The Differences and Similarities Between the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave Trade on the West Coast of Africa

Throughout history, a common theme that can be seen is the stronger, acquisitive society preying on the weaker society for their own gain of land, people, materials, and more. The Atlantic Slave Trade had a profound effect on the way states were constructed and transformed in West Africa. Some societies became very powerful, militarized centralized societies, like Dahomey and Kongo, and others were decentralized societies, like Balanta and Igbo. Many scholars argue that the centralized societies targeted these decentralized societies and kidnapped people for the slave trade or for their own lineages, but this issue of strong and controlled preying on weak and dispersed is not as “black or white” as it may seem.

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

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.

Servitude in Africa, the organization of bondage as it existed in Africa, and the impacts of world slave-exchange frameworks on African individuals and social orders. As in the greater part of the world, subjugation, or automatic human bondage, was polished crosswise over Africa from ancient circumstances to the current time. At the point when individuals today consider subjection, many imagine the shape in which it existed in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-1865): one racially identifiable gathering owning and misusing another. Be that as it may, in different parts of the world, servitude has taken a wide range of structures. In Africa, numerous social orders perceived slaves simply as property, yet others considered

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 slave trade in the North American colonies began to grow in the 1600s. The African slave trade sourced their slaves from many different West African villages and countries. The business of slavery was a growing and profitable field, not only for the slavers, but also for the slaveholders. With the decrease of indentured servants, settlers in the English colonies looked for a new source of labor to satisfy their growing labor demands. The next source was Africa. “By the 1690s slaves outnumbered indentured servants four to one” (45). Europeans largely disregarded the ethical dilemma posed by slavery due to the European view of Africans and their culture as uncivilized, foreign, and heathen (44). The largest forced migration in history (44)

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.

Slavery existed since the beginning of the United States’s time but was practiced long before in Western Africa. Slaves were important to the country’s economy and agriculture since they were based off of slave trade and plantations they worked in. After a few years, slavery demands and its population declined but after the invention of the cotton gin, demands went up again. They had to work harder than before and more Africans were sold off to white plantation owners. Although slaves had hard daily lives, were mistreated, and discriminated, they still refused to believe that there was no chance for them and instead rebelled for their freedom.

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

Throughout the history of mankind, a vast variety of achievements can be noted. Whether it be the discovery of fire, electricity, democracy, etc., humans have mastered the art of advancing themselves toward modern civilization. However, the history of mankind is also burden with many acts of darkness. Centuries ago, the slavery system was created and this hateful act continues to haunt the world to this day. A common miss conception of slavery, is that it began with the Europeans kidnapping Africans and taking them to the New World for agricultural purposes. However, slavery stretches much farther than the early developments of the United Sates. For example, the word slavery is derived from the root word “Slav”, which originated from the the Slavic people who were subjugated by other Europeans in the early developments of mankind. (Azumah) Western slavery is often connected with being the most heinous act towards the African people in history. With that said, many people are unaware of the Arab Muslim slave trade that occurred which resulted in the deaths of millions of more African lives than American slavery. (Azumah)

Did you know the causes and effects of African slave trade in the Atlantic region caused millions of people to die? Starting off when we got to America, we used the native Americans as our labor force. The problems with this is that the men had little knowledge of farming because it was women's work. They also had poor immune systems and the English's diseases were new to them so they died by the thousands. The native Americans also knew the land very well and could run away. They could also just go to another group because all the Indians looked similar. So a different choice was needed, we ended up choosing the Africans. The men did the farming, women could cook, they had better immune systems, they didn't know the land well,

In the last 50 years much has been done to combat the entirely false and negative views about the history of Africa and Africans, which were developed in Europe in order to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and European colonial rule in Africa that followed it. In the eighteenth century such racist views were summed up by the words of the Scottish philosopher David Hume, who said, ‘I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or in speculation. No ingenious manufacture among them, no arts, no sciences”. In the nineteenth

By that time, however, slavery was deeply ingrained in most African societies, and thus the practice continued illegally because of the positive progress in their economy with slaves. Slaves who became liberated or freed often did accomplished this by escaping and going to the colonial authorities or by simply leaving the areas in which they had been held to take up residence elsewhere no by option but for survival. In some places, enslaved persons held that status throughout their lives and their descendants were the ones who overcame slavery, and despite the legal prohibition. It was not until the 1900’s that slavery in Africa was almost totally eliminated. The ending of the slave trade and slavery in Africa had wide-ranging effects on the African continent, such as social, political and economical. Many societies that for centuries had participated in an economy based on slave labor and the trading of slaves had difficulty finding new ways to organize labor and gain wealth without slaves that did all the hard work. Meanwhile, colonial governments in Africa that outwardly disapproved of slavery still needed inexpensive laborers for agriculture, industry, and other work projects in

Throughout history, a common theme is the stronger, acquisitive society preying on the weaker society for their own gain of land, people, materials, and more. The Atlantic Slave Trade had a profound effect on the way states were constructed and transformed in West Africa. Some societies became very powerful, militarized centralized societies, like Dahomey and Kongo, and others were decentralized societies, like Balanta and Igbo. Many scholars argue that the centralized societies targeted these decentralized societies and kidnapped people for the slave trade or for their own lineages, but this issue of strong and controlled preying on weak and dispersed is not as “black or white” as it may seem.

Slavery has always been an unfair and cruel injustice to people for a very long time. Slavery is a big thing today just as it has been for century upon century. There are many forms of slavery that aren’t as apparent as the more obvious forced labor slavery. Most people, which is believed to be an opinion, are in denial about the fact that slavery is still a very big deal and an actual common ongoing topic. Slavery, even though most of the time it goes unnoticed, is still happening everyday all around the world.