The African Slave Trade

For over 2,000 years, slavery has been conducted in various parts of the world. From year 1500 to year 1900, Europeans stole individuals from West Africa, West Central Africa, and Southeast Africa and shipped them to the different parts of the Atlantic. This process dehumanized them of their identity. Europeans stole husbands, wives, merchants, blacksmiths, farmers, and even children. They removed them from their homelands and gave them new names: slaves. European slaveholders never thought to take ownership of their actions by killing humans with brutality and degradation. Slave trade was considered popular in England and soon after more countries began the process of taking slaves to newly claimed territories. These countries include

There had been slavery in Africa for a very long time but it was only minor in certain regions of Africa. When Islam spread through Africa in the seventh century there was a sudden increase in slavery and slave trade. There were prisoners of war in Africa and Muslim rulers said non Muslim prisoners can be bought and sold as slaves. Affecting 17 million African slaves to be transported to Muslim lands such as North Africa and South Asia.

The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves

In the 15th century, the Portuguese started to explore the coast of Africa. The Portuguese began to transport African slaves to Portugal and Spain, thus initiating the popularity of buying and selling slaves. In the 16th century, Europeans began to trade African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean. Slavery was not a new concept to Africa. Many African leaders prior to popularized slave trade had traded other Africans to the Arabs as slaves. Most people that were sold into slavery were forced into it because they had committed a crime. However, many were sold into slavery because they were captured in raids. Europeans did not intentionally search for slaves, but if they came across Africans that could be captured, they took them. Africans brought slaves to the coast in efforts to trade goods for cheap labor.

Slaves and slave trade has been a paramount part of history for a very long time. In the years of the British thirteen colonies in North America, slaves and slave trade was a very consequential part of its development. It even carried on to virtually 200 years of Coalesced States history. The slave trade of the thirteen colonies was a paramount part of the colonies as well as Europe and Africa. In order to supply the thirteen colonies efficiently through trade, Europe developed the method of triangular trade. It is referred to as triangular trade because it consists of trade with Africa, the thirteen colonies, and England.

During the beginning of the 14 to 18 centuries, the slave trade started in West Africa, several of tribes and kings started to sell African slaves to Europeans and get guns and wealth instead from Europeans.

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a very important time in history. When the records of the Atlantic slave Trade are reflected upon ,the impacts of the shipboards revolts are often times overseen .Although these revolts did have an immense effect on the political, views of the Slave trade. Richardson’s “shipboard revolts,African Authority,and the Atlantic slave trade”. brings into view the fluctuating causes and effects of shore based, and shipboard insurrection . Because of Richardson occupation it grants him reliability to all of his claims and supports his opinions His profession of studying economics and international ,offers him a profusion amount of education in the countries which were involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Richardson expose the indispensable impacts of shipboard revolts , African Leadership on the Atlantic slave trade, the author accomplishes this by painting out the causes an effects of each specific revolt an also by exposing the progress.

Everyone has their own understanding of what slavery is, but there are misconceptions about the history of “slavery”. Not many people understand how the slave trade initially began. Originally Africa had “slaves” but they were servants or serfs, sometimes these people could be part of the master’s family. They could own land, rise to positions of power, and even purchase their freedom. This changed when white captains came to Africa and offered weapons, rum, and manufactured goods for people. African kings and merchants gave away the criminals, debtors, and prisoner from rival tribes. The demand for cheap labor was increasing, this resulted in the forced migration of over ten million slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade occurred from 1500 to 1880 CE. This large-scale event changed the economy and histories of many places. The Atlantic Slave Trade held a great amount of significance in the development of America. Africans shaped America by building a solid foundation for the country.

The Atlantic Slave Trade involved the forced intercontinental migration of West Africans across the Middle Passage during the 17th to 19th centuries. Between twelve and fifteen million slaves were exchanged between Africa, Europe and the Americas, together with raw materials and manufactured goods.

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

The two majors drivers that led to the transatlantic slave trade was the European desire for the agricultural products of the Americas and the need for laborers to work the land in the Americas. All participants, besides for the slaves, benefited from the trading.

The title of the document is The Manner in which the Slaves are procured, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a system of slavery that took place between the 16th and 19th centuries. It comprised of capturing African tribesmen and women from areas of Western and Central Africa and placing them into the colonies of the New World in North, Central, and South America. Many countries like England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and France, had participated in enslaving the African peoples. The African slaves were used to exploit an array of commodities such coffee, cotton, rum, sugar, and tobacco, and eventually they had become commodities themselves. Often times the slaves were treated awfully by their owners. Most were forced to work long and tiresome hours on plantations to acquire said commodities, and then use them to create products that would be later sold. The slaves did not receive any profits from the sale of the products that they produced, but they were paid with basic needs such as shelter and food. The revenue that was produced by slave labour was highly profitable, but in turn it was counter acted by the cost of keeping the slave labourers alive and well. By the end of the 18th century a period known as the Industrial Revolution had swept Europe, especially England, and her colonial partners. Never before had production been so cheap and efficient. Many believe that the enslavement of Africans was necessary to initiate the industrial revolution. They believe that the slaves provided the foundation to the development of the revolution, and without

Somewhere between 10 and 12 million African slaves were forcibly moved from Africa to the Americas. Europeans would ship Africans to the Americas to make a profit and about 15% of them would die on the way to the Americas. The others who did survive would become “property” and bought and sold like animals. They would be sold to plantations to do work so that Europeans could make money and most of them knowing that they would never see their family together ever again. The leading cause of slavery from 1451-1870 was that Europe profited from the exploitation of the Africans which were used as slaves in the Americas in order to produce cheap materials for Europe.

When we are so caught up in the moment it is hard to see the larger picture. We get excited and momentum starts to speed up, but this excitement and momentum blinds us from the feelings of others. This is exactly what happened with the practiced slavery that took place in Africa. Slavery included stripping humans of their identities and classifying them as property, forcing them to obey their masters. The slaves had no rights and humanity had fled their thinking. Some even claimed slaves to be aliens even though they were not. Slave’s masters could do what ever they pleased with the slaves including, making them do their dirty work, striking them whenever they pleased and abusing their slave sexually. The slave had no defense and responding to any violent act committed against them would amplify aggression causing the master to strike the perpetrator. The idea of someone taking complete control over another equal human makes many sick and today this is viewed as something terrible, unjust, unethical and corrupt. The African slave trade should not have been something looked to as socially or morally acceptable. It crushed lives by stripping them from their freedom and replacing them with violence, it brought sorrow to families in the separation and destruction process and it brought lose to basic human rights.