The Atlantic Slave Trade During The 19th Century

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

In general, the Atlantic Slave trade was very significant event in American History because the millions of lives it affected from the slaves to the Americans. In short, the Atlantic slave trade were established in the sixteenth century by Spanish colonists who had become the most experience sea mariners during that time (Robin, Kelley & Lewis, 2005, p. 7). Furthermore, in our reading the author touches on the fact that before Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World, that the Spaniards were already holding Muslims, black Africans, Slavs, and their own kind as slaves (Robin, Kelley & Lewis, 2005, p. 7). In viewing the Atlantic slave trade, this system separated millions of families from each other and shift the human population balance.

Even before the first humans on Earth, there has always been a constant change in the landscape. From the first cultivated fields of the Neolithic period to the great structures of the first dynasty in China, the landscape has ever been evolving. Arguably one of the most dynamic changes were those of Europe from the 1500-1800s. During this time, cultural, social and economic beliefs were remoulded or evolved to help create the foundations of societies today. Out of the three areas the most influential were the economic changes which not only took place in Western Europe but throughout other continents as well. Most recognizable of these changes was the importance of slavery in the Atlantic World. Slavery in the Trans- Atlantic world

The Transatlantic slave trade is a “wrenching aspect of the history of Africa and America” (Colin Palmer). The transatlantic slave trade transported African people to the “New World”. It lasted from the 16th to the 19th century. Slavery has had a big impact on African culture. The Africans were forced to migrate away from everything they knew, culture, heritage and lifestyles (Captive Passage). Coupled with they were faced with racism and overcame life-threaten situations everyday. Nevertheless the Africans preserved and survived tremendous conditions. Even though the slave trade was horrible it still contributed to the economy of the

My ancestors, along with many other African Americans living in society today are decedents of African slaves. I can remember as far back as age 5 listening to the elders in my family talk about slavery. The word slavery originated when millions of African men and women were forcible taken from their families and the familiar surroundings of their African villages. Brought here to an unfamiliar environment and forced to work on plantations in different parts of the United States, usually from sun up to sun down. the transatlantic slave trade formally began in 1518, when King Charles I of Spain sanctioned the direct importation of Africans to his colonies in the America. The transatlantic slave trade became a lucrative international

I believe that modern America’s slavery is worse than the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the sense that no one is exempt from slavery and trafficking, and that the people who are put through this suffering are forced to do vile things, especially because today’s society is completely ignorant to the fact that this issue still exists. Slavery and human trafficking still happens to occur under the radar, and can very well be happening right next door. Slavery is worse now because back when the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade (TAST) was thriving, everyone was aware about the existence of the institution, unlike now that the human race as a whole has become increasingly unaware that slavery and trafficking still occurs, but we choose to not think about it and ignore it, or even in some cases, people don’t even know the real severity of the slavery issue in present America. The very nature of slavery has changed and evolved into a more violent, secretive, aggressive, system that comes in different forms that all feed off the unwilling victims who are forced to endure unspeakable things. Slavery at this very moment is increasingly worse in the notion that no one is exempt from being a potential victim of slavery; gender, race, age, or national origin do not matter when it comes to holding someone captive. In addition, there have been laws and acts established in the prevention of slavery since the TAST, but they have not been enforced and the need for new and improved laws is high as

The horrors of the New World Atlantic Slave trade system cannot be expressed in figures along. The humanitarian and cultural losses are staggering. Throughout this period, more than a million and a half died

This paper will cover how the Trans-Atlantic slave trade was used to advance countries by trampling on others to gain the economic edge. The New world need to use this because of population growth, limits of sugar production to supply the new world with enough capital to thrive, and the long-standing practice of slavery already in Africa, slavery was introduced to America causing the African population to remain stagnant, economic and social relations were changed and traditional values were flipped. Throughout this paper, I will bring out the truths of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This was a terrible part of human history which involved five major countries that ran the slave trade. The atrocity of slave trade cost the lives of 30 million

Over the development of centuries, the aggressive transportation in enslavement of millions men, women, and children from their African native land to the Americas alternated permanently the outview and aspect of the current world. The slave trade remained remorseless and dreadful, and the enslavement of Africans was painful, and dehumanizing. All together, this horrific event symbolizes as one of the most longest and continuous assaults on the life, and dignity of human beings in American history.

The transatlantic slave trade has had a devastating impact on enslaved Africans in numerous ways, with devastating and longer term effects as well, the death of millions of Africans and the effect of a changing countrywide religion being another. This essay will examine all of these contributing factors relating to how the Atlantic slave trade has affected Africans and how it is still affecting them.

The cultivation of sugar was of central importance to the Atlantic Slave Trade, as the demand for sugar was rising yet its price made it unattainable to many. With demand comes capitalist opportunity for economic growth, and as early as the 15th century, the Portuguese exploited human beings as slaves in the sugar cane plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil, paving the way for continued use of “coercive labor” and the evolution of slavery as a trade for the Spanish, Dutch and English well into the 19th century (Peabody). The pattern of trade for human beings destroyed the African culture as the Triangle Trade ripped at the heart of tribal life, still impacting today’s world through economic inequality and racism, as Africans were cruelly used

My reactions after reading this summary was not too astounded being brought to America by trade deals. An Atlantic slave trade route was being brought to show the exploits of the “new world.” Moreover, I just can’t believe how selling Africans became our solution on who were being brought across the Atlantic during the decade. This then, came to point where the results of the other significant things were being created by the European colonists to exploit New World land and resources for their own capital profits.

The black slave trade, the trading in human beings which linked Europe, Africa, and the America’s from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, sustained a colossal colonial machine based on the slavery system. (Schmidt) Around ten to twelve million African’s were forcefully taken to the New World to fulfill a labor shortage. These millions of African captives sold as slaves provided the labor required for the exploration of mines and plantations of sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, and cotton. (Schmidt)

The history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is more readily accessible and popular, as opposed to the history of the Viking slavers. Painter points out that the Vikings were hardly viewed in popular culture as the preeminent slavers they really were, while Dublin was the slave market capitol of the world from the 11th through the 15th centuries. Whites living in the current day British Isles through France and Scandinavia were all subject to slave raids by Vikings for hundreds of years with some destitute individuals going as far as to sell themselves into slavery. While the Atlantic Slave Trade used racism to justify their exploitation, it is important to realize that this is a justification birthed out of economic greed rather then inherit racist sentiment. Economic advancement was the purpose of the slave trade while race creation and whiteness were constructs built to support and justify this economic exploitation during the Atlantic Slave Trade. Unfortunately, due the indoctrinated justifications of race creation; racism, prejudice and the prevalence of whiteness became magnified and held up as superior social standing.