The European 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

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

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.

Before Europeans joined the African slave trade, slavery was widespread throughout Africa, and slaves served to pay off debts, sold by their kin in exchange for goods during famine, or as war captives. The slaves were central to the trans-Saharan trade, and on occasion the slaves would be freed from servitude. Once the Europeans began to exploit the slave trade, they created a forced migration of African slaves into the

Meanwhile in the Americas, European empires were growing, and they realized that they needed a more efficient work force. They had tried using Native Americans, but they usually died from European diseases. Europeans couldn’t work because of the diseases that the tropical climate gave them. It seemed like Africans would be the perfect solution to their problems. They were used to the tropical climate and immune to its diseases, had experience in agriculture, and there was already a market for them. This introduced the slave trade to North America, and in 1619 the first New World slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Most of the earlier slaves to journey the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were from Windward Coast and Senegambia (Present-day Mauritania), but later expanded all along the coast of Africa. The Atlantic Slave Trade was also given the name “Middle Passage”, since it was the middle leg in the Triangular trade.

In Italy, during the 1300’s, merchants acquired the first slaves. They were not from Africa though; instead they were from southeast Europe. Eventually though, the European slaves were replaced by African slaves, because Africans were considered to be the most inferior race. African slaves worked so well for the Europeans that they decided to bring them over to the New World and force them to work the rugged land for them. Spain and Portugal were the first European countries to bring slaves to the New World. The French, English, and Dutch were soon to follow. Unfortunately, the slaves were usually required to work from sun up to

Most of the time, the slaves were exploited for the accumulation of the wealth of the whites. The Africans could escape slavery, but not their race and if ever caught they would be punished harshly.

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 first Africans brought in more or less as an experiment. Africans tended to share the same resistance to diseases that Europeans did, they were familiar with the types of farming and crops, and they tolerated the hot conditions well. Originally, it was a matter of a ship going to western Africa and attempting to capture or trade for enough slaves to fill their holds. As the trade increased, it was impossible for the Europeans to capture enough slaves on their own. They began to work with African agents, that tribal leaders captured prisoners from other tribes to sell to the Europeans. This became a big and efficient business, carrying millions to the west. These goods from Europe were carried to Africa and traded for slaves. When England decided to abolish slavery, this cut into the trade but did not end it. Other, European nations were still deriving profits, and had no interest in stopping. Changing technology, damaged ecosystems, increase of 'home grown' slaves all cut down on the demand

As the Europeans set up colonies in America, they brought the plantation ideas with them, which led to the need for labor hence they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work in their mines and fields. The Native Americans were prone to diseases hence most of them died as a result of diseases and overworking. Apart from the ones who died, a number rebelled and formed alliances forcing the Europeans to look for other sources of labor. They started to acquire African slaves due to a number of reasons: The African slaves were more stronger and immune to a number of diseases in Europe and America; the Africans had no friends and family in America hence it was not easy for them to form alliances or to escape; they provided a permanent and a cheap source of labor; and most of them had worked on farms before in their

Slavery developed in the Americas because of exploration and need or labor. Europeans captured Africans and transported them across the deadly Middle Passage, to the Americas, where they would be forced to poor under harsh conditions. Slavery had many lasting effects. Africa was depopulated, and Africans in America lost their cultures and identity while Europeans made money from the resources being exported in the Americas at the expense of Africans’ lives and culture.

The Atlantic slave trade was in a time prod of expansion to the new world by the English and spanish. When the English got to the new world they needed a labor force to do there work on plantations. The native americans would not work for a long term labor force because they knew the land. The african slaves would be a good labor force but expensive to get a good slave would cost anywhere from 100$ to 300$ to buy. The English people were smart they would keep the slaves alive for at least two years to get there money back plus some and then when the slave died the slave owner could buy a new one. Slaver ships would go to africa and get villages of slaves to bring to the new world for labor work.

Slave Trade became an extreme part of exploration. In the discovery of new places, there was also the discovery of new peoples. And because of a difference of skin color, or religion, of beliefs, one group is decided inferior. This was the case with many places in Europe, such as Britain, The Dutch, Spain and especially Portugal. Many of the early Portuguese expeditions led them to or around Africa, leading them to come across the African people who lived there. The Europeans met with the leaders of the tribes, and showered them with gifts they brought from Europe. They built up trade with the tribes, gaining the trust of the leaders. The leaders of the tribes decided to repay the Explorers with slaves for them to use. Most of these slaves were actually prisoners of war from when tribes fought against each other. The leader of the tribe would gift the Explorer slaves who would then be taken back to Portugal. In the beginning they were mostly taken back to Portugal and used domestically to take care of manors other large properties, however as sugarcane was discovered in America, that would soon

From the seventeenth century on slaves became the focus of trade between Europe and Africa. Europe’s conquest and colonization of North and South America and the Caribbean islands from the fifteenth century onward created an insatiable demand for African laborers, who were deemed more fit to work in the tropical conditions of the New World. The amount of slaves took across the Atlantic Ocean slowly grew, from around 5,000 slaves a year in the sixteenth century to more than 100,000 slaves a year by the eighteenth century.

Upon the discovery of new lands all over the world, the European countries sought after ways to capitalize on the colonies and the indigenous people living in the newly conquered lands. The earliest Atlantic slave trades are dated to the 15th century, when the first major European world powers the Portuguese and Spanish empires who forcibly transported slaves from Africa to America for cheaper and easier controllable labors1. The slave trade culminated during the 18th Century with millions of Africans being shipped when the rest of the European naval powers such as Britain and France invested in the slave trade.