The Terrible Trade Of The Slave Trade

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.

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.

The slaves were mistreated in many ways. It began first with the Middle passage where Africans were separated from their homeland and crammed onto ships for more than 2 months toward the Americas. Before arriving to shore many slaves lost their lives in great numbers. Throughout the middle passage at least a million died and eleven million survived().

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 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.

Though the Natives were treated badly, they were soon saved by Bartolome de Las Casas, who persuaded the Spanish king to stop enslaving the Native Americans, instead use Africans as their slaves. This protest from Las Casas forever changed the course of history. After Las Casas’ protest was accepted, enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas through the Middle Passage, which was a sea route from western Africa to the eastern part of America. Space in the ship was very compact and hot. Also, due to the number on the ship, there was little room to move, causing many people to almost suffocate to death. (Doc 5). The Europeans had to pack as many Africans they could, knowing that some Africans would perish on the journey, to reach African slave quota. The Middle Passage itself killed over 20% of the captive African slaves due to the lack of space, hygiene, and nutrition. Not only did the Middle Passage bring enslaved Africans to the Americans it also helped spread Africans across the world This process today is now called

The transatlantic slave trade first began in 1502, with records of the first slaves in the New World, lasting nearly four centuries. It connected the economies of three continents. The route began in West Europe, where it continued to Africa, trading manufactured goods such as rum, textiles, weapons, and gunpowder for slaves. From Africa, the ship went along the Atlantic to America, distributing slaves, and bringing agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, rice, and sugar back to Europe. The entire route typically lasted eighteen months. The slave trade ended in 1867, seventeen years after Britain began arresting slave ships.

The history of America is encompassed with several instances of violence, wars, and gruesome practices. One of the biggest events of the slave trade during American history was the Middle Passage. It took place between the continents of Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth centuries. The first part of the voyage carried cargo from Europe to the African coast, where the goods were exchanged for African captives. In the second phase of the trade, Africans were traded for European goods. During this time, the slaves were packed like cargo into the carriages of sailboats and lived in repugnant conditions. The voyages lasted for several months and had severe effects on those onboard the ships.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade is a complex institution with multiple sides to be considered and analyzed. On the one hand, one could say that Europeans were the sole creators of this trade, for it was their motive to bring slave labor to the Americas that served as the driving force behind the mass movement of slaves out of Africa and across the Atlantic. They brought desired material resources to African nations, and in exchange they gained human cargo to be used at their will. While this is the understanding that many hold about the slave trade, it is not the only side to be measured. Africans themselves also played a substantial part in contributing to and facilitating the progression of the slave trade by selling their own people for desired necessities such as weapons and other manufactured goods. As a result, both Africans and Europeans held interesting roles in the advancement of the Atlantic slave trade, which begs the greater question of whether the Europeans were really the only party at fault in enabling the progression of slavery in the Americas.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a historical massacre that affected the lives of not only the people that were abused and stripped of their human identities, but also the lives of the ones who sold them to make a profit and obtain power. The long-lasting and immediate effects this even had on the world are why this is still relevant today.

First, there was the transatlantic slave trade that transported millions of Africans to the Americas (Lockard 378). The inter-regional slave trade describes the next migration, which took the captives from the coast of the Atlantic to the inland of South America. The last migration, mostly instigated by the native blacks in America, brought Africans from the largely municipal North of America to the not so urban South of America. All through the Atlantic World, the Middle Passage has essentially come to typify the experience of African slaves. The terrifying weeks or months of being kept in the holds of foul-smelling slave ships largely speak to the harrowing loss of free will, and the long years of captivity,as well as servitude that followed (Gjerde 50).

For three hundred years, millions of enslaved Africans were forced to leave the comfort of their homes and families to work in far off places with unknown people. With the help of the transatlantic slave trade, otherwise known as the middle passage or as the triangular trade route, multitudes of homeless slaves were able to be transported all over the globe to work on plantations, mines, and do other straining chores. Soon many people used these abused servants to do their strenuous tasks for them. Therefore, the tradition of slavery is s a very important factor in developing multiple countries worldwide.

The institution of slavery has remained unchanged over the hundreds of years it has been illegal, but the world around it has. The development of slavery is due majorly to the need for cheap labor to tend to things called cash crops. Cash crops were crops that could be planted and grown cheaply, and sold for good money. As the Europeans settled into new areas, like the new world, they began building more farms, and therefore, required laborers to work on them. Thus, the transatlantic slave trade began, forming a tri-angle between the old world, Europe, the new world, the Americas, and Africa. As the atlantic trade grew, the number of slaves rose exponentially, and the farmers, and plantation owners of the southern United States were producing crops, and making money, at the expense of the slaves. The transatlantic slave trade was outlawed by two of the major governments in 1807, which outlawed only the trade of slaves over the atlantic, not the actual institution of slavery. Which wasn’t outlawed in America until 1865 with the passing of the 13th amendment through Congress.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade was an organization of capturing and selling African slaves. This took place in the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the 19th century. Muslims constituted a significant percentage of Africans that were brought to the Americas in servitude. Books such as “Servant of Allah” and “The Prince Among Slave” describes and documented life of Muslim slaves throughout the Transatlantic Slave Trade and also, show how Muslim slaves struggled , persisted, and survived throughout early stages of slavery in America. The Muslim servants were the most educated and resistant among slaves , they exerted a disproportionate influence on slave life in the Americas. While many slave owners tried to strip many Muslim slaves of their culture, their way prevailed and this helped them advance during the slave trade. Language, assimilation, and tenacity are major factors that helped Muslim slaves in America, without these markers their success in the new world would have not existed. The movie “ Prince among Slaves” is centralized around the theme that Muslim Africans persisted in the America and Caribbean’s because of their educated background, which allowed them to conform to American life, without losing their sense of home.

Slavery is a topic or section in history that has stained the world with its ever lasting impact. The topic can be discussed for ages and lead to many different things, but the beginning of it all starts with the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is a significant part of the history of slavery, mostly because of its duration, the horrible way the Africans were treated and because of the forced migration of the African people. Throughout the time that the trade actually took place, Africans were transported to many different parts of the world. This lead to what we know as the African Diaspora. Because of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade different groups of people in various areas of the world are of African Descent. This slave trade became the beginning of a very important part in history that became known as “the African Nightmare’’.