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Social Studies Coursework

Good Essays

Question 1
What is slavery?
Africans became slaves in several ways. Describe three (3) ways in which Africans became slaves. [10 marks]

Answer

Slavery is the state of being under the control of another person and is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be, or treated as the property of others. As Source B says, slavery existed in West Africa before the Europeans went there. Black People were the slaves of other black people. Before that time in Europe also, there were white people who were slaves of other white people. Debt Bondage is a form of slavery that is an arrangement whereby a person …show more content…

In West Africa they stayed in the forts or factories on the coast and the raiding was done by Africans often from forest states like Oyo, Benin, Dahomey and Asante. The European forts changed hands many times in the course of three hundred years, but the principal ones stayed in business under whatever countries owned them. The slaves were captured in tribal wars or raided on villages. Boys and men between the ages of sixteen and forty were sought; especially those are the younger end of this scale. Old people, women and children, if not killed in the raid, were left behind with no one to do the farming or other heavy tasks. Those captured were marched to the coast. In West Africa this did not involve the great distance that had to be covered in East Africa where journeys of up to 100 miles were common. In most cases the journey would not be greater than about 200 miles. The slaves were assembled in a caravan or coffle, and often chained together by their ankles and sometimes even by their necks. People who slowed the caravan down through injury or illness were left to die. Speed was essential for there was often a captain waiting at the coast for a con-signment of slaves. Also the slower the journey, the higher the cost of keeping the slaves and the less profit from the sale. From the time of the Portuguese, the handling of slaves on the coast remained the same. Slave quarters, called ‘barracoons’, were ready to receive the

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