labor for the enslaved Africans and, they had local plantation owners” (Street). The production of peanuts increased dramatically in which the peasants and the slaves paid the highest price for them. During the drought, they started to have food shortages which affected

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

One of the most common threads that can be found in Early American Literature are the portrayals of the Native American Indians. From their first encounters with the Pilgrims to the bloody “Trail of Tears”. While the literary works of art focus mainly on the voyage to the New World by the explorers and then the settlement of the colonies you will find that the Native American Indian was at the forefront of the new settlement. Most of the historical data, whether it is the written word or drawings would depict the Native Americans as brutal savages wielding hatchets and throwing arrows at the new arrivals, and then in stark contrast you will read accounts that paint a picture of Native American greeting the voyagers on the beach with food, animal skins and oils to welcome them. From the writings of William Bradford and Thomas Hariot you discover how differently the Native Americans were viewed. Each of the authors have differing opinions of the Native American’s they encountered when they reached the new land. Many embellished stories and tall tales were shared in diaries and letters penned to the eager listeners, traders, explorers, or prospective settlers of the new land. Their depiction of the Native Americans depended on any number of different influences including who financed their voyage, religious beliefs, their role in society, and their audience. One would have to agree that most of the early settlers were eager to label the Native Americans as blood thirsty

The history of the slave trade is one that most people would want to forget. Though, forgetting such an important era in the history of the world is not only wrong but a recipe for repeating other such mistakes. According to Capone (2007), more than 11 million Africans were taken to the New World in the period between the 16th and mid-19th centuries. More than any other colony in the Americas: Brazil received the largest portion of the slaves. The Brazilian coastline was especially a major hosting ground for the new Africans who were arriving from the western African states including Bight of Benin, Senegambia, Bight of Biafra, as well as other regions in West Central Africa. The huge number of Africans would over the years dominate the

The Atlantic slave exchange, which endured from the late sixteenth to mid nineteenth hundreds included European nations, for example, Britain, Spain and France which all had colonies in the Americas and Africa. Europeans had the control and power during this time of the trade. The boats were carrying produced product, slaves, and trims between Caribbean, West Africa, and American colonies. Be that as it may, in the eighteenth, century, the Caribbean remained the business center of the British Empire and the significant maker of income for the crown. In any case, slave-developed items from the territory possessed a bigger and bigger piece of Atlantic trade. The utilization of African slaves was imperative to developing. The usage of African

In the last two decades, scholars have analyzed and debated the transatlantic slave trade and this eventually transformed the field of Atlantic history. John Thornton’s Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 changed the way scholars view the role of Africans because of its revisionist perspective and ground breaking interpretations of the slave trade. This book clearly changed the way the scholars analyzed the role of Africans in the British and Spanish Empires because it challenged traditional notions about the institution. Thornton argues that African merchants and rulers willing participated in the slave trade; thus, the unwilling victims of slavery were active in their own subjugation. While the author clearly articulates his thesis in a cohesive manner, he overlooks and simplifies information that would support/improve his argument.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade had began around the mid fifteenth century and the Atlantic Ocean had been the ultimate path for transporting slaves all around the world. The spark was ignited when the Portuguese had realized they could make a larger profit off slaves as opposed to searching for gold. Trading would go on full force for centuries to come until slowly dying off in the nineteenth Century. When studying this catastrophic event it is crucial to understand every aspect of it from beginning, middle and end.

Many times discussions about slavery examine the everlasting racial impact of the practice. However, the reality is that Africans sold Africans into the slave trade, which, at that time, was far more motivated by finances than by any underlying racial motivation. Looking at the Great Circuit, and how African traders and political leaders impacted the slave trade, one sees Africans playing a significant role in the early slave trade. However, there were differences in how the slave trade operated in different regions in Africa, giving different local leaders different amounts of control.

This essay will briefly define and describe the Atlantic slave trade and analyse what, and how much, African political and economic interests shaped the trade up to 1807/8, the point when the United States and Great Britain abolished the trade; also contending that because the suppliers for the slaves i.e the Africans themselves, had as much of a significant role in the trade as the demanders (the Europeans), numerous African political and economic interests as well as social structures had an almost pivoting role in shaping the nature and expanse of the Atlantic slave trade. This piece of writing will also attempt to illustrate the changes over the period of slavery before 1807, where European influence and pressure likely increased in the later period, after the first century and a half; contending that the Africans had more significant part to play in the initial stages of the trade, but as it enlarged the Europeans conceivably had a more significant role in the exploitation and manipulation of African slaves due to several factors, primarily through arming of Africans and inciting war within the continent.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade is a complex institution with multiple sides to be considered and analyzed. On the one hand, one could say that Europeans were the sole creators of this trade, for it was their motive to bring slave labor to the Americas that served as the driving force behind the mass movement of slaves out of Africa and across the Atlantic. They brought desired material resources to African nations, and in exchange they gained human cargo to be used at their will. While this is the understanding that many hold about the slave trade, it is not the only side to be measured. Africans themselves also played a substantial part in contributing to and facilitating the progression of the slave trade by selling their own people for desired necessities such as weapons and other manufactured goods. As a result, both Africans and Europeans held interesting roles in the advancement of the Atlantic slave trade, which begs the greater question of whether the Europeans were really the only party at fault in enabling the progression of slavery in the Americas.

In this paper, we examine one of the channels through which the slave trade may affect

The Atlantic slave trade, lasting for over four centuries, affected various groups of people in very contrasting ways. It was the host of horrific, dehumanizing, and immoral experiences, but also of economic gain, adventure, and business. It was the first time that slavery had been conducted a large scale, and because it occurred during a time of need for manual labor on plantations, land owners saw the potential purchasing of slaves as an opprintunity to upscale their businesses. Through the perspectives of Olaudah Equiano, a captured African slave, Thomas Phillips, an English merchant, and African King Affonso I, it is clear that the Europeans and Africans that took part in the transatlantic slave trade had very different experiences and perceptions regarding the slave trade, primarily because of a difference in power, a difference in background, and a difference in technology.

In the early years of development in the English colonies in the New World, over ten million slaves were forcibly transported from Africa. The Spanish attempted to use indigenous people for slaves, but this quickly failed when they began to die out. Therefore, it was necessary for Africans to be the substitute slaves. Between the years 1500 and 1870 African slaves were dragged from their native country, to enter the wicked Middle Passage. This sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was the famous brutal slave route to the Americas, also known as the Slave Trade. Millions were left dead after torturous conditions and dehumanization which is someone deprived of typical human qualities. The African slave’s loss of free will and their banishment of humanity was generated by the capture and journey of the Middle Passage, the use of fear as an incentive, and the brutal working environment.

13 million lives were taken away from Africans in only 300 years. If they were not killed from overworking, they died along the way here. The Atlantic World’s state today would not be achieved without the African Slave trade. Europeans greatly benefitted from the trade, but at the cost of entire generations of Africans, and even Native Americans from the 1550s to 1850s.